Anne Stevensons The Marriage: An Analysis

Anne Stevensons The Marriage: An Analysis Anne Stevenson’s poem, â€Å"The Marriage,† is a playful, subtle and profound description of the differences between men and women, and the difficulties inherent in such, specifically in regards to the unification of the sexes, both physically, spiritually and in terms of societal conventions (thus the title). By portraying these difficulties in pure physical terms – as a couple trying to come together to rest comfortably in bed – Stevenson is able to build a vivid and surprisingly comprehensive and universal depiction of marriage. The poem is from the point of view of the wife, perhaps the author herself, who is trying to figure out a way to position her body against her husband’s so the two will be able to rest snugly at night. With both of them facing the same direction, she in front, he in back, they are nearly successful, but only: †¦if her backbone Cuts exactly into his rib cage And only if his knees Dock exactly under her knees And all four Agree on a common angle Thus positioned – provided their bodies willingly correspond – the husband and wife have achieved unification, or, at the very least, a modicum of comfort. But this is a small victory, or even a false one, for as the narrator continues: All would be well If only They could face each other In three lines, Stevenson has perfectly summed up what plagues marriages, old and new alike: that men and women are inherently different. Not that one is superior and the other inferior – she seems to prescribe to the â€Å"separate but equal† doctrine that is the norm in her homeland of American and her adopted country of England – but that they are uniquely separate entities. Men and women think differently, act differently, and are proportioned differently. And any kind of union between the two, any form of coming-together, is marked my problems. The poet is also asserting that in order for this to occur, a compromise must be enacted. And in any kind of compromise, some things are won (the couple â€Å"fit†) and some are lost (they are not facing each other). While the partners have achieved a level of comfort and intimacy, with her backbone nicely fitting into his rib cage, and his knees docking perfectly under hers, they have lost a major component of such, as they cannot look at one another. Stevenson’s vision of compromise is universal, and does not apply to merely physical situations. The implications correspond to any aspect of a relationship, including, for example, where a couple chooses to settle (one likes the city, one likes the country, so they move to the suburbs), to how they raise their kids (one is a fan of television, one isn’t, so the child watches a minimum amount), to how they spend their money (one likes extravagant things, one prefers simple things, so they buy items that are moderately priced). In all of these situations, both parties are content in that they have achieved satisfaction. While neither got everything they were asking for, each partner got enough (presumably, at least) to remain content. This â€Å"partial victory† is the crux of a successful relationship. But Stevenson is not finished. She goes on with her physical description of the pair, who meet: Nose to neck Chest to scapula Groin to rump And yet, even though the situation is still not ideal – they are unable to face each other, after all – in even this there is a silver lining: They look, at least As if they were going In the same direction While this is merely a small caveat – notice her use of the phrase â€Å"they look, at least,† as if this is merely the appearance of agreement – even so, it is something. And this small something, again, this tiny â€Å"victory† is often enough to make all the difference. Stevenson is celebrating the small moments of daily life and the small â€Å"victories† that are won through compromise. Are the couple, or, in fact, are any man and woman perfectly matched? No. Are there differences between the two that will never be breached? Certainly. But does this mean that one cannot work with this other to achieve some form of balance, even if it is not perfect? Of course not. And, at least in the poet’s mind, this transcendence of differences makes it even more special. In Stevenson’s world, a husband and wife half-consciously groping for each other in the middle of the night is as important as any other compromise made between the sexes. A man moves halfway across the world to be with the woman he loves. A woman changes her religion to be with the man she loves. Both are noble and tremendous acts, but are just as heroic as the couple fumbling in bed. Love, marriage, etc., is both gigantic and intimate, and every act of coming together is important. But let us quickly go back to these words: They look, at least As if they were going In the same direction This passage holds another meaning, that of the fact that the couple is actually not going in the same direction, but only appear to be. Stevenson is saying that looks are deceiving, and while the pair seems to be in agreement, they are in reality far from it. This is a reinforcement of her belief that the sexes are different, and even when they don’t seem to be (a husband and wife both like the same television program, for example, but he enjoys it for the action, she for the sexy leading man), in truth their agendas and perceptions are widely divergent, more than ever. To demonstrate her view of marriage, Stevenson adopts a casual, easy, free verse style, one that is relaxed and light. The words are simple and straightforward, and the situation is commonplace and routine. Underneath, of course, it is a different story, as the subject matter – the differences between the sexes, and how these differences can be overcome – is neither easy nor commonplace. And while she uses the couple’s awkward brushing of body parts to personify this subtext, even this is muted. However, her choice of illustration is highly effective, and she doesn’t need to cloud the issue with excessive metaphor or lofty language. In fact, her technique actually apes her point of view. The mundane act of a man and woman trying to sleep comfortably together is profound, as it not only acts as a representation for the larger compromises that couples must make, but is on its own special and meaningful. By keeping it simple, Stevenson demonstrates the comple x and universal. Anne Stevenson, unlike the never-married Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Bishop (who she is often compared to), has been wed four times. Since 1987 she has been with the Darwin scholar Peter Lucas, and no doubt in those seventeen years she has learned a thing or two about compromise. Her poem â€Å"Marriage† perfectly captures the disparities between men and women, and the contortions that must be performed to unify the two. Marriage, relationships, love, etc., are wondrous, unique things, as are men and women themselves, but they are also universal. Couples must compromise to survive, sometimes in big ways, sometimes in small ones. But all of these compromises are significant, and all of them make us human. Stevenson’s poem, like marriage itself, is both incredibly simple and tremendously complicated. Her basic, straightforward words could not be more profound. Bibliography Hickling, Alfred. â€Å"Border Crossings.† The Guardian Unlimited. 2 Oct. 2004. Stevenson, Anne. Poems 1955-2005. Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books, 2005.

