Kite Runner Connections with Skrzynecki Essay Example for Free

Kite Runner Connections with Skrzynecki Essay The Kite Runner is set in Afghanistan, about a young boy named Amir who feels that he must win the kite tournament in order to redeem himself to his father. Because his mother died while giving birth to Amir he feels somehow responsible for his mother’s death. His servant is his best friend, Hassan, who runs the kite for him. Amir feels as though he is not acknowledged or accepted by his father, therefore not feeling a sense of belonging when Baba (father) shows his love toward Hassan. This motivates Amir to not do anything about Hassan’s rape which later leaves him with guilt. Those who do not belong may commit acts that are not within their desire in order to belong. For example, after Hassan was raped Amir lied to his father saying that Hassan stole his watch and money from him causing them to be kicked out of their house as servants. Amir’s thoughts were that once Hassan had left, Baba’s love would be pointed toward him only, hence giving him a deeper sense of belonging to his father. Hassan on the other hand felt as though he belonged to the Afghan home of Baba and Amir even as a servant as he is treated with the same respect as the members of the family. However being Hazara’s, a minority ethnic group, Hassan would not have felt a sense of belonging on the macro scale for the reason that his rape was motivated due to the ethnic group he is from i.e. the minority in Afghanistan who are continuously discriminated against. After the Soviets invaded Afghanistan the country became a war-zone causing Amir and Baba to flee the country leaving all the memories and reminiscences in their country. Connections are shown with several of Skrzynecki’s poems, for example, St Patricks College. In St Patricks College it is signified that the poet has been at his school â€Å"for eight years† however he has still formed no sense of belonging. This connects with the relationship that Amir has with his father, Baba. Baba has raised Amir on his own for almost a decade however Amir feels as though Baba does not love him causing him to feel an insignificant amount of belonging.

Freudian and Jungian Literary Analysis: Under Milk Wood

Freudian and Jungian Literary Analysis: Under Milk Wood Exploration of dreams, symbols and archetypes in Dylan Thomas play for voices Under Milk Wood This paper seeks to assert that Dylan Thomas play Under Milk Wood can be successfully viewed using Freudian and Jungian psychoanalytic techniques. It will attempt to not only isolate and highlight many instances of typical psychical symbolism in the work but also what could be thought of as psychoanalytic mechanisms; especially as they relate to Freuds notions of the Dreamwork in his The Interpretation of Dreams (1997) or Jungs archetypes and collective unconscious. By doing this I hope to not only subject Thomas work to a rigorous psychoanalytical exegesis, uncovering hidden personal symbols, structures and images, but also highlight the psychosocial depth of Under Milk Wood; a depth that has hitherto been overlooked by some critics. Through this I hope to assess the notion that Thomas was every bit as influenced by Freud and Jung as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf were a generation before. I will begin, in my Introduction, to give an outline of the importance of Freud and psychoanalysis to post-World War One literature and what Dylan Thomas place within that was; paying particular attention to Thomas own assertions on the importance of psychoanalysis in his work and the ways that it was greeted by the literati of the 1930s and 40s. The first chapter will be dedicated to a discussion of Under Milk Wood and its creation, looking at such areas as plot construction, the structural nature of the piece and its creative aetiology. From here I will go on to discuss the notion of the Freudian dreamwork and its manifestations in Under Milk Wood. The dreamwork, exemplified by such concepts as condensation, displacement and secondary revision, is a central concept in the Freudian cannon and, as such, has become an important interpretive tool for both psychoanalysts and literary critics. It is with this in mind that I shall attempt to isolate instances of all four of the major mechanisms of the dreamwork in Thomas play whilst relating them to the wider issues of poetic creativity and narrative structure. I will also offer a brief discussion of how Jungs interpretation of dreams differed from Freuds before going on to examine how both can be used to inform us of Thomas play. The third chapter will be dedicated to Jungian archetypes. I will isolate and discuss the many instances of archetypal imagery in the play, paying special attention to the way in which they fit in with Thomas over all poetic sense as it is displayed in his use of language, narrative and plot. This chapter will also examine the role of the collective unconscious and relate it to the Modernist technique of the stream of consciousness novel and the works of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. My conclusion will attempt to answer the main hypothesis of this paper, that indeed psychoanalytic techniques and knowledge can be used to understand Dylan Thomass play and also what that says about the playwrights role as a modern day bard. Introduction: â€Å"The Analytic Revelation† Thomas Manns paper â€Å"The Significance of Freud† published in 1936 gives us some indications as to the importance of early psychoanalysis on the literary life of Europe and America: â€Å"The analytic revelation is a revolutionary force. With it a blithe scepticism has come into the world, a mistrust that unmasks all the schemes and subterfuges of our own souls. Once roused and on alert, it cannot be put to sleep again. It infiltrates life, undermines its raw naà ¯vetà ©, takes from it the strain of its own ignorance†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Mann, 1965: 591) As Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane assert in their study Modernism: A Guide to European Literature 1890-1930 (1991), this â€Å"revolutionary force† was a large constituent of early twentieth century notions of, not only Modernism in literature and the arts but also, what it meant to be a modern man or woman. The early Modernist writers of the inter-war period not only embraced Freud and psychoanalysis as heralding a new paradigm of self-sufficiency and ontological autonomy but also, as a journal entry by Andre Gide exposes, thought themselves part of an existing groundswell of thought that was, above all, quintessentially new: â€Å"Freud†¦Freudianism†¦For the last ten years, or fifteen, I have been indulging in it without knowing.† (Gide, 1967: 349) The connection between psychoanalysis and literature has always been problematic. Freud, himself asserts in the opening paragraphs to his essay â€Å"The Uncanny† (2005) that â€Å"only rarely (does) a psycho-analyst (feel) impelled to investigate the subject of aesthetics† (Freud, 2000: 1), however writers, critics and even Freud himself have made extensive use of the interpretive similarities between the two disciplines . Not only are there are a whole host of studies devoted to the use of psychoanalysis in literary criticism but in the Introduction to his novel The White Hotel (1999), D.M. Thomas draws attention to the extraordinarily literary quality of Fr euds case studies; each containing many of the tropes and leitmotifs one would normally associate with a creative work. For Freud, the psychical mechanisms of creative writing and dreaming are in, some senses at least, inextricably linked. Both are based in a tripartite system of ideational fantasy formation consisting of: a current situational issue or concern that provokes the memory of a childhood incident or trauma which, in turn, shapes some future action in the guise of a wish fulfilment. Freud sets out the relationship between this system and literature in his essay â€Å"Creative Writers and Day Dreaming† (Freud, 1986): â€Å"We are perfectly aware that very many imaginative writings are far removed from the model of the naà ¯ve daydream; and yet I cannot suppress the suspicions that even the most extreme deviations from that model could be linked with it through an uninterrupted series of transitional cases.† (Freud, 1986: 150) Freud continues to explain the disparity between the mind of the creative writer and the ordinary day-dreamer, asserting that whereas the latter results in a self-conscious repression of desire (the wishes of the day-dreamer being best left unspoken) the former revels in and promulgates such desire, translated as it is by artistic skill and temperament: â€Å"The writer softens the character of his egoistic day-dreams by altering and disguising it, and he bribes us by the purely formal – that is aesthetic – yield of pleasure which he offers us in the presentation of his phantasies.† (Freud, 1986: 153) This essay, perhaps more than any other work of Freuds, highlights for us the attraction of psychoanalysis to early twentieth century writers. Metaphysically and spiritually sceptical after the mass slaughter of the First World War and the alienation engendered by rise of the industrial paradigm, Freudian theory offered (as testified by Manns essay) a distinctly human, non-metaphysical and wholly scientific explanation for the place of the artist within society. For Freud, the artist was distinct from the rest of the populous but this had a purely psychical aetiology, leaving no imperative for notions of religious or supra-human inspiration. This is undoubtedly some of the attraction of Freudianism for Dylan Thomas who, throughout his letters and early work makes both use and reference to writers and critics that were, themselves, heavily influenced by Freud and psychoanalysis. Francis Scarfe, in the essay â€Å"Dylan Thomas: A Pioneer† (1960) cites Freud as a major influence on the formation of Thomas early poetic voice, derived in the main from his experiences with what Scarfe calls â€Å"Sitwellism† (Scarfe, 1960: 96): â€Å"The dominant points of contact seems to be James Joyce, the Bible and Freud. The personal habits of language and mythology of Dylan Thomas can readily be identified through these three sources.