Raina Petkoff and her Cover-up Essay Example for Free

Raina Petkoff and her Cover-up Essay Bernard Shaws works make us doubt principles and ideals, which we accepted without a question. The economic status of the Petkoffs is one of wealth, and the fact that they are rich makes us think of a well-mannered and educated family, especially the young girl. The young girl should give us a sense of nobility and in fact she does in this story. The young girl in Arms and the Man gives us the impression that she is an ideal daughter, lover and citizen. But is she really? This girl tries to portray this stereotypical personality but proves not to be quite the noble girl she plays. At a certain point she sees herself in a very compromising position and is forced to change. As the play begins and we start getting to know this girl, Raina Petkoff we start noticing that she is a bit vain. The stage directions go as follows: On the balcony a young lady, intensely conscious of the romantic beauty of the night, and of the fact that her own youth and beauty are part of it (1561). This excerpt takes away some of the innocence she portrays in a subtle way. The next deception comes when the Swiss enters through the window; instead of screaming for help she decides to help him hide. She even lies to the Bulgarian officer who is looking for the Swiss, betraying her own country. Raina and the Swiss get to know each other a little, and with his experience he can see right through her. He instantly discovered the superficial coating over a very rough interior. The mother, Catherine, proves to be the same when she abandons her patriotism and loyalty and helps the Serb officer to hide and even escape the next morning. Like father, like son they say. But the biggest surprise comes when the Swiss or Serbian officer or Bluntschli blows Rainas cover. Raina is outraged or pretends to be when Bluntschli throws the truth at her face. He calls her a liar and insists on it. She gets furious at first, but gives in when she realizes shes got no way out. Her reaction is: I! I!!!How did you find me out? (1591). And here she confesses that the noble attitude and the thrilling voice is just a cover-up. This is Rainas turning point. We could say that at this point she went from being a girl to being a woman; at this point she matured. Another important fact to my case is the picture of herself she left in the jacket for Bluntschli to find, and the message it contained. My chocolate cream soldier (1603) is the name Raina gives Bluntschli in the dedication of the picture. This title given to Bluntschli suggests some type of affection that at this point is obvious but if the audience had learned of it as it happened chronologically it would be very shocking. After the turning point described above, Raina becomes a more outgoing and sincere person. She describes her own cover-up personality as a noble attitude and thrilling voice (1591) to Bluntschli. Raina also says Bluntschli is the first person that didnt take her fake personality seriously. She confesses to the point that she mocks the people who believe her noble self by saying: I did it when I was a child to my nurse. She believed in it. I do it before my parents. They believe in it. I do it before Sergius. He believes in it (1591). That incident of calling her a liar made Raina mature. It was a turning point in the life of this character and in the plot of Arms and the Man. Bernard Shaw uses his comedies to criticize many ideals by mocking them. In the case of Arms and the Man he takes the nobility of a wealthy, respected family and destroys it by mocking many of its aspects. In this essay I analyze how Shaw takes the view of innocence of a young, noble, rich girl and changes it to make it crude reality, he makes the Petkoffs look like common people with very little nobility. Works Cited Shaw, George Bernard. Arms and the Man. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 5th Ed. New York: McGraw, 2002. 1561-1604.

My Friends Mom Has Cancer :: Personal Narrative Smoking Essays

My Friend's Mom Has Cancer It was a beautiful summer day down in Phoenix and the first day of my junior year of high school. All of my friends were waiting for me outside on the wall, which is right outside of BigB’s. The wall on the side of BigB has a mural of the world with every color of peoples skin on it. I was in love with that mural throughout high school because it meant something to all of those who went to Alhambra. There are not any trees out there since it is Phoenix and the gravel always made my shoes look dull every Tuesday when I had to wear my JROTC uniform. I always hated going in there but the soda was cheep and so was the water, which is always good on those hot summer days. Ashley, Michelle, and I get out of Michelle’s mom’s car. Michelle’s mom is like my second mom and has been that way as long as I can remember. Joyce would drive us to school and on Tuesday’s she would pick us up. The only thing going through my mind is who is going to be b uying my smokes this year. Little did I know how much things were going to change for us. We walk over to our friends who thanks to me we all knew. Ashley leaves for class and Michelle and I decide who is paying for this pack. Neither one of us would buy one for ourselves. The year gets going I can already tell it is going to be a very long year I just got my first job and had no time for my friends. Now it was the middle of January and Michelle comes up to me while we are sitting on the wall and she looks very unhappy. Joyce had not driven us to school that today because of a doctor’s appointment but I had not thought anything of it. I could tell she was unhappy although she had not said a word. Since it was a Tuesday and I was in uniform. I really was not supposed to be smoking but I was any way. I offered Michelle a smoke because I thought it would calm her down but she did not take it. That was when I knew that there was something definitely wrong with her.

