As I Lay Dying (book) Essay Example for Free

As I Lay Dying (book) Essay The character Addie Bundren is portrayed in many ways throughout the novel As I Lay Dying. The whole story revolves around the fact that Addie is dead and her wish to be buried near her blood relatives rather than her own family. The impression the reader gets of Addie is developed through many different characters’ views and descriptions of Addie. One character that helps us understand Addie’s personality a little more is Cora Tull. Cora Tull, Vernon Tull’s wife, expresses Addie’s voice and personality through her memories of Addie. Cora stood with Addie during her final hours. Cora disapproves of Addie’s behavior and lack of religion. Cora dislikes the fact that Addie’s love for Jewel is greater than her love of God. Another character that helps us understand Addie is Minister Whitfield. Addie had an affair with the minister and had a baby. This affair shows how Addie sees marital love and motherhood as empty concepts and are just there to fill empty voids. Addie doesn’t have an affair with the minister solely on lust, but she does it for self-gratification and self-expression also. Vardaman, the youngest of the Bundren children, compares his mother’s death to a fish he recently caught and cleaned. Vardaman compares his mother to a fish because the fish and his mother have both died. The fish and his mother have changed because of death. Both Addie and the fish no longer have essence, which could be interpreted as an existentialist view. In a chapter where Addie seemingly speaks from the dead, Addie’s personality is truly shown. We learn that Addie is a pessimistic and unfulfilled woman, who marries her ignorant husband Anse. She admits to only caring for two of her children and the rest she calls or labels as â€Å"Anse’s children†, who were born out of an obligation. Addie’s personality is put together by the views, comparisons, and descriptions of her youngest son Vardaman, her neighbor Cora Tull, The affair she had with Minister Whitfield, and her own personal voice. Through these views, we could conclude/interpret that Addie was a strong-willed and intelligent woman who dislikes the obligations put on women during that time period. Cora Tull shows her as some who lacks religion. The affair with the minister shows that she is a woman who needed gratification. Her youngest son shows how she is a mother who was completely lost in death and no longer has essence. Her own voice shows that she is a person who feels like women are obligated to fit into the roles of being a mother and a wife.

Negative Leadership Essay -- Leadership

A few years ago I worked at a company that defined the concept of negative leadership. The firm was a start-up company and had a tremendous opportunity for growth, but the potential of the company depended on how the managerial staff and the administration handled the human resources. The company was providing an innovative service for major companies around the world. The company started off well offering the employees prizes for the best monthly performance and a bonus for extra production. "Anyone can say that they have integrity, but a person's actions are the real indicator of their character. Your character determines who you are. Who you are determines what you see. What you see determines what you do. That's why you can never separate a leader's character from his actions. If a leader's actions and intentions are continually working against each other, then look to his character to find out why." (Maxwell, 1999) Everyone in the industry was excited about the prospects of working for this firm. Unfortunately, things turned sour rather quickly, as the leadership team of...

Martin-Pullin Bicycle Corporation Essay

Martin-Pullin Bicycle Corp. (MPBC), located in Dallas, is a wholesale distributor of bicycles and bicycle parts. Formed in 1981 by cousins Ray Martin and Jim Pullin, the firm’s primary retail outlets are located within a 400-mile radius of the distribution center. These retail outlets receive the order from Martin-Pullin within two days after notifying the distribution center, provided that the stock is available. However, if an order is not fulfilled by the company, no backorder is placed; the retailers arrange to get their shipment from other distributors, and MPBC loses that amount of business. The company distributes a wide variety of bicycles. The most popular model, and the major source of revenue to the company, is the AirWing. MPBC receives all the models from a single manufacturer overseas, and shipment takes as long as four weeks from the time an order is placed. With the cost of communication, paperwork, and customs clearance included, MPBC estimates that each time an order is placed, it incurs a cost of $65. The purchase price paid by MPBC, per bicycle, is roughly 60% of the suggested retail price for all the styles available, and the inventory carrying cost is I % per month (12% per year) of the purchase price paid by MPBC. The retail price (paid by the customers) for the AirWing is $170 per bicycle. MPBC is interested in making an inventory plan for 2011. The firm wants to maintain a 95% service level with its customers to minimize the losses on the lost orders. The data collected for the past two years are summarized in the following table (Table 1). A forecast for AirWing model sales in the upcoming year 2011 has been developed and will be used to make an inventory plan for MPBC. Figure 1. QM output for given data. To keep the total costs as low as possible, the optimal order quantity should be maintained. This means an average inventory of 34.14. The Annual Setup cost and Annual Holding cost would both be $417,89. As a result, the total annual inventory cost is $835.78 (2 x 417.89). Discuss ROPs and total costs To determine the Reorder Point (ROP), the demand and the demand standard  deviation must be known. The demand is determined by dividing the total of the 2011 forecast by the number of months and the standard deviation is determined using Microsoft Excel. Figure 2. QM output for ROP As a result of the sum of the Demand standard deviation and the safety stock, the ROP is 76.89 which the inventory position at which an order should be placed. The total costs can be found in Figure 1. Annual inventory holding cost plus annual setup cost plus purchase cost gives the total cost of $45613.79. How can you address demand that is not at the level of the planning horizon According to the sample date, the determined demand shows there is not a so called level demand over the planning horizon. Therefore, the EOQ for an entire year should not be used due to seasonal sales. A planning horizon to use might be a quarterly planned horizon because this would be more evenly distributed and help make a plan for each segment. Reference Render, B., Stair, R. M., & Hanna, M. E. (2012). Quantitative analysis for management (11th edition). Pearson/Prentice Hall.

