Monday, September 30, 2019

Louis Vuitton Case Study

[pic] LOUIS VUITTON INTRODUCTION: Louis Vuitton is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury  trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes, watches, jewelry, accessories, sunglasses, and books. Louis Vuitton is one of the world's leading international fashion houses; it sells its products through standalone  boutiques, lease departments in high-end  department stores.MISSION STATEMENT: The mission of the LVMH group is to represent the most refined qualities of Western ‘Art de Vivre' around the world. VISION: Be creative and innovative, aim for product excellence, bolster  the  image  of  our  brands  with  passionate determination, act as entrepreneurs, and strive to be the best in all we do. GOAL: To produce much exclusive fashionable goods with good prestigious image that fits into the high class society, products should compulsorily have excellent quality and l ong life.HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: Founded by Vuitton in 1854 and first store in Paris is opened, 1885 – first LV store is opened in London, Oxford street ,1892- Vuitton dies; the company starts selling handbags. TURNING POINT: During 1893 Georges (Louis’s son) begins his campaign to make the company into a worldwide corporation, Georges Vuitton passes away at 1936. Estimates attribute Georges Vuitton with over new 700 new Vuitton designs. BUSINESS STRATEGY: LV uses demographic targeting strategy to target their customers, both men and women.Since LV focuses only on high class people it uses premium pricing and luxury images for attracting them. It also uses â€Å"NEVER ON SALE† strategy to target their customers and its ad can be found only in high end fashion magazines like Vogue & Elle. It also uses Auction houses specializing in art and antiques to sell its goods. The original product line is Monogram and it expanded its product line to monogram denim, monogram multicore, monogram vernis and damier canvas. The Louis Vuitton brand and the famous LV monogram are among the world's most valuable brandsTARGET GROUP: Age: ranging from young adults to seniors (22 – 65 yrs old), focuses mainly on the high class society. AREAS OF BUSINESS: Louis Vuitton mainly targets wines and spirits, fashion and leather goods, fragrances and cosmetics, watches and jewelry. The other brands under Louis vuitton are Bulgari, Celine Guerlain Fendi Donna karan TAG Heuer Guerlain Bon Marche Sephora. Financial information: Sales at Lv rose 19 percent in 2010 and, for the first time, exceeded 20 billion euros Profits soared 73 percent, to 3 billion euros.Revenue from fashion and leather goods, like Louis Vuitton purses, was up 20 percent. Revenue as of 2011 is â‚ ¬2. 5  billion. It was up by 16% from 20. 3 billion euros in the same period in 2010. Organic revenue growth was 14% The Wines & Spirits business group recorded organic revenue growth of 10% in 201 1. Fashion & Leather Goods business recorded organic revenue growth of 16% in 2011, while Perfumes & Cosmetics recorded organic revenue growth of 9% in the same period. Watches & Jewelry group reported organic revenue growth of 23%.RECENT NEWS: For seven consecutive years (2006–2012) Louis Vuitton has been named the world's most valuable luxury brand. Its 2012 valuation is 25. 9 billion USD. According to a Millward Brown 2010 study, Louis Vuitton is the world's 29th most valuable brand, right after  Gillette  and before  Wells Fargo. The brand itself is estimated to be worth over USD $19  billion References: http://80. 251. 40. 59/politics. ankara. edu. tr/ozer/Dersler/Introduction_to_marketing/Case%20Studies/Louis_Vuitton_Moet_Hennessy. pdf http://louisvuitton4u. jigsy. com/entries/general/louis-vuitton-product-line http://www. lvmh. com/

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Academic Strategies for the Business Professional Essay

Academic Strategies for the Business Professional course was great for helping me develop into a very decent student. It was a great class with lots of information for school learning and use in the career field. It has assisted me to learn to use better time management skills. The more I use these skills the less stressed I will be. As I use the different styles of time management, it helps me determine which tool works the best for each activity I am doing. This also has helped me in my personal life. As I juggle school, kids, work, laundry, cleaning and a multitude of things that just pop up time management has become most important. It has allowed me the ability to work fulltime, go to school and still spend time with my family. My family is my number one priority! This class has been a blessing in disguise because it has helped me in many ways to still have that desired time. This course was able to show me a better me. I did not know how I learned the best until we had to take some quizzes in Unit 2 reading. According to EducationPlanner.org, I am an auditory/visual learner. I use all three types of learning. The one I scored the least in was tactical, which for me is true. I do use that the least. When I learn I like a visual example first, then auditory if, I do not understand it. Being able to see something physically done at least once is the most helpful to me. Depending on the situation, I find it helpful to be talked through it while doing it. Mostly though I find that just being shown how to do something while I do, it is the best learning style for me. This will make me a better candidate in the business world because I know my strengths and weakness and will be able to apply myself in a productive manner. This course is a wonderful learning experience and I hope all my classes are like this. As I go forward in my educational goal, I will use all the neat tricks and skills we have been exposed to. My education is my short-term goal and I will mostly use SRI that we learned about in Unit 6 reading to help me with studying. (pg.4) I will also use the note taking skills also addressed in Unit 6. I am use to the outline system but I really like the Cornell System that I never knew existed until this class. (pgs. 6 and 8) I will have to start using the writing skills to my advantage in the future to ensure a great grade and hopefully a very enjoyable job in the future. As I work towards my long time goal, the S.M.A.R.T. goal setting system is going to be my new comrade. It is easy to write up and break down the goal into smaller pieces. (pg. 6) Without this skill I would be going, â€Å"I do not know what I want to do in the future.† This skill helped me figure out my short-term and is helping work on the long-term. It is not fully there yet but it is always a work in progress. Once you finish one goal, you tend to start another. References EducationPlanner.org http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles.shtml Unit 6 Reading page 4, 6, & 8 Unit 7 Reading page 6

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Earhtquake lights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Earhtquake lights - Essay Example Yutaka Yasui, a Japanese seismologist for Kakioka Magnetic Observatory made his personal observations and documented 34 detailed accounts of EQL including 14 sketches and 10 photographs taken by residents in the Matashiro area. Later, Yasui concluded that 18 of the 34 detailed accounts could not be elucidate by known lighting activity like twilight, zodiacal light, auroras, meteors and other sources and the other 16 accounts cannot be considered natural phenomena (Wagner, 1978). The appearances of these strange lights during and after an earthquake are also visible in other parts of the globe. In 1976, a stunning EQL activity covering several hundred of square kilometers was seen in mainland China. Many other recorded sightings in various parts of the world including Hawaii, Taiwan, Alaska, Soviet Union, and the United States. Earthquake Lights or EQL are generally known as bright luminescence based near ground level or broad sky glows that cover areas up to several square kilometers and sometimes more (Wagner, 1978). EQL varies in color from bright white and blues to reds and oranges, occurrence with other colors than those mentioned said to be effects of variations in the atmosphere such as humidity, barometric pressure, pollutants and cloud cover (Wagner, 1978). According to Wagner's (1978) article, a more detailed description of EQL summarized by two seismologists Yutaka Yasui and John Derr as: a) Flashes of lights lasting from 10 seconds to 10 minutes. b) Extensive blaze like search light beams limited to point sources. The estimated luminescent spheres are between 50-100cm in diameter up to 200m in diameter. c) Incidences of EOL are mostly near areas of known active faulting, mountain peaks, and areas with rich deposit of high normative quarts or silicia minerals. d) Usually occurring accompanied by major weather fronts instantaneous with earthquake activity. e) Large decrease in electric potential gradient, radio interference ranging from 10-20KHZ, absence of anomalies in magnetometer and spectroscope readings during EQL activity. f) Presence of atmospheric potential gradients and increase in radon gas near mountain peaks and fault zones. The most widespread explanation of EQL's mechanism is the violent low-level air oscillation due to tremor movement that sets up electrical disparity in the air. The other is the piezoelectric effects that occur when SiO2 rich rocks undergo stress. The theory is a less accepted because of the facts that EOL's are sighted and visible before the earthquake take place. According to Wagner 1978, another weak theory is the explanation that some earthquake radiance is auroras (northern lights). Auroras are made up of charged particles about 60 miles above the earth and comes naturally in colors of blue and green. Auroras occur year round and most visible in fall and spring months and typically last an hour. Earthquake lights are only visible whenever there is a tremor and last for a few minutes. There is a great possibility that EQL's are spawn by electrostatic charges considering animal behavior when an earthquake is about to take place (Wagner, 1978). Occurrence of

Friday, September 27, 2019

Democracy and Socialism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Democracy and Socialism - Essay Example Since then, there have been turbulent times in a quest to achieve democracy with dictators and military coup leaders claiming to support it. However, in Athens, it followed a set of rules on who was legible to participate in politics, vote and the size of the society where democracy could be practiced. With this, the Athenians agreed that the people required population to be small so as to allow citizens access to debate attendances and vote on issues affecting them (History World, n.d). Over time, democracy has evolved with various societies that have implemented it. For example, with the Romans, representation in a legislative assembly came up so that selected few leaders could represent an entire population and their interests (History World, n.d). In addition, the Romans came up with the oral system of voting where citizens gave their answer of a specified question to a clerk who then recorded it. Moreover, with all the changes it has had to it, democracy has its positive and neg ative aspects that affect any society that embraces it. For example, the use of majority rule forces the minority who lost to be dictated upon by those who won (Cincotta, n.d). Therefore, it leads to the oppression of minority populations in a bid to enact the will of a majority. In addition, democratic rule puts its basis on a knowledgeable and educated citizen who is literate. This, in itself, is discriminative to the illiterate as they lose independence due to reliance on the learned to make decisions and implement policies that may not be known to them (Cincotta, n.d). As a result, democracy can be used for selfish gain, especially in the use of representatives. However, it is not all gloom for democracy as it bears positive aspects to it, as well. Democracy in exercising majority rule guarantees the protection of minority rights against violation in all aspects (Cincotta, n.d). This is because the rights of dissenters are not dependent on the goodwill of the majority who accent . Moreover, in democracy, the government only plays a minor role in the social organization that leads to pluralism (Cincotta, n.d). As a result, most social and private organizations and institutions remain free from the interference of the government. Socialism Socialism refers to a social system that advocates for liberty, equality and fraternity in its implementation (Cockshott & Cottrell, 2012). It traces its origins to a wide variety of influences that include its manifestation as a philosophy and the ideas of various scholars. Therefore, with its already established goals, it applied a hybrid of Christian communalism, feudalism and liberal capitalism to daily living (Daum, n.d). This made it utopian socialism and could be easily related to in the everyday life Socialism has a number of merits to it. This is because; it grants people liberty in the form of freedom from oppression and slavery, freedom of speech and association (Cockshott & Cottrell, 2012). In addition to this s ocialism grants freedom of conscience and separates the church form the state, as in traditional socialist states. In addition, socialism brings about equality in the society due to its nature in enforcing social values upon a society. Therefore, it allows for freedom in most social aspects in that all members of a society that practices socialism has access to the same opportunities (Cockshott &

