Merger & Acquisitions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Merger & Acquisitions - Essay Example Toronto Dominion Bank (TD) Bank on the other hand is also a multinational bank situated in Canada. It offers multinational banking and financial services and its market capitalization makes it the second largest bank in Canada. TD has four main divisions that is, Canadian Retail Banking, US retail Banking, wholesale Banking and Wealth Management insurance. It is evident that this bank has many branches in the US than in Canada and is focused on expanding its US retail banking business. TD bank consists of the shareholders, board of directors who appoint cooperate governance committee, the human resource committee, the audit committee, the risk committee as well as the management. TD bank consists of almost 79,000 team members. With globalization, there has been great development in the international banking as cross boarder capital movement as well as the unification of financial institutions across the globe. Many banks across the world have had a hard time to cope with constant cha nges and intense competition in the banking sector and this has led to many banks merge so as to cope with the competitive global economy. A merge can be defined as the buying of one company by the other or the unification of two or more banks to form one new bank with an aim of achieving mutual benefits. The reason why TD bank and Wells Fargo should merge is because unifying will enable the banks restructure their entrepreneurial work and look deeply into their strategies of wealth and insurance, personal and commercial banking, wholesale banking and community banking. Wells Fargo services $ 1.8 trillion in home mortgaging. The merging will help the companies provide financial goals by offering financial services to the customers. According to Sylvia Reynolds, Wells Fargo’s marketing director, showing stability to the customers will enable the customer’s earn the company’s trust and this may be acquired through re-shaping and changing some policies to best serv e the customers’ needs (Adubato 2011). The merging will therefore lead to restructuring the companies’ policies towards offering qualitative and quantitative services to their customers. Through the merge, the size of the Well and TD banks will increase. Their production procedures will be rationalized and the banks will be efficient in terms of providing services. The banks will increase the margin of interest rates on loans and deposits in the retail banking market since the customers will have few alternative sources of finance services. The merging of TD bank and Wells Fargo will promote better customer care and this will make TD maintain their customers and reduce the number of customers shifting to other banks due to poor customer care. This is because Wells Fargo is committed to maintaining customers through constantly offering additional services, thanking them and greeting them on a regular basis and this drives more customers to the bank (Adubato 2011) and ha s over 70 million customers World Wide. The merging of the two banks will therefore promote betterment in attending to customers’ financial needs including offering insurance, brokerage and investment services among other services. This will attract new customers and maintain the old customers. The merge of Wells Fargo and TD bank is more likely to

Activity theory Essay Example for Free

Activity theory Essay Cognitive changes: There are several changes that occur with aging, one of which is cognitive slowing. The slowing that occurs in all cognitive tasks where speed of response is a component is considered the most pervasive cognitive change in developmental aging. The probable locus of slowing is in the central nervous system (Bob McCallum, 1998). Pigment lipofuscin builds up in the brain during old age and it gradually results in brain degeneration. The aged brain weighs less, the lateral ventricles tend to be dilated, and the ribbon of cortical tissue is narrowed (Hurlock, 1986). Such degeneration is held accountable for a decline in the brain’s capacity to function. But the average person’s intelligence is not likely to be seriously impaired before age 70 or 75 (Peterson, 1989). With good physical and mental health, adequate educational levels, and intellectual stimulation, it appears that there is not as a great decline in intellectual abilities with age as previously thought, especially in the 60 to 75 age group. Emotional changes: Emotional changes over the adult life span are a topic of considerable importance for psychotherapists working with older adults. At the psychological level, the older adults are more difficult to arouse but also have more difficulty returning to a state of calm once aroused (Woodruff, 1985). The accumulation of experiences leads to more complex and less extreme emotional experiences in later life. A review of research, using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory with older adults, noted that older adults were lower on scales associated with anger, impulsivity, and confusion and argued that people may become less impulsive with maturity (Gynther, 1979, in Bob McCallum, 1998). It was concluded that as a