Jack: Straight From The Gut by John F. Welch, Jr. Essay

Overview: An autobiography, Jack: Straight From The Gut provides John F. Welch, Jr. the opportunity to guide us through not only his time spent as Chairman and CEO during a forty-one year career with General Electric (GE), but also his early years, and his family life outside of GE. From his days as a first grader growing up in Salem, Massachusetts playing gin with his beloved mother, to his welcoming of Jeff Immelt as his successor as CEO, Welch describes in fast moving detail his thoughts, feelings, wins, and losses, all in chronological order. As a child Welch respected and admired his father, but cherished his mother and maintained a bond with her that he references long after her death in 1965. She imparted him with enormous self-confidence and leadership skills that he developed early and kept with him through high school, his undergraduate years at the University of Massachusetts, graduate school at the University of Illinois, and ultimately throughout his time with GE. As Welch describes his GE career, he conveys many of the characteristics that led to him become CEO. Most notably, he credits his energy, passion, and integrity for his success and emphatically emphasizes that other leaders must search for those same values when building teams and cultivating talent. Along the way Welch highlights his many victories but gives equal time to his mistakes. Above all he notes â€Å"people† as the defining factor in success or failure. â€Å"In fact, GE’s all about finding and building great people, no matter where they come from. I’m over the top on lots of issues, but none comes as close to the passion I have for making people GE’s core competency.†1 Review: A quick search under â€Å"Jack Welch† on Amazon.com shows eleven different book titles, all of which, in one form or another, spread the wisdom of a man regarded widely as America’s most admired business leader. From that, one might surmise that Jack: Straight From The Gut would follow the recipe for discussion on such GE tenets as: Six Sigma, boundarlyess culture, and globalization. However, though he does spend considerable time on these standard topics, he provides much more in the way of underlying reasons for the success of these programs, and for their derivation. Unlike other books written about Welch, he wrote this one largely by himself and I found it extremely interesting compared to some of the previous efforts of authors trying to capture the essence of both Welch and GE. Of particular interest was Welch’s detailed analysis of Reg Jones’ selection process in 1980 that led to Welch succeeding him as CEO, versus Welch’s own selection process nearly twenty years later for his own replacement. Welch describes in game-like fashion his position of underdog against eight other GE executives under consideration for the job. â€Å"We were all working our butts off trying to differentiate ourselves.†2 Welch ultimately wins the game but vows to himself to select his successor in a different and more fair way, if at all possible. He would get that chance in a process he began in 1994 when he asked his VP for executive development to put together a list of attributes for the â€Å"ideal CEO†3 â€Å"The specs were filled with skills and characteristics you’d want: integrity/values, experience, vision, leadership, edge, stature, fairness, and enery/balance/courage.† 4 Those that filled this criteria totaled 23, but were whittled down to eight serious candidates by 1998. In 2000 Welch formally announced the three final candidates, but took an unprecedented bold step in naming each of their replacements. This ensured that GE would lose two top executives after naming one to become the new CEO, but was done to provide the new leader 100% confidence that he was in charge and would have no reason to have to look over his shoulder. I found the process that named Jeff Immelt CEO and the one that selected Welch in 1980 both fascinating. Welch delivers his message in a confident and candid manner as one might expect, but quite self-effacing at times which may surprise some readers. He certainly takes credit for, and celebrates victories, but gave equal time in the book, if not more, to his mistakes. As a recent book review in The Wall Street Journal indicates, â€Å"He lacks standard-issue pomposity and makes plenty of jokes at his own expense.†5 From relaying a time early in his career when his new car had a hose spring a leak and ruin his suit and the paint on the car, to bigger mistakes such as the well publicized perceived failure of GE’s Kidder Peabody unit, Welch maintains an air of humility and self deprecation throughout the book. Takeaways: As an employee of GE’s medical division, I enjoy reading about Welch and have read a few other books about him. However, none captivated me as this one did. I expected to find it interesting but had no idea how much so until only a few pages into it. Learning about the boy, the student, the engineer, and the leader who would transform an already successful company into arguably the best company in the world was very entertaining. For me, working in the GE culture and experiencing it as I have over the past four years gives me a tremendous sense of pride. I understand Welch’s vision well when he speaks of, â€Å"the four Es of GE leadership: very high energy levels, the ability to energize others around common goals, the edge to make tough yes-and-no decisions, and finally, the ability to consistently execute and deliver on their promises.†6 I understand what he looks for and strive hard to emulate that image. In my opinion, hearing his basis and rationale for creating this culture further enhances people’s abilities to thrive in it. My final takeaway involves that of integrity. Welch begins and ends the book with this theme and mentions it many times throughout. I’ve heard him mention it many times previously, but he drives it home with such passion and conviction here in his memoirs. â€Å"I never had two agendas. There was only one way-the straight way.†7 With no regrets and apologies to none, the business world certainly has not heard the last of Jack Welch. Endnotes 1. Jack Welch and John A. Byrne, Jack: Straight From The Gut (New York: Warner Business Books, 2001), 156. 2. Ibid., 79. 3. Ibid., 409. 4. Ibid. 5. Holman W. Jenkins Jr., â€Å"Life According To Jack Welch,† The Wall Street Journal, 21 September 2001, sec.W, p. 12. 6. Welch, 158. 7. Ibid., 381. Bibliography â€Å"Life According To Jack Welch.† The Wall Street Journal, 21 September 2001, sec. W, p. 1. Welch, Jack, and John A. Byrne. Jack: Straight From The Gut. New York: Warner Business Books, 2001.