† (Scarfe, 1960: 96) If Joyce lent the young poet some of the lyricism and sense of narrative and the Bible some of the rich cadence and verbal poetics, Freud enabled Thomas to look within his own unconscious and find images and leitmotifs that would find resonance with the rest of humanity as, firstly, personal then increasingly Bardic and archetypal symbols formed the basis of his work. An early poem of Thomas clearly mirrors the hyperbole of Freuds first lectures on psychoanalysis; the poet and the analyst both evoking the image of the journey into an unknown by an antonymous but courageous individual: â€Å"The midnight road, though young man tread unknowking. Harbouring some thought of heaven, or haven hoping. Yields peace and plenty at the end. â€Å" (Thomas, 1990: 119) We can compare this to Freuds famous analogy that is evoked throughout his work: â€Å"The interpretation of dreams is in fact the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious; it is the securest foundation of psycho-analysis and the field in which evey worker must acquire his convictions and seek his training. If I am asked how one can become a psycho-analyst, I reply: â€Å"By studying ones own dreams†Ã¢â‚¬  (Freud, 1957: 60) Interestingly, Thomas himself was reluctant to acknowledge his debt to Freud, choosing instead to suggest a notion that we have already posited here; that Freuds influence is paradigmatic. He says in the collection of interviews â€Å"Notes on the Art of Poetry† (1963) that his writing is influenced by Freud only through the work others , itself a testament to the extent that Freudian theory and, indeed, the whole of psychoanalytic thought has permeated the very fabric of modern literature. Thomas notebooks poems, his earliest poetic statements, are suffused with what we shall see are Freudian images, inspired perhaps not by psychoanalysis itself but by the poets interest in Surrealism and their early antecedents the 18th century Metaphysical poets. Works such as: â€Å"Where once the waters of your face Spun to my screws, your dry ghost blows, The dead turns up its eye†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Thomas, 1990: 217) And â€Å"In wasting one drop from the hearts honey cells. One precious drop that, for the moment, quells Desires pain†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Thomas, 1990: 133) Clearly reflect the artistic tenants set out in Bretons Manifestoes of Surrealism (1972) that sought to combine Freudian concepts of the dreamwork with aesthetic creation . As we shall see in the first chapter of this paper, this delight in the surreal as it relates to the Freudian image remained with Thomas throughout all of his working life and, most certainly, manifests itself in Under Milk Wood. The analytic revelations then, of Freud , have not only influenced those writers such as Breton, Auden and Woolf who are were intimately acquainted with his writing but also writers like Dylan Thomas who, by his own admission, came to psychoanalysis through other creative writers works. This paper, like many others, uses psychoanalytic theory as a methodology with which to uncover latent symbols, patterns and structures within Thomas work. It will not only relate such symbols to the poets own poetic vision but will, through Jungian theory, expand these so that they encompass universal archetypes and concepts such as the collective unconscious that structures the unconscious and, inevitably finds its way into works of a creative nature . Chapter One: â€Å"To Begin at the Beginning† Dylan Thomas play for voices Under Milk Wood began life as a small radio broadcast Quiet Early One Morning (Sinclair, 1975, Jones, 1963) and this short piece is easily recognisable as the genesis for the larger work. There are, for instance, many of the same basic characters – the milkman â€Å"still lost in the clangour and music of Welsh-spoken dreams† (Thomas, 1992), the sea captain, the lonely lady â€Å"Miss May Hughes† and even the tragic-comic Mrs Ogmore Pritchard. There is the same sense of poetic cadence that constantly adds to the somatic quality of the writing, lulling the reader into a musical trance as sibilance and assonance is combined with Thomas particular inner rhythms, such as in this extract: â€Å"The sun lit the sea-town, not as a whole, from topmost down reproving zinc-roofed chapel to empty-but-for-rats-and-whispers grey warehouse on the harbour, but in separate bright pieces.† (Thomas, 1978: 15) The story, recited by Thomas himself in 1944 on the BBC, describes the still sleeping town of New Quay in Cardiganshire (Maud, 1992) and weaves external description with internal monologue as the narrator flits in and out of the dreaming consciousnesses of the towns inhabitants. In the story, each paragraph brings a new image or a new perspective but what we are ultimately presented with is the stream of consciousness of the narrator; in the story, unlike in Under Milk Wood, an impersonal but altogether discernable â€Å"I†: â€Å"Quite early one morning in the winter in Wales, by the sea that was lying down still and green as grass after a night of tar-black howling and rolling, I went out of the house, where I had come to stay for a cold unseasonable holiday†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Thomas, 1978: 15) It is this point, this appearance of the personal pronoun that, as we shall see, makes Quite Early One Morning markedly different to Under Milk Wood. Thomas, however, retains the sense of dreamy absurdity, as images are juxtaposed for comic effect amid the repeated refrain of â€Å"The town was not yet awake†. Under Milk Wood grew out of this humble beginning and is both markedly similar and surprisingly different . Both works reflect, as Derek Stanford (1954) suggests, the cadences, characterisation and plot construction of Joyces Ulysses (1979), being as they are the collective narratives of a whole town in the same time period. Both works, however, are also embryonic, Quite Early One Morning obviously being a blueprint for Under Milk Wood but this also being merely a fragmentary snapshot of a larger planned work that was never finished (Jones, 1986: ix). Under Milk Wood also resembles the cyclical structure of Joyces other great work Finnegans Wake (1992). Thomas play abounds with references to beginnings and commencements; we have, for instance, the famous first lines: â€Å"To begin at the beginning: It is Spring, moonless night in the small town, starless And bible-black†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Thomas, 2000: 1) That not only evokes the biblical â€Å"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth† (Gen, 1:1) but also the creational sense of Joyces reference to the beginnings of mankind in the opening lines of his novel: â€Å"riverrun, past Eve and Adams, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth castle and Environs.† (Joyce, 1992: 3) In Under Milk Wood, the cyclical nature of the day is metonymous with the seasonal nature of the year and this with the life of a human being as Thomas juxtaposes images of beginnings, babies and births with ageing, infirmity and death; as in this passage: â€Å"All over town, babies and old men are cleaned and put into their broken prams and wheeled on to the sunlit cockled cobbles or out into the backyards under the dancing underclothes, and left. A baby cries.† (Thomas, 2000: 27) As we shall see, this notion of the circle, of repeating is important to both Freud and Jung; Freud through his insistence on the importance of the return in notions such as repression and the death drive and Jung, through his concept of the mandala as a recurring symbol. Like Joyce, Thomas displays circles within circles, as the plot and structure of the work as a whole mirrors the framework of the characters lives and psyches. We see this reflected in many of the plays most successful characters, witness for instance the constant iteration of Mrs Ogmore Pritchard, as she repeats her life over and over again with different husbands, only to have them revisit her after their deaths: â€Å"Mr Ogmore, linoleum, retired, and Mr Pritchard, failed bookmaker, who maddened by besoming, swabbing and scrubbing, the voice of the vacuum cleaner and the fume of the polish, ironically swallowed disinfectant, fidgets in her rinsed sleep, wakes in a dream and nudges in the ribs dead Mr Ogmore, dead Mr Pritchard, ghostly on either side.† (Thomas, 2000: 10) The same can be said, of course, for Captain Cat, whose dreams and waking life are characterised not by the dead per se, but by their return as he witnesses the phantasmatic manifestations of either his repression or the collective unconscious (whether one is citing Freud or Jung). The sense, in Under Milk Wood, is that of a blithe acceptance of the passing of time and the knowledge that things return; the sunrise, the Spring and the dead. This is reflected in many of Thomas poems, for instance in the closing lines of â€Å"I See the Boys of Summer†: â€Å"I am the man your father was. We are the sons of flint and pitch. Oh see the poles are kissing as they cross!† (Thomas, 1990: 219) In this, also, as Karl Jay Shapiro asserts in his study In Defense of Ignorance (1960), Thomas work clearly reflects what was a seminal poem for the young poets generation W.B. Yeats â€Å"The Second Coming† (1987) which contains images of both beginnings and circles within circles. In the next chapter I will look at how these aspects of Under Milk Wood can be interpreted through the psychoanalytical work of Freud and Jung, paying attention specifically to their concepts of dreams and dreaming; again another leitmotif of Thomas play that can be seen to come from Joyces Finnegans Wake. Chapter Two: The Dreamwork, the Symbol and Captain Cat Freud On Dreams As Richard Wollheim suggests, Freuds theories on dreams are the â€Å"most remarkable single element† (Wollheim, 1971: 66) of his psychoanalytical project and Freud himself in his essay â€Å"On Dreams† (1991) stresses the primacy of dream interpretation in his system: â€Å"The transformation of the latent dream-thoughts into the manifest dream-content deserves all out attention, since it is the first instance known to us of psychical material being changed over from one mode of expression to another.† (Freud, 1991: 89) For Freud, dreams serve as symptoms of unconscious repression in the same way as parapraxes (slips of the tongue) and instances of forgetfulness. The content of dreams can, he said, be split into the latent and the manifest; the one providing a shield for the other as the Unconscious gives up its fissures and problems that have been repressed by the Ego during waking hours. Freuds work The Interpretation of Dreams attempts to provide a full scale, largely scientific study of not merely the symbolism of dreams but also their mechanism; a mechanism that he termed the ‘dreamwork. The dreamwork can be thought of as a process (Wollheim, 1971) that transcribes the latent content of dreams into the language of the manifest. Freud is clear in The Interpretation of Dreams that psychoanalysis does not deal with the simple ‘translation of images or primitive notions of symbol exchange that sees dreams as merely scripts that can be easily interpreted using a universal dictionary, although he does acquiesce to the point that some symbols recur on a universal level. Instead, Freud sees dreams as the return of repressed desires and their attendant wishes that find a voice in the psychical economy through a process of disguise. The desire, as Richard Stevens (1983) suggests, â€Å"will be fused with experiences and thoughts from the previous day or even events occurring during the course of the night† (Stevens, 1983: 30). The dreamwork, in the Freudian system, is both the mechanism of disguise and the tool of interpretation because it contains an internal logic that can be used by the analyst to trace the source of repression and, through the process of transference, brought into the conscious and rendered harmless (Freud, 1997). Perhaps the most important concept within The Interpretation of Dreams is the four-fold dreamwork mechanism that can be used, not only in dream interpretation but as we shall see, in the critical appreciation of literature. Freud termed these mechanisms condensation, displacement, representation and secondary revision and before I go to look at how each one fits into Under Milk Wood specifically I would like to, briefly, offer up an explanation as to how each effects the manifest dream-content and ergo the literary image or trope. Condensation This is, perhaps, the most common dream feature and is what gives dreams their sparse, confusing quality. For Freud, dream-thoughts are many and varied, each bombarding the dreamwork simultaneously: â€Å"The dream is meagre, paltry and laconic in comparison with the range and copiousness of the dream-thoughts. The dream, when written down fills half a page; the analysis, which contains the dream-thoughts requires six, eight, twelve times as much space.