whole, emotionality in older adults may be both more complex and subtler than that of younger adults. Theories on Aging Attempts to understand and explain the lives and activities of those who appear to age successfully have led to the different formation of theories on aging. There are fourmain theories: (a) Disengagement theory: It is based on the notion that as people age they progressively withdraw from social, physical, and emotional interaction with the world. As they gradually disengage themselves, the society too withdraws from its engagement with the aging person (b) Activity theory: It stresses that older people should remain active as long as they possibly can. When certain activities and associations must be given up (for example, employment), substitutes should be found because life satisfaction is highly dependent upon continued social, emotional, and physical involvement. In a positive environment older people generally moved toward activity and informal contacts, rather than disengagement (Butler, Lewis Sunderland, 1998). (c) Socioenvironmental theory: This approach is based on the understanding that people respond to the social meaning of events. Two factors that affect the meaning old people place on events-and thus their interaction patterns-are the physical proximity of other persons and the age homogeneity of an environment (Gubrium, 1973, 1975, cited in Butler et al. , 1973). (d) Developmental theory: Erickson (1963) and Peck (1997) present a theory that describes human development in terms of progression through a series of stages. Old age is a stage of life in which the individual must try to balance the search for ego integrity with a sense of despair. Out of this conflict emerges wisdom the human virtue most commonly associated with old age. The negative emotions associated with this stage, are in part a result of the limitations of a person’s physical and psychological energy (Butler, Lewis, Sunderland, 1991). (e) Biological or medical perspective. Moberg (2002) further elaborates this physical and psychological decline and it’s effect on the elderly. Highlighting aging from the biological/medical perspective of physical decline along with losses of friends, employment, mobility, income, and so forth, has contributed to a pervasive negativism among biosocial scientists that is evident in their different way of talking to (hardly with) elderly persons, avoidance of touching seniors, and other indications of ageism. Opportunities for service are withdrawn from many who are retired, even in churches that use the Bible with its high value for elders, so ‘disengagement theory’ becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Time spent in solitude and meditation can be wholesome, contrary to assumptions of ‘Activity theory’ that lonely outer activities are worthwhile, for being alone is not the same as being lonely!

Phillippe Jaques :: History

Phillippe Jaques When people hear the name Louis Riel, some fill up with anger, others fill up with a thankful sense of happiness, like me and my grandfather for example. Louis was Metis, this was the product of a Voyageur and Indian women having a child. The Metis were famed for their hunting and tracking abilities and were often employed individuals or groups as guides or interpreters. Their farming tradition had its roots in the Red River settlement of Manitoba. Following the massive exodus into Sasketchewan, the Metis again established farms and homesteads. The difficulties encountered by the Metis in gaining clear entitlement to their land and the intervention of land speculators when scrip was issued caused most Metis to lose possession of their farms. "York" boats played a major role in the fur trade industry as they replaced freight canoes on the main water systems of Canada in the late 19th century. They had a larger carrying capacity and required fewer men to operate them. This enabled furs to be transported faster and more economically than by canoe. It took eighteen men to run the York boats: a helmsman to give the orders for rowing, a man to steer and sixteen men to pull the oars. Sails were often used to catch favourable winds. The inland sailors who manned these boats were predominently the Metis men who worked for the fur companies. The The Voyageurs wanted to remain friends with these they married the Indian women. He was a man who stuck up for the rights of his people, such as my grandfather. In this essay I will tell you how Louis Riel contributed to the Confederation within the years 1869-1885, and how it affected my life. I was born on a very cold night on November 16, 1867. I grew up in a very poor family, we barley had enough food for my four other brothers and sisters, and my grandmother. We had to take my grandmother in our home because my grandfather, at the time had to fight with the other metis people to try to get us some reasonable rights. My grandfather, Phillippe Jaques, looked up to, and respected Louis Reil greatly, that's why Phillippe went through this journey with Louis. The reason that Phillippe respected Louis so much was because Louis Reil stood up for everything that he belived in. In 1821 the Hudson Bay company had created a union with the first nations people.