The Repentant Lieutenant in Othello Essay -- Othello essays

The Repentant Lieutenant in Othello  Ã‚        Ã‚   Othello, a William Shakespeare classic, sees the attempted ruination of the general’s right-hand man on more than one occasion by the insidious and jealous ancient. Let’s achieve a better understanding of the lieutenant’s case in this paper.    Cassio’s biggest fall is with the Iago-schemed incident of inebriation. In The Riverside Shakespeare Frank Kermode explains the total meaning of the loss which Cassio’s drunkenness cost him:    Cassio, cashiered, thinks he has lost what Othello is soon really to lose, his reputation: â€Å"I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial† (II.iii.263-64). (We must think of â€Å"reputation† as meaning not merely the good word of others, but that self-respect which is indispensable to social beings, and without which they cannot function well in private or public life. Without it, a man is no more than a beast.) (1200)    Cassio is a blend of good and bad elements, a potpourri of positive and negative features. Kenneth Muir, in the Introduction to William Shakespeare: Othello, explains the ins and outs of Cassio’s personality:    Cassio is defined partly by the exigencies of the plot, which require him to have a poor head for drinking and to have a mistress; but his chivalric worship of Desdemona, his affectionate admiration for Othello, which enable him even at the end to call him ‘Dear General† and to speak of his greatness in heart, and his professional reputation, which only Iago impugns, build up a complex portrait of an attractive, if flawed, character. In spite of his weaknesses, we can understand why Iago should be envious of the ‘daily beauty in his life’ and why Desdemona should speak so warmly ... ...d, a little later, in his sincere regret about the loss of his reputation after he has partaken of the wine which Iago has forced upon him. (85-86)    WORKS CITED    Bevington, David, ed. William Shakespeare: Four Tragedies. New York: Bantam Books, 1980.    Bradley, A. C.. Shakespearean Tragedy. New York: Penguin, 1991.    Coles, Blanche. Shakespeare’s Four Giants. Rindge, New Hampshire: Richard Smith Publisher, 1957.    Kermode, Frank. â€Å"Othello, the Moor of Venice.† The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974.    Muir, Kenneth. Introduction. William Shakespeare: Othello. New York: Penguin Books, 1968.    Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.    The Repentant Lieutenant in Othello Essay -- Othello essays The Repentant Lieutenant in Othello  Ã‚        Ã‚   Othello, a William Shakespeare classic, sees the attempted ruination of the general’s right-hand man on more than one occasion by the insidious and jealous ancient. Let’s achieve a better understanding of the lieutenant’s case in this paper.    Cassio’s biggest fall is with the Iago-schemed incident of inebriation. In The Riverside Shakespeare Frank Kermode explains the total meaning of the loss which Cassio’s drunkenness cost him:    Cassio, cashiered, thinks he has lost what Othello is soon really to lose, his reputation: â€Å"I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial† (II.iii.263-64). (We must think of â€Å"reputation† as meaning not merely the good word of others, but that self-respect which is indispensable to social beings, and without which they cannot function well in private or public life. Without it, a man is no more than a beast.) (1200)    Cassio is a blend of good and bad elements, a potpourri of positive and negative features. Kenneth Muir, in the Introduction to William Shakespeare: Othello, explains the ins and outs of Cassio’s personality:    Cassio is defined partly by the exigencies of the plot, which require him to have a poor head for drinking and to have a mistress; but his chivalric worship of Desdemona, his affectionate admiration for Othello, which enable him even at the end to call him ‘Dear General† and to speak of his greatness in heart, and his professional reputation, which only Iago impugns, build up a complex portrait of an attractive, if flawed, character. In spite of his weaknesses, we can understand why Iago should be envious of the ‘daily beauty in his life’ and why Desdemona should speak so warmly ... ...d, a little later, in his sincere regret about the loss of his reputation after he has partaken of the wine which Iago has forced upon him. (85-86)    WORKS CITED    Bevington, David, ed. William Shakespeare: Four Tragedies. New York: Bantam Books, 1980.    Bradley, A. C.. Shakespearean Tragedy. New York: Penguin, 1991.    Coles, Blanche. Shakespeare’s Four Giants. Rindge, New Hampshire: Richard Smith Publisher, 1957.    Kermode, Frank. â€Å"Othello, the Moor of Venice.† The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974.    Muir, Kenneth. Introduction. William Shakespeare: Othello. New York: Penguin Books, 1968.    Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.   