† (Freud, 1997: 170) Condensation manifests itself as images laden with meaning, as the unconscious overlays and condenses two or more dream-thoughts into one motif. Part of the skill of the analyst according to Freud is the extent that such condensation can be unravelled and successive layers of unconscious meaning and repression peeled back and revealed (Freud, 1965: 313). Whereas Freud was dubious as to the possibility of ever reaching a definitive dream interpretation because of the very nature of condensation, he also asserted that the ways in which dream-thoughts are condensed gives the analyst a clue as to their psychical meaning. Freud cites his own dream of the Botanical Monograph as an example of the way in which different dream-thoughts can be condensed into one dream-image; the latent meaning only becoming apparent when this relationship is exposed . Displacement Displacement refers to the substituting of elements within dreams. Due to the nature of the unconscious, elements and images that have a similar psychical economy invariably end up being displaced, one for the other. In The Interpretation of Dreams Freud characterises displacement as constituting a de-centring of the dream-thoughts: â€Å"We may have noticed that these elements which obtrude themselves in the dream-content as its essential components do not by any means play this same part in the dream-thoughts.† ( Freud, 1997: 190) Displacement, like condensation, arises from the synchronous nature of the unconscious and manifests itself in two ways; firstly, through the substituting of dream-thoughts, so that dreams can appear absurd and illogical and, secondly through shifting meanings – an image may possess one meaning in one nights dream and another on a different night. Melanie Klein, for instance, in her essay â€Å"Psychological Principles of Early Analysis† (1991) offers us some interesting insights into how displacement works in something other than the dream; the child at play. â€Å"My analyses again and again reveal how many different things, dolls for example, can mean in play. Sometimes they stand for the penis, sometimes for the child stolen from the mother, sometimes for the little patient itself etc.† (Klein, 1991: 134) Both condensation and displacement have been used as the basis for theories of Surrealist aesthetics, as Carrouges and Prendergast assert in their study Andre Breton and the Basic Concepts of Surrealism (1974: 192) which uses seemingly disparate images juxtaposed in order to create an illogical, dream-like tableaux. Representation Representation refers to the dreamworks tendency to present feelings, repressions and notions as images and symbols. Unlike many pre-Freudian systems of dream interpretation such symbolisation is centred, to a very large extent, around the dreamers own personal history and psychology. However as I have already stated there are, due to the inter-subjective nature of the psyche, recurring symbols and motifs that can be found in a great many peoples dreams. Richard Stevens in his Freud and Psychoanalysis (1983) mentions just a few of them: â€Å"small boxes, chests, cupboards and ovens correspond to the female organ; also cavities, ships and all kinds of vessels. The actions of climbing ladders, stairs, inclines or flying may be used to symbolise sexual intercourse; having a haircut, tooth pulled or being beheaded, castration.† (Stevens, 1983: 33) Secondary Revision Secondary revision refers to the mental processes that occur after the dreamer awakes and that organises and places the otherwise absurd and disparate images and themes into a, relatively, cohesive narrative. Wollheim points to there being doubt in Freuds later work as to the place of secondary revision within the dreamwork (Wollhein, 1971: 69) but, as a concept, it has been important in many neo-Freudian systems of aesthetics especially, as Charles Altman points out in his essay â€Å"Psychoanalysis and Cinema† (1986: 526), by the French school of film critics who saw it as, not so much an integral part of the dreamwork, but as the main constituent in narrative formation and the audience/film dialectic. Jung On Dreams Dreams play as important a role in the work of Carl Jung as Sigmund Freud (Fordham, 1964) however the former not only sees their place in the psychical economy differently but has, as he explains in Man and his Symbols (1964), created an entirely separate process of interpretation and translation. Jung disagreed with Freuds notion of the dreamwork and his method of free association whereby the analysand recalls a dream and lets their mind wander through the myriad of different unconscious connections only to be unravelled and assessed by the analyst. For Jung, this process is likely to uncover neuroses and repression but is unlikely to uncover them connected with the dream. For Jung, the further away from the central motifs of the dream-image one gets the further away one travels from the locus of their meaning. Therefore, under a Jungian system, dreams consist not of personal motifs of repression returning through the dreamwork but as expressions of either the personal or collective unconscious. The method of extracting the meaning from dreams is centred around the correct reading of such symbols and an evaluation of how they relate to either the dreamers personal or their phyllogenetic background, as Jung himself asserts: â€Å"Dreams are impartial, spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche, outside the control of the will. They are pure nature, they show us unvarnished, natural truth, and are therefore fitted, as nothing else is, to give us back an attitude that accords with our basic human nature.† (Jung, 1989: 55) Jung viewed the waking, conscious perceptions as having a penumbra of associated psychical meanings (Jung, 1964: 28), even the very simplest of actions, for instance seeing or hearing, can involve a gamut of other ideational and experiential relations and it is this that we witness in dreams; the whole of our unconscious unfettered by the ordering, the siphoning and the categorisation of the conscious mind. For Jung, then, the absurd quality of dreams, their surreal nature comes not from intervention of the dreamwork but from the cultural and personal associations attached to perceptions and experiences. Thomas On Dreams Both Freuds and Jungs systems of dream interpretation offer us important critical tools with which to view Dylan Thomas Under Milk Wood both in terms of the images and symbols the playwright uses in order to convey the sense of the somatic and the dream-like and his use of surrealism as a semi-comic trope throughout the piece. The play begins in the collective dream of the town. Just like the short story Quite Early One Morning, the audience is taken on a journey through the consciousnesses of the sleeping townsfolk as they dream their separate dreams, shaped (as both Freud and Jung assert) by their individual consciousnesses and personalities. Captain Cat, for example, experiences the return of the repressed guilt he feels towards his long dead shipmates: â€Å"Captain Cat, the retired blind sea-captain, asleep in his bunk in the seashelled, ship-in-bottled, shipshape best cabin of Schooner House dreams of Second Voice: never such seas as any that swamped the decks of the S.S. Kidwelly bellying over bedclothes and jellyfish-slippery sucking him down salt deep into the Davy dark† (Thomas, 2000: 2) Thomas, here, reflects both Freudian and Jungian dream analysis as Captain Cats dreams abound with symbols of his past and are unmistakably suffuse with the characters own visual lexicon, what Jung calls the â€Å"dream language† (Jung, 1986: 33). The same can be said of Dai Bread who dreams of â€Å"harems†, Polly Garter who dreams of â€Å"babies† and even Nogood Boyo who dreams of â€Å"nothing†. However, within the very text of Under Milk Wood we notice each one of the four elements of the Freudian dreamwork. The dense language is a clear instance of condensation: the vital elements of the imagistic leitmotifs are extracted and pile one on top of another, as adjective combines with adjective to form the quintessentially Thomasian poetics, such as here where the playwright draws a finely tuned portrait of Mrs Dai Bread One, the wife of the baker: â€Å"Me, Mrs Dai Bread One, capped and shawled and no old corset, nice to be comfy, nice to be nice, clogging on the cobbles to stir up a neighbour. Oh, Mrs Sarah, can you spare a loaf, love? Dai Bread forgot the bread. Theres a lovely morning! Hows your boils this morning?† (Thomas, 2000: 22) Thomas both describes the sense of a dream here and, through condensation, utilizes its mechanism. Words and phrases are juxtaposed and their meaning condensed in a way that mirrors almost exactly the workings of Freuds dreamwork. We see this reflected many times throughout the narrative of Under Milk Wood, as the author evokes in a linguistic sense what Freud saw in a psychoanalytic sense. We see, for example a clear literary rendering of displacement in the absurd portrait of Cherry Owen as described by the Second Voice: â€Å"Cherry Owen, next door, lifts a tankard to his lips but nothing flows out of it. He shakes the tankard. It turns into a fish. He drinks the fish.