Thursday, September 26, 2019

International law, or some particular interpretation of international Essay - 1

International law, or some particular interpretation of international law, is sometimes found actually to hinder measures to maintain international order Discuss with reference to drone strikes - Essay Example International society aimed at reflecting cooperation among its member states. As a result, international law rose as a unique and recognized entity with rules, which rose as result of modern cooperation of modern independent governments or state. The international law and rules intended at calling for discipline and a common philosophy among its member states in order to foster world peace and harmony (35).2 The document explains how international law hinders measures to maintain international order. Bull3 regards international law as â€Å"a body of rules which binds states and other agents in world politics in their relations with one another and considered to have the status of law’. Bull (2002) further defines international law as to be body of rules which are of a specific nature. This means that there are specified rules which independent governments and other international bodies to the international society and politics regard to bind them without any doubt. Despite the enormous part played by the international law to foster security, concerns have been raised about some of its principles in maintaining international order. The binding of different states by the international law brings about the concept of international society. Bull4 argues that one of the major roles of international law is to act as a powerful and strong normative principle of political states and governments with the idea of protecting sovereignty of individual member states. But this has not been always the case. Developed countries and countries with more advanced military equipment have not upheld this principle of respecting another nations’ sovereignty in order to protect and uphold international order. United State for instance has been intruding sovereignty of a number of independent political states such as Afghanistan and Pakistan by carrying out drone attacks within the sovereign regions. Bull5 demonstrated a clash

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Interethnic Conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina Research Paper

Interethnic Conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina - Research Paper Example The Bosniacs mainly belongs to the Islamic religion, while the Serbs belong to the Orthodox tradition. The Croats, on the other hand, are affiliated to the Roma Catholic. This has seen the three ethnic communities engage each other in one of the worst ethnic violence that took place from 1992 to 1995. The war has been regarded as the worst ethnic violence ever witnessed in Europe since the end of World War II. Latest figures indicate that an estimated 100,000 people out of the country’s 4.4 million people were mercilessly killed in the war and left thousands other injured2. The massacre received wide condemnation from the international community as the war spread throughout Bosnia. The report indicates that Srebrenica was the epicenter of this ethnic violence where an estimated 70,000 Bosniac boys and men were massacred by the Serbian forces. Due to the magnitude and the number of people who died in the war, the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hagu e terms the massacre an act of genocide. The report indicates that the ethnic cleansing resulted in the displacement of more than two million people. The World Bank report more than 60% houses in Bosnia and Herzegovina and more than 50% of schools were destroyed3.     Bosnia and Herzegovina are ethnically diverse states. The dominant ethnic communities in the two states include the Bosniacs, Serbs, and Croats. These ethnic communities coexisted peacefully for a very long time even though they sometimes found themselves at odds with one another or with the government. However, the peaceful coexistence ended in 1992 when civil war broke out in among the three dominant communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina4. The war began following a disagreement between the three ethnic groups on the political future of the republic just soon after the extrication of Yugoslavia in 1991. Research indicates that the Croats and Muslims voted overwhelmingly in favor of the March 1992 referendum in support of the secession from the former Yugoslavia. This led to the session of the two countries resulting in the declaration of Serbia as an independent state. A report indicates that the minority ethnic group boycotted the election and staged protest throughout the coun try. This is because they wanted Bosnia and Yugoslavia to remain one single state. The protest also resulted in an ethnic violence, which left more than 100,000 people dead, in a war, which began in 1992 and ended in 1995. Of those who died, a majority estimated at about 80,000 was Bosniacs who belong to the Islamic religion.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Multiculturalism versus Liberalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Multiculturalism versus Liberalism - Essay Example As such, a multicultural society is described as one that is characterized by a rich mixture of cultures and supports the desire amongst its people to convey their own identities in the way they deem fit (Brian, 3). The second approach to multiculturalism aims at dealing with the numerous challenges that arise because of cultural diversity, especially due to the problems that face the minority and marginalized groups within society. Liberalism Liberalism refers to a political philosophy that is based on the notions of equality and liberty that support basic human rights and freedoms such as individual civil rights, freedom to own private property, freedom of expression, free and just elections, freedom of religion, free trade, and freedom of association. This philosophy arose because of a rejection of tyrannical, oppressive, and conservative practices and ideas such as absolute monarchy, the godly right of kings, state religion, and hereditary privilege that only favored a few individuals within society (Perry, et al., 183). Liberalism emerged during the 16th and 17th centuries when there were numerous religious wars across Europe that were against tyrannical leadership. Regarded as the Enlightenment Age, it saw the beginning of powerful revolutionary movements aimed at ending tyrannical regimes across the world especially in Europe, with the most remarkable one being the French revolution. A multiculturalism critique of l iberal notions of citizenship The term citizenship is a term used broadly to refer to the link between an individual and the state and which grants that individual certain legal rights and freedoms. Citizenship has three main dimensions. The first is legal status that grants an individual freedom to act in accordance with the law and the right to seek protection by the law (Isin and Turner, 32). The second dimension is political and assumes individuals as political agents who participate in political undertakings within society. The third is identity whereby an individual is deemed a member of a political community hence gaining an identity. Differences in the approach adopted by liberalism and multiculturalism have created a tension between these two ideologies especially in the manner of leadership to be adopted by governments and various authorities. One such are of tension arises on the views of citizenship adopted by liberals and multiculturalists. A major model of citizenship is liberal citizenship that adopts legal status and political liberty as important aspects of citizenship and which help to protect individuals from oppression by the authorities and other individuals. Several multiculturalists criticisms have been raised against the various liberal ideas of citizenship adopted by liberals. The first criticism is the failure of liberalism citizenship to address the various inequalities present in the present capitalist societies. The capitalist approach towards production and property ownership has

Monday, September 23, 2019

Hedging Strategies Adopted by Airlines Organizations for Hedging their Dissertation

Hedging Strategies Adopted by Airlines Organizations for Hedging their Foreign - Dissertation Example Literature Review 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Risk Management 2.3 Hedging - Concept and Meaning 2.4 Brief Historical overview of Hedging 2.5 Impact of Globalization on Hedging 2.6 Type of Hedging Instruments 2.7 Hedging Strategies 2.7.1 Internal hedging strategies 2.7.2 External hedging strategies 2.8 Factors affecting Type of Hedging Strategies 2.9 Benefits of Hedging 2.10 Disadvantages of Hedging 2.11 Some of the major risks facing the global airline industry 2.12 Conclusions Chapter 3: Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Research Approach 3.3 Research Sample 3.4 Data Collection Methods 3.5 Methods of Data Analysis 3.6 Research Validity and Reliability 3.7 Research Ethics 3.7 Conclusions Chapter 4: Findings and Analysis 4.1 Introduction 4.2 British Airlines (BA) 4.2.1 Financial Performance, BA 4.2.2 Hedging Strategies used by BA 4.2.4 Challenges faced by British airways 4.2.4 Financial Heath and Hedging Strategies 4.2.5 Financial management recommendations 4.3 Thomas Cook Airlines 4 .3.2 Financial Performance of Thomas Cook 4.3.2 Hedging Strategies Thomas Cook 4.2.3 Challenges faced by British airways 4.2.4 Financial Heath and Hedging Strategies 4.3.5 Financial management recommendations 4.4 Easy Jet 4.4.1 Financial Performance, Easy Jet 4.3.2 Hedging Strategies Thomas Cook 4.3.3 Challenges faced Easy Jet 4.3.4 Financial Heath and Hedging Strategies 4.3.5 Financial management recommendations Chapter 5: Recommendations and Conclusions 5.1 Summary of Findings 5.2 Recommendations 5.3 Research Limitations and Scope for Future Research Hedging Strategies Adopted by Airlines Organizations for Hedging their Foreign Currency Risks Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Research overview and Background Due to the advent of globalization and the changes in the business environment, it is... From this research it is clear that due to the advent of globalization and the changes in the business environment, it is now possible for organizations to conduct business from and to anywhere across the globe. The business environment facilitates business operations that can be conducted through foreign currency denominated transactions. As organizations expand their businesses globally, they accumulate foreign currency receivables and payables in their financial statements. The large inclusion of foreign denomination transactions makes the organizations vulnerable to foreign currency fluctuations. Any negative changes in the exchange rate can end up impacting the company seriously. Organizations therefore strive to find ways of avoiding or combating risks associated with the foreign currency fluctuations. Some of the popular strategies of hedging such risks that organizations adopt are through using financial derivative products - currency futures, foreign currency options, curren cy swaps and forward contract. Moreover, with the breakthrough in the Information and communication technology that has made it possible the development of sophisticated financial management tools and techniques, organizations today have a much larger variety of hedging instruments and strategies to work with. There are several theories and theoretical perspectives that explain the rationale for using hedging practices and the effectiveness of the same.