Importance of Schools Essay

Insertion of Article 25-A in the Constitution has guaranteed the provision of free and compulsory education by the state to all children in the age cohort of 5 to 16 years. The 18th amendment and insertion of Article 25-A has the potential to accelerate the pace of achievement of national and international targets towards the achievements of MDGs since right to free and compulsory education has been recognized. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the lack of appropriate public sector educational institutes leads to the high ratio of drop out from schools. The available public sector schools in KP are not able to support high influx of students passing out from primary schools. Each second union council in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has no high school for girls, leaving thousands of female students to drop out after completing primary education. Latest official data reveals that around 505 out of the total 990 union councils in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have no high school for girls sho wing the apathy of the successive governments towards female education in the militancy-ravaged province. Similarly, 158 union councils have no high schools for boys. In the absence of high schools both for girls and boys majority of the students in the respective areas have no option but to stop going to schools after completing primary education. Unfortunately, on one hand a number of educational institutions, particularly for girls, were blown up or torched in the militant-infested districts of the province while on other the government in past failed to pay heed to establishment of high schools to boost the already deteriorating standard of education. The insecurity and lack of schools have increased the dropout rate of the children in early age. Sitting aside the far-off districts like inaccessible Kohistan and Dir, even the capital city of Peshawar is short of educational institutions. Out of total 93 union councils in Peshawar, about 55 have no high school for girls while 32 of them are without high school for boys, according to the data. Out of 75 union councils in Mardan the sec ond largest city in KP, 34 have no high school for girls and 15 have no high school for boys. The Kohistan district has total 38 union councils but only one of them has a high school for girls. Similarly, its 24 union councils have no high schools for boys. Bannu has 47 union councils and among them 23 have no high school for girls and 15 are without high school for boys. Similarly, 41 union councils in Swat, 21 in Abbottabad, 23 in Chitral, 27 in Charsadda, 14 in Dera Ismail Khan, 10 in  Lower Dir, 33 in Mansehra, 24 in Nowshera, 23 in Lakki, 16 in Battagram, 20 in Upper Dir, 23 in Shangla and 13 in Hangu have no high schools for girls. According to policy analysis report from UNESCO in 2012, there are about 2,845,843 students enrolled at primary level throughout KP, while only 1,077,597 at high schools in KP. This shows that almost 50% get dropped out after primary schools due to one reason or another, the most prevailing of which is the huge difference in the number of institutes both at primary and high level leads to the drop out of most of the students due to the non-availability of high schools in their locality or the high schools available do not have the facilities to accommodate the large number of students. Majority of the population cannot afford the fee structures of private schools so they are unwillingly compelled to discontinue the education of their children, and leaving no option but to involve their children in child labor. The lack of High Schools in the locality also leads to dropout. Due to cultural norms and values people mostly don’t send their female children to schools far from them.