Comparing Othello and Canterbury Tales Essay - 1160 Words

Comparing Othello and Canterbury Tales The use of manipulation and misleading for personal gain has proved to be successful for many people throughout history. Famous poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, and famous play writer, William Shakespeare, illustrate characters who possess these manipulating qualities in their personalities. Geoffrey Chaucer’s Pardoner, from The Canterbury Tales, and William Shakespeare’s Iago, from Othello, are good examples deceiving characters. These literary figures manipulating techniques are very effective on the other characters in Chaucer’s and Shakespeare’s works. Iago’s main motivation for his manipulation is his hatred of the main character, Othello. Iagos reasons for his hatred of†¦show more content†¦Othello must feel that same horrible jealousy that Iago feels. Iago has a very effective way with words. When Desdemona, Iago, and Iagos wife, Emilia, arrive in Cyprus, Cassio welcomes Emilia with a kiss, then says to Iago, â€Å"Let it not gall your patience, good Iago, That I extend my manners. ‘Tis my breeding That gives me this bold show of courtesy† (2.1.97-99). Cassio is making a big point of what a charmer he is, but Iago shoots him down by saying, â€Å"Sir, would she give you so much of her lips as of her tongue she oft bestows on me, you would have enough† (2.1.100-102). Hes saying that if Emilia kissed Cassio as much as she nags Iago, Cassio would have more than enough kissing. This apparently casual devaluation of Emilia and her kisses is a deception; a little later we learn that Iago is intensely jealous and suspects Cassio of having an affair with Emilia. Also, Iago convinces Cassio that the best way to get his job back is to appeal to Desdemona, then sends him off. Alone on stage, Iago asks us why we think hes a villain, since his advice to Cassio is free and honest, and after all he is called â€Å"honest Iago.† Answering his own question, he comments, â€Å"When devils will the blackest sins put on, They do suggest at first with heavenly shows, as I do now.† (2.3.351-353). Iago knows that he is a devilish hypocrite, but he seems to beShow MoreRelated Contradictions in Chaucers The Canterbury Tales Essay3897 Words   |  16 PagesContradictions in Chaucers The Canterbury Tales There is no question that contradictory values make up a major component of The Canterbury Tales. Fate vs. Fortuna, knowledge vs. experience and love vs. hate all embody Chaucers famous work. These contrasting themes are an integral part of the complexity and sophistication of the book, as they provide for an ironic dichotomy to the creative plot development and undermine the superficial assumptions that might be made. The combination of completelyRead MoreStudy Guide Literary Terms7657 Words   |  31 Pagesthe pursuit of justice is no virtue. Barry Goldwater *Brutus: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar 14. Anecdote A very short tale told by a character in a literary work. In Chaucers Canterbury Tales, The Millers Tale and The Carpenters Tale are examples a short account of a particular incident or event of an interesting or amusing nature, often biographical 15. antagonist- A person or force which opposes the protagonist