managed healthcare of the elderly

Changes occurring in Health care delivery and Medicine are the result of social, economical, technological, scientific forces that have evolved in the 21st century. Among the most significant changes are shift in disease patterns, advanced technology, increased consumer expectations and high costs of health care. These factors have redefined medical practices to fit into the changing health delivery system. Thus, medical profession is ‘Accountable’ to the society. i.e,obliged to the laws regulating the professional activity. This ‘accountability’ is usually spelt out in â€Å"patient Care Documents† established by hospital associations and medical associations or councils of every country. In addition, medical profession has defined its standards of accountability through a formal code of ethics. There has been a recent significant increase in the number of elderly patients in palliative care units of hospitals in U.S.A and every healthcare delivery system aims to provide the elderly community in need of many services including physical therapy, speech therapy and chemotherapy due to many disabling and terminal diseases. But most of these elderly patients prefer to receive their end life care in a hospice rather than in palliative care units of hospitals. HOSPICE –A MANAGED HEALTHCARE FOR THE TERMINALLY ILL  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  ELDERLY PATIENTS Hospice is a coordinated programme of inter disciplinary care provided primarily in the home of the terminally ill patients. The palliative care is the comprehensive care for patients whose disease is not responsive to cure and hence are terminally ill. In the past two decades there has been a study of enormous magnitude in the palliative care segment and various factors have been identified like, respecting patient’s goals, preferences and choices, attending to the medical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of the person, using strengths of interdisciplinary resources, acknowledging and addressing concerns and building mechanisms and systems of support. Many terminally ill elderly patients suffer only when they do not receive adequate care for the symptoms accompanying their serious illness. This is significant in the changing health care scenario where the patient is well informed, has the right to accept or refuse a treatment, issue advance directives and even appoint a proxy directive. Managed care for the elderly population is relevant in the present day health scenario where euthanasia and physician assisted deaths have found a legal niche as in the State of Oregon. THE MANAGED CARE ADVANTAGE Any health care delivery system is  primarily committed to the principles of patient self-care on the principles of Dorothea Orem (1971) with emphasis on client’s self-care needs. Self-care, according to Orem, is a learned, goal-oriented activity directed towards the self in the interest of maintaining life, health, development and well being. The ultimate emphasis of Orem’s theory is on client’s self care. Accordingly, care is needed when the client is unable to fulfill biological, psychological, developmental or social needs and the health care giver determines by duty why a client is unable to meet the needs or what must be done to enable the client to meet them. Health care of elderly population demands enormous resources of time, energy and money. Hence, every family looks up to any such programs with some faith element. Care of terminally ill population is   still more stressful for the family in a hospice setting and any hospice setting requires a inter disciplinary care provided primarily in the home of the terminally ill patients. Such patients are usually immobilized and it is not medically advisable to take them to a hospital for therapies. Thus, the significance of the services being taken to the patient’s home, especially the elderly, by health care organizations is the need of the hour and future with the time constraints faced by many families in the super fast world in taking these elderly people for a regular therapy, the advantages the patients get in terms of pain relief, effective communication capacity and symptom relief. This feature distinguishes the program from the rest of the health care programs that are currently available. The implementation schedule, i.e., the chronological sequence of events and activities that need to be achieved over a defined period of time to achieve the Goals and Objectives has to be defined by the Organizational Structure of the healthcare delivery system which identifies and describes the role of individuals, and their relationships in the system, who are key to the success of the program. THE DISADVANTAGE There is a perennial shortage of occupational, physical and speech therapists in the health care system in the USA. Thus, there is a growing demand and proportional short supply of professionals. Cognitive impairments pose a serious barrier on the reliability of geriatric assessments (Weiner et.al, 1999). Some of these patients may be marginally competent and some may be incompetent. Effects of cognitive impairment on the reliability of geriatric assessments has been studied recently to explore the relationship between cognitive status and reliability of multidimensional assessment data. The studies have proved that the reliability of the patient’s communication and sensory ability are affected by cognitive status. Thus, any such program aimed at the elderly population should be implemented with care with documented informed consent. REFERENCE Addington Thomas et.al, ‘Ethics and communication with the Terminally ill’, Vol 7(3), 267-281, 1995, Health Communication. Anderson Christina et, al, ‘Continuous Video recording; a new clinical research tool for studying the nursing care of cancer patients, Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol 35(2), 257, July 2001. Astudillo Wilson et, al ‘How can relations be improved between the family and the support team during the care of terminally ill patients?.’ Supportive Care in Cancer Vol 3(1), 72-77, Jan 1995. Barrington Dianne et, al, ‘Facilitating communication and interactional skills with terminally ill patients’ -Teaching and Learning Forum 97, Australia. Chochinov Harvey Max et.al, ‘Prognostic awareness and the terminally ill’, Psychosomatics, Vol 41, 500-504, Dec 2000. Weiner D et, al, ‘Chronic pain associated behaviors in the nursing home : resident verses care giver’s perceptions’, Pain, Vol 80(3), 577-88, Apr 1999.

