Bonnie and Clyde: Beginning of a New Hollywood Era

BONNIE AND CLYDE : â€Å"Beginning of the New Hollywood Era. † Bonnie and Clyde is a 1967 American crime film about Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, the criminal version of Romeo and Juliet, the true story of the most beloved yet infamous outlaws, robbers and convicts who journeyed the Central United States during the Great Depression. The film was directed by Arthur Penn, and stars Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker, and Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow. Bonnie and Clyde is reckoned as one of the 60s' most talked-about, volatile, controversial crime/gangster films combining comedy, terror, love, and ferocious violence, and regarded as one of the first films of the New Hollywood era, in which it broke many taboos and was so popular amongst the younger generation. After its success, it encouraged other filmmakers to be more forward about presenting sex and violence in their films. The film was intended as a romantic and comic version of the violent gangster films of the 1930s, updated with modern filmmaking techniques. To begin with the film opens with a lap dissolve from a golden, old-style Warner Bros shield, grainy, unglamorous, blurry, sepia-toned snapshots of the Barrow and Parker families (at the time of Bonnie and Clyde's childhood) play on a black background, accompanied by the loud clicking sound of a camera shutter (The credit titles are interspersed with flashes of more semi-documentary, brownish-tinged pictures) to an extreme close up of Bonnie applying ruby red lipstick. The implication of the lap dissolve is that they will be linked in the film, and that love will be involved. The sound bridge also emphasis love, as the song concludes with the words â€Å"deep in the arms of love† and further links Clyde and Bonnie. So from the start, Penn introduces the love story as central to the film, and view everything that follows from within this framework. A subsequent pan right results in a close up of Bonnie reflected in a mirror, revealing her face and her styled hair. The camera does a clever little dance insuring that Dunaway shows plenty of skin without really revealing anything, as jagged jump cuts slice away whenever her motion within the rame threatens to bring her nudity across the line of acceptability. The medium shot that follows shows the water marks in the ceiling and wall of her low-income frame house, indicating her dire financial straits. When she she flings herself down on her bed, the bars both run diagonally across the screen and cast shadows across her face indicating for us the prison she feels she feels she’s in as she repeate dly strikes the cage surrounding her. Based on how she saw herself in the mirror, she clearly thinks she deserves better. The following close up (when she grabs the bars) and zoom into an extreme close up of her eyes reflects her torment. As the camera holds her face, we can see the resignation in her face as she turns to get dressed for work. Bonnie is trapped in a dead end life. By stressing this aspect of her life, Penn has us initially glimpse Bonnie in the best possible light. This scene also explains Bonnie’s following actions in two ways. First is that she understands exactly how Clyde must have felt in prison when they later meet, establishing an immediate bond between them. The second is that, when Clyde tells her that he cut off two of his toes to get out of a work detail, she believes him for the man of action he portrays himself to be , (â€Å"Boy, did you really do that. †). This compares favorably with her desire to rise above her own dull circumstance and take action within her own life. It's understandable then when Bonnie rides off in the car stolen by a man who has robbed a grocery store, who she has only known a few minutes (but has connected with emotionally. ) The idea of a decent young woman in a dead end town working a dead end job during the Great Depression escaping with a convicted felon is made even more acceptable by the mise-en-scene and cinematography. The deep focus of the opening scene allows us to see her room humbly decorated with a small, vulgar collection of porcelain figurines and a rag doll, and a few family photographs are tacked on the drab wall. These details allow us to see Bonnie as an ordinary person. Likewise, Clyde is portrayed as a clean cut gentleman with white fedora hat, white shirt, and tie and jacket, and a bright white smile. His jacket, a warm brown earthy brown, softens any inclinations we may have of him as a criminal after Bonnie catches him about to steal her mother’s car. The mise-en-scene on the long tracking shot down an empty Main Street (except for one elderly Negro sitting on a bench in front of the barber shop) in the small, rural, Southwest Texas town allows us to connect the hard times and limited opportunities (boarded up stores) that surround Bonnie and Clyde and then a close-up of Clyde’s face. Clyde’s mouth is dominated by objects, like the Coke bottle and the match, which demonstrate his confidence. Perhaps, a close-up shot is used instead of the standard wide shot is to emphasize this aspect of Clyde’s personality. When Bonnie rubs the tip of the bottle of coke across her lips and flicks her tongue in her mouth as she watches Clyde gulped his and smiles, the shot is closed-up to emphasize Bonnie’s sexual curiousity. In a longer shot, Bonnie both turns aways from Clyde, but then turns back toward him in order to give him another opportunity to prove his violence, Clyde pulled out his gun and clandestinely showing it to her. The wide shot allows this action to play out on screen – both her change in attitude as well as his last effort. The wide shot also manages to obstruct the gun from the audience’s view by not showing it in close-up until later. From this still frame, it’s even difficult to see what the object that he pulls from his pocket is exactly. Then, a quick close-up of Bonnie’s face presents her intrigue at seeing Clyde’s gun. to a close-up of Clyde’s gun as he holds it at his waist and points it in her direction. The Coke bottles are now put away and missing from the last couple close-ups as their relationship moves onto the next stage. The establishing shot of the main street in town introduces the flat, empty, barren country all around them. After Clyde robs the grocery store and during their first escape in the stolen car, the scenes are pretty much rough cuts of Bonnie smothering Clyde with hugs and kisses as they careen down the dusty country road. During the hurried getaway, banjo music by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs (â€Å"Foggy Mountain Breakdown†) plays on the soundtrack – theme music that accompanies their escapes. This piece of music later will be repeated in lots of scenes. In the end of the clip, We’ll be introduced to the us-against the world theme, where Bonnie and Clyde engaged in a rather serious conversation where after Clyde diverting her physical arousal, entices Bonnie into a glamorous life with his own unrealistic, ignorant and childish fantasies of freedom, wealth and fame. He encourages her to think of him as the answer to her dreams – they could make history together. The fact is, on the whole, Bonnie and Clyde is driven by the quality of its performances, by the multiple layers and nuances these actors bring to their legendary characters. Most of the characters are portrayed as accurately as possible, however, it seems like the life of Bonnie and Clyde were simplified and exaggerated in the film, in order to keep the film exciting and also convey the emotions and ideas that scenes are trying to get across. Like in the scene when Bonnie first realizes that Clyde isn’t much a â€Å"loverboy†, it pours out loads of bullshits about how Clyde, nevertheless, saw something special in Bonnie, which Bonnie buys it, when if you’re realistic enough considering her insecurity and desperation to escape her small town ennui, but the director seems to expect the audience to buy it as well, to see this tale as a Hollywood tragic love story. And of course in the end, this is an exceedingly shocking film, that brings tragedy full circle, all that more affecting with the disarming comedy, which always seemed to intensify the serious tone. However, overall, Bonnie and Clyde has succeeded as one of the first films to bring a new, tougher sensibility to mainstream Hollywood filmmaking, a sensibility that would come to define the new American cinema as the 60s transitioned into the 70s. It is an openly violent and sexualized vision of the famous criminal couple, testing the boundaries of screen representation. And that’s pretty much the time when we say hello to the New Hollywood Era.