† (Thomas, 2000: 13) Here the incongruous image of a fish replaces or displaces the tankard that Cherry Owen drinks from adding to the dreamy quality of the early passages of the play. As a cultural symbol, the fish also mirrors the third of the Freudian mechanisms, representation, whereby a linguistic notion â€Å"He drinks like a fish† is rendered in a quasi-comic symbolic form. Of course, the ultimate use of dreams and dreaming in Under Milk Wood is the plot itself. Both Freud and Jung rely heavily on the concept of the return within their respective dream philosophies (Stevens, 1983; Fordham, 1964) and this is reflected in the very structure of the play that could, after all, be thought of as merely the manifest dream-content of the First Voice, or perhaps even Thomas himself. Like a dream, the text iterates, as we shall see in the next chapter, the same basic images and archetypes; the symbols are at once full of meaning in themselves and signifiers for other things. The First Voice can be seen as the voice of God but also of secondary revision, knitting disparate elements together to form a narrative that can be followed and engaged with. As the characters awake, their lives, as they are described by the First and Second voice, are shown to be no less absurd than the irrationality of their dreams. This is perhaps because the entire play can itself be seen as a dream of the authors in which he creates, as he states in a letter to A.G. Prys Jones, â€Å"a never-never Wales† (Thomas, 1985: 848) that, like its Peter Pan counterpart, is as much a manifest wish of its author as anything else. Chapter Three: The Shadow, T Kelloggs Business Strategy: Success Factors and Barriers Kelloggs Business Strategy: Success Factors and Barriers Introduction: The importance of customers and their value plays a major role and cannot be neglected by the companies in todays business world. The implementation of different new strategies and marketing plans will not help if the companies do not pay attention to the customers. Any companys marketing plan agenda should and will always include customers. Customer focus and retention is a powerful strategic advantage that helps to increase the profitability of the company and to survive in the high competitive environment. The different consumers across the world might lead to varying consumer behaviours which result in identifying varying concepts by decision making units to sell the products. In a company like Kelloggs the purchasing process is dependant on consumer behaviour. The buying pattern of the consumers has an influence on directly related phenomena as well as post marketing phenomena. Kelloggs has seen a downfall in sales in the past decade and still continues to see. There is a huge discussion in the EU market about the food nutrition and labelling and the negative media image produced about the products of the company. The Kelloggs products are criticised by food standard agency (FSA) as red products and junk food. They said that the company is trying to show their products healthier than they actually are. These statements and actions of FSA has not only affected the overall business and its image but also the consumer attitude towards the products. This report talks about how Kelloggs can resolve the issue by using marketing research and customer focused strategy. Company Profile: Kelloggs is the worlds largest cereal maker since 1906 and is located in the United States. Kelloggs products has become a part of the delicious mornings for the people around the world since a century. Its business is operated in two segments: Kelloggs North America and Kelloggs International. 66% of the revenue to the company comes from North America region which consists of the Canada and the United States. The remaining 34% comes from the Kelloggs international market which consists of Europe (20%), Latin America (8%) and Asia Pacific (6%). The products vary from ready-to-eat cereals to convenience foods such as cereal bars, cookies, toaster pastries, crackers, frozen waffles, snacks and veggie foods. Obesity and Health Wellness is the primary concern for people in the world today. Kelloggs has invested on this trend by introducing many health focused products like Kelloggs ®, Pop-Tarts ®, Cheez-It ®, Mini-Wheats ®, Nutri-Grain ®, Rice Krispies ®, Keebler ®, Specia l K ®, Chips Deluxe ®, Famous Amos ®, Morningstar Farm ®, Sandies ®, Eggo ®, Austin ®, Club ®, Murray ®, Kashi ®, Bear Naked ®, Gardenburger ®,All-Bran ®,and Stretch Island ®. The demand for its products came from the continuous advertising since 1906. The main competitors are General foods, Quaker Oats, General Mills and Ralston-Purina. It started out in Battle Creek, Michigan with 44 employees which eventually has grown into a multinational company with 30,000 employees. The manufacturing of its products is taking place in 18 countries and selling them over 180 countries successfully with the implementation of intelligent strategies and leadership. Key Success Factors: The main key factors for Kelloggs Success are it perceived to have a healthy image when compared to other daily breakfasts and snacks like chocolates and crisps. They made the products convenient enough so that they can be carried anywhere easily. They offer a range of cereal bars which are quite useful for people on the morning rush. Few Kelloggs products are really versatile as moms can give them as a snack between breakfast and lunch to their kids. Sodium content in the food is a major issue that the company has to deal with. Kelloggs are trying to develop products with less salt content and including more amount of fruits in the bars and cereals for people with health concerns. They have created a high level of brand awareness in the people which allowed them to win the customer loyalty. They have designed various products since a century for all age groups from childrens to adults. Innovation has influenced Kelloggs market to a greater extent. Introducing new products according to the changing markets and tastes of people from time to time has made Kelloggs to win the customers. They offered the products at a lower price which made an average household to afford, hence retaining the customers at large. Kelloggs market its products itself. It do not manufacture cereals for any other company who sells them under their own brand. All these factors added for the company to run successfully and become the world market leaders in the highly competitive market. Strategy: Kelloggs aim was to be the food company of choice and also make customers understand the importance of a balanced lifestyle which can be achieved by their products. The mission is to drive sustainable growth through the power of the people and brands by better serving the needs of customers, consumers and communities. Based on their vision and mission they crafted their strategy to achieve aims and objectives with the power of position and brand image. Kelloggs targeted various groups of people and deigned the products accordingly to attract their mind sets. Balanced Lifestyle is the broad strategic objective of the company. It implemented these strategies by some tactical plans like supporting the physical activity among all age groups and to sponsor these activities with the use of companies resources, the communication of the balance diet to consumers using the cereal packs, and also introduction of food labelling which would allow consumers to understand the balanced diet content of their products. Kelloggs has introduced the recommended Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) to their packaging labels. This allowed the customer to have a knowledge of the amount of nutrients in take in a serving of Kelloggs food. Their strategy is to attract customers by encouraging them to take part in the swimming programs organised by the company in relationship with the Amateur Swimming association (ASA). Kelloggs has sponsored almost 1.8 million awards every year to the swimmers. This idea of teaming up with ASA has helped the company to reinforce its brand image. It also has started many community programs and breakfast clubs to create awareness of their products in people. By all these activities it shows that the company is trying to create a good CSR image in the industry. Kelloggs believed that if consumers are given proper information about their products, they can retain them. So, they chose various methods to communicate their objectives to the world such as using cartoo n characters, and also through effective advertising. It also distributed nutrition magazines for the employees to make them better understand about the objectives. Solution: In a major business study about Kelloggs, it is seen that their consumers buying behaviour is mostly dependant on the companys focus towards customers and how well they treat them rather than manufacturing, pricing or merchandising of the products. Consumers tend to purchase the products which are more healthy. Hence they want to know all the available information about the products they want to buy or consume. The products information, beliefs, intentions and attitudes of the customers influence the decision process. So Kelloggs has to perform a market research on whether the consumers buy their products based on the label information or not. The visual inspection of the product or the experience of purchasing the product play a major role in the decision making of the consumer. Advertising and promotion of the product might as well have a greater impact on the buying pattern. It is difficult enough to understand the consumer behaviour within the borders of a single country. Underst anding and serving the needs of consumers from different countries can be daunting. The values, behaviours and attitudes of the consumers vary greatly across the world. Kelloggs must design the marketing programs and products according to the peoples needs. For example, in the United Kingdom where most people eat cereal regularly for their breakfast, Kelloggs should try persuading consumers to buy their brand rather than a competitors brand. In France, however where most people prefer croissants and coffee or no breakfast at all, it should advertise to convince people to eat cereal for breakfast and in India, where many consumers eat heavy fried breakfasts and skip meal all together, the company should make attempts to convince the buyers to shift to a lighter, more nutritious breakfast diet. To cover up the damage caused due to the labelling issue by FSA, Kelloggs Should determine the customers needs and convert them into requirements. In order to fulfil them, it should fully understand the current and future needs of the customers, identify the customers, determine their key product characteristics, identify and assess market competition, identify opportunities and weakness, define financial and future competitive advantages, ensure that it has sufficient knowledge about the regulatory requirements, identify the benefits to be achieved from exceeding compliance and also identify their role in the protection of community interests. Kelloggs can start launching some new products aimed at the health conscious consumers. They can start selling them for a lowest price in the market and satisfy them with a good value products for every penny they spend. They can concentrate more on three groups of people like individuals, families and supermarkets who wanted to have a healthy diet. They can focus more on health conscious people from age group from 25-50 by promising them healthy diet with their products. By the introduction of these products in the market they can show the customers that Kelloggs is being paid attention to what they want and how important their health is to the company. They can start collecting information from consumers and people by conducting surveys about what kind of products they are actually looking for and based on that they can prepare them and position them to win the competitive advantage. So the only mantra to attract the customers again and to cover up the loss created by FSA is obsessive customer attention. Even though making health conscious customers happy might affect the short term profits, yet it helps to acquire a loyal customer base which pays off in the future. Making these products available at all consumer stores and super markets at a lower retail price might assist in building up the brand image yet again. Adv ertisements play a crucial role in winning the brand image and loyalty of the customers. If the company tries to create an awareness about the product and the low price buying strategy, it would encourage the consumers to buy them that results in the greater sales of the product. Potential advantages by focusing on customers: Awareness of changing dynamics of the consumer market will definitely help Kelloggs to gain a competitive edge in the cereal industry. The increasing trend of health consciousness and the changing tastes