Does Sex and Violence on Television Have a Negative Effect on Children?

Does sex and violence on television have negative effects on children? The issue that I am addressing is the effect of sex and violence in the media on children. As long as there has been television, there has been an association made between media and violence – children who repeated what they saw on cartoons leading to their death, teenagers injured while emulating a popular movie, and mass killings blamed on video games. Primarily this relationship has been assumed to be causal with television being the assumed central cause in violent or risky behavior.Once you begin delving into the roots of violent and risky behavior, however, the association between modeled violence and expressed violence becomes less and less obvious. Violence in society in general is complicated and requires unpacking so that each aspect of the roots of violence can be analyzed and ultimately discussed in a meaningful way, including acknowledging that the origins are just as layered and complex as the solutions. Summary of Internet Information I began looking into various studies and articles about violence in media to see what kind of information was already available on the subject.There were a number of points of view represented, however, none of them outright dismissed that there was some relationship between sex and violence in the media and violent behavior. The studies also generally agreed that the complexities of violent behavior may potentially be ultimately unknowable because of that complexity. What may drive one person to violence may have little to no effect on another or the level of exposure to images of sex and violence in combination with other influences, including parental and peer attitudes towards sex and violence, may be a stronger relationship than media influence alone.The article â€Å"It’s not all sex and violence† by Agustin Fuentes set the tone for how I came to look at my research because it brought up the important point that sex and violence are over emphasized in modern culture and can give the false impression that sex and violence are at the very center of every human motivation rather than showing the reality that sex and violence are merely two aspects of the human experience, rather than central or common. The topics are scintillating and therefore more discussed.I also included research done to determine the effect of three safe sex campaigns run on Netherlands television during the mid-1990’s in order to see if there were positive messages that were also being sent on television about sex and sexual behavior (â€Å"Can public campaigns effectively change psychological determinants of safer sex? †), an evaluation of three Dutch campaigns that determined that the campaigns were successful in their goals of increasing safe sex practices in the Netherlands.I wanted to see if positive messages about sex and sexual behavior also had an effect on teenagers and young adults as this could be assoc iated back to imitating modeled behavior in general. The determination in the case of the Dutch safe sex campaigns was that effectiveness of the televised messages was related not only to the message itself, but also to the amount of exposure the subject had to the message.Those who were more exposed to the messages were more likely to engage in safe sex than those who were less exposed or not exposed at all. In â€Å"Mass Media Effects on Violent Behavior† by Richard Felson discussed in detail the difficulties of studying the effects of media violence on children because it’s difficult to measure intent and the inherent issues present in building experiments that have the greatest possibility of delivering reasonable results.It was the most comprehensive and inclusive article that I read as it looked at a number of different methods of measuring media effects on children – ultimately demonstrating that there is a provable corollary between exposure to violence seen on television and later violent behavior, however, the media input was shown to be part of a greater set of environmental concerns.What I could determine from my sources was that the greatest issue faced by researchers interested in studying the possible corollary between seeing sex and violence on television and that exposure being the driving force for later acts of violence by the subject is that there is no consensus in the data. Replicating a real world experience in the laboratory requires introducing controls that may cause the subject or subjects to feel freer to engage in extreme behavior as the environment created in the experiment can lack the third-party controls that exist in the real world.There is also some difficulty in repeating the results regardless of the conclusions drawn from the data. Additionally, there are complications where the studies are not necessarily using the same metrics in their research so their conclusions may be similar or even confirm the findings of other research but not using the same methodology. The scientific method relies primarily on replication of results when executing the same experiment and that doesn’t seem to be happening in the research done on this topic.The shared determinations between each of my sources all acknowledged the shortcomings in the research; however, this did not prevent them from coming to some kind of conclusion. The most common conclusion was that there was a relationship, however, that relationship was not a direct one to one corollary. This was true for both negative and positive messages. The general acknowledgements is that while there is an association between exposure to messages in sex and violence in the media, that these messages were not necessarily a driving force in later acts