Family and Technology Essay

The internet is affecting the way modern families interact with each other in negative ways. Experts are saying that there is a connection between a recent increase in childhood injury and parents being distracted by technology (Worthen). Additionally, young children have to compete with technology for their parent’s attention. Children are lacking the important interaction that should be taking place between parent and child. Consequently since children grow up seeing mom and dad glued to some form of technology, they learn to do the same and inevitably technology becomes the center of the family. The family is together physically, but mentally and emotionally they are stretched thin between all of their gadgets. From the beginning of a child’s life they are likely to be surrounded by people using Smartphones with cameras, capturing their very first moments. Little do they know that devices like these are going to have a profound effect on their lives maybe sooner than later. According to the Centers for disease control and prevention nonfatal accidental injury rates for children ages zero to five had been steadily declining since the 1970’s, based on emergency room records. Suddenly from 2007 to 2010 these rates went up 12%. Ironically Apple introduced its IPhone in mid-2007 and according to research firm Comscore 9 million Americans owned smart phones at that time. By the end of 2010 that number soared to 63 million. Factors, such as riskier behavior among children and an increase in parents taking children to emergency rooms have been mentioned by child injury experts as the cause for these increases (Worthen). Although the Wall Street Journal interviewed dozens of pediatricians, emergency-room physicians, academic researchers and law enforcement who all agree that using a smart phone while supervising a child could increase the risk of an accident (Worthen). Students, at Temple University observed 30 parents and their children in public places and found that in nearly every case the parent stopped whatever they were doing with their child to use a device. â€Å"In one case a parent let go of her kids hand in the middle of a busy street in Philadelphia in order to check a text message,† says Psychologist Kathy Hirsh-Pasek (Worthen). Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood called for a crackdown on distracted drivers and warned that the use of internet and handheld devices while driving can be a deadly distraction (Greenblatt). It’s a fairly small leap to suggest that supervisors are distracted,† says David Schwebel, a professor of psychology who specializes in injury prevention (Worthen). An example of a fatal accident in which the Florida Department of Children and Families concluded that the drowning of a two year old boy was a direct result of inadequate supervision. The evidence in the case proved that the boy’s mother was â€Å"tweeting† for five minutes before she pulled the boy out and called 911 (Worthen). This is an extreme case where the effect of internet social media left a family devastated by the loss of a child. In Infancy a child’s activity level is low, leaving parents with plenty of time to text message and use the internet. As the child gets older and their brains develop they start to require more engaging activities, which should be provided by parents, but with dad busy checking emails and mom updating her Facebook account, children are lacking the one on one interaction with parents. In the past it was typical to hear about parents who were always nagging their kids to get off the computer or to stop texting, whereas lately the attention has also shifted to the parents (The Washington Post). Many parents are coming forward and openly admitting that their kids are doing all kinds of things, such as banging on keyboards and throwing smartphones to get them to look up from their screens and participate in a family activity. For those who counter that social media and text messaging are helping them stay more in touch with their kids than ever before, experts stress that while these technologies can be a positive communication tool, there is simply no substitute for face-to-face contact. Being able to look your child in the eye, to reflect what they’re thinking, and to really be there with them in a way you can’t be in a text, is incredibly valuable, because it teaches kids to reflect on their own mental state and shows they’re not alone in the world. Eye contact is the number-one sign that you’re relating to your kid,† says child psychiatrist, Patrick Kelley (The Washington Post). Engaged parenting is the key to early childhood learning and it seems evident that parents distracted by all the devices in the home may hinder the child’s development. Kelley states that all the new technology and connectivity comes at a price of not paying much attention to those around us and suggests parents who are easily distracted by technology are modeling potentially harmful behavior for their impressionable children (The Washington Post). Richard Foremen a playwright describes the risk of turning into â€Å"pancake people† spread wide and thin, connecting with a vast network of information and social media that is so readily available (Carr). There is a small window of time where parents have the opportunity to limit their use of technology and set a positive example for their children. How many parents have been seen focused on their mobile phones instead of paying attention to their kids? MIT professor Sherry Turkle finds that kids raised the same three examples of feeling hurt and not wanting to show it when their mom or dad would be on their devices instead of paying attention to them, one of these examples was being at sporting events (Scelfo). Turkle explains that yes it is widely known that teens text all the time, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want their parents’ undivided attention when they are picked up from school or sitting at dinner (Dizikes). All the mental and emotional distance between family members has detrimental effects on family interaction. The Kaiser Family foundation did a study and found that children who use the internet the least do better in school and get along better with their families (Greenblatt). The age of children who get cell phones is getting younger and younger. As of 2009, 20 percent of kids between six and 11 years old had a cell phone, according to a Mediamark survey (Conger). Now, Imagine a family where dad has his lap top, mom has her tablet, the kids have smartphones and there is a desktop computer in the home. It’s a given that the face to face interaction between this family will go down especially if there are no limits set on how often and how long internet devices are allowed to be used.