Dell Computers (a): Field Service for Corporate Clients [Hbs 9-603-067]

Case: Dell Computers (A): Field Service for Corporate Clients [HBS 9-603-067] 1. What are the key challenges DELL should be concerned with as it enters the large scale server market? Support service in server market is more critical than in personal computer market, especially when the server is a large scale one, since a problem in server even for a short time could cause serious problem in the customer’s business. Having realized the importance, competitors such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM reduced their response time to enhance the quality of their support service.Dell also is extraordinarily committed to high-quality service, they proposed the response time as short as four hours. In order to accomplish their guaranteed lead time in highly volatile situation, Dell has two big challenges. (1) They should train number of technicians for a high cost. Support service for servers cannot be mainly depended on call center or service website as Dell did for personal computers. (2) T hey have to keep their inventory higher than desired in their operating philosophy where they believed there is an inverse correlation between the amount of inventory and the quality of information. . Should DELL outsource the four hour service level support or should DELL provide the service with in-house resources? Why or Why not? Dell should provide the service with in-house resource if they are to â€Å"win† in the server market because it has been successful in personal computer market with the strategy of â€Å"Dell direct model†. The computer manufacturer’s strength in personal computer market was to deliver high quality products and services tailored to meet customers’ needs.Potential corporate customers will consider purchasing Dell’s server expecting the same thing for servers. Just like Kapoor was wondering, the customers will not buy their servers, if the quality of Dell’s products and services were worse than its competitorsâ₠¬â„¢. If Dell outsources the support service, the quality of service and products will decrease for two reasons. First, they cannot keep entire control over the support service if they cannot train their own technicians.As the case says they value the experience in customer interaction resulting in high quality of their service. They cannot expect the same thing from another company who would do the service on behalf of Dell. Second, Dell has been able to improve the quality of its products by directly interacting with its clients and using the feedback from support service. If Dell loses the source of information or compromise the quality of information, the company will have difficulty to maintain its reputation in product quality.The information from the in-house support service will also help to keep its server parts inventory lean, given they can better estimate the needs of those parts with more accurate information. Of course the company could reduce training cost by outsourc ing support service. However, the price elasticity in server market is lower than in personal computer market since the potential problem that can be caused by bad support service and product is critically serious. Reliability is more important than the cost or the price they could reduce by outsourcing and compromising the quality of their service and product. . If DELL outsources the service support, then should it use IBM as a vendor to provide the service support? Why or Why not? Dell should not use IBM as a provider of the support service even if it decides to outsource the service. IBM may seem to be an attractive service provider because they are the one who can do the job the best. The company has more than 135,000 specialists in support service as well as long and extensive industry experience. However, IBM is a competitor in server market, the strongest one considering their market share.Even though IBM is willing to provide service to Dell, we cannot be sure that it will provide the same quality of service to Dell’s customers as to their customers. Furthermore, if IBM could interact with Dell’s customer frequently, there always is a chance for them to take the customers from Dell. The service provider could obtain critical information regarding Dell’s product, which could also be a cause for competitive loss for Dell. Again, Dell should not lose its opportunity to directly interact with their customer especially to their worst enemy in order to win in the market.