of violence, but were certainly a factor in later acts of violence.Summary of a Research Study The research study that I am summarizing is â€Å"Can public campaigns effectively change psych ological determinants of safer sex? An evaluation of three Dutch campaigns† by M. C. Yzer, F. W. Siero, and B. P. Buunk. The research was designed to establish the effectiveness of Dutch safe sex campaigns that were run between 1994 and 1996. There were several metrics being measured, â€Å"improved attitudes, perceived social norms, self-efficacy and intentions regarding safer sex (Yzer, Siero & Buunk, 1999)The methodology of the study was to use a representative sample of the Dutch population and then ask them to answer electronic questionnaires where you could not advance through to the next question without answering previous questions in order to minimize missing data. Each participant was issued a unique PIN number in order to further identify the participants. There were also five waves of questionnaires, and an individual participant could be eligible for more than one of these waves, however, they could only participate in one wave.The PIN numbers were also used to e nsure that there were no duplicate participants from wave to wave. These methods were also employed to exclude testing effects, history effects, cultural changes and sample differences as alternative explanations for the data collected. (Yzer, Siero & Buunk, 1999) The questionnaires measured attitudes towards safe sex practices, social norms , â€Å"self-efficacy† (Yzer, Siero & Buunk, 1999), and whether or not the participant intended to engage in safe sex practices in the future.The key results in this study were that while the initial levels of positive attitudes and practices of safe sex, there was indeed room for an increase in those metrics. The increases were the most steep immediately after a campaign aired, but that uptick did not dip below the previous level but maintained over time. It was also shown that increases were not always across the board in every category during every campaign. There were different effects that depended on which campaign was aired.When sp lit out into separate categories, â€Å"self-efficacy was enhanced by the 1994 campaign, and that intentions were enhanced by the 1994 and 1995 campaigns. To summarize, all target variables were generally more positive with respect to safer sex after a campaign than before. † (Yzer, Siero & Buunk, 1999) The thesis of the experiment was the following: 1. Attitudes, social norms, self-efficacy and intentions would become more favorable towards safer sex in response to each of the 1994, 1995 and 1996 campaigns. 2.In the period of time after the 1996 campaign when no campaign was conducted (but in a similar time interval as between the 1994 but in a similar time interval as between the 1995 and 1996 campaigns), attitudes, social norms, self-efficacy and intentions would become less favorable towards safer sex. (Yzer, Siero & Buunk, 1999) The data showed that after the campaigns were aired, that all of the measured areas showed an increase both short-term and long-term. They also noticed that there was a quick uptick in positive feelings shortly after a campaign was aired.Overall, the campaigns served to uphold and enhance already present social norms and attitudes towards safe sex and safe sex practices. The conclusions of this study also confirmed the conclusions of a study done in Germany that evaluated German safer sex campaigns. How this relates to the issue of what effect sex and violence on television effects children is that there is here a strong relationship between media messages and future behavior and that this relationship is related to amount of exposure to the message.It was already well established that there was an agreed upon corollary between violence seen on television and violent behavior, however, this study shows that the relationship is also built on frequency of exposure to the medium. Additionally, there can be changes in different areas over time, which shows the diversity of how media messages influence people and how that influe nce can be different while still present. Critical Analysis of Internet Information and Research Study In â€Å"It’s not all sex and violence† by Agustin Fuentes, the information provided by Dr.Fuentes is factual and points out that human beings are diverse and complex beings driven by a variety of things. The overemphasis on sex and violence in media is pervasive and dangerous to how we see ourselves as human beings. The amount of cooperation, joy, sharing, etc. that human beings do far outweigh the amount of violence we engage in as a species. However, we as a species are also fascinated with sex and violence and seek out that information – drawing focus towards it, rather than acknowledging their purpose and role in life and placing it among everything else in life, maintaining perspective.The evidence that is used is a walk through the development of human societies and what scientists know about the behavior of our ancestors and the results of primatologica l research with social behavior of primates. He shows that the majority of the behavior that we engage in is positive and helping behaviors, rather than negative behaviors. The strength of the evidence is weak, but the piece is intended to be an emotional appeal that includes appeals to the intellect. Because of the rhetorical mode of the piece, this is to be expected and does not immediately remove it from consideration as a good source of information.In â€Å"Can public campaigns effectively change psychological determinants of safer sex? † there is a great deal of factual evidence supported by strong evidence with a reasonable and intelligent analysis of the