Physical Beauty vs Inner Beauty

Physical Beauty vs. Inner Beauty Beauty is an aspect; a characteristic that a person has which can be defined as anything that appeals the other person. Let it be your personality, your looks or even your habits, beauty can have various forms. Similarly, we have physical beauty, which can be a person’s elegance, features, figure, or complexion, and inner beauty can be your personality traits, your habits or even your sense of humor. The definition of beauty keeps on changing based on what every individual perceives. Scientific research showed that physical beauty was usually defined when a person had the face structure that was close to being symmetrical; he/she was often referred to as being beautiful. Inner beauty is a concept that is related to the intellect or other factors that pleases other people. Usually, people who have pure intentions towards others and can serve to be role models are said to have inner beauty. The difference between both types of beauty is evident but when it comes to applying it practically, inner beauty leads the way. Even if you look at the way we run now a days if you find someone physically appealing and you personally know him or her and the personality that they have, you are the best judge of their character. One may be beautiful from the outside, but beauty lies within the person not outside. Even if the person is an epitome of beauty, an appalling personality will erase any type of loveliness they have on his or her face. The same is the case with those who are beautiful on the inside, they may not be beautiful on the outside, but their personality is such that they are still appealing to those who know them. They may be the personification of physical beauty but what lies inside is what matters the most at the end of the day. Vanity, greed, jealous or the other sins may come to any person in any form but knowing who you are is the important factor in life. Therefore, inner beauty wins this argument when it comes to being practical, it is the person that you are which matters to people not the way you look. Even though looks do count to an extent, if you have the traits of a lovable person, no looks can match up to it. It is the purity within that out shines on the face and if their insides are not ntainted, it is bound to show to the people, despite the looks that you may have. Beauty may be in the eyes of the beholder, but it is equally true that every culture has standards for physical attractiveness- standards that can have tremendous influence in many areas of our lives. Although we know that it is who we are on the inside that really counts, we cannot dismiss the role outward charac teristics- particularly facial features- play in forming personal relationships, being accepted into social groups and opening doors to careers and other opportunities. Today, we are divided into races and cultures and are spread all around the world. Our features and intellect may be the same, but there is always a factor in everyone that makes them distinctive from others. When both these types of beauties play important parts, one can never decide which is more important. Everyone takes these matters in different ways but the fact remains the same, inner beauty contributes the most in the practical life. Outer beauty normally refers to your outer physical appearance the way you dress, walk, talk; every action that you make can be defined as â€Å"outer beauty†. Inner beauty on the other hand refers mostly to how kind hearted, friendly or your sensibilities and weather you are at peace with yourself. References Www. Chabad. org/the Jewish women/ article-cdo /aid/39778/ Jewish /undercover. htm www. A women’s Journey of Understanding Modesty-Inner and Outer Beauty. com Sole, K. 92010). Essentials of College Writing. San Diego, Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (https://content. ashford. edu/AUENG121. 10. 1) http://www. ashfordwritingcenter. com/

Recent Current Event Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Recent Current Event Analysis - Essay Example 3). This was corroborated by U.S. Senator Marco Rubio whose statements during a radio interview on From Washington al Mundos show and was disclosed to expound on â€Å"how access to the Internet empowers individuals and can be used to help promote democracy† (Capitol Hill Cubans). The main argument in the article is that the "Internet use is a less effective means to mobilize citizens for democracy in extremely authoritarian countries† (Science Daily par. 4). As indicated, the relevance of the results focus on supporting the comparative method and the modernization theory which clearly demonstrates that â€Å"there are some countries that currently appear to have the right political and technological mix for the internet to play a role in social and political change. Those countries include Kenya, Senegal, Uganda, Singapore and Zambia. But countries in the survey that are run by highly authoritarian regimes, such as Vietnam and Zimbabwe, are not likely to see democracy flourishing anytime soon, regardless of use of the internet† (Science Daily par. 13 & 14). Under the modernization theory, â€Å"advanced industrial technology produces not only economic growth in developing societies but also other structural and cultural changes† (Armer and Sillis par. 7). One strongly believes that the Internet has actually accorded vast opportunities for transformations that include political change. However, as contended in the article, political change could only be possibly effectively promoted using the Internet when current political structure permits its prolific application. As validated, in countries where complete authoritarian power rules, there are expected restrictions and constraints in accessing the Internet and in freely communicating personal ideas and thoughts – for the precise reasons that these governments preclude its people to plant the seeds of democracy, as could possibly be propagated through the

Scientific Publications Exercise Research Paper

Scientific Publications Exercise - Research Paper Example ar dynamics simulations have shown that interactions of lipid head groups with the protein is with the help of weak charge and hydrogen bond interactions. A set of exchange reactions governs the effective binding of lipid molecules usually defined by equilibrium constant. Thus the annular site on a protein membrane bilayer containing PC and PS mixture would be occupied by either a PC or a PS molecule Author were trying to prove that the anionic lipids could significantly effect the functioning of channels. This is evident from the explanations on the lipid phosphatidylserine which made the channels active irrespective of phosphatidylcholine being present in large numbers. The conclusion is inadequate to establish their claims. Though the author is of the opinion that binding to large charge clusters could influence the anionic lipids on the channel function , they also believe that the collective influence of the physical properties of the lipid layer cannot be ruled out. It was suspected earlier that an infectious agent was associated with the initiation of cancer in any normal cell. After one hundred years of research it is established that the viral, bacterial or a parasitic infection had a definite role in the human carcinogenesis. Further, the estimates have shown that the proportion of vulnerable cancer cases could also be reduced to a level of 20 percent if particular infectious agents could be eliminated. The enquiry to explore where the infectious agent causing cancer is partially answered in the case of Merkel cell carcinoma. Some of the carcinoma condition was developed after having infected with epidemic like AIDS. The research results presented in this paper explain that just detecting the microbial genome cannot confirm the incidence of cancer. Also, it is proposed that no one can infect a person with the causative agent and then wait for any signs of incidence of cancer. Thus the authors confirm that the evaluation method that assigns specific

Qualitative proposal research regarding ARE DOCTORS SUPPORTIVE OR Thesis

Qualitative proposal research regarding ARE DOCTORS SUPPORTIVE OR OBSTICLES IN QUALITY IMPROVMENT PROGRAM - Thesis Example Physicians often view CQI as a threat to professional autonomy (McLaughlin & Kaluzny, 1990) and are skeptical that a management technique can improve patient outcomes. Structural barriers, including inadequate training (Shortell et al., 1995), longstanding social norms (Mittman, Tonesk, & Jacobson, 1992), and the fact that many physicians are independent providers (Chan & Ho, 1997), can also impede physician involvement in CQI and other changes in health care. Physician involvement in CQI becomes critical as quality improvement initiatives turn from administrative functions (e.g., streamlining outpatient registration) to clinical functions (e.g., increasing adherence to clinical practice guidelines). Unfortunately, traditional approaches to physician behavior change are unlikely to increase physician involvement in CQI. A meta-analysis of 102 studies examining the efficacy of continuing medical education strategies found that our most heavily used interventions, educational materials and conferences, tend to have little impact on physician behavior or patient outcomes in health care (Davis, Thomson, Oxman, & Haynes, 1995). There is growing recognition that the success of interventions may depend in part on individual readiness to change (Armstrong, Reyburn, & Jones, 1996; Cantillon & Jones, 1999; Davis et al., 1995). The transtheoretical model (TTM, also known as the stage model), one of the leading approaches to health behavior change, offers a promising approach to behavior change among health care professionals. The model systematically integrates the following four theoretical concepts central to change: The TTM understands change as progress, over time, through a series of stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Nearly 20 years of research on a variety of health behaviors have identified processes of change that work best in each stage to facilitate progress. This research can serve as a