can be known time to time by extensive market research. The feed back from consumers and the surveys conducted will allow the company to learn about their drawbacks and work up on them. It enables the business to minimize price sensitivity, improve profitability, differentiate itself from the competition, improve its image in the eyes of customer, achieve a maximum number of advocates for the company, increases customer satisfaction and retention, enhance its reputation, improve staff morale, ensure products and services are delivered right first time, increase employee satisfaction and retention, encourage employee participation, increase productivity and reduce costs, create a reputation for being caring customer-oriented company, foster internal customer / supply relationships and also bring about continuous improvements to the operation of the company. Barriers to overcome: For Kelloggs to win back its brand and image customer loyalty and becoming customer focused organisation there are some barriers to overcome Internal Focus: Rather than focusing on improving the output measures like revenue, cost and returns, the firm should pay attention to input measures like staff satisfaction and customer experience. Command and Control Culture: A command and control culture in the organisation creates internal conflicts, poor communication and mistrust. This constrains the freedom of building customer relationships and also the exchange of knowledge for better growth of the company. Short Term Approach: The company should not tend to fall back to the product-thinking strategy, instead it should hold on to the customer focus strategy and treat it as a long term initiative which might help acquire customer loyalty and retention to the firm. Inadequate Customer Data: With small volumes of customer data it is difficult to analyse customers behaviour and manage relationships. So, they should always make sure that adequate amount of data is available on the customers to understand the buying behaviour patterns. Understanding the customers: Though the company has gathered enough information, it is sometimes difficult to harness it. So it should try understanding the attitudes and beliefs of the customer. Conclusion: Labelling on food products plays a major role in the decision making process of a consumer. The buying behaviour of consumers is richly embroidered by the labels available on the product. In the Kelloggs case labelling issues created a damage to the company. The best way for Kelloggs to recover from this situation is to use the launch of the new products as a strategic technique to win back the customers it has lost. The glue that hold the organisation together is strong customer focus. It acts as a fuel for an improving the brand image of the company. Every employee should be committed and dedicated towards their work in order to build a customer focused organisation. If Business neglects to create a true customer focus, they need to face huge unnecessary costs for poor service raised due to the active promotion of the customers who are dissatisfied. This might result in investing extensively in marketing and advertising by the company to gain back the customers attention. The life blood of the organisation are the customers who allows the firm to realise their main goals and objectives to survive in the market and also to make a profit. Their behaviour helps the products to attain a recognition and allow them to last for longer periods. Consumer behaviours keep changing from time to time and the best thing the company could do is to develop strategic ways that make the consumers buy the products may it be old or new. So, customer focused strategy is the only thing which keeps the companies alive and growing in this highly changing competitive market.

Personal Narrative - Marching Band Competition :: Personal Narrative Essays

Personal Narrative- Marching Band Competition This season was only the second year that I had been in marching band, even though we did do parades in middle school. The year before, I was selected to be drum major of the upcoming marching season. I was excited to meet the challenge of getting back to the state championships. It was also nerve-racking because I felt if we didn't make it to state, it would be my fault. To be truthful, later on I experienced both sentiments from some of the most influential, heart-warming, absolutely awesome friends that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. This would be the year that our band would adopt its slogan, its mission statement: Band #1. Two weeks before school even started, the Hotchkiss High School Marching Band began its march to the state-qualifying competition in Delta. We worked four hours a day for five days, getting our fundamentals going and getting a feel for our new show. Once school did start, we started practice at 7:00 a.m. and went for two hours every day, working on music and marching. Our band was once again small (eighteen people!), but our sound was great. It was actually easier trying to teach a smaller group because of the difficulty of the moves we were attempting. Of course, I didn't help matters much by my trials of congeniality with the podium. I figured if I didn't fly off with flapping of my arms, then surely I would walk right off the stand. The season shuffled along with surprising ease. By this time we had learned all of the show and were weeding it out to make it perfect. While fulfilling the amount of work needed to create a spectacular performance, we had a little fun in Fort Collins at the CSU Band Day. Along with the CSU Marching Band, our band learned their marching songs and sets and performed a show for a crowd of over 15,000 people! This fun could only last so long, however, and so the Hotchkiss High School Marching Band prepared for Grand Junction band day. We traversed the sixty miles down to the city in which we would compete. The day became toasty as it was still the start of October. Despite the heat, the parade amazingly stayed together and field show brought a tear to our director's eye. She promptly let us know, though, that it would take more next time-we knew it would, too.

Western Perceptions of the American Indian Essay -- Indians Native Ame

Western Perceptions of the American Indian In this reflective essay, I discuss how the Europeans perceived the American Indians and the factors that shaped these perceptions. I have paid particular attention to the first-hand accounts of the encounters with the natives, written by Western explorers, missionaries, and visitors to the New World. It is particularly interesting to note how these accounts were distorted and exploited by different groups, each trying to mold the situation in their own way. We shall start with a reflection on cannibalism, and the myriad myths it engendered, since it can be argued that nothing about the Indians alienated the Europeans as much as this bizarre practice. Cannibalism, formally known as anthropophagy, was an anathema to Europeans armed with Christian precepts about morality and kindness to one’s fellow man. It was evidence of these acts that served to perpetuate many of the negative portrayals of the Indians that spread throughout the old continent. While the Europeans were certainly disgusted by cannibalism, nevertheless, it still served to intrigue them. Indeed, many explorers, upon arriving at the Americas, sought to witness it for themselves. We can deduce from these tales that there is something inherently exotic about the concept of eating human flesh that has captivated the human imagination for millennia. The noted anthropologist William Arens is known to have said that â€Å"Cannibalism is so good to think about that the human appetite is not easily satisfied.† Some theorists have suggested that myths of cannibalism were exploited to demonize those whom the Westerners sought to colonize. (Some radical historians even propose that tales of cannibalism may have been mere fabri... ...--------------------------------- [1] Kimberle S. Lopez, Latin American Novels of the Conquest (London: University of Missouri Press, 2002) 30. [2] Geoffrey Symcox, ed. Italian Reports on America 1493-1522: Letters, Dispatches, and Papal Bulls. (Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2001) 43. [3] Bartholome de las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies. (1542) [4] Michel de Montaigne, â€Å"Of Cannibals†, In Selected Essays of Montaigne, trans. Donald M. Frame. (New York: Walter J. Black, 1943) 85-6. [5] Lynn Glaser, America on Paper: The First Hundred Years (Philadelphia: Associated Antiquaries, 1989) 161. [6] Bart L. Lewis, The Miraculous Lie: Lope de Aguirre and the Search for El Dorado in the Latin American Historical Novel (New York: Lexington Books, 2003) 8. [7] Lewis 12.

The Partial Responsibility of the Witches in William Shakespeares Macb

It is the purpose of this assignment to explore whether the witches influenced Macbeth sufficiently to cause him to commit murder, treason and regicide, or whether Macbeth was capable of committing these crimes on his own and the witches only made this happen a little earlier and a little more certainly. We will also explore the Elizabethan audience, their superstitions, and how they would react to the character of the witches as seen in Macbeth. Historically, the witches have been seen as evil beings that gain evil powers from the devil to use during their lifetime, in return for their souls when they die. In the United Kingdom, man's belief in witches and the supernatural was very strong during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Laws were passed by Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and James I prohibiting witchcraft and making the practise punishable by death. Witches were used as scapegoats in Elizabethan society. During the years 1580-90 there was a famine and rebellion throughout the land, 160 witch trials took place in south-east England alone. In the years 1620-30, there was relatively little famine only 25 trials took place, the Civil War then broke out in 1642, the number of trials rocketed to 75. If the crops failed or if an animal was sick, people would automatically suspect that a witch was involved because the people at this time had very little medical or scientific knowledge to explain these occurrences. The majority of witches executed were old women who lived alone, if they kept any sort of animal for company, e.g. a cat, then people could claim that the animal was a "familiar", an evil spirit given to .. ...esponsible and we see these traits at work after Act 4, Scene 1, when his "boundless ambition" and the influences of the witches' apparitions make him engage in a final battle between the two armies of good and evil at the end of the play. The Elizabethan audience would have hated the witches, partly because they would attribute any misfortunes in their own lives to the actions of similar beings. Shakespeare chose to use the witches in this way for two reasons. Firstly, the audience's fear and superstition about witches would mean that there was little need to develop their characters further than evil beings, because the people would already know a lot about them, and secondly because of how fervently James I not only believed in witches, but believed that they were the cause of all the suffering in his kingdom.