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Organizational Behavior at My Company Essay Example for Free

Organizational Behavior at My Company Essay To understand how the concept of organizational behavior can be applied and described through the work environment of My Company, I will first explore a general definition of what Organizational Behavior is and then relate how the individual components apply. According to Stephen Robbins, author of our Organizational Behavior textbook, Organizational behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organizations effectiveness(9). The first component of this definition is to see the impact that the individuals have, followed by the impact of the groups, and then finally the impact of the structure. I will expand on each of these areas and relate them to the current practices within My Company. It is probable that the single most prevalent aspect of organizational behavior through the eyes of an employee would be the impact that they personally have on the company. What this implies, is that when I try to describe the impact individuals have to the company, it will be solely from my perspective as a non-managerial employee. Had my perspective been from that of an employee in a management-level position, it would most likely differ. From the experiences that I have had in the two and a half years that I have worked at My Company, it seems to me that individuals are encouraged to take the initiative to make their work as productive as possible. I have been part of many changes that have been initiated by non-management level employees to try and streamline and improve efficiencies within the company. This has led me to believe that one of the in-use espoused values is that of empowering all levels of employees with the ability to make changes that will directly affect their p articular areas. When evaluating the group component and how that relates to the My Company environment, I am going to make the assumption that a group is the equivalent of a department. These departmental segregations help to increase internal accountability and define what each group will be responsible for. Each group has its own independent structure and operates a little differently depending on the style of the individual manager. Many of these groups (departments) can be broken down into subgroups to further delegate  components of work. The outcome is that within each department or group there is a hierarchy where you will find different forms of leadership. Some of these subgroup leaders lead by being experts in their fields rather than having a title of being a manager. Within my group there is a distinct leader that I work for. I have found that if I am struggling with a project or if I cannot define the scope of a job that I am working on often times I can rely on help from the leader of my group to help achieve the desired results. If for some reason components (individuals) within my subgroup started to perform poorly, the outcome could have serious consequences to the productivity of our entire department. Conversely, if we were able to drastically improve performance metrics for our areas of responsibility, we would then be able to offset some work from other areas within the group. This interdependence of the subgroups has helped our group to have more control of the aspects that will impact how productively the company will continue to be going forward. Through the process of defining the groups within My Company, I have made reference to the internal group structure. Instead of rehashing this same information and tying it back to the structural component mentioned in the definition of organizational behavior, I am going to relate how my manager is able to structure her team to be as effective and productive as possible. Looking through the four essential management functions (Robbins 5) defined in our reading material, (planning, organizing, leading and controlling) I am able to see how my manager struggles to constantly apply these ideas in her day to day responsibilities. Our group organizes weekly meetings where we try to plan what tasks we would like to undertake in the near future. My manager is responsible for keeping these meetings in focus so that overall group objectives are met. Through controlling and delegating within these meetings, she has shown the ability to lead our group and utilize different strengths of individuals to maximize our effectiveness. Being able to take more of an observational role in this situation has helped me to understand the different idiosyncrasies that exist within our company and department. By identifying these quirks I feel that I am able to better understand how many of the different internal components and people must work together in order to achieve desired results. This has helped me to recognize, at least  at the group level, how one can utilize many of the resources to maximize efficiencies within My Company. Works Cited Robbins, Stephen. Organizational Behavior. New Jersey: Pearson, 2001.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

The Ghost of Tom Joad and The Grapes of Wrath Essay Example for Free

The Ghost of Tom Joad and The Grapes of Wrath Essay Through the The Ghost of Tom Joad and The Grapes of Wrath, Springsteen and Steinbeck, in their respective works, comment on the state of social distress and despondency existent within their individual societies. Through making parallels with the depression related issues of the 1930s addressed by Steinbeck and those of the early 1990s recession, Springsteen connects the people and social quandaries of both time periods to remark on the necessity of mans spirit. To this end, through investigating each works characterization of human resolve and unification, employment of Tom Joad and Jim Casy to embody mans spirit, and similar social atmosphere, the connection between the thematic force of the novel and Springsteens subsequent writing is made evident. Throughout his lyrics, Springsteen consistently parallels ideas presented by Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath in order to exhibit past American spirit in social struggles and the need for such resolve to engender change in his own time. Springsteen achieves this rhythmically through keeping the refrain in a constant ABAB rhyme scheme and other stanzas in an AABB rhyme scheme; this provides a consistency and repetition in the speakers message to the reader, and links his own dilemma in Searchin for the ghost of Tom Joad (R), or mans spirit, to the overall plight of the people made evident the non-refrain stanzas. Additionally, this mirrors Steinbecks effort in The Grapes of Wrath to characterize the migrant struggle through both the microcosm of the Joads and then more broadly in the intercalary chapters. Moreover, Springsteens actual description of the current plight parallels Steinbecks ideas on the downtrodden American. In saying Men walkin long the railroad tracks, Goin someplace, theres no goin back (1-2) the speaker is alluding Steinbecks writing of the tenant men came walkingmaybe we can start againBut you cant start. Only a baby can start (119). Additionally, like The Grapes of Wrath, the depiction of social struggles in The Ghost of Tom Joad becomes gradually stronger in tone and more visceral in visualization as made evident by both artists use of various literary devices. The speakers description In a cardboard box neath the underpass, Got a one-way ticket to the promised land, You got a hole in your belly and a gun in your hand(12-14) provokes imagery of man ready to bring about change through violence. This is also concurrent with Steinbecks depictions of the migrant as said in one intercalary chapter -the rifle? Wouldnt go out naked of a rifle. When shoes and clothes and food, when even hope is gone, well have the rifle.(120) Also, Springsteens employment of personification The highway is alive tonight(R) and metaphors Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock (15) augments his attempt to connect and make more vivid, the plights of those depicted by the speaker in the song. Overall there is a building that occurs within the stanzas; from the beginning depictions of the disposed to the pledges made by Tom in the last non-refrain stanza, there is a progression toward exhibiting the need for mans unification. As Steinbeck builds this idea through the exploits and sacrifices of Ma, Tom, Casy and Rose of Sharon, Springsteen does likewise through his lyrics to transport that idea to the modern day. Furthermore, both works use the characters of Tom Joad and Jim Casy as vehicles for expressing the spirit the destitute need to attain in dealing with their troubles. Through juxtaposing images of the impoverished with those of his own introspection, the speaker (who is himself needy) makes evident the importance of what the characters of Tom Joad and Casy embody and how that representation is needed in society. Throughout the work, the speaker gives various descriptions of the downtrodden American Shelter line stretchin round the corner (5), Families sleepin in their cars in the Southwest, No home no job no peace no rest (7-8), Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock, Bathing in the city aqueduct (15-16). These descriptions, inter-cut with the refrain of Searchin for the ghost of Tom Joad (R), Waitin on the ghost of Tom Joad (R) quite clearly show the speakers desire for a change in condition and will. Moreover, when scrutinizing the diction that references Tom Joad as a ghost the absence of his spirit from humanity is made apparent; a spirit both Springsteen and Steinbeck find paramount in ending the plight of the destitute. Springsteen furthers this point in referencing Toms saying Mom, wherever theres a cop beatin a guy, Wherever a hungry newborn cries, Where theres a fight gainst blood and hatred in the airOr decent job or a helping hand, Wherever somebodys struggling to be free, Look in their eyes Mom youll see me (17-24) Though this typifies what the speaker wishes to see in his contemporaries, it also indirectly alludes to Toms ideals as presented in the novel by paraphrasing his last conversation with Ma. Ill be everwhere-wherever you look.when our folks eat the stuff they raise an live in the houses they build -why, Ill be there(572). The use of allusion is key to Springsteens aims here as when characterizing Casy and evidencing the biblical ties made to him. He pulls a prayer book out of his sleeping bag, Preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag, Waitin for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last(9-10) The preacher reference is clearly Casy, yet there is a biblical allusion made that is concurrent with idea behind the phrase The meek shall inherit the Earth (Beatitudes, Sermon on the Mount). The saying implies that those who forgo worldly power will be rewarded in the kingdom of heaven. This idea plays to the thoughts that both Springsteen and Steinbeck are trying to get across in their respective works and the selfless nature that Joad and Casy embody. Springsteens use of these two characters in his lyrics propel the thematic spirit of Steinbecks work while serving as an inspirational ideal for those he is trying to reach in his own society. Moreover, the overall similarities between the social climates of the early 1990s and 1930s allow Springsteen to illustrate the need for renewed spirit in his own time. The economic recession that characterized the early 1990s with skyrocketing unemployment, declines in housing starts, and slashes in social-welfare programs, mirrored greatly the atmosphere surrounding the Great Depression over six decades before. With over 34 million Americans below the poverty line, the nation was hardly a new world coming into view as characterized in George Bushs post-Gulf War speech. The presidents promising that the prospect of a new world order would utilize the principles of justice and fair play [to] protect the weak against the strong is denoted with sarcasm by Springsteen lyrics saying Shelter line stretchin round the corner, Welcome to the new world order(5-6). Springsteen utilizes a dire description of the disposed in 1990s America (as well as 1930s) through saying No home no job no rest (8) in order to exemplify their strife and the need for change. Steinbecks describing the Three hundred thousand, hungry and miserable; if they should ever know themselves, the land will be theirs(325) typifies the idea Springsteen is trying to get across; that if the disposed of his time attain a renewed will, they can engender change and end their strife. Both the The Ghost of Tom Joad and The Grapes of Wrath exhibit commentary on the social conditions of their time and the need for change among the people. Though the afore mentioned works have been written in vastly different eras, they comment on very similar social climates. Through creating parallels in the characterization of humanity, using Tom Joad and Jim Casy to embody that characterization and recognizing social similarities between the two time periods, Springsteen generates a work that calls for the return of the human spirit to a despondent society in the same vein Steinbeck does in The Grapes of Wrath.