Article Summaries Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Article Summaries - Research Paper Example The Board of Regents also wanted to revitalize their education system to fill in the many job openings available in the state which needed certain educational attainments, which in turn could be potential in increasing economic growth in the state. The university plan has just started on July 1, 2012, so the article has no full list of results yet. The Board of Regents of the University System of Ohio made the change in the educational system so that their graduates would become more productive and also to fill the need for professionals in the state of Ohio, both in the business and education sector. Because the plan just started on July 1, 2012, not many results are out yet, but the prevention of high tuition fee increase, faster educational track, saving in school constructions, and inviting investors to generate funding in the universities were already started. The Board of Regents expects that when the changes have all started, there would be an economic growth in the state, more jobs will be filled in, and more students will become productive and better at their careers. The implications of the plan would be that more students can go to universities because the tuition fees are lower, and more will graduate on time and have jobs because the curricula would be more fitted to application in the real world and taught at a faster and more effective rate. The schools can also increase their funding because of additional investors, and their potential of being an economic strength can be released. It is recommended that the results of the changes be checked after one or more years of implementing so that the Board of Regents can see whether the changes made an impact on the labor forces of businesses in Ohio, in the universities’ school standards, and also of the students that graduate from Ohio

Children of Older Men at Greater Risk of Mental Illness Article

Children of Older Men at Greater Risk of Mental Illness - Article Example According to research studies, children with older fathers are at risk for a number of psychiatric conditions. These include autistic disorder, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as well as bipolar disorder. Children suffering from such conditions also report to struggle at their schools, have poor learning abilities and impaired cognitive development. Scientists suggest that the increased risk can be explained by the increased number of genetic mutations that build up in the sperms as the men get older. Children of older fathers also had increased risk of having suicidal behavior and drug abuse. These findings were published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. However, the studies are restricted to comparisons between the siblings and it is difficult to separate the overlapping dimensions of paternal age, children’s age and the order of birth. In many countries, the age of first-time fathers is increasing which is an alarming sign keeping view the current res earchers. The average of men who are first-time fathers in England is 30.8 to 32.6 years which clearly increases the risk of educational, psychiatric and behavioral problems in the children. The article brings to attention a significant aspect of biological science associated with reproduction and conceiving. Being aware of the medical problems our children are at risk is an important aspect for the parents as they are constantly worried about the well-being of their children. The association of increasing age of fathers and the increased risk of psychiatric conditions and behavioral disturbances in children is a resourceful research.  

Male Bird Song Evolves in order to Attract a Female for Mating Research Paper

Male Bird Song Evolves in order to Attract a Female for Mating - Research Paper Example Further these qualities are also indicators of the physiological characteristics and genotype of the male partner and thus have high likelihood of influencing female choice. However the study of birdsong and its evolutionary significance in influencing female choice is yet at its infancy. Many new aspects are beginning to emerge. Deriving conclusions and making generalization at this stage would be inappropriate and inaccurate. MALE BIRD SONG EVOLVES IN ORDER TO ATTRACT A FEMALE FOR MATING INTRODUCTION Birdsong can be defined as long complex vocalizations produced mainly in breeding season (Catchpole & Slater, 1995). The best known birds in terms of their singing abilities are oscine birds, also referred to as passerines or perching birds. They belong to the order Passeriformes and are classified on the basis of their unique musculature of the syrinx or the vocal organ (Warner, 1972). In most of the temperate species of passerines, the males are exclusively the singers. The male bird sings either as a means of expression during male-male aggression or for attracting the female (Catchpole & Slater, 1995). ... BACKGROUND Communication is a primary requisite for functional ability. Humans must communicate to form relationships, fulfil their needs, organize and function. Animals communication is essential for food gathering, reproduction and survival; the three basic needs of all animals. However, unlike humans animals do not speak. In fact all animals possess their unique methods of communication (Hauser, 2000). Flowers send signals in form of fragrances and colour at the time of bloom to insects for pollination; meerkats communicate through scent, sounds and body language; lions communicate through body contact and sound, while birds communicate verbally through songs and coos (Rowe & Skelhorn, 2004). Communication systems, irrespective of nature and origin, comprise of two essential components: signal and tactical design. The signal is an important carrier of information from the sender to the receiver. In researches involving communication, study of nature of signal as an important deter minant of its goal is pursued (Rowe & Skelhorn, 2004). The signal evolution is in accordance with the function it is expected to perform. This is termed as strategic component of the signal (Guilford & Dawkins, 1991). Tactical design encompasses the properties of the communication determined by the transmission characteristics of the environment and the sensory and perceptual abilities of the receiver. To define the latter the term â€Å"receiver Psychology† was introduced by Guilford and Dawkins (1991) and was considered a significant determinant of the evolution of signals. Studies on bio-acoustics or animal sounds can be traced back to a research paper published by

Community vs. Cheers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Community vs. Cheers - Essay Example It featured a cast of mostly blue-collar characters who spent all their time hanging out together in a bar called Cheers. A more recent addition to the Thursday lineup is Community. It also features an ensemble cast of friends: A group of students at Greendale Community College. On the surface, these shows seem very similar. However, the styles of the two shows are actually quite different. Cheers was a traditional sitcom that followed the old rules for TV comedies, while Community is perhaps one of the most ground-breaking shows ever to air. The two shows do have some striking similarities. The apparent lead characters seem very similar at first glance. Cheers has Sam Malone, the former baseball player who owns Cheers. Sam is a little sleazy and an unrepentant womanizer, but he is a good man at heart. Community has Jeff Winger, the even sleazier former lawyer who has to attend a community college after he is exposed as having a fake degree. Like Sam, Jeff becomes the leader everyone depends on. Cheers has Diane Chambers, the prissy, self-righteous blonde whom Sam hires on the first episode as a waitress because he wants to sleep with her. Community has Britta, another self-righteous blonde who is nearly as prissy as Diane. Like Cheers, Community begins with the â€Å"alpha male† character trying to sleep with the blonde. Each of the two shows has a naà ¯ve, â€Å"dumb† character: Community’s Troy corresponds to Cheers’s Coach and his replacement, Woody.... Both use a mixture of long-running plotlines and episodic plots. Yet these shows have more differences than similarities. Cheers is filmed like a play in front of an audience with the three-camera format that has long been standard for sitcoms. Community is filmed in the modern style like a movie, in a single-camera format without an audience or laugh track. Filming style is not what makes the shows so different from one another, however. Community is best known for the clever way it â€Å"breaks the fourth wall,† the invisible wall through which the audience views the characters as their stories unfold. Traditionally, sitcom characters are supposed to go about their lives as if they are real people, unaware that they are fictional and being watched by the audience. This is the way that Cheers works, and this is the way things have always been done on television up until recent years. On Community, the characters verge on being self-aware, communicating to the audience with a wink and a nod that they know it’s not real, yet they still come across as loveable and believable characters. Despite the apparent standard â€Å"handsome white man as leader† and â€Å"beautiful blonde as love interest† cliche, over time the viewer begins to see that the key characters on Community are not Jeff and Britta. The most important character is Abed Nadir, a young Arab-American with Asperger’s syndrome, a type of autism. Abed is fixated on movies and television, and he sees his life as fictional plot. Each episode parodies a particular movie or genre of movies, but in a much more clever and subtle way than other TV shows have done before. Abed interprets everything that happens around