John Collier “Back for Christmas” Essay

The text â€Å"Back for Christmas† by John Collier is written in a style of fiction. The story is about farewell party to the doctor Carpenter and his wife. In the beginning of the text we can see the Carpenters’ living room that was filled with the close friends who had come to say â€Å"last-minute farewell† – the author used this epithet to show us that their friends would be missing him very much. On the contrary with his wife doctor Carpenter wasn’t sure he would come in time, he thought smth could spoil his plans. But his wife â€Å"beaming at them† said he would be back in England for Christmas. The metaphor is used to reassure everybody to make them believe in this. So, the farewells began. Mrs Carpenter tried her best to make all the arrangements on the high level and to prove it the author used such epithet as: â€Å"fluting of compliments† and â€Å"marvelous arrangements†. Carpenters were going to drive to Southampton that evening and would embark the following day. They have chosen this kind of transport for more comfortable travelling without any bustle. And to emphasize it the author the used the repetition â€Å"No trains, no bustle, no last minute worries†. So doctor Carpenter has contracted for lecture only three months and certainly he would be a great success in America. His wife Hermione has just tagged a long him to have some entertainment’s to see the big cities skyscrapers. Then the author uses repetitions â€Å"No extensions. No wonderful post†¦Ã¢â‚¬  that show us that his infirmary needs him. After the farewell dinner the maids washed up all the plates, come in to say goodbye and were in time to catch the afternoon bus to Devizes. So, to my mind, the main idea of the text – east or west home is the best.

Guidelines for Writing the Three Major Parts of the Literature Review Essay

The introductory section should describe the topic (problem area, guiding concept, theme or research question or problem) that is being reviewed. Aim for an â€Å"eye catching opening sentence†. Sometimes this is a dramatic expression of a number to catch the reader’s attention such as the prevalence of a disease, crime rate, school drop out rate, or sales volume. Be sure the topic is focused on the literature that will be reported. Briefly define the key concepts. Introduce these immediately. The topic should be sufficiently focused to permit an in-depth, substantial investigation, relevant to an area of advanced study/global leadership that guides a range of inquiry, results in an extensive search of scholarly literature, and generation of questions for further inquiry. The purpose of a literature review is presented in the introduction. Bourner (1996) reports the following Purposes – of a literature review – (reasons for a review of the literature) before embarking on a research project. These reasons include: †¢ to identify gaps in the literature  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ to avoid reinventing the wheel (at the very least this will save time and it can stop you from making the same mistakes as others) †¢ to carry on from where others have already reached (reviewing the field allows you to build on the platform of existing knowledge and ideas) †¢ to identify other people working in the same fields (a researcher network is a valuable resource) †¢ to increase your breadth of knowledge of your subject area †¢ to identify seminal works in your area †¢ to provide the intellectual context for your own work, enabling you to position your project relative to other work †¢ to identify opposing views †¢ to put your work into perspective †¢ to demonstrate that you can access previous work in an area †¢ to identify information and ideas that may be relevant to your project †¢ to identify methods that could be relevant to your project Bourner, T. (1996). The research process: Four steps to success in T. Greenfield (Ed. ), Research methods: Guidance for postgraduates (pp. 7-11). London: Arnold. Retrieved 8-13-02 from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology RMIT University http://www. lib. rmit. edu. au/tutorials/literature/litrev. html As you attempt to define concepts (variables) and their relationships to other variables, if applicable, identify causal (independent) variables and effects (dependent variables). You may also identify other variables that can be contextual, intervening, or mediating (see Creswell, pp. 94-95 or other texts). After you introduce the topic area properly (instructions follow), you will develop a succinct one-sentence purpose of the review. Three examples of a concluding purpose statement in the overview are: Example 1: The purpose of this review is to critically analyze the theoretical and empirical literature on web-based instruction as an instructional method in distance education, with an emphasis on effectiveness studies that focus on instructional effectiveness, student learning outcomes, retention, student perceptions of this method of course delivery, and to identify areas of future scholarly inquiry. In this example, the causal variable (independent) is â€Å"instructional method of web-based instruction† and the effects (dependent variable) are instructional effectiveness, student learning outcomes, retention, and student perceptions. Example 2: The purpose of this critical analysis of theoretical and empirical literature is to (a) examine historical and current literature to evaluate whether gender workplace bias exists; (b) explore the impact such a bias would have on women in the workplace, specifically women moving up the corporate ladder; and, (c) identify any theoretical or empirical gaps in the literature for the purpose of suggesting future areas of scholarly inquiry. In this example, the causal variable (independent) is â€Å"gender bias against women in the workplace† and the effect (dependent variable) is mobility up the corporate ladder. Example 3 (Review carefully): The purpose of this critical analysis of theoretical and empirical literature is explore the influence of organizational leadership and other factors on organizational performance, in for-profit and not-for profit service organizations, and to identify areas of future scholarly inquiry. In this example, the causal variables (independent) are â€Å"organizational leadership† and â€Å"other factors†, contextual (intervening or mediating) variables are the type of organization (product versus service) and profit/non-profit, and the effect (dependent variable) is organizational performance. Please note in developing your purpose statement, that the purpose statement begins with The purpose of †¦. and concludes with a statement related to identifying future areas of scholarly inquiry. 9 Instructions: Writing An Overview and Purpose (Follow precisely) *Review Blackboard Forum 5. Use your information and faculty comments for strengthening, as a guide to develop your Overview and Purpose (see items #1-9 below). *Draft 1 is due Week 3. Review Forum 6. You will get a great start if you develop this well. 1. Using the template: a. Develop a preliminary title for the Review and include on the title page. The title should include the main concepts and themes (and/or key theories) for this review. Remember this is a critical analysis of the literature NOT a research study!!!! In no area of this paper, should you refer to this Review of Literature as a research study!!!!!! b. For the Introduction to the Literature, insert a brief subtitle preceding the colon for the level heading: ___: Overview and Purpose. 2. Under the Overview and Purpose, introduce the paper with an â€Å"eye catching† opening sentence for the first paragraph. 3. After the â€Å"eye catching† opening sentence, briefly – describe the topic (problem area, guiding concept, theme). Get to the point – don’t let the reader guess what the review is about –a few sentences. 4. Next include brief definitions of each of the major concepts and cite references for these definitions in appropriate APA format. BE BRIEF – this is not the literature but an introduction to it! Anything you present in the introduction is developed in depth in the Review of the Literature. 5. Next, very briefly, attempt to identify how the literature explains these variables and their relationships to other variables. Include as many as possible variables because this will help in constructing a literature map. The map will show relationships between the variables as you describe here. – Begin with the following: The causal variables (independent are) †¦ The effects (dependent/outcome variables are†¦ Contextual (intervening or mediating) variables that further impact the dependent or outcome variables are †¦. 6. Discuss how the topic area was identified and your reasons (point of view) for selecting the topic area to conduct your critical analysis of the literature. Review the Guidelines: How to Start – Select a Topic and Overview and Purpose, including purposes identified by Bourner (1996). Begin with the following: The topic area of ____ was selected because___. 7. Explain what you want to know about the topic. Review Hart, 1999, p. 14 (Questions the Review Can Answer). Begin with the following: Some questions to be answered through this critical analysis of the literature are:†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 8. Answer the following: Is the topic about the problems in a discipline or field of study, the processes in a discipline or field of study, or the practices in a discipline or field of study? Processes can refer to various epistemologic processes to develop knowledge (also See Hart, 1999, p. 14). Introduce this clearly so the reader knows what you are speaking about. Begin with the following: The problem area of †¦ is about†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 9. Conclude the Overview and Purpose with a clearly formulated statement of purpose of the literature review. Use the examples in the guidelines, as a guide to develop this. Make this clear (see examples in the previous lecture note). Begin with the following and include the ending The purpose of this †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.., and to identify areas of future scholarly inquiry. Organization of the Review, Scope, and Library Research Plan Organization of the Review Lecture Collect appropriate articles, read critically, identify concepts, theories, and themes, and think about the best way to present your topic. Write these concepts, theories, and themes down (see your Blackboard forum 5 submission and instructor response. Develop a Literature Map. This is a Content Map (Concept Map or Mind Map): All students will have a literature map that will guide the organization of the review and literature search. Build (draw) a visual picture of the concepts and their relationships, which results in a literature map. These evolve from your topic, key concepts, ideas, theme, and/or purpose. Don’t introduce new information or concepts. It should first be introduced in the overview. The literature map is presented in-depth here. There are many methods to organize the review, which often change as you learn more about the topic. Concept Mapping – Representing information in diagram form where key words are linked by lines. These lines are then labeled to express the relationship between the terms. The resulting ‘map’ shows links between key ideas and can then be read through to clarify relationships between key terms. a. Definition and Purpose of a Literature Map. This map is a visual/graphic representation of concepts, ideas, and