The Physics Field of Fluid Statics

Fluid statics is the field of physics that involves the study of fluids at rest. Because these fluids are not in motion, that means they have achieved a stable equilibrium state, so fluid statics is largely about understanding these fluid equilibrium conditions. When focusing on incompressible fluids (such as liquids) as opposed to compressible fluids (such as most gases), it is sometimes referred to as hydrostatics. A fluid at rest does not undergo any sheer stress, and only experiences the influence of the normal force of the surrounding fluid (and walls, if in a container), which is the pressure. (More on this below.) This form of equilibrium condition of a fluid is said to be a hydrostatic condition. Fluids that are not in a hydrostatic condition or at rest, and are therefore in some sort of motion, fall under the other field of fluid mechanics, fluid dynamics. Major Concepts of Fluid Statics Sheer stress vs. Normal stress Consider a cross-sectional slice of a fluid. It is said to experience a sheer stress if it is experiencing a stress that is coplanar, or a stress that points in a direction within the plane. Such a sheer stress, in a liquid, will cause motion within the liquid. Normal stress, on the other hand, is a push into that cross sectional area. If the area is against a wall, such as the side of a beaker, then the cross sectional area of the liquid will exert a force against the wall (perpendicular to the cross section - therefore, not coplanar to it). The liquid exerts a force against the wall and the wall exerts a force back, so there is net force and therefore no change in motion. The concept of a normal force may be familiar from early in studying physics, because it shows up a lot in working with and analyzing free-body diagrams. When something is sitting still on the ground, it pushes down toward the ground with a force equal to its weight. The ground, in turn, exerts a normal force back on the bottom of the object. It experiences the normal force, but the normal force doesnt result in any motion. A sheer force would be if someone shoved on the object from the side, which would cause the object to move so long that it can overcome the resistance of friction. A force coplanar within a liquid, though, isnt going to be subject to friction, because there isnt friction between molecules of a fluid. Thats part of what makes it a fluid rather than two solids. But, you say, wouldnt that mean that the cross section is being shoved back into the rest of the fluid? And wouldnt that mean that it moves? This is an excellent point. That cross-sectional sliver of fluid is being pushed back into the rest of the liquid, but when it does so the rest of the fluid pushes back. If the fluid is incompressible, then this pushing isnt going to move anything anywhere. The fluid is going to push back and everything will stay still. (If compressible, there are other considerations, but lets keep it simple for now.) Pressure All of these tiny cross sections of liquid pushing against each other, and against the walls of the container, represent tiny bits of force, and all of this force results in another important physical property of the fluid: the pressure. Instead of cross sectional areas, consider the fluid divided up into tiny cubes. Each side of the cube is being pushed on by the surrounding liquid (or the surface of the container, if along the edge) and all of these are normal stresses against those sides. The incompressible fluid within the tiny cube cannot compress (thats what incompressible means, after all), so there is no change of pressure within these tiny cubes. The force pressing on one of these tiny cubes will be normal forces that precisely cancel out the forces from the adjacent cube surfaces. This cancellation of forces in various directions is of the key discoveries in relation to hydrostatic pressure, known as Pascals Law after the brilliant French physicist and mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). This means that the pressure at any point is the same in all horizontal directions, and therefore that the change in pressure between two points will be proportional to the difference in height. Density Another key concept in understanding fluid statics is the density of the fluid. It figures into the Pascals Law equation, and each fluid (as well as solids and gases) have densities that can be determined experimentally. Here are a handful of common densities. Density is the mass per unit volume. Now think about various liquids, all split up into those tiny cubes I mentioned earlier. If each tiny cube is the same size, then differences in density means that tiny cubes with different densities will have different amount of mass in them. A higher-density tiny cube will have more stuff in it than a lower-density tiny cube. The higher-density cube will be heavier than the lower-density tiny cube, and will therefore sink in comparison to the lower-density tiny cube. So if you mix two fluids (or even non-fluids) together, the denser parts will sink that the less dense parts will rise. This is also evident in the principle of buoyancy, that explains how displacement of liquid results in an upward force, if you remember your Archimedes. If you pay attention to the mixing of two fluids while its happening, such as when you mix oil and water, therell be a lot of fluid motion, and that would covered by fluid dynamics. But once the fluid reaches equilibrium, youll have fluids of different densities that have settled into layers, with the highest density fluid forming the bottom layer, up until you reach the lowest density fluid on the top layer. An example of this is shown on the graphic on this page, where fluids of different types have differentiated themselves into stratified layers based on their relative densities.