Descriptive Statistics. Dearborn Park Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Descriptive Statistics. Dearborn Park - Essay Example While quantitative methods primarily apply systematic approaches that involve numerical data manipulation, qualitative techniques use a different approach which is largely ethnographic and involves description and explanation of findings (Beebe, 2012). Quantitative methods of data collection and analysis have been given greater weight in this study with descriptive statistics being allocated a central role in trying to analyze and explain the findings of the study. Sampling techniques used According to Beebe (2012), a statistical sample of any given population can be tested through quantitative techniques to provide answers to research questions or to test hypotheses. This study was carried out by sampling the population for the purpose of coming up with quality research findings covering a manageable area and population. Dearborn Park was used as a case study to determine the social and physical benefits of parks and recreation as well as important factors affecting them. For this r eason there was no sampling per se as the population of the park was considered as a whole. Basically this was made possible by the fact that the data for the park is available on the internet through various websites. All the other features and properties of the park that form part of the data collected were collected from the entirety of the park and thus no part thereof was sampled as a representative. Data collection and instruments used In this research, three main methods of data collection were applied; observation, telephony and search from the internet. Observation was carried out by the researcher visiting the area and recording all relevant information and data that could be observed with the help of park guides. The information collected through observation mainly included park activities, the general settings and environment of the settlement, demographic and other similar information; the researcher visited the park twice, once during the weekdays and once during the w eekend so as to get the contrast between those two periods in terms of residential activities. Telephony was applied when additional information was needed about the park both before the visit and after. The researcher basically called the park manager and asked any relevant questions related to the study. The researcher especially called the manager to get information about the size of playground, tennis court, open fields of the park. The final and most productive source of data for the study was the internet. Most of the quantitative data for the park was obtained from various websites dealing with recreational parks in the USA. Information about parks and their demographics was obtained from websites with park data, other specific information about issues related to the parks such as health and crime was obtained from websites dealing with the specific issues in relation to estates. Search Strategy For data to be gathered from websites, a good search strategy targeting the most relevant websites was required so as to get quality information. The search strategy included identification of the main key words related to the topic of study and Dearborn Park. Some of the main phrases used included ‘Dearborn Park LA’, ‘Dearborn Park statistic’, and ‘Dearborn Park LA characteristics’. Databases searched included OARE, EBSCO HOST and MEDLINE. Findings The tables below present the data findings of the study. Each of the tables presents