themes that serve to guide thinking. In this case, the purpose is to guide the search and organizational presentation of your review. This map serves to: i. Develop ideas for your review ii. Show relationships and interrelationships between the concepts, theories, and themes – and if so, what type of relationships iii. Assist in organizing old knowledge and integrating it with new knowledge iv. Guide your literature search plan/strategy v. Identify subtitles (subheadings) to organize your literature review so that you can communicate your ideas systematically. vi. A literature/content map is a creative, intuitive, and artistic endeavor to see how things fit – to generate alternatives. It is also analytical and critical, based on what you are finding in the literature. REVIEW THESE LINKS A simplified explanation of understanding of a Content map is described in the following URL – web link – http://users.edte. utwente. nl/lanzing/cm_home. htm b. Various types of Graphic or Visual Organizers (review this online. Click each box) (you need to have the syllabus downloaded and Internet connection on) |Chain of Events |Clustering |Compare/Contrast | |Continuum |Cycle |Family Tree | |Fishbone |Interaction Outline |Problem/Solution | |Spider |Storyboard |Venn Diagram | Source: http://www. sdcoe. k12. ca. us/score/actbank/sorganiz. htm Other Web sites: Graphic or Visual Organizers Graphic or Visual Organizers: A good site review this online by clicking link. http://edservices. aea7. k12. ia. us/edtech/classroom/workshops/organizers. html http://www. cast. org/ncac/index. cfm? i=3015 http://www. veale. com. au/phd/files/Lit_Map. pdf Some diagrams of content maps are depicted in the following URL web link http://trochim. human. cornell. edu/research/epp2/epp2. htm#Table1 Free Mind Mapping Software (Smart Draw) http://www. smartdraw. com/specials/mindmapping. asp? id=13054 Readings on Mapping Ideas: See Hart, 1999, pp. 142-162 Blackboard’s Assignments Toolbar: See example of literature maps in Assignments – Weeks 1-8 Literature Review (Critical Analysis) 50%. Within this folder is information on PowerPoint Presentation and Student Examples. Most of the student examples include literature maps for RES 702 (RES600) students. Organizing the review of the literature by themes, theories, or major concepts and related concepts provides a â€Å"frame for the central topic† to organize. In this case, you may proceed inductively or deductively. http://trochim. human. cornell. edu/kb/dedind. htm Exercise in Deductive/Inductive thinking: http://www2. sjsu. edu/depts/itl/graphics/induc/ind-ded. html#3b For example, a deductive approach might start with the broader view or concept(s) then move to the specific topic area. Example FOLLOWS: A literature map (Figure 1) is used to guide the library search for theoretical and empirical literature about distance learning. The map shows a deductive pattern of the major themes, using an â€Å"interaction line style† type of graphic organizer. Beginning with the broadest concept of distance education, web-based instruction interacts with student characteristics, which leads to evaluation of effectiveness of web-based instruction in distance education. . . . Other concepts and their relationships to guide the review are . . †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Other Organizational Methodologies for Reviews: While RES 702 students are asked to develop literature maps that serve to organize the review, with more scholarly experience and depending upon the topic, you could also present the Review using an â€Å"opposing view† or â€Å"methodological approach†. This is not expected now. c. The literature map generates an outline for the Review of the Literature Review â€Å"Why do an Outline, and Basic Outlining skills: http://www. und. edu/instruct/wstevens/PROPOSALCLASS/PATRAS. html http://www. mnstate. edu/wasson/ed603/ed603lesson5. htm An outline provides a blueprint, skeleton, or a roadmap for the final written review. An outline is an organizational process that is a logical description of the important components of the literature review. It provides a visual and conceptual design for writing. 1. Identify the main points in the order they should be presented. 2. Differentiate each main heading into logical subheadings. 3. Use further subdivisions if necessary. IT IS STRONGLY SUGGESTED THAT YOU INCLUDE A SECTION ON MEASUREMENT OF YOUR MAJOR VARIABLES. REPORT SOME OF THE MAJOR METHODS, TOOLS, OR INSTRUMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN USED IN PRIOR STUDIES TO MEASURE THE KEY CONCEPTS IN YOUR OUTLINE. Notice in the outline that follows, a sub-level heading is measurement of leadership and organizational performance. In the Review of the Literature section, you would then describe the tools whether qualitative or quantitative, and reliability, validity (quantitative tools), and trustworthiness of qualitative tools. Run a Proquest or Google search such as: â€Å"measurement leadership†. This saves you time in the QP and literature in the †dissertation† where you need to know how your variables have been studied and measured. It is best to have MORE detail in these themes. You can always change later. Example of an Outline: (Let us say that the following concepts are present in the literature map which could be Chain of Events, Clustering, or Interaction Outline. This is an example of an outline (quite detailed). It includes the major concepts that can be used for the literature search, and the outline is placed in the 2nd part of this Review (Review of the Literature) to organize how to present the literature. Leadership Classical, Progressive, Risk Leadership Theories Traits and Characteristics of Leaders; Leadership, Power and Influence; Gender and Equity Issues in Leadership Practice Cultural Issues and Leadership Developing Teams Leading Organizational Change Organizational Leadership Development; Strategic Leadership Leadership Measurement Organizational Performance Dimensions of Organizational Performance Organizational Climate Individual Performance Team Performance Supplier/Vendor Perspectives Customer Satisfaction Financial Performance Effectiveness Indicators Performance Driven Organizations Competency Modeling Managing Performance 360 Degree Feedback Collaborative Change Organizational Performance Measurement: Output (Activities) and Outcome (Results) Measures Factors Influencing Organizational Performance Leadership and Performance of Organizations Leadership Style and Team Performance Leadership Style and Organizational Outcomes Leadership Style and Vendor/Supplier and Customer Satisfaction Transformational Leadership, Organizational Culture, and Organizational Effectiveness 7 Instructions for Writing the Organization of the Review Do not present literature that you reviewed here. Just respond to questions 1-7. 1. After you design the literature map, begin with the statement: A literature map (Figure 1) is used to guide the library search for theoretical and empirical literature in this review about ___. 1. Next, describe the specific type of organizer that you used to design your map (for example, cluster, chain of events, cycle, etc). To do this, you need to review this syllabus on line, and click the different URL links of examples of visual or graphic organizers (review preceding lecture which provides several types). 2. Identify the specific the concepts, theories, and themes that are in your literature map. 3. Next, briefly, describe the relationships between these concepts, theories and themes (such as what leads to what? Which are the causal, outcome and/or intervening variables? Are the concepts organized inductively or deductively? This all refers to the concepts, theories, and themes in your literature map. 4. Next explain that in addition to guiding the literature search, the literature map serves to identify themes, theories, and concepts that will organize the Literature Review. Present these theories, concepts, and themes in outline form, differentiating each main heading into logical subheadings. (Keep it simple). 5. Due for draft 1, go to the next major section (Review of the Literature) – insert these themes/concepts as level headings/sublevel headings in outline form. They serve to organize the Review of the Literature. Use appropriate APA (see p. 113 of APA) level headings. An example using APA level headings, is shown in the next major section of these guidelines. The concepts and themes for the example, uses the outline of themes previously discussed (leadership and organizational performance). 6. Insert the Figure 1, Literature Map at the end of this discussion of the Organization of the Review (before Scope and Context). a. Make sure that you develop your literature map in a software application that can be copied and pasted into your Microsoft word document containing your paper. b. Make sure the map is an appropriate size and fits within the required paper margins. c. The Figure and #, and Title (Literature Map) belong at the bottom, centered: Figure 1 Literature Map Your goal is to have the map well-developed in draft 1 and finalized in (draft 2). It is expected that this map will change as you â€Å"tighten† and â€Å"organize your literature review in the next section† as well as well as in your qualifying paper. Refine this part with each new draft (and particularly as your literature map evolves). Scope and Context Lecture This section lets the reader know what is and is not included in your literature review (scope). The topic is described in such a way that an appropriate context for the review of the literature is established, in a meaningful, logical way. The key terms here are included/excluded. You can restate the theories, concepts and constructs that you will include and obvious theories, concepts and constructs you won’t include (Look at your problem and topic area). Identify what might be included in the search in terms of types of organizations (public/private; for-profit, not for profit; service/product; types of businesses, types of educational institutions); populations such as young versus old; gender; cultural groups; countries; or type of occupation. The major types of scholarly literature to review are: empirical studies, review articles (critical analysis), theoretical articles/books, methodological articles, and case studies. These types of literature may be in the form of a book, hard copy journal articles, and electronic journal articles. The following are different types and forms of literature: Periodical Abstract in a primary source, Abstract in a secondary source, Periodical (hard copy), Periodical (electronic), Non-periodical (Book), Non-periodical (chapter in a book), Proceeding of meetings or symposia, Doctoral Dissertations (including abstracts), Unpublished work, Audio-Visuals, Newspaper, Government documents, and Electronic Media. 5 Instructions for Writing the Scope and Context 1. As you write this, discuss what is and is not included. Regarding the topic or problem area, discuss what is and is not included in terms of concepts/theories, applications to different populations and settings. 1. Identify the forms (not types) of publications that are included. You don’t need to name specific articles, but identify the forms of literature to be included. 2. Identify the discipline(s) you are focusing in (e. g. , education, health, business, criminal justice, accounting, sociology)? Included specialized areas within these disciplines, such as: gender theories in sociology, accounting ethics, special education for specified populations, urban violence, etc. 3. Identify the scope in terms of the years (period of time) that your literature review covers and exclusions. 