data gathered from their research. The strength of the evidence is significant, especially in light of the inclusion of the information that a German study came to similar conclusions. â€Å"Mass Media Effects on Violent Behavior† is a research study that gathers a number of different research studies and provid es that data along with the conclusions of the author.The information is good and because of the amount of provided data, the reader can see where the author’s conclusions came from. Because of this article’s appearance in a peer-reviewed journal, it can be assumed to be a trustworthy source of information with strong evidence supporting its conclusions. Conclusion In answer to the specific question as to whether or not sex and violence on television is harmful to children – there is no simple answer. Through looking at the evidence, there is an undeniable effect of what people see on television and their future behavior, but that link is not causal.The factors that exist in order to drive an individual to violence are difficult to measure due to basic problems with creating appropriate test trials, the complexity of human nature, and the overwhelming amount of input that everyone has on a regular basis. A worthwhile avenue for research would be to measure expos ure to specific stimuli in media messages and whether or not it’s the amount of sex and violence that someone is exposed to that is the deciding factor in future behavior. Another avenue would be to do a longitudinal study of children of ifferent socio-economic backgrounds to see what other factors exist (exposure to violence in daily life, attitudes about sex, etc. ) along with measuring how the child is interpreting the media messages that it is exposed to along with the frequency of that exposure. It would be holistic, but perhaps prohibitively complex and long term to execute. What remains unknown is what the full impact of media messages on children is, there is an effect, that’s undeniable, but that effect is clearly influenced by a variety of factors and may only be a reflection of what the child has already learned elsewhere.References Bushman, B. (2013). Why do people deny violent media effects?. Psychology Today, Retrieved from http://www. psychologytoday. co m/blog/get-psyched/201302/why-do people-deny-violent-media-effects Felson, R. (1996) Mass media effects on violent behavior. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 103-128 . Retrieved from http://www. jstor. org. libproxy. uml. edu/stable/2083426 Fuentes, A. (2013). Busting myths about human nature. Psychology Today, Retrieved from http://www. psychologytoday. com/blog/busting-myths-about-human- nature/201302/it-s-not-all-sex-and-violenceWalker, M. (1983). Some problems in interpreting statistics relating to crime. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 146(3), 281-293 . Retrieved from http://www. jstor. org. libproxy. uml. edu/stable/2981656 Yzer, M. C. , Siero, F. W. & Buunk, B. P. (1999). Can public campaigns effectively change psychological determinants of safer sex? An evaluation of three Dutch campaigns. Health Education Research, 15(3), 339-352. Retrieved from http://her. oxfordjournals. org/content/15/3/339. full

Quotes From The Handmaids Tale

Quotes From The Handmaids Tale The Handmaids Tale is a best-selling novel by Margaret Atwood set in a feminist dystopian future in which war and pollution have made pregnancy and childbirth increasingly difficult and women are enslaved as prostitutes  or virginal concubines - handmaiden - in an effort to repopulate and control the population. Atwoods beautiful, haunting prose in The Handmaids Tale is told from the first person perspective of a woman called Offred (or Of Fred, her master). The story follows Offred through her third service as a handmaiden and also offers flashbacks to her life before the Revolution that led to this new American society founded on religious fanaticism. Blessed be the fruit, Atwood writes in Chapter Four, an indoctrination for the handmaidens who have to go through intense training for their servitude before being assigned to a master whose child she will bear. Read on to discover more quotes from this famous novel and learn more about the not-too-distant-or-improbable future of Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale, which is also an acclaimed television series. Quotes About Hope In Dystopia The character of Offred carries with her a certain quiet optimism that her daughter, who was taken from her when she tried to flee to Canada with her husband at the start of the revolution, is still alive, though this hope is diminished by the harsh conditions she lives under as a handmaiden, as described in Chapter 5: There is more than one kind of freedom ... Freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Dont underrate it. Of her daughter, Offred says, also in Chapter 5, She is a flag on a hilltop, showing what can still be done: we too can be saved. Here, the character reveals her hope hinges upon the fact that her daughter has still not turned up on the wall where the ruling class hangs sinners near where Offred is held. Still, this optimism and hope is nothing in the face of the reality Offred finds herself in, and she admits in Chapter 7 that shes pretending the reader can hear her, But its no good because I know you cant. The Other Handmaidens Offred seems to have contempt for her fellow handmaidens, perhaps for their complacency or their simplistic view of the world: They are very interested in how other households are run; such bits of petty gossip give them an opportunity for pride or discontent. Still, Offred shared similarities with all other handmaidens in that they were the people who were not in the papers, the ones who