Critically reflect on my managerial role within my job Essay Example for Free

Critically reflect on my managerial role within my job Essay 1. Introduction With the development of society and economics, our world has become much more complex and changeful than years before. Todays managers have to be very sensitive to the changing of the environment, to understand and cope with the diversity of the world. As a result, the role management plays in private sector as well as public sector has become more and more important, both theoretically and practically. Elements of management could be found as early as in the building construction of the Pyramids in ancient Egypt. However, great progress has been made since last century in the study of management. The theories of management vary from culture to culture, from generation to generation. The following report is my understanding towards the principles of management and a reflection of my own managerial roles at work, referring to Mintzbergs ten principles. 2. About management theory The first theory of management was delivered by Henri Fayol, a French industrialist, in 1916. He defined management as to manage is to forecast and plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate and to control(Mc Ilwee T. and Roberts I., 1991, p.117). The other important management theories, such as Elton Mayos human relations movement, Max Webers idealized bureaucracy, and Henry Mintzbergs ten principles on management, have emerged subsequently. Here, I mainly want to introduce Henry Mintzbergs ten principles on management. * What is it? Henry Mintzbergs ten roles management theory was based on the study of five chief executives and a few others managers real lives. He described what he had seen as the roles a manager play, which were called ten principles on management. The ten roles are divided into three groups: interpersonal, informational, and decisional (see Figure 1). Figure 1 The Ten Managerial Roles The three interpersonal roles are radically considered the interpersonal relationships. In the figurehead role, the manager represents the organization in all matters of formality. Duties that involve inter personal roles may sometimes be routine, Nevertheless, they are important to the smooth functioning of an organization and cannot be ignored by the manager (Mintzberg H., 1989, p.15-16). The leader role defines the relationships between the manger and employees. In the liaison role, the manger maintains information links both inside and outside organization. The interpersonal roles make the managers more easily accept information. Thus, the three informational roles are primarily concerned with the information aspects of managerial work. The processing of information is a key part of the managers job (Mintzberg H, 1989, p.18). In the monitor role, the manager acts as the nerve centre for the organisation, receiving the latest, most concrete, most up-to-date information. In the role of disseminator, the manager transmits special information into the organization. In the role of spokesperson, the manager disseminates the organizations information into its environment. Information is not, of course, and end in itself; it is the basic input to decision-making (Mintzberg H., 1989, p.19). The decisional roles make significant use of the information. The unique access to information places the manager at the centre of organisational decision-making. There are four decisional roles. In the entrepreneur role, the manager tries to improve their organization by seeking effective ways of using resources and technologies. In the disturbance handler role, the manger resolves unexpected problems that threaten organizational goals. In the resource-allocating role, the manager decides how organizational resources will be used to meet planned objectives. In the negotiator role, the manager negotiates on behalf of the organization. Although the Mntzbergs ten managerial roles are described individually, they are hardly separated. No role can be pulled out of the framework and the job be left intact (Mintzberg H., 1989, p.19). So we should consider the Mntzbergs ten managerial roles as both interactive and integrated. * Why do I choose it? There are many definitions of management, and most of them are relatively concise and simplistic. However, management is a complex process much more complex than this simple definition leads us to believe (Griffin R. W., 1999, p.4). Although there are several other major approaches and theories that exist, such as the human resources, quantitative, and systems approaches, I believe that their impact on the management basics is not as greatly felt as that of the works of Mintzberg. Mintzberg focused on what the managers job and life is really like, applied the folklore and fact to managers, and got the ten managerial roles theory. Compared with other management theories, Mintzbergs work is considered as the best reflection of the practice in the real manager life, which analyses the managerial roles comprehensively. Many of them can be found in todays management ideas and practices. In addition, Mintzberg regards the ten roles as a whole, which makes us more easier understand the pro cess of management. 3. Critically reflect on managerial role within my work I worked in Liaoning Provincial Financial Bureau, taking charge of government procurement. Although I am not at the position of manager yet, I actually shoulder the equivalent responsibilities in the administration of work. Most of the ten managerial roles, which Mintzberg had mentioned in his article, were involved in my daily work. In addition, these roles do not exist separately, they connect with each other. Here is an illustration of my managerial roles at work with regard to Mintzbergs theory (see Figure 2). Figure 2 Firstly, the interpersonal roles help me get more useful information. With no title manager, the figurehead role seldom occurs in my work. But I actually perform the leader role. I should set goals and make plans to decide how the process of government procurement to be arranged. In the three interpersonal roles, I think the liaison role is the basic role in my work. From my personal experience, if I want to provide better services, I must contact with people both inside and outside. For example, I need make contacts outside to learn what the public sectors, which I am in charge of, want to buy this year, and then decide how government procurement can be arranged. In addition, I must connect with my colleagues to learn the other public sectors demands. In this stage, the communication is important. Communication is the exchange of information, facts, ideas, and meanings. Good communication is vital in organisations and lies at the heart of effective management. How to achieve effective communication? I conclude the following principles according to my work experience. Know what your objective is, Analyse situation, Use effective communication tools, such as mail, phone calls, meetings, etc., Make sure you understand what the others say properly. Secondly, the informational roles are the main constitution of my work. Everyday I seek and receive a great deal of information through interpersonal roles (monitor role), and then forward information to other organization members (disseminator role), and furthermore transmit information to outsiders (spokesman role). For example, I collect information from the suppliers and buyers, and then discuss this information with my colleagues. Afterward, I must pass on clear and definitive information to outside people who concern about it. In this stage, it is important for me to distinguish different kinds of information. Because I receive a great deal of information both internally and externally every day, I must tell immediately the informal information from those formal ones, so as to get precise and useful information for users both inside and outside. It is essential to establish a steady and efficient channel to achieve a free information flow. Thirdly, the decisional roles are the most important roles in my work. Of four decisional roles, I spend more time in the disturbance handler and negotiation role. I must deal with all the questions from suppliers and buyers, and coordinate among them. Sometimes, I get them together and make trade-off to get a win-win solution in some difficult transaction. From my work experience, I conclude that the ability to analyze, interpret, and solve problems becomes increasingly important for managers. It is crucial for managers to see the organization as a whole and the relationships among its various levels and visualize ways to make the organization more efficient and effective. These abilities are essential to effective decision-making. How to achieve effective decision-making? It depends on many factors. Quality of information, which you have received, is the key element of decision-making. In addition, the skill of disturbance handler and negotiation will help you achieve effective decision-making. 4. Conclusion We have learned lots of management theories. Mintzbergs ten managerial roles are the synthesis of theory and practice. It is helpful for management work. But I think we should pay more attention to practice of management. We should synthesize our own methods and habits that are suitable for our own area. It will eventually make the public administration more effective and efficient. Reference * Griffin R. W., (1999) Management, 6th .ed., Houghton Mifflin. * Mc Ilwee T., Roberts, I. (1991) Human Resourse Management. * Mintzberg H., (1989) Mintzberg On Management: Inside Our Strange World of Organizations, London: Collier Macmillan Publisher.

Photography Essays History of Photography

Photography Essays History of Photography History of Photography When you look at a photograph from your favorite photographer what do you see? Does it remind you of your past or make you think of the future? What if there was a photographer that made you think of not only the past but also the future as well? Well that is exactly what Abelardo Morell did with his Camera Obscura photographs. Abelardo Morell took Camera Obscura out of the past and brought it into the future. This paper plans to discuss who Abelardo Morell is, the history of Camera Obscura, and also discuss and analyze three or more photographs by Abelardo himself. It will also discuss Abelardo’s career and how Camera Obscura falls into his career as well as any statements from him about the process. Also any writings or responses by art critics and/or philosophers about Abelardo Morell’s work will be included. This paper hopes to bring across to the reader an understanding of Abelardo Morell and Camera Obscura. â€Å"Abelardo Morell was born in Havana. As a child he felt a sense of alienation and isolation in Cuba, feelings that remained when he moved as a teenager with his family to New York City. Although he later studied comparative religion at Bowdoin College, he eventually took up photography as a way to express his feelings as an immigrant to the United States during the turbulent 1960s† (Yorba). Photography took his mind away from all of the busyness the world had. â€Å"After earning an MFA from Yale University in 1981, he began teaching at Massachusetts College of Art in 1983, where he still teaches today† (â€Å"Site Lines,† Abelardo). Many students are extremely luck to have a mentor such as Morell. He went far and beyond what any other teacher would do for their students. â€Å"When I began teaching photography at the Massachusetts College of Art in the mid 1980s, one of the strategies I used to get beginners excited about photography was to convert our cla ssroom into a camera obscura† (Morell). Camera Obscura might sound like a complicated technique but it really is very simple. One would be surprised how easily it can be done. Even though it can be done very easily and may seem like a new technique, the process has been around for many centuries. â€Å"In 1490, Leonardo da Vinci wrote the earliest surviving description of the camera obscura (dark chamber), a device designed to reproduce linear perspective. The camera obscura, the prototype of the photographic camera, was a large dark room that an artist physically entered. Light entered through a small hole in one of the walls and projected a distinct, but inverted, color image onto the opposite wall that could be then traced† (Hirsh). â€Å"The Camera Obscura seems little short of miraculous, even after the optical rationale has been explained. That one pinhole of light can carry all the visual information of a landscape into a darkened room is still, after many centuries, unknown to the great majority of humans and surprising when they learn of it† (Morell). To understand it better the camera obscura was a darkened room or chamber that allowed only a pinhole of light to enter into a light tight area through which is called an aperture. Diffraction is what allows camera obscura to work. Diffraction in this sense is the bending of light waves that enter the chamber or room and to appear on the wall opposite of the aperture. This image can be produced with exceptional quality if accomplished in the right way. When viewing the camera obscura while it is taking place, one will notice that the image presented on the wall is inverted due to diffraction. Leonardo da Vinci is said to have developed this technique for drawing but was not credited for it. Later on people began to use it more to render drawings to be perspectively correct. Artists at the same time had a hard time with perspective, so the camera obscura helped advance their skills in drawing with becoming perspectively correct. This device is important to the history of photography b ecause it was one of the first forms of photography and cameras. It showed that, at the same time, advances could be made in photography, something with the means of time and knowledge. The discovery of the â€Å"new† technique brought about a need and desire of photography to this day, especially for Abelardo Morell. When deciding to create a camera obscura there are a few things one should consider before jumping into the mind-boggling technique. The first thing you need to consider is the room that you will be photographing in. This room needs to have at least one window and one entry way. The second factor to consider is the time of day you will be photographing in. The time of day where the light is the brightest is the best time to pull off this magnificent method. Also, look at what is outside of the anticipating room. Is the landscape dull or is it astounding? Depending on how amazing you want your photograph to come out depends on the photographer and the landscape that will be captured.