5. Discuss whether you are limiting your review to U. S. literature, and/or Global literature. For global literature, identify the â€Å"countries†. If seminal books are emphasized, include the titles. Refine this part with each new draft (and particularly as your literature expands). Library Research Plan and Strategy Lecture THIS IS THE PLAN, NOT THE REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE!! The review is presented in the second major section (Review of the Literature) Searching the Literature: A good review of the literature is dependent upon knowledge of the use of indexes and abstracts, the ability to conduct exhaustive bibliographic searches, and ability to organize the collected data meaningfully. Information literacy skills assist with information seeking and retrieval methods and scholarly communication. Recognize scholarly and peer reviewed journals (See Week 1 Lecture). The e-Learning tutorials about Lynn Library can assist research students with the development of literature reviews using electronic databases, abstracts, bibliographic software, Internet searching, Library catalogue searching, subject resources, off-campus searching, and research and writing skills. You need to complete the tutorials. Library Research Plan/Strategy: In reporting your library plan/strategy, identify concepts, themes (key words) or descriptors and search the relevant databases for research on your topic. Be consistent with the Literature map concepts and themes. Focus your search on primary scholarly works including: empirical, theoretical, critical/analytic, or methodological inquiry. Recognize the differences between these types of scholarly inquiry. Review dissertation abstracts. Did you do a Lynn Library catalog search on the topic (at Lynn)? Did you search selected journals? Did you limit the search to peer-review journals? Did you limit the search to certain years? If you are having difficulty in your library search, you may make an appointment with the Reference Librarian who may assist in building effective search strategies. When visiting the Library, you should come prepared with your search words. Requesting Materials: It is suggested that you read the abstracts before requesting the materials from the Librarian, because certain abstracts may provide enough information to help you make a decision on the material’s relevance. Expect that you will obtain more literature than you will need to include in your literature review. Quantity, however, is not as important as selecting appropriate literature, that is of value and relevant. While many published review articles may have more than 100 cited references, due to time constraints in the course, the expectation is a minimum of 20 â€Å"relevant†, scholarly citations in the text of your paper. Do not go overboard. Quality and relevance is what counts. Don’t use references from â€Å"consulting firms† or firms that are â€Å"promoting† their products or services. Look for scholarly publications. Types and Forms of Literature: Minimum Requirements i. The preference is that you review a variety of types and forms of literature so that you many learn to: ii. Search for and evaluate different types and forms information iii. Integrate a variety of types information in the text of your paper iv. Recognize classic (seminal) works as well as current literature Give yourself time to read the material; do not make a library request for everything at once. Readings: Search Strategy worksheet: http://library. humboldt. edu/infoservices/sstrawrksht. htm http://www. noodletools. com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine. html http://www. lynn. edu/clientuploads/Library/Graduatestudentsmanual. doc 11 Instructions for Writing the Library Research Plan and Strategy In a Review, a discussion of the plan or strategy you used to develop your literature search is presented. Don’t discuss what you â€Å"will† do, but rather â€Å"what you did†. 1. Identify the descriptors (concepts, themes, theories, phrases/key words) used to search the relevant databases for research on your topic. Include â€Å"themes† or groups of words used in the search plan. Add the terms â€Å"theory† or â€Å"research† to your themes when you are searching. You should uses many â€Å"themes† to limit the search. Example of a theme for a library search: â€Å"leadership organizational performance research†. Try to include several themes. 2. Report databases used in your library search. 3. Indicate which of the following types of primary scholarly works were reviewed: empirical, theoretical, critical/analytic, or methodological inquiry (aim to obtain all of these)? 4. Were secondary citations of references used in your paper? Explain Why? Review APA p. 247 to understand a secondary citation of a source. Remember that these need to be limited. In your dissertation, you need to mostly use primary sources of literature. Remember that if you report literature from secondary sources in your paper use (as cited in __). 5. Explain if you reviewed dissertation abstracts (yes/no). If so, on what topics, which abstracts? You should use these. 6. Explain if you did a Library catalog search on the topic (at Lynn or where? ) Yes/ or no 7. Provide the titles of the key journals reviewed. (Put these titles in Italics). 8. Indicated whether or not you limited the search to peer-reviewed journals? 9. Indicate if you limited the search to certain years? If so, which years? 10. Refer the reader to the example of a library Search Print-out that you will place in Appendix A. 11. Report any problems encountered in your library search and how these problems were managed. Refine this part with each new draft. Interest, Significance, and Rationale for the Critical Analysis Lecture In this last part of the introduction to the literature review, you explain the importance and significance of the Review that will follow. As you read more, you will find more rationale as to why this review is important. Provide a transition sentence from this Introduction to the Review of the Literature. Then end with a statement that explains how the Review will conclude in the Discussion section. Example of concluding statement: As an emerging method of instructional delivery in higher education, and one that continually evolves with the growth in technology, it is important to understand its impact on learning, retention, instruction, and students. This critical analysis of the literature concludes with a summary and interpretation of theoretical, empirical, and methodological literature, conclusions, and recommendations for future scholarly inquiry into web-based instruction in distance education. 4 Instructions for Writing the Interest, Significance, and Rationale for the Critical Analysis 1. Discuss if the topic is of limited interest, regional, national, or perhaps of global interest? Explain why? You can include personal interest based on experience and potential applications. 2. Describe why it is worth studying (or examining)? 3. Indicate that the presentation of the Review of the Literature follows 4. Develop a concluding statement (see example above, in lecture) to the effect that a synopsis and interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are presented at the end of the review in the discussion section. Refine this part with each new draft. Review of the Literature About ___ (add your topic) Lecture This is the second major part of this critical analysis. This has a long lecture. Now is the time to write â€Å"your in-depth Literature Review†. You laid the foundations for this section in the Introduction to the Review, to organize your review according to those themes. Present the theoretical literature (theories, model, constructs, concepts) about those themes, and empirical literature (studies) regarding those themes, in a proper manner. Follow the instructions (see presenting theoretical literature, and presenting empirical literature) in this Review of the Literature section. If you present the literature appropriately in this body of the review, then you will have information to present in the Discussion of the Literature. If you don’t, this Review falls apart. Only literature presented in this Review of the Literature can be analyzed in the next section, Discussion of the Literature. You will save a stitch in time, if you follow instructions and learn how to present theories, and how to present studies, including the authors stated limitations and recommendations for future inquiry, in addition to your critique of those studies. †¢ General comments: The theoretical and empirical literature is summarized, analyzed, evaluated, and synthesized in a more in-depth â€Å"coherent† manner within organized headings and sublevel headings. Specifically, information pertaining to theoretical, empirical, methodological, critical review, and case studies about the topic is reported. As reported previously, expect that you will obtain more literature than you will need to include in your literature review. Quantity, however, is not as important as selecting appropriate literature to present, that is of value and relevant. While many published Review articles may have more than 100 cited references, due to time constraints in the course, the expectation is a minimum of 20 â€Å"relevant†, scholarly citations in the text of your paper. This will increase to 50 references in the qualifying paper. It certainly isn’t unusual to have over 100 references in a dissertation. Do not go overboard. Quality and relevance is what counts. Don’t use references from â€Å"consulting firms† or firms that are â€Å"promoting† their products or services. Look for scholarly publications. As you present literature in your â€Å"word† document, it is okay to talk to yourself. Make notes in the document to your self. You can use different font colors or highlights for these messages to yourself. o Perhaps you want to leave a message to yourself to review a particular article that you didn’t yet have the chance to review, or o you want to search another theme. o Or you read an article, but didn’t have a chance yet to write about it – jot down notes o Use the word file as a tool where you keep all information in one place. You will find this technique very helpful in developing the qualifying paper, and in developing the your dissertation. The instructor does not mind (and in fact encourages you do to this, even in final copies0. Just make the messages â€Å"neat† – and not to distracting) Of utmost importance, is that you present your review appropriately. Practice doing it correctly immediately or you will be WASTING time (having to redo it later). †¢ Your review must be organized within the headings/sublevel headings. Insert the outline developed in the Introduction to the Review. Make sure that the outline is consistent with the organization of themes, concepts add theories in your literature map. †¢ It is ok if you reorganize or rename the themes, but make the changes if the Organization of the R (and literature map, in the prior section). You want the Introduction to the Review, Review of the Literature, and the Discussion section all to be â€Å"internally consistent† with one another. †¢ Instructions follow on how to present CRITICALLY present, theoretical and empirical literature. FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS. Quotations and Paraphrasing and Critical Analysis †¢ This is a literature review, and not your opinion.