Friday, September 20, 2019

The Scope Of Study And Limitation Construction Essay

The Scope Of Study And Limitation Construction Essay The topic for this dissertation is a study on the construction wastes minimization in Malaysia Construction Industry. Nowadays, construction and demolition waste that produced in the site is increasing and becoming larger portion of the waste disposed in Malaysia landfill. This research is selected and carried out mainly due to the waste materials from site have been largely generated and most of the Construction Industries in Malaysia have not been practising by using 4Rs Concept to minimize the waste on site. This is might cause serious impact to the environment. The construction waste has generated a significant amount of waste to the earth that causes major impact on the global. Therefore, solutions have to be implemented to minimizing the construction waste to reduce the impact of the environment. Rising disposal costs and reduction in number of landfills create a need to search for alternatives to reduce, reuse, recycle and replace of construction waste being generated. Under this assertion, implementation of construction waste management can be one of the apparent solutions for the industry to minimize waste and waste disposal, ultimately reducing costs incurred during the process and contributing to the global Environmental-friendly movement (Bon-Gang Hwang, 2010). The construction waste will increase from time to time in during the development of very large projects especially located in Town area. Thus, the necessity of finding appropriate solution to reduce the potential of construction waste been generated. Nowadays the waste management is not an option anymore but necessary. It must be seriously concerns and implement a useful tool to minimize the construction waste on site. Therefore, Reused and Recycle has been known as one of the best solution to recycle the waste materials into recycled contents and turn into usable materials. Sadly though, our national domestic recycling rate still excurse around a mere five percent (Bernama, 2006). Currently in Malaysia, it is still not much of the construction industry practice of 4Rs Concept. Thus, implementing of 4Rs Concept is one of the methods to solve the material waste to minimize the waste. According to Yusoff (2010) has apparently stated that wastages affect not only to the environment but also incur extra costs. In Malaysia, there is a huge potential in reuse and recycle of construction waste into alternative materials that is usable in Malaysian Construction industry if implement correctly. This will hopefully bring about construction resurgence (Yusoff, 2010). In many of the developed countries have started to implement reuse and recycle of the construction materials aggressively. The construction wastes affect not only the environment but also incurred extra cost has been spent on the new material. This is mainly due to maybe the un-used material on site has been damaged and additional cost need to reorder the material. Therefore, there is a need of implementing a good material storage to avoid damaging the material. Other than that, the method of reuse and recycle of waste has been largely used on other developed counties. This means that there are has the huge potential in reuse and recycle of waste material on site in Malaysia. Thurs, implementing 4Rs Concept to reduce the extra cost incur on the unnecessary materials and also reuse and recycle of construction waste in the Malaysian construction industry. This will hopefully minimize the construction waste from being largely generated on site. Problem Statement It is obviously that most of the construction industries may produce or generate a tremendous amount of debris and also solid waste from sites. These debris and solid waste will leave onto the sites for decades or just dump into the sea that may cause to water pollution not just to our country but also damaging the world. In order to allow construction waste to be minimized, it is either by managing the material properly such as provide a good housekeeping, provide proper material storage and so on or using 4Rs Concept such as reduce, reuse, recycle and replace of material waste on site. Most of the constructions industries generate lots of debris that can be totally cease because in every construction industry during activities in on going, there will be waste occurred no matter what method used to prevent it. It is depend on how the project management reduce the waste to the minimal. In Malaysia, majority of the construction industry do not take advantages or practise of using reuse and recycle method and at the end the material abandon on the construction site. Consequently, this will cause increasing of burden on landfill loading and operation on site. Thurs, it is time for Malaysia to start to manage the material properly and also practise using recycle and reused to minimize the material waste on site. Therefore, it is advisable to all construction industries in Malaysia should start to practise 4Rs Concepts in order to minimize the construction waste. Research Goals Project Aim The aim of this dissertation is mainly to carry out study regarding to minimize the construction waste in the construction industry. The Malaysian construction industry should implement several methods to minimize the construction waste material such as provide proper management for the material, reuse and recycle method and so on. Therefore, all the solution should be implementing in all construction industry in order to achieve the aims of this study. Objectives of Project To identify the types of waste that can be used to reuse or recycle in construction industry. To analyse the benefits of construction waste minimization in construction industry. To give out recommendation on how to overcome the construction waste problem in construction industry. Key Questions What are the types of waste that can be used to reuse and recycle in construction industry? What benefits can the construction waste minimization contribute to the construction industry? Which types of method can be implemented to overcome the construction waste problem in construction industry? Background of Study Nowadays many constructions industries around the world have produced a tremendous amount of waste into this world. Many of the waste produced from the constructions site has been dump on all over the places and it will increase from time to time relatively with development of rural and urban areas if construction industries did not managed them properly. Therefore, construction waste management plays an important role to minimize or control the amount of waste that produce from the construction site. The Malaysian construction industry has now mainly concerns regarding to the amount of construction waste generated in Malaysia. In many of the developed countries have been using reuse and recycle of construction waste. Therefore, reuse and recycle have been recognised as one of the most workable strategy to control and minimize the waste on site. In most of projects, more than half of the construction wastes are recyclable materials. There are several authors have been highlighted strategies for waste minimization. One of the strategies that find repeated mention in the literature is the strategy referred to as 3Rs reduce, reuse, recycle. (Shekdar, 2008; Wang et al., 2008; Kibert and Languell, 2000;Teo and Loosemore, 2001). Therefore, there is a good opportunity to implementing 4Rs concept rather than 3Rs. This is mainly due to the 4Rs Concept is a better and workable strategy that can be used to control and minimize the construction waste. Scope of Study and Limitation This research is mainly focusing on the construction wastes minimization in Malaysian construction industry. In this research, a case study of construction wastes minimization in Malaysian construction industry which mainly focusing on cities or town area such as Kuala Lumpur. Firstly, this research is carry out to ensure whether that the practise of reuse and recycle waste has been implemented in Malaysian construction industries. Besides that, to investigate the current trend of the waste management in Malaysian construction industry in order to find out the waste minimization method that provides smooth flow of process. Secondly, this research is carrying out by questionnaires to the relevant respondents that have the skills and knowledge regarding to the research topic. Not all respondents has the knowledge that can contribute to the research topic due to not many respondents had the experience and knowledge regarding to the construction waste minimization. The targets of the respondents are mainly focus on who have the experiences and knowledge regarding to the construction waste minimization in Kuala Lumpur such as contractors, specialists, professionals, project manager, etc. Contribution of the study First of all, this research is carried out due to various reasons. The main reason of this research is to reduce the cost of construction material and disposal. Due to this reason less waste will be generated means that a reduced quantity of materials will be purchased and less waste taken to landfill will reduce gate fees for disposal as well. This will improved recovery practices and motivate a sustained change in waste management practise in future. In order to reduce the cost of construction material, reused and recycled construction waste is the best solution to dispose the waste materials in the construction industry. Secondly, reused and recycled is an economically viable option. Using reused and recycled, the waste materials on site will not be dumped indiscriminately and sent to incinerators of burnt on-site or sent to landfill sites. Contractors could just send the materials to recycling centres. From recycling of construction wastes, contractors could recoup their losses and make a healthy profit out of it. This method is already been used in the United States. In Malaysia, reused and recycled is still not commonly practise. Therefore, there is much potential to contribute on the market for recycled construction wastes. Therefore, our country not just cut down the landfill sites but also cut down a lot of expenses on construction material to construction industry. The construction industry produces substantial amount of waste, which is about four times of that produced in households thereby accounting for more than 50 per cent of the waste deposited in a typical landfill (Ferguson et al., 1995; Coventry and Guthrie, 1998). This means the rising of disposal costs and reductions in number of landfills that create a need to seek for other solutions to either reduce, recycle and reuse or providing a good material storage management for the material from being damage and lead to construction waste. Lastly, the contractors in every construction industry should be practising 3Rs Concept or provide proper training regarding on efficiency of the material storage management. This will hopefully to prevent losses in the construction industry because the amount of construction waste generated is equal to waste of money in the construction company. This research is carried out to investigate the best options to minimize or dispose the waste from the site in order to make the company gain profits. Research Methodology This research will be focus on the benefits of the construction waste management, the types of waste used to reuse or recycle and the method used to overcome the construction waste in order to minimize the construction waste in Malaysia construction industry. The stages of the research methodology can divided into 4 stages, which are: Stage 1 Literature Review and the Pilot Study Stage 2 The Technique of Data Collections Stage 3 The Result of Analysis and Findings Stage 4 The Conclusion and Recommendation of Data Analysis Stage 1 Literature Review and the Pilot Study The literature review is a critical and in depth evaluation of previous research. The literature review serves to demonstrate and more understanding and knowledge of theoretical and research issues related to research topic. In order to collect information in the literature review, the secondary sources is implement which included journal articles, books, newspapers, magazines, online sources, senior dissertation, etc. Therefore, a comprehensive of literature review regarding to the construction waste minimization in Malaysian construction industry is carry out. These will hopefully providing some useful information in carrying out the research topic in literature review. The literature review act as a guide to discovered more knowledge regarding to the research topic. Stage 2 The Technique of Data Collections Primary Source Primary source can be collected through case study, questionnaire and interview. These are the effective alternative solution that enables to collect adequate and solid information regarding to research topic. The questionnaire survey technique is chosen to collect the data. Questionnaire Questionnaire will be the primary data collection which was selected as survey method for this research. The data collection is based on the open-ended questionnaires will be given out 20-50 respondents to relevant person who has the experience and knowledge in construction waste management. The questionnaire was designed in several sections and categories, the questionnaires will be distribute to the construction industry companies located in city area of Kuala Lumpur. The target respondents to distribute the questionnaire are mainly focus on the person who has knowledge regarding to the types of waste used to reuse or recycle, the benefits of the construction waste management and the method to overcome the construction waste. Secondary Source Secondary source can be collected through journal articles and journal review. In this secondary source, carry out study as much journal articles as possible in order to understand and provide help on this research topic. Other than that, other secondary source in including books, newspapers, magazines, internet sources, senior dissertation will also be carried out to conduct this dissertation. The information that has been review or study must relate to the research topic in order to carry out this research efficiently. Stage 3 The Result of Analysis and Findings The data can be collected through surveying in questionnaire method. The structure of the questions is based on the research topic which is minimizing construction waste in the Malaysian construction industry. Approximate 20-50 sets of questions are send to the relevant respondents who has the experience and knowledge with the construction waste minimization. The respondents are mainly targeted on the project manager, specialists, professionals, etc. After the data of questionnaires has been collected and gathered, the analysis result will be analysed and present into bar charts, pie charts or histogram form with explanations in details regarding to the data collected. Form the data that had been collected, writing up of the content of the dissertation is used in this stage to write up the result of analysis and findings that cover the chapters proposed in every each of the