Contemporary Issues in Marketing

Contemporary Issues in Marketing In an era of Super smart-phones, high-speed internet, and convergence of digital media in day to day life, it is important that traditional marketing techniques to evolve along with the digitisation of advertising, sales promotion and brand management. Marketing has moved on from basic advertising and sales promotion, to a more personal and customised approach towards customers, delivering a whole new level of involvement and experience to the consumers. Marketing is the The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.(The Chartered Institute of Marketing) Marketing requires constantly adapting to the changing consumer needs, and satisfying them in a way that is better than the competitors, in a profitable manner. In todays highly evolved and competitive business environment, it is indispensible to employ the aid of technology in marketing, the fact that technology has a transformational impact on the marketing is done cannot be ignored. Technology is changing the way companies interact with their consumers; marketing is becoming more focused on technology to increase the sales and returns on investment (ROI). Stephen Diorio shares his views on technology and marketing, Over the next ten years, rapidly changing technology will impact most aspects of sales and marketing strategy and management, (Diorio S.G, 2002) Google is one of the best examples of companies that have successfully employed technology in their marketing strategies. The firm started up as a small search engine in 1998 and today has an estimated worth of more than $35 billion, employing more than 20000 people. In the further sections, I will be discussing how google uses technology in its marketing operations, and the specific areas in which they are employed. Marketing Research Marketing researchÂÂ  is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of data about issues relating toÂÂ  marketingÂÂ  products and services. (McDonald. M, 2007) Marketing Research helps a company determine, whether its current portfolio of products is satisfying the consumer needs, and what improvements can be made in new products, and whether consumers will accept a new product or not. Google is well known for its search refinement and optimisation over the years, it has consistently been successful in understanding what consumer is searching for, and putting up relevant advertisements on their search results. Let us discuss what technologies google uses for its marketing research: Anonymous Data statistics collection: Google analyses data that it receives from its search engine like the search keywords, location of user, age group, etc. And uses the data to deliver more optimised and local search results to the user, providing a more precise and effective way of advertising. The data that Google collects is anonymous and is used for demographic classification only. Also if there is a bug or error in Googles search, it sends an error report to the company, so they can work on fixing it and improving its results in future. This is a very effective marketing research technique is it does not involve much cost, and is based on reliable data that is generated on the companys own servers. This market research method is an example of excellent consumer involvement; the data collected is with express permission of the users solely for improvement purpose, and Googles privacy policies clearly states that it is collected anonymously with no storage of the users personal information. Also there is an option for opting out of the research for anyone who does not want their data to be analysed. (Source: Google Privacy Policy) Google Analytics: Google analytics is Googles web analytics solution; it generates insights into its websites traffic, total number of visits, subject of interest, location of users, etc and other statistical data which in turn the increases the effectiveness of marketing by identifying and analysing the preferences of the consumer and the product that they are searching for. It helps Google create better targeted and strategically placed ads. Google also offers the analytics solution to many large corporations and companies helping them place their ads at strategic locations and increasing their return on investment or ROI. It delivers sophisticated data to Google regarding its website traffic, and its gain/loss of market share against its competing companies. The technique is an entirely new approach compared to traditional marketing research methods like surveys and seminars, as this is totally computer generated research based on raw data collected from real life users, and also it is more mathematically correct and precise. Analytics can collect data from tracking mobile devices, location based website tagging and comparing the relevance of search terms to actual results. A very recent example of this tools utilities is when it surfaced that Bing, Microsofts proprietary search engine was copying Googles search results and algorithms, and Google was able to discover this scam with its analytics tool. Amit Singhal from Google stated in his press release, Some Bing results increasingly look like an incomplete, stale version of Google results a cheap imitation, (BBC News, 2 February 2011)http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/search.referrals.png Insight Search: This is an interactive tool that Google uses to compare various search terms that are similar, and based on consumer interest, it suggests the best suited keywords and terms that must be used to increase advertisement revenue, it is a highly technical tool primarily working on elaborate programming algorithms, which is unique to Google. An example of this is given below. If Google is to place an advertisement for an automobile manufacturer, with the help of Insight search it will be able to predict the message that best resonates the ad. For marketing a new car model it shall know what feature must be highlighted like fuel efficiency, safety, good looks, etc. With Insight search as we can see the most apt search term will be car safety as consumers clearly show more interest in that criteria over the othersC:UsersChiragDesktopinsights_96693_en-time.jpg Source (Google insight Website) Google Insight uses an advanced intelligence algorithm called MYSql that filters the search results and provides suggestions that are more feasible and more likely to capture consumer interest; this reduces the amount of junk advertising and also offers more refined search results. This is a good tool for marketing research as it decreases the chance of misplaced advertising, which is Googles largest source of income. Marketing Communication Marketing CommunicationsÂÂ  areÂÂ  messagesÂÂ  and related media used to communicate with a market. Marketing communications is the promotion part of the Marketing Mix or the four Ps: price, place, promotion, and product. (Clow. K, Donald.B). It is essential for any company to reach out to its consumers effectively, thus marketing communication is very important for successful business. Google has a very technology oriented approach for its marketing communication; it promotes its advertisements and promotions in entirely non-conventional ways, let us examine the methods Google uses for its marketing communication purposes: Ad-Words: Google Ad-Words is Googles main advertising program and the prime source of income for the company. Ad-Words triggers advertisements based on the words that a user is searching for, it delivers relevant ads on various websites where advertisers want to place their ads. Ad-Words operates on the Pay Per Click (PPC) model, where Google gets paid for each Click that an ad generates, and advertisers have to pay Google for the number of times their ad is clicked on. The main features of Ad-Words are that it provides a non-geographical mode of advertising, it can place an advertisement on any website and not just its search page, which means that consumers have a ready accessibility to a plethora