lived in the blank white spaces at the edge of print, which Offred said gave them more freedom. All of them also undergo an indoctrination, a brainwashing ritual at the Academy where they train to be handmaidens. In Chapter 13, Offred describes a scene where the handmaidens are all seated in a circle around a woman confessing to being raped - Her fault, her fault, her fault, we chant in unison, Atwood writes. The woman training them, Aunt Lydia, also encourages all the handmaidens that though the new concepts introduced in their schooling may seem strange at first, they will eventually become mundane, but if not, the handmaidens would be punished for stepping out of line like one woman Offred describes in Chapter 8: She doesnt make speeches anymore. She has become speechless. She stays in her home, but it doesnt seem to agree with her. How furious she must be now that she has been taken at her word.   Offred feels a pressure to fulfill these new standards despite herself, and in Chapter 13 says of her shortcomings, I have failed once again to fulfill the expectations of others, which have become my own. In Chapter 30 Offred says of her oppressors, That was one of the things they do. They force you to kill, within yourself, and ultimately in Chapter 32, she realizes an important lesson when her master Fred tells her,  Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse for some.   Various Other Quotes I dont want to look at something that determines me so completely. (Chapter 12)Give me children, or else I die. Am I in Gods stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Behold my maid Bilhah. She shall bear fruit upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.(Chapter 15)Moira had power now, shed been set loose, shed set herself loose. She was now a loose woman. (Chapter 22)Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isnt really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isnt about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe its about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing. (Chapter 23)There is something subversive about this garden of Serenas, a sense of buried things bursting upwards, wordlessly, into the light, as if to say: Whatever is silenced will clamor to be heard, though silently. (Chapter 25)Agreed to it right away, really she didnt care, anything with two legs and a good you-know-what was fine with her. They arent squeamish, they dont have the same feelings we do. (Chapter 33) And Adam was not deceived, but the women being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved by childbearing. (Chapter 34)There is something reassuring about the toilets. Bodily functions at least remain democratic. Everybody shits, as Moira would say. (Chapter 39)The trouble is I cant be, with him, any different than I usually am with him. Usually, I am inert. Surely there must be something for us, other than this futility and bathos. (Chapter 39)It makes me feel more in control as if there is a choice, a decision that could be made one way or the other. (Chapter 41)The crimes of others are a secret language among us. Through them, we show ourselves what we might be capable of, after all. This is not a popular announcement. (Chapter 42)Dear God, I think, I will do anything you like. Now that youve let me off, Ill obliterate myself, if that is what you really want; Ill empty myself, truly, become a chalice. Ill give up Nick, Ill forget about the others, Ill st op complaining. Ill accept my lot. Ill sacrifice. Ill repent. Ill abdicate. Ill renounce. (Chapter 45) Dont let the bastards grind you down. I repeat this to myself but it conveys nothing. You might as well say, Dont let there be air; or Dont be. I suppose you could say that. (Chapter 46)

My Childhood essays

My Childhood essays The experiences of my past are undeniable. It goes without saying that my childhood was more than just a learning experience. These are my greatest memories! This is an essay is not only on my childhood but also about the lessons I have learned throughout my childhood. At the age of 3 or so, my mom and dad moved to the states. My mother, originally from Germany, brought us overseas due to my father who was in the United States Army. I can not tell you what his rank was or pretty much any other detail about him because I honestly do not recall anything of the sort. I remember that at one point and time we lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado. My sisters and I would play outside constantly more than likely because we had a tendency to drive our parents crazy with our wild and rambunctious nature. I recall we would run around in the yard jumping as high as we possible could trying so hard to catch the huge balloons that would float above us. As far as we could tell they were coaxing us begging for our attention! We were willing to give that attention struggling with our minds trying to find some way to get them down. The harder we tried the easier is seemed we were able to fail on that specific attempt. It seemed as though just as we had moved to thi s glorious land we were being forced to move. Feeling as though we had been given the worst punishment in the world, we packed up our possessions and moved away. This landed us into the great land of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. I really remember that city more than others that we had lived in. This is where the evil turkey once lived. I dreaded every day that I had to come face to face with this demonic animal. I would go outside to play and of course my picking on this bird that was four times my size really did not help matters. He would run after me pecking my clothes looking for god knows what and of course I would curl up into a ball begging it to leave...