following section. Stage 4 The Conclusion and Recommendation of Data Analysis In this stage, the overall result of the survey is combined and gathered, then come out with the conclusion of the data analysis. After result analyse of the data is taken, recommendation of the data analysis from the survey is suggested regarding to the construction waste minimization in Malaysia construction industry. The construction wastes minimization in Malaysian construction industry To identify the types of waste that can be used to reuse or recycle in construction industry To analyse the benefits of construction waste management in construction industry To give out recommendation on how to overcome the construction waste problem in construction industry Literature Reviews (Secondary source) STAGE 1 Technique of Data Collection (Primary source, Questionnaires) STAGE 2 The Result of Analysis and Findings A case study about the fire protection system in commercial building A set of question will be distribute to the commercial buildings users to dertermine theier knowledge about fire safety An interview would be carry out to the fire safety professionalSTAGE 3 Conclusion and Recommendation STAGE 4 Figure 1.1: The Flow Chart of the Research Methodology Summaries of Chapters Chapter 1: Introduction to the Research The Chapter 1 for the project and dissertation is introduction to the research. Under this chapter, the researcher needs to explain to the reader that the reason that choosing the dissertation title and briefly introduce the research title. The research goals for this research also one of the important parts to be included in this chapter. The aim, objectives and hypothesis to be tested for the research title should be clear before start. A research content is a basic requirement to be prepared before proceed to the next stage. This is to brief the whole process of dissertation to the reader before read the content. Chapter 2: Literature Review Literature review is to introduce the types of materials that can be reuse and recycle in Malaysian construction industry, the construction waste management that may lead benefits to the Malaysian construction industry and recommend on how the construction waste problem can be overcome in Malaysian construction industry. In this chapter, literature review will done by carried out studies on Articles from the internet, online sources, books and journals regarding to the construction waste in Malaysian construction industry, the types of particular waste material that can be used to reuse and recycle in order to minimize the waste in Malaysia and recommend some solution to overcome the problem regarding to construction waste. Chapter 3: Research Methodology In this chapter will explain about the research methodology used in order to carry out this research. This chapter consists of the scope of this chapter, the statement of the research aim, the rational of questionnaire, research samples and lastly the method of analysis. In the first stage, the principle of waste management that normally manage in Malaysian construction industry. The second stage will be introducing the benefits of waste management that may lead benefits to the Malaysian construction industry. After that, introduce the types of waste material that can be used to reuse and recycle and recommend the most effective ways to overcome the waste problem in Malaysian construction industry. In order to achieve effective and efficient feedback from the respondent, all the design questionnaire should met with all the research objectives. Chapter 4: The Result of Analysis and Findings In this chapter will analyse the result from the questionnaire that collected from the relevant respondents. The purpose of this chapter will analyse the data collected and to analyse the information that obtained to charts or histogram from the respondents regarding of that particular title. Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations In this chapter will sum up the conclusion and recommendation regarding of the project and dissertation on this research topic. Base on the result that obtained, the researcher should write down the conclusion and recommendation on this research topic. This will conclude all the information obtained and summarise the major conclusion to briefly explain what this research topic is all about. 1.9 Summary As a conclusion, a brief introduction has been stated in this chapter regarding to the construction waste minimization in Malaysian construction industry. Besides that, background of construction waste in the industries is reviewed and come out with several factors such as reduce, reused, recycle and replace. Next, problem statement has been stated the problems that face in the current construction industries regarding to the waste, thus 4Rs Concept is implement to minimize the waste. Therefore, the aim and objectives is carried out to determine the research topic. Other than that, the scope of the study has also carried out to come out with the location that the researcher going to focus and what are the targeted respondents. Lastly, research methodology is carried out to determine the method used to collect the data such as primary and secondary sources. After the data collected, analysis of the result will be conducted to analyse the information obtained into charts and histogram. Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Introduction In this chapter, literature review is going to carry out in depth study on the overview of the Malaysian Construction industry. After that, introduce the types of waste that normally generated in Malaysia and the method to overcome the construction waste from site in order to minimize the waste produce on site. The process of this is to investigate whether Malaysia construction industry has practise and carried out the 4R Concept in order to minimize the waste on site. 2.2 The overview of the Malaysian construction industry Figure 2.1: National GDP and Construction GDP of 2006 to 2009 In Figure 2.1 stated that the GDP has constantly increased from 2008 to 2009. This means that the economy is growing in Malaysia. Therefore, Malaysian construction projects are needed to give momentum to the economy to make firm on the Construction GDP. When the economy grows, the standard of living, opportunity for the jobs, economy will increase as well. Whenever things that has a good side, there will be also a bad side of it. The bad side is that as there are demands of developments in Malaysia, the construction wastes produced will also increase as well. The construction industry will be known as non-environmental friendly industry due to pollution of air, water, sound and land. Other than that, it will also cause natural disasters such as flooding, landslides and so on. This is mainly due to inappropriate construction management and Lack of concern for the environmental consequences of large development projects. It is believed that the GDP has increase constantly. This shows that the standard of living, opportunity for the jobs, economy is increasing which mean waste generate by the Malaysian construction industry will be also increasing that may lead to pollution such as noise, air, water and land. This may cause to natural disaster such as landslides and flooding. Most of the developed countries such as Kuala Lumpur, they did not concern about the waste that produced to the environment and they just concern about the profit they are going to earn after the project is done. The construction industry in our country is fast becoming a big waste generator. The extensive building and infrastructure development projects have led to a huge increase of construction and demolition waste recently. With that in mind, the government introduced EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) in 1987 within the framework of the Environmental Quality Act (EQA). Environmental impact assessment (HA) is a legal measure to curb environmental pollution and ecological destruction at the source Environmental review of projects prevents not only environmental degradation, but also construction errors and faulty economic analysis (Yusoff, 2010). In developed country such as United States, the construction industry has already produced tones and tones of construction waste on site. Whereas, in under develop country such as Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is expected that numerous numbers of wastes is going to produce in the Malaysia construction industry. The waste produced in Malaysia will be more than United Stage due to there is more development on-going that cause waste definitely. Recently, the development of building and infrastructures project generates most of the waste due to hacking, dismantling, repairing work. On the other hand, the government also introduce the Environmental Impact Assessment. Environmental impact assessment is a legal measure to stop environmental pollution and ecological destruction at the source Environmental review of projects. It is not just minimizing the waste that generated in Malaysian construction industry but also environmental degradation. According to Ibrahim (2010) has stated that the construction materials wastage has shown that the costs of materials have been exceeded 50 percent of the construction cost, depending on the type of construction. The main reasons of causing such material wastage due to poor setting out error, workmanship, ordering of materials not meeting specifications and requirement, excessive use of materials, breakage in poor handling of materials and improper planning of storage (Ibrahim, 2010). This shows that in the construction industry, the percentage of the construction waste produced consist of very high percentage in Malaysia. Therefore it is time for everyone to take into consideration of implementing several ways to minimize the construction waste on site. Some waste is unavoidable even under perfect conditions of design and construction. But excessive waste is common in the construction process and has received lack consideration by contractors or the industry. The waste levels in Malaysia is considerably high and from the Malaysia Environmental Quality Report 2005 we may find that waste may be generated and treated in many forms. Based on notification received by the Department of Environment (DOE), a total of 548,916.11 metric tonnes of scheduled wastes were generated in 2005 as compared to 469,584.07 metric tonnes in 2004 (Teoh Su Ping, 2009). It is surprisingly that the construction material turned up to be construction waste rapidly and gradually increasing from 2004 to 2005. It is just within one year, the waste that generated has gone up rapidly and the volume of the waste is calculated in metric tonnes of wastes which mean the production of waste is very serious in Malaysia. There is a lot of opportunity to improve on waste minimization in Malaysia. The breakdown according to waste categories and industry types are given in (Figure 2.2 and Figure 2.3 respectively). Of the total wastes produced; 8s5,734.92 metric tonnes (15.6%) were treated and disposed at Kualiti Alam Sdn. Bhd., 8,423.26 metric tonnes (1.5%) were treated and disposed at Trinekens (Sarawak) Sdn. Bhd., 17,650.01 metric tonnes (3.2%) of clinical wastes were incinerated at licensed off-site facilities, 5,224.00 metric tonnes (1.0%) were exported for recovery purposes, 149,569.99 metric tonnes (27.2%) of scheduled wastes were recovered at off-site facilities, an estimated 120,345.25 metric tonnes (21.9%) were treated on-site and 161,968.68 metric tonnes (29.5%) were stored onsite at waste generators premises. Six land farms and 16 on-site waste incinerators had been licensed by DOE to allow for on-site treatment and incineration respectively. (Malaysia environmental quality report, 2005). Figure 2.2 DOE: Quality of Scheduled Waste Generated by Category, 2005 (Sources from Malaysia environmental quality report, 2005) Figure 2.3 DOE: Quality of Scheduled Waste Generated by Industry, 2005 (Sources from Malaysia environmental quality report, 2005) 2.3 The types of waste produced in Malaysia There are various waste generated in Malaysia industry. The waste can be differentiating as following: Construction and demolition waste Commercial and industrial waste Domestic waste Special waste In this research, it is mainly focus on construction and demolition waste that generated in Malaysian construction industry. The construction and demolition waste is accounted as the second highest in Malaysia. Although construction and demolition waste is not the highest waste that produced in Malaysia but construction and demolition is consider quite high in Malaysia. Figure 2.4 Types of waste produced in Malaysia 2.3.1 Construction and Demolition waste The construction industry uses a wide of material including lumber or wood, concrete, aggregate, drywall, masonry products, plastic and metal products. In addition, hazardous materials such as paints, solvents, and adhesive are used. Many of these materials eventually become wastes. Typically, up to 10 percent of the materials delivered to a construction site become waste (Magdich, P. 1995). According to Magdich (1995), it is understandable that the most of the material used in construction industries are normally wood, concrete, aggregate, metal and so on. The construction waste defines as most of these materials only uses 90 percent in the construction and the rest of the 10 percent will be end up wastage on site. The demolition waste defines as waste that generate from the demolition work of the buildings or structures. The component of the construction and demolition wastes differ mainly depend on the mature of the project or activities involved. Table 2.1 shows the major components of the Construction and Demolition wastes. Construction waste Demolition waste Dimension lumber Dimension lumber Plywood Plywood Metals Asphalt Concrete / Masonry Concrete / Masonry Fibreglass Drywall Soil and land-clearing waste Appliances Foam insulation Plastics Hazardous waste (solvent / Oils) Carpet Others Others Table 2.1: Major Component of Construction and Demolition wastes (Source from Magdich.P.1995) Construction waste Percent (%) By Volume Dimension lumber 25 Gypsum Wallboard 15 Masonry and Tile 12 Cardboard 10 Manufactured Wood 10 Asphalt 6 Other Wastes 5 Fibreglass 5 Other Packaging 4 Metal 4 Plastic and Foam 4 Total 100The estimated composition of Construction wastes in Malaysia is shown in below Table 2.2 and 2.3. Table 2.2: Estimated Composition of Construction waste in Malaysia (Source from Magdich, P. 1995) Demolition waste Percent (%) By Volume Wood Products 33 Masonry and Tile 13 Concrete 53 Others 1 Total 100 Table 2.3: Estimated Composition of Demolition waste in Malaysia (Source from Magdich, P. 1995) 2.4 The classification of the construction waste In construction industry, the waste can be produced in anytime and anyplace on site or off site. There are great possibility of the material waste may be arise when deliveries to site is inappropriate handling or material on sites have been idling for too long. This means the wastes can be occurred in any moment and in all stages of constructing the projects. Therefore, material should be handling appropriately, mov