of products and services from the comfort of their homes. And for the advertisers, this is new and highly technological approach compared to traditional advertising methods like Hoardings, TV advertising, Radio advertising, etc, also it is interactive in nature. The most differentiating feature of Ad-Words is that the advertisements are customised for each and every user, It does not bombard the consumer with irrelevant ads and distracting pop-ups, it delivers the exact results the person is searching for, in simple and convenient text-based banners. For example: If a person is searching for Holiday trip to Bahamas, then Google brings up the advertisements of travel agencies that offer the cheapest and the best deals for holidays to the Bahamas, and also other holiday packages to similar locations. This is nothing short of a revolution in the advertising industry; in 2010 Googles revenue from Ad-Words advertising was US $28 Billion. (Source: Investor.google.com) Click To Call: The Click to Call service offered by Google is a marketing communication initiative that was started in 2007 by Google; through Click to Call, advertisers are allowed to put up their phone numbers on Googles website, and users can click on their advertisement to call them, Google connects them to the advertiser and the calling expenses are paid by Google. This is similar to Pay per Click advertising, but offers a whole new level of interaction to the advertisement. Google has also integrated this system of Click to call function on their new Phone operating system Froyo, whereby consumers search a map for a nearby outlet and by tapping on it can directly call the advertiser. This is a considerable innovation in marketing communications. (Source: Google ClickToCall official webpage) Google Checkout (Online Payment Integration): Thinking one step ahead of just searching for products and services online, Google integrated the Search and Buy process, with the help of Google Checkout, Consumers can save their bank account details on Googles secure web servers, and when they are searching for something on the web they can simply buy it and make the payment for the product with the click of a button, and the product is delivered to their doorstep. A consumer simply has to sign up with Google Checkout and register their details once; after that whenever they want to buy something with the help of Google Checkout they just have to click on it and verify their identity with security options like passwords, etc to prevent fraud. Also Google checkout comes pre-installed on smart-phones with Google operating system Android making it even more accessible. For example: If a person is searching for Dan Browns Book, The Da Vinci Code on Google, it will return the search results, and the person can simply click the Buy button on the website from their computer or phone, and the payment for the book will be made and it will be directly delivered to their specified address. This simplifies the process of online to a great extent. At the moment the products that are supported with the online payment systems are Books, CDs, and Media files, Google mobile handsets, and software. As more traders sign up for Google Checkout the product portfolio will expand and provide more options to Google users NFC Marketing: This is one of the latest technologies in marketing, also known as NFC or Near Field Communication; it uses special radio frequency waves to communicate with devices like smart-phones, pdas, etc. NFC can be used to tag places and objects with RFID tags that can be read by other devices by simply tapping on them. NFC can also be used to make payments with a smart phone by just swiping the device over the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device) Reader, this renders the need to carry around cash and debit cards useless. Google is integrating the NFC chip into its smart phones, and is setting up NFC Hotspots all over large cities, to implement the new technology. This can be considered a breakthrough technology for the coming years. According to Claire Swedberg of RFID Journal, ÂÂ  GoogleÂÂ  has been testing anÂÂ  RFID-enabled service aiming to link local businesses with customers. The service, known asÂÂ  HotspotÂÂ  debuted in November 2010. (Swedberg. C, 23 February 2011) New Product Development New product developmentÂÂ  (NPD) is the term used to describe the complete process of bringing a newÂÂ  productÂÂ  or service to market. (Ulrich.K, Eppinger. S, 2004). NPD is the preliminary step in developing a product or service, it involves a series of steps in order to introduce a new product in the market. NPD is essential to keep up with the changing technology and market trends.http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTgI2lqnURK33cJWjLaFAQlzQaU0rxXHSClOyJk_LUQ6xL68R7Ebg Google is a company with a large number of products under its portfolio, to name a few we have, Google Search, Google Mail, Google Maps, Google Checkout, Google Ad-Words, Google Documents, YouTube, Books, Android operating system, etc. Google has developed a number of successful products over the years. This is because Google insists on releasing products that are more appealing consumers, and has been able to remain successful by launching the products in market before the competitors, mostly in the form of Beta testing and pilot projects. Let us take few examples of how Google integrates the latest technology into some steps of its New Product Development process: Idea Generation: For most organisations the process of idea generation involves Brainstorming sessions, and SWOT analysis, but Google takes a new technological approach for idea generation. Every year Google holds the CodeJam competition at its head-quarters in Mountain View, California. In this competition it invites new engineers and programmers, in order to identify top talent among them, the participants have to solve arithmetic and structural problems, and also they are asked to come up with new ideas for products and software. This is an innovative and technical way of generating ideas, and many of Googles services like the Android operating system are a result of this. (Source: codejam.google.com) Prototyping: Prototyping involves producing a physical product prototype. Google is running a pilot testing programming for its new Google Chrome OS, to run the operating system Google has made the CR-48 laptop, to test its efficiency and compatibility with hardware. It is allowing application developers and daily users to use a prototype laptop given out for free, and provide usage information to Google, so that it can perfect the product for a full featured launch in the market. (Source: Chrome Os Pilot Programme Website) The advantage of prototyping products is that it provides a real life test result of what is expected from the product, and as a wide range of users test it, more information can be collected regarding the product. If the prototype receives good reviews, then the product can be considered feasible for a market launch. Beta Testing: Googles main competitive advantage comes from the fact that it always launches new products in the market before its competitors; this is because it always releases its potential products in Beta stage. And if later on if any rectification is needed in them, it rectifies them and makes the final launch, this is advantageous as by the time the final product is launched; it already will have a consumer base and will be accepted quickly by the market. Beta testing is the testing and improving of unfinished software, Beta testing is very useful when the programmers of the software want to receive a meaningful feedback. This is because when unfinished software is put to actual use, any bugs and errors that it may have can be identified and sorted. Google runs a project called Google Labs (www.google.com/labs). Under Labs Google runs unfinished products not yet ready for a launch. Some examples of such products are Google Transliteration, which allows users to type phonetically in any language