Narrative Story †Alcohol Essay

Last night I had a weird dream that I picked up again. There were no sign of me wanting to quit. It was like I left off from where I stopped 8 months ago. But I had moved back to my family home in the dream and it was during that day when this dream started. I knew it wasn’t all real because my friend who so happened to be in my dream doesn’t actually drive and for some reason he was driving a yellow school bus†¦ Anyway, it was just me, my friend and another guy I’ve never seen. Its summer time and it’s a warm day out because we have the driver’s window open and we’re sweating a bit. So my friend is driving us up to a little town where we work and there’s only one grocery store up there. See more: how to start a narrative essay for college So we are on our way as we’re chatting about something and I don’t exactly copy everything my friend is saying, because I’m sort of staring out of the window sitting beside my friend which is in the driver’s seat. I believe my mind is occupied with whether I want to stop by the grocery and liquor store, so out of nowhere I shake my head out of my trance and said to my friend: – â€Å"Hey man, you’re going right by the grocery and liquor store right? He slowly nods his head and looks at me with his eyes glaring at me like he knew what I was thinking. – â€Å"Yeah, why?† He replies. -â€Å"It is none of your business!† I tell him. He starts to shake his head and is muttering something in disappointment. Within a few minutes he stops at a red light by the grocery and liquor store and I hop out and tell him to come get me within 20 minutes, and then he speeds away. I proudly start walking to the liquor store and start grabbing hard liquor bottles and some beers and I pay the Chinese man behind the counter with a big smile. I drank 3 beers and 2 liquor bottles within only  20 minutes, and as I start to get a bit drunk I walk over to where my friend dropped me off by the traffic lights and I see him just zoom on by and I’m yelling at him to stop. He keeps driving for another 10-20 seconds and with clumsy driving skills he pulls over to the left side of the road. I laughed a little bit and shake my head at his bad driving skills and I quickly walked over with all my bottles in my gray backpack and then he out of nowhere decides to drive away from me, again. I’m screaming at him to stop and the drives away again for about 20-30 seconds and then stops. And because I was in my dream I was not tired and I was able to keep up with the bus, and when he finally pulled over my friend and this other guy I don’t know jumped out of the bus and started to throw rocks at me! I’m yelling at them to stop and ask why they are trying to hurt me. After a short while they finally stop, I walk towards them and my friend starts screaming: -â€Å"Again? Really? I thought we already had this conversation, you promised me to never drink again! Think about your family and all the promises you’ve made! You shouldn’t be drinking, you almost died last time!† As I am trying to calm him down he just shoves me down to the ground again. I somehow try to get back up but my legs won’t move! He starts saying something like: -â€Å"I told you this day would come! Look at you now, you look awful and now you can’t even walk anymore because your body is too damaged from the alcohol intake!† And then I just woke up. All sweaty and shaky I realized it was all just a dream! It somehow felt so freaking real. And when I do think about when I was drinking a year ago, my life was like a dream. None of it seemed real, because I wasn’t living a real life. I kept on drinking all the time, promised myself and my family to stop drinking, but I never did†¦ I’d go to important meetings hung over and buzzed, just throwing my life and career away. I didn’t value life anymore. I felt I had no reason to live. I couldn’t stop drinking on my own, it was nearly impossible and I ended up in two different rehabs from September to December. A.A meetings and therapy is  a part of my past. I have 69 days sober today. Today, even though most days are way beyond shitty and my emotions somehow drown me, at moments I feel a genuine happiness that can’t be found in any pill or medication! I feel grateful that I can look at myself in the mirror and proudly say: â€Å"I’m not a bad person. I can’t change my past and no matter how dirty my past is, my future is absolutely spotless. I take it day by day and I do not drink no matter what. Addiction is what I had, not who I am.†