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Absence of True Love in Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper and Boyles Astro

Absence of True Love in Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and Boyle's Astronomer's Wife Most people in today's society have been in love or will be in love sometime in their life. I am not talking about little crushes that we call love; I am talking about that love that makes us tingle when we think about it, true love. Most people are looking for their true love, but what they are basing this love on is their idea of the ideal love. Ideal love is what we think love should be or what it should feel like. My idea of ideal love is when you want to be with the same person everyday and never get tired of them. Every time you see each other you get that same warm, tingly feeling you got the first time you saw each other. Although everyone has their own idea what the ideal love should be, they are all basing it on the idea of true love. For example, the saying "Love Conquers All" simply states that if you have love in your life you can make it through anything. The stories "Astronomer's Wife," by Kay Boyle, and "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, bot h show that without love in a marriage there is a lifetime of heartache and pain. "The Yellow Wallpaper" and the "Astronomer's Wife" both portray the idea that over time lust and love that is not true love fades. Both of these stories are based on marriages where love is nonexistent. There may have been some form of love or affection in the beginning, but it was not true love. Neither of the marriages in these stories have the warmth and comfort that is usually associated in marriage. In "The Yellow Wallpaper" the marriage is more like a doctor-patient relationship rather than a husband-wife relationship. The marriage in the "Astronomer's Wife" is more l... ...rue love, the one that makes you tingle, will never work. The two marriages in these stories did not have true love, they may have been in love at the time but it was not lasting love that is why they ended in heartache and pain. When one is looking for true love or they think they might have found it, remember that their true love is based on their idea of the ideal love. Also, if things get rough in the relationship, or life in general, remember the saying "Love Conquers All". Works Cited Boyle, Kay. "Astronomer's Wife." Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. Fourth Edition. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 619-623. Gillman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems Plays, and Essays. Fourth Edition. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 604-616.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Making Fimo Beads :: Expository Process Essays

Making Fimo Beads The "Generation X" population of today's society has made the wearing of beaded necklaces containing fimo beads quite a fashion statement. These necklaces contain small, round, colored plastic beads and other intricate beads made out of different colored fimo. Fimo is a synthetic material similar to modeling clay, and can be used to make thousands on types of beads. These beads can then be incorporated into necklaces. However, to accurately describe the process of making this style of bead, a simple pattern will be used as an example. Specifically, the fimo example described will have a pattern with a small, yellow circular center surrounded by three small, green triangles and three small, red triangles. The following process will allow anyone without artistic ability to create a simple, inexpensive fimo bead that can later be used in stylish necklaces. The first step in the process involves taking a trip to a local craft store like, A. C. Moore, or a department store such as Wal*Mart, to buy the necessary supplies. For the example fimo bead, red, yellow, and green fimo must be purchased. To make a complete necklace, other colored plastic beads would have to be bought along with a spool of beading thread and a silver clasp. Also, a sharp flat-edged cutting tool (for example, a razor blade) and a thick, large pin will also be necessary tools in the final stages of the bead making process. Once the supplies are gathered, the bead making process is ready to begin. The fimo color that will make up the center circle in the bead (in this case, yellow) is the color that is first readied. A piece of fimo with the diameter of a quarter and the width of a pencil, is pinched off from the larger slab of fimo. It is then rubbed between both hands in a circular motion until it is warm and no longer cracks when folded in half. Then, from that small, primed piece of fimo, a smaller, nickel-sized piece is pinched and rolled on a flat surface. The fimo is rolled into a cylindrical log that is approximately three inches long. It is important to ensure that the log is not too thin, meaning it does not easily pull apart. Making Fimo Beads :: Expository Process Essays Making Fimo Beads The "Generation X" population of today's society has made the wearing of beaded necklaces containing fimo beads quite a fashion statement. These necklaces contain small, round, colored plastic beads and other intricate beads made out of different colored fimo. Fimo is a synthetic material similar to modeling clay, and can be used to make thousands on types of beads. These beads can then be incorporated into necklaces. However, to accurately describe the process of making this style of bead, a simple pattern will be used as an example. Specifically, the fimo example described will have a pattern with a small, yellow circular center surrounded by three small, green triangles and three small, red triangles. The following process will allow anyone without artistic ability to create a simple, inexpensive fimo bead that can later be used in stylish necklaces. The first step in the process involves taking a trip to a local craft store like, A. C. Moore, or a department store such as Wal*Mart, to buy the necessary supplies. For the example fimo bead, red, yellow, and green fimo must be purchased. To make a complete necklace, other colored plastic beads would have to be bought along with a spool of beading thread and a silver clasp. Also, a sharp flat-edged cutting tool (for example, a razor blade) and a thick, large pin will also be necessary tools in the final stages of the bead making process. Once the supplies are gathered, the bead making process is ready to begin. The fimo color that will make up the center circle in the bead (in this case, yellow) is the color that is first readied. A piece of fimo with the diameter of a quarter and the width of a pencil, is pinched off from the larger slab of fimo. It is then rubbed between both hands in a circular motion until it is warm and no longer cracks when folded in half. Then, from that small, primed piece of fimo, a smaller, nickel-sized piece is pinched and rolled on a flat surface. The fimo is rolled into a cylindrical log that is approximately three inches long. It is important to ensure that the log is not too thin, meaning it does not easily pull apart.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Global Poverty Essay

The definition of poverty is a matter of debate. In 1795, English magistrates decided that a minimum income should be the cost of a gallon loaf of bread, multiplied by three, plus an allowance for each dependent. Today, the Census Bureau defines the threshold of global poverty as the minimum amount of money families need to purchase a nutritionally adequate diet, assuming they use one-third of their income for food. The term underclass has been applied by some social scientists to a population of people, concentrated in an inner city, who are persistently poor, unemployed, and dependent on welfare, with an emphasis on persistently. Initially, sociologist William Julius Wilson championed the concept to describe the plight of the truly disadvantaged. But he and a number of other sociologists have since expressed concern that the term underclass is being misused by some journalists and political conservatives to argue that the poor have created their own plight and are to blame for their poverty (Hinkle, 1994). Wilson contends that the underclass exists mainly because of a sharp climb in inner-city joblessness by virtue of the elimination of hundreds of thousands of lower-skill jobs, the growing polarization of the labor market into low-wage and high-wage sectors, the relocation of manufacturing industries out of the central city, and periodic recessions. The problem has been compounded by the concentration of the disadvantaged in inner-city ghettos and the isolation of these areas from more affluent communities (Hinkle, 1994). Before World War I, most African Americans lived in the rural South. But industrial jobs during World Wars I and II drew hundreds of thousands of blacks to cities in the North (Davis, 2004). Almost all of these people were poor, unskilled workers. Structural factors, i. e. the disappearance over the past quarter-century of hundreds of thousands of low-skill jobs, mainly involving physical labor, have meant that inner-city blacks have become a severely disadvantaged class (Hinkle, 1994). They settled in slum areas near the factories where they worked in the inner city. As slums grew, ghetto conditions worsened. These patterns are most evident in large American cities where smokestack industries once attracted young men with few or no skills to jobs that nonetheless paid well enough to support wives and children. Prejudice and discrimination have made it difficult for African Americans and other minorities to improve these conditions. Legislation has been used to try to eliminate ghetto conditions in the United States. But segregation remains a serious problem. Now poor urban blacks find themselves relegated to all-black neighborhoods where they are socially isolated from mainstream life (Davis, 2004). According to the conflict theory, though, the underclass indeed constitutes a minority of the poor. The underclass is a cote of inner-city poor, those individuals and families who are trapped in an unending cycle of joblessness and dependence on welfare or criminal earnings. Their communities are plagued by drug abuse, lawlessness, crime, violence, and poor schools. Many underclass women were teenage mothers and high school dropouts who subsequently found themselves sidetracked without the resources or skills to escape a life of poverty (Hinkle, 1994). Some sociologists portray global poverty as a structural feature of capitalist societies. The cyclical movements between economic expansion and contraction, boom and bust, contribute to sharp fluctuations in employment (Iceland, 2003). A century ago, Karl Marx contended that an industrial reserve army is essential for capitalist economies. The industrial reserve army consists of individuals at the bottom of the class structure who are laid off in the interests of corporate profits during times of economic stagnation, then rehired when needed for producing profits during times of economic prosperity. It is disproportionately composed of minorities, who traditionally have been the last hired and the first hired. Contemporary structural functionalists say that a new industrial order characterized by a significant shift from manufacturing to service-sector employment has produced massive vulnerability among all blue-collar workers (Hinkle, 1994). Poverty derives from a lack of income-producing employment. And high inner-city rates of family disintegration, welfare dependency, drug abuse, and crime are additional outcomes of faulty economic organization. Clustered in large ghettos and squatters Mexico, Africa, and some parts of Asia, the poor develop feelings of marginality, helplessness, dependence, and inferiority. These circumstances allegedly breed weak ego structures, lack of impulse control, a present-time orientation characterized by little ability to deter gratification, and a sense of resignation and fatalism. The resulting lifeways are both an adaptation and a reaction of the poor to their disadvantaged positions (Iceland, 2003). They become self-perpetuating patterns as the ethos associated with the culture of poverty is transmitted to successive generations. United Nations bureaus revealed that nearly half of the state’s children have mothers who have failed to fulfill elementary school. Statistics illustrate there exists a positive relationship between parents’ educational attainment and their offspring’s odds in their latter life. Children of parents who have no adequate formal education are prone to endure scarcity as they age. Poverty-stricken people around the world suffer from the lack of many things they need. For example, they are less likely to receive adequate medical care or to eat the foods they need to stay healthy. The poor have more diseases, become more seriously ill, and die at a younger age than other people do. Poor people often live in substandard housing in socially isolated areas where most of their neighbors are poor. Many low-income families live in crowded, run-down buildings with inadequate heat and plumbing. The jobs most readily available to the poor provide low wages and little opportunity for advancement. Many of these jobs also involve dangerous or unhealthful working conditions. Financial, medical, and emotional problems often strain family ties among the poverty-stricken (Iceland, 2003). In Laos, saddled with debt, lacking infrastructure, and short of trained personnel, the government simply cannot afford to provide basic schooling for all of their children. However, this is not a problem of lack of resources, but rather a problem of resource allocation. In Ghana, misdistribution and capitalistic exploitation make the medicines inaccessible to the poor clients in the district. If in the past, the causes of illnesses may have been shared between man and nature, from this time forth, diseases are brought about by the caustic arms of industrialization, which might have not destroyed or alternatively benefited the sub-Saharan Africa. In Thailand, young people, some hardly elapsed pre-school age, vending on streets virtually every single day is a heartbreaking scene to the passersby. While at first glance it may seem to be effortless, risk-free toil that equips a deprived family a most wanted boost, it essentially stems from a chain of causes, and begets a mesh of costs for the child, his family and the society in which they are trying to survive. Eventually, many unschooled children would eventually realize finding themselves sidetracked without the resources or skills to escape a life of poverty. Within the United States, President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society produced a flurry of social programs rivaling those of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Some are gone, while others were severely cut or revamped by the Reagan and Bush administrations. The government provides two main types of aid: social insurance and public assistance. Social insurance mainly covers people-or their families-who have worked and paid special taxes in the past, whether or not they are poor. Public assistance provides aid to the needy regardless of their work record (Iceland, 2003). Education is a key element in reversing poverty. For some people in Asia and Africa, education is a means to improve oneself. Education is greatly related to social status because a high degree of education involves money and motivation. Some people insist that the forces that are making the world into a single economy have separated people from longstanding identities and have, at the same time, weakened nation-state. Particularly, McDonaldization of global society has allowed to target highly specific groups wherever they are and so the ethnic bond tails them too (Ritzer, 1996). People in developing countries are starving, purely so that our developed society can be provided with excess food. Chemicals, necessary for the uniformity of its products, are destroying the environment and putting lives at risk due to increased nitrate levels. This way, McDonaldization of society wouldn’t make the world a better place, as it will simply turn into a bigger breeding ground for exploitation, pollution, and economic imbalance around the world furthering global poverty.