OLPC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

OLPC - Essay Example The idea of OLPC came to his mind in a deprived village called Reaksmy in Cambodia (MARKOFF, 2005) which needed a 5-hour drive from the nearest city. The people there do not even have electricity, drinking water and the people are mostly very poor. Negroponte established a school there 8 years ago. He also placed a satellite dish to send and receive signals and generators as power supplies. Then they gave a laptop to each child. Immediately, school got a lot more popular and modern as a school in a developed country. Kids who had never had the idea of what a computer looks like before were now a part of the modern world. Nicholas Negroponte was really impressed since the children who did not even have a TV before, had a high speed internet connection now. Negroponte's idea was that children should not have any need for anyone to teach them how to use a computer. He had the idea of designing a laptop computer which they could experiment the way to use it on their own or with a little assistance from a friend. Negroponte says the idea of One Laptop Per-Child is complete... team of engineers and programmers to design and implement a personal computer which could be usable for a child in a Third World conditions, an advanced computer with many innovations. For example, it's the first laptop computer with can be used in open air and in full sunlight. Water may be dropped on the keyboard and it will not be damaged at all. Sand and dust cannot enter the system and this level of protection, keeps it safe for a long time. Recently the OLPC project is facing with a new challenge which is competition and there is a question regarding this goal, If Negroponte's idea is absolutely humanitarian and kids are proposed to be the only persons to benefit from it, why there are companies which want to do the same work Perhaps the large number of needed laptops for children is the reason. With such a big number of cheap laptops going to be distributed around the world, these companies will face with loss of revenue. Intel for example is a company which Negroponte believes is doing an effort to prevent him from achieving his goal for example by giving a laptop to every child in a school in Mexico (IWAP, 2007). But Intel describes this effort as a part of the goal of giving any child a laptop and giving them the access to the most affordable computers. These laptops are now just models and they are not in the process of mass production. It is estimated that at least 3 million laptops is needed to be needed to be produced (OLPC, 2007). Negroponte is sure about getting these orders, even with the increasing amount of competition as other companies are trying to produce cheap laptops. Even considering these competitions, it is believed that the OLPC program will finally result in more kids getting laptops. This is at the end, what Negroponte wanted the

Strategic Management Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Strategic Management - Personal Statement Example In fulfilling my career goal of establishing and managing my own chain of Korean restaurant with the hope of eventually going global in profitable foreign markets, I recognize the importance of fully understanding the process of creating a strategy and implementing that strategy in a day to day basis. In line with what has been discussed in this course, I will be following the specific process in strategic management: development of a strategic vision; setting of objectives; establishment of the strategy to achieve the objectives and vision; implementation and execution of the strategy; and monitoring of developments, evaluation of performance, and making adjustments. I also believe that strategic management is also largely dependent on the company's ability to strategically respond to the challenges and opportunities in its external environment by continuously ensuring the alignment of its resources in carrying out its strategies and ensuring the effectiveness of its chosen strategy and modifying it if situation requires. Like a business organization, I believe that individuals should also take a strategic approach in managing goals and objectives. ... jective is to equip myself with the necessary knowledge and skills academically, be able to secure a start-up position in an international restaurant chain, and move up the organizational ladder while acquiring the strengths and competencies needed in my prospective post. In order to achieve this, I will be building my capability and emphasize my unique skills in order to differentiate myself from my colleagues. This will ensure that I will be getting the entry position in the international restaurant. In order to implement this strategy, I will start as early as now to identify the skills and characteristics that employers require, acquire and develop these skills, and highlight this during the recruitment process. 2. As a CEO you are going with a start-up company who wants to eventually go public. What is your analysis for figuring out what strategy you want to choose What strategy do you finally choose and what steps will you have to take to implement You first need to choose your industry (hospitality)segment. You need to give the reader a scenario that would establish some background for your company. This can be fiction or you can take segments from a real company. A start-up business which eventually hopes to go public will need to survive daunting challenges along the way. The primary concern of this firm will be the identification of opportunities which are not currently taken advantage in the market, establishing a good name in the industry, battling with the established competitors, and the creation and execution of a growth strategy. Deriving its name from the most popular Korean food, Kimchi Restaurant commences its operation last January 2006. Being a start-up Korean chain, it sets up three stores in three key locations including Seoul, Pusan, and