Monday, September 16, 2019

How does Shakespeare dramatise the murder of Duncan in Act II Scenes (i) and (ii)? Essay

The murder of King Duncan in the play Macbeth is an important part of the play. It shows the point at which Lady Macbeth and Macbeth begin their downfall, which ultimately ends in their deaths at the end of the play. The first and second scenes in Act Two are important because they are immediately before and just after the murder, so they are where the play is at it’s climax, and most tense. Shakespeare dramatises the murder by not only building up the tension before Macbeth commits the murder, but also keeping the pressure up through the next scene during Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s conversation. This idea is explored in detail throughout this essay. Our very first impression of Macbeth in Act One is that he is a character to be wary of, because the witches are the first people to mention him, and witches are associated with evil, so Macbeth is linked in the audience’s mind with wickedness. However this idea is pushed to one side as we hear glowing reports on the ‘brave’, ‘worthy’ and ‘valiant’ Macbeth, (Act 1, Scene 2, Lines 16, 24) from King Duncan and the Captain of the Army. It seems Banquo and Macbeth are both very honest and good people before we ever meet them personally. Then when we do see the two for the first time, they meet the witches, who tell them the prophecies which the whole play is based around: ‘All hail Macbeth that shalt be King hereafter’. (Act 1, Scene 3, Line 48) We are shown Macbeth’s latent desires come to the forefront of his mind; although he is already successful and has more than most could want, hidden ambition and greed becomes apparent as the witches promise his greatest dreams. He seems to be solely focused on the biggest prize – though the first of the witches’ prophecies comes true immediately, he is more happy that the prophecy of him becoming King now seems a plausible idea, than the present promotion: ‘The greatest is behind’ (Act 1 Scene 3 Line 116). All in all, the character of Macbeth is introduced to the audience as a worthy and noble person (from the reports by the Captain in Scene Two) but one with a less virtuous side, to do with his ambition and never being satisfied with what he has, – which turn out to be his biggest weaknesses and ends up bringing about his downfall. Also in Act One we see the highly influential role Lady Macbeth plays in persuading Macbeth to kill Duncan so they can become King and Queen. As Macbeth is her husband she knows him best and knows he is ‘not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it’ (Act 1, Scene 5, Line 18-19) so she knows exactly how to manipulate him to do things he otherwise would not do. She does this by playing on his weaknesses – by questioning his manliness and asking him to do the deed to prove his love for her. Lady Macbeth appears to be driven by her own ambitions and her ruthlessness and determination are established effectively in the opening Act. She shows her willingness to do evil things when she calls for dark spirits to ‘fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty, make thick my blood, stop up the th’access and passage to remorse’ (Act 1, Scene 5, Line 41-3) She also shows her strength of will when she tells Macbeth what to do: ‘Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.’ (Act 1, Scene 6, Line 64-5) and when she manages to persuade Macbeth to kill Duncan. At the beginning of Act 1 Scene 7 he is decidedly against the act: ‘We shall proceed no further in this business’ (Line 31) but by the end of the scene she has made him change his mind: ‘If we should fail?’ (Line 59). Shakespeare sets the scene for the murder in Act II Scene I by creating a tense and mysterious atmosphere with Banquo and his son Fleance’s conversation, and then their encounter with Macbeth as he is setting out to kill Duncan. The scene opens with Banquo talking to Fleance and describing the dark setting. He says that ‘the moon is down’ (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 2) and ‘the candles are all out’ (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 5), meaning the night is pitch black with no moon or stars – perfect for a concealed murder. Fleance tells us that ’tis later’ (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 4) than midnight, which was considered in those times to be the scariest hour of the night, the ‘witching hour’ – the audience in the original performance of the play would pick up on this timing as a sign to be wary of what is coming next. Banquo refers to the theme of sleeplessness, saying ‘I would not sleep†¦[for] the cursed thoughts that nature gives way to in repose’. (Act 2, Scene 1, Lines 7-9) We see this idea again in Act Two Scene Two after the murder, when Macbeth is very traumatised by what he has done, and he says he ‘hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more’ (Lines 45-6) Because Banquo used the word ‘cursed’ he reminds us of the witches and plants the idea that their prophecies could in fact be curses, which is foreshadowing what actually happens. Then, Banquo hears a noise and calls immediately for his son to ‘Give me my sword’, before warily calling out ‘Who’s there?’ (Act 2, Scene 1, Lines 9-10) This builds up the tension in the atmosphere very well because it is odd for him to be so alert and tense in his best friend’s castle, where he should feel safe. Banquo has already been established as a calm, good and perceptive character, (from his association with nature) so because he is on edge and tense the audience knows the next scene cannot be good. The tense atmosphere is heightened during Macbeth and Banquo’s conversation, because they talk in relatively short lines to one another. The audience is also shown how tense and nervous Macbeth is, and how he is slowly ‘falling from grace’ because he lies to his best friend, by saying ‘I think not of them [the witches]’ (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 21) when it’s all he has been thinking about since they met them. In the second part of Act Two Scene One Macbeth hallucinates a floating dagger, covered in ‘gouts of blood’ (Line 46) with ‘the handle toward my [his] hand’ (Line 34) leading him towards Duncan’s room to commit the murder – ‘thou marshall’st me the way that I was going’ (Line 42). In the original play Shakespeare chose not to show the audience the dagger Macbeth is imagining, because this way focus is shifted from the dagger onto Macbeth himself, which means the audience is more dramatically engaged by the character, rather than special effects. Another reason Shakespeare decided not to show the dagger is that it is a figment of Macbeth’s imagination, a ‘false creation, proceeding from the heat oppressed brain’ (Line 39) representing his confusion and indecisiveness being controlled by external and sinister forces, which therefore makes the murder seem more inevitable, because Macbeth is not in control of it. If the dagger were shown the representation would be lost, because it would become a real thing. This shows great psychological understanding from Shakespeare. Even though the audience is shown a real dagger when Macbeth pulls out his own to compare: ‘I see thee yet, in form as palpable as this which I now draw’ (Line 40-1) Shakespeare only did this to reinforce the idea that Macbeth sees it as clearly as a real dagger, but the audience can’t see it. Most other productions of Macbeth follow Shakespeare’s original intentions, with the only exception being Roman Polanski’s feature film version. Polanski decided to show the floating dagger, but this was probably because the film was aimed at a wider, more ‘mainstream’ audience, and he thought subtle details like an imaginary dagger should be made more obvious, even though this loses some of meaning of the idea. Macbeth’s reactions to the dagger show he is in a very unstable and volatile state of mind, and shows his inner turmoil and confusion about what he should do and what he wants to do. The fact that he is hallucinating in the first place shows he must be slightly delirious with the pressure of what he is about to do. At first he was alarmed by the dagger, however, as soon as he realises that the dagger is not real (‘Art thou a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat oppressed brain?’ (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 37-9)) he stops being alarmed by it, and as he follows it, he becomes fascinated with it, and more intense, so he describes it in great detail using plosives ‘And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood’ (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 46) to make it more vivid for the audience. The dagger symbolises the murder, and makes the deed seem more inevitable, because the dagger that leads Macbeth to Duncan’s door is bloody, so it is as if it is a projection of what Macbeth’s real dagger is going to look like after the murder. It also symbolises how Macbeth is being controlled by other forces, how he is being led to do things he doesn’t really want to do because he isn’t controlling the dagger, the dagger is ‘in charge’ of h im. Shakespeare uses the last half of Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act Two Scene One to build atmosphere and tension as he prepares himself for the murder, by using lots of imagery to help create the dark mood. For instance Macbeth says that ‘Nature seems dead’ (Line 50) which is a very dark idea, foreshadowing how after this scene nature will be turned on its head because Macbeth upset he natural order. Macbeth also talks about a recurring theme in the play; the idea of two sides of everything, the good and the bad, or the fake faà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ade hiding a worse side underneath (‘Now o’er the one half world’ (Line 49)) To darken the mood further, he talks about ‘wicked dreams abus[ing] the curtain’d sleep’ (Lines 50-1) which is what he is about to do: as he is trying to kill Duncan in his sleep, so he is being wicked and abusing the safety one should feel when they are asleep. Macbeth also mentions witchcraft, which shows he is thinking about and maybe being controlled by the witches still, saying ‘Witchcraft celebrates pale Hecate’s off’rings’ (Lines 51-2). It seems Macbeth tries to justify the murder by reducing his involvement. He does this by showing he is merely an instrument doing the deed by personifying murder, so that it is more murder who is to blame for the crime, rather than Macbeth: ‘Wither’d murder, alarum’d by his sentinel†¦with Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design, moves like a ghost’ (Act 2, Scene 1, Lines 52-6). Macbeth uses more and more intricate language, referring to Roman stories of the tyrant Tarquin who raped his friend’s wife to personify murder further, and long sentences as he expresses the strong external forces (e.g. ‘Murder’ and the witch-queen Hecate) that may be manipulating him to kill Duncan. However he starts to come back to himself and realise that he is still the one doing it after all, using shorter sentences as he comes to the end of his soliloquy. He thinks of more practical ideas, asking the Earth to ‘Hear not my steps, for fear thy very stones may prate of my whereabout’ (Act 2, Scene 1, Lines 57-8) but still using imagery that conjures up in our minds the idea that he is at least being helped by the Earth, or some other strong omnipotent being. Macbeth seems more resolute closer to the end of the soliloquy, saying ‘Whiles I threat he live; Words to the heat of deeds to cold breath gives’ (Act 2, Scene 1, Lines 60-61) The fact that these two lines rhyme give it definition and finality, as Shakespeare often uses rhyming couplets to signify the end of an important scene. In these lines Macbeth also shows how unwavering he is, by almost scorning himself for fretting about it too long, by saying ‘whiles I threat he lives’. After this the bell rings, to further signify Macbeth’s resolved and determined state of mind, which is backed up again by his saying immediately after ‘I go , and it is done.’ (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 62). The short sentence shows his feeling of inevitability. The very last two lines of the soliloquy are also a rhyming couplet, to end the scene neatly. They show Macbeth knows he will go through with the murder, because he says ‘The bell invites me’ (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 62) and then he says ‘Hear it not Duncan, for it is a knell, that summons thee to heaven or to hell.’ (Act 2, Scene 1, Line 63-4). The building up of tension and inevitability is shown very well in the Trevor Nunn version of Macbeth, where Ian McKellen portrays Macbeth preparing for the murder, making him seem absolutely resolute by rolling up a sleeve. This version also takes advantage of different lighting to increase tension; Macbeth is in darkness for most of the scene, stepping forward to the audience to engage them, and as he says ‘like a ghost’ he steps into an eerie bright light, which can be quite scary and unexpected, because it is as if he appeared out of nowhere. Shakespeare decided not to script or perform the actual murder of Duncan, because that way the audience is left to imagine the murder scene on their own and therefore make it as horrible as they could imagine. Shakespeare also misses out the murder to put more emphasis on Lady Macbeth at the beginning of the next scene and to remind the audience how closely she is involved in the murder. There is no gap in the drama because Scene Two follows on from the last in quick succession and the fact that we see Lady Macbeth, sustains the anxiety and tension because she is already associated in our minds with evil and bad deeds. This is because she spoke to the evil spirits in Act One Scene Five, as well as being instrumental in manipulating Macbeth and persuading him to kill Duncan in the first place. Before Macbeth returns, Lady Macbeth feels triumphant, powerful, and in control. She has done what she wanted, and got the better of men by manipulating them and making them do things for her benefit. She shows this by saying ‘that which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold; that which hath quenched them, hath given me fire’. (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 1-2) This also alerts the audience again to her association with evil, and the witches (from when she called upon evil spirits to ‘†¦fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty’ (Act 1, Scene 5, Line 41,42) because she is talking about opposites, and this is what the witches talked about when they were first introduced at the beginning of the play: ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’ (Act 1, Scene 1, Line 12) She uses eloquent language filled with imagery personifying death and nature around the drugged guards: ‘Death and Nature do contend about them, whether they live, or die’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 7-8) This fits in well with what her husband was saying just moments ago about murder as a real being, rather than an action or abstract noun, and shows well how Shakespeare ensures there is no break in tension between scenes, because they flow on so well from each other. She seems very fired up and quite jumpy because of her excitement, so when she hears an owl screech in the night, she exclaims ‘Hark!’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 2) then ‘Peace,’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 2) to calm herself, but the fact that she is talking to herself is one of the early signs of her going mad. However she is still ‘on a high’ from her excitement of the murder of Duncan being carried out, that she confidently speaks about the owl straight after her fright: ‘It was the owl that shreik’d, the fatal bellman which gives the stern’st good-night.’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 3-4) Here she is comparing the owl’s shriek to the night watchman who rings his bell outside the cells of prisoners condemned to death, in this case it is Duncan who is about to be killed. This comment about the owl is linked to her earlier speech before Duncan arrived at Macbeth’s castle, when she spoke of the raven, another bird linked with death: ‘The raven himself is hoarse, that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan’ (Act 1, Scene 5, Line 37-8). As Macbeth arrives she gets very anxious, saying she is ‘afraid they have awak’d, and ’tis not done; the’attempt and not the deed confounds us.’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Lines 9-11) In the Trevor Nunn stage version of Macbeth, Judi Dench, who plays Lady Macbeth, shows her excitement to an almost psychopathic degree, by talking very quickly and in a very high-pitched voice, which conveys the idea of drunkenness on power very well. During Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s initial exchange, they convey their own nervousness and create even more of a tense atmosphere by talking in short questions and answer to each other. Line 16 in this scene is shared between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and cuts back and forth between them twice: Lady Macbeth: ‘Did not you speak?’ Macbeth: When? Lady Macbeth: Now. Macbeth: As I descended?’ This creates the tense atmosphere because the actors have no choice but to throw these short sharp words back and forth very quickly. The next line is unusual as there is only one syllable in it, said by Lady Macbeth in answer to Macbeth’s question ‘As I descended?’. She says ‘Ay.’ (Line 20) and the rest of the line is finished by either silence, or a noise coming from the night. This is the only time Shakespeare has scripted in a gap or a pause, and he did this because the lack of speech after such a quick exchange would make the silence almost ‘deafening’ to the audience, as they anticipate what is going to happen next. After the brief pause, Macbeth starts the conversation again, when he says ‘Hark!’ (Line 21) which shows his awareness of either the silence or the noise from the night, and his jumpy nature because he exclaims after it. The next section of their exchange shows a sharp contrast between the two, as Macbeth starts to get almost hysterical, as he can’t process the horror of what he has just done, while Lady Macbeth gets frustrated with him as she struggles to keep control of the situation. Macbeth starts by looking at his bloody hands holding the daggers and saying ‘This is a sorry sight.’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 24) but straight away Lady Macbeth retorts ‘A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 25) which is almost scornful of him, as one might scold a child. However her efforts are soon to turn out futile, as Macbeth get so wrapped up in his own emotion that he barely seems to register she is there. This is shown well in the Nicol Williamson staging of Macbeth, where Lady Macbeth is trying to push Macbeth off the stage, but because Nicol is a very tall person it is obvious that Lady Macbeth has no chance of moving him. Macbeth himself begins to get hysterical as Lady Macbeth loses control of him. He starts to think of himself as a hangman (‘with these hangman’s hands’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 30)) and thinks he maybe a damned man, when he thinks he cannot say ‘Amen’ after someone calls out ‘God bless us!’: ‘One cried ‘God bless us!’†¦I could not say ‘Amen† (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 29, 31) The original audience would pick up on the fact he could not say Amen, which would increase the tension and fear because it shows him to be possessed by evil spirits. Macbeth refers to ‘the innocent sleep’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 39) which is a recurring theme throughout the play, he refers to himself in the third person saying ‘Macbeth does murder sleep’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 39) and then talks about his different roles ‘Glamis hath murder’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 45-6) This repetition of his different roles shows him slowly falling to pieces because of what he does, and also shows how much he is trying to find a way to make it not his fault and to dislocate himself from what he has just done, which brings him to be almost schizophrenic. However he also knows that his evil deed can leak into the reputation his other roles or identities and will ultimately destroy him. His talk about damnation and sleep is an example of foreshadowing, because after this time, neither Macbeth or Lady Macbeth will sleep properly again, and shall therefore be deprived of the ‘balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, chief nourisher in life’s feast’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 42-3). In the Trevor Nunn production of Macbeth, Macbeth is shown starting to be almost atavistic, by talking in a child-like manner, which brings out his vulnerability and guilt for killing Duncan. Tension is increased in the next part of the scene when Lady Macbeth shows her frustration with Macbeth because he is not listening to her. He is fraught with fear over what he has just done, and however much she tries to keep control over the situation he ignores her completely. She tries to take his mind off his rambling by trying one of her persuasion techniques, saying ‘Worthy thane, you do unbend your noble strength to think so brain-sickly of these things’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 47-9). Here she compliments him (‘worthy thane’) before telling him that he is losing his ‘noble strength’ by thinking about these ‘brain sickly’ things too much. She encourages to ‘Go get some water and wash this filthy witness from your hand’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 49-50) even though later on in the play we will find out that she realises that ‘a little water’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 70) does not clear them ‘of this deedâ €™. (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 70) However she changes her mind when she sees that Macbeth is still clutching the daggers he used to kill Duncan, and is therefore ruining the plan. She gets very angry and accuses him of being ‘Infirm of purpose!’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 55) and tells him the daggers ‘must lie there’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 52) But Macbeth refuses because he does not want to go back (‘I’ll go no more’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 53)) which means she must ‘get her hands dirty’ by going back and smearing blood over Duncan’s guards so it looks like they did the murder. Because of this, she is very annoyed with Macbeth as because of his incompetence she had to be involved, but she retains her strength telling him ‘my hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 67-8). As the scene comes to it’s dramatic climax, the contrasting attitudes and state of mind of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are shown and exaggerated further. Macbeth is very emotional and stressed, he seems to look at his hands as if they are someone else’s, saying ‘What hands are here? Ha: they pluck out mine eyes.’ (Act 2 Scene 2 Line 62) This shows how detached he is feeling from his own body, perhaps a instinctive result of the stress he has just gone through, his brain is trying to distance Macbeth from it. Macbeth uses very rich visual images to describe how he disagrees with Lady Macbeth’s notion that ‘A little water clears us of this deed’ (Act 2 Scene 2 Line 70) asking if ‘All Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red’. (Act 2 Scene 2 Lines 63-6) This conjures up a very vivid image in the audience’s mind’s of vast oceans turning red with blood from his hand, with words such as ‘multitudinous’ and ‘incarnadine’ adding to the image of excess, as they are almost onomatopoeic of the idea of vastness because the words themselves have many syllables. Then, this idea of enormous and excessive things is followed by a close-up image as Macbeth says ‘making the green one red’ (Act 2 Scene 2 Line 62) which focuses the image down into maybe a drop of blood making a small pool of green water red, because the words are monosyllabic and Macbeth uses the word ‘one’. The way Shakespeare has used short, simple words after the long, elaborate words increases the contrast from the big and the small. In contrast to Macbeth’s figurative contemplation, Lady Macbeth is not so deep in thought; her mind is still on the task in hand (quite literally) and if she is feeling any remorse or panic for what they have just done, she does not show any emotion at all in fact, apart from frustration for Macbeth because he is not being brave or strong like a man should be: ‘My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white’ (Act 2 Scene 2 Line 67-68). The knocking that comes towards the end of the scene succeeds in further racking up the tension. It instils a sense of urgency in the situation, that while Macbeth stands around, waiting for ‘occasion [to] call us and show us to be watchers’ (Act 2 Scene 2 Line 73-4), for the longer they wait there with the ‘filthy witness’ (Act 2 Scene 2 Line 50) on their hands, the more likely it is they are going to get caught red-handed. It is a harsh loud and repetitive noise that should bring Macbeth out of his inward turning thoughts, but as it does not it further shows how hard he is taking the stress. It brings out a bit of anxiousness in Lady Macbeth though, as she gets more and more tense as the knocking continues: ‘Hark! More knocking’ (Act 2 Scene 2 Line 72) Macbeth’s final words in this scene show his true emotion that he is feeling after the murder. He says ‘To know my deed, ’twere best not know myself’ (Act 2 Scene 2 Line 76) which seems as if he is asking for a kind of self-inflicted schizophrenia, so he doesn’t have to deal with the sorrow and regret he is feeling. But his very last line, ‘Wake Duncan with thy knocking; I would thou couldst.’ (Act 2, Scene 2, Line 77) shows his deep sadness, regret and sorrow for what he has done. In conclusion, the murder of King Duncan is dramatised by Shakespeare’s decision not to show the murder, instead shifting the focus onto the scenes preceding and following the offstage event, where suspense for the murder is built up in the audience’s minds using dark imagery, and emphasis is put on how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth begin to come to terms with what they have done and what lays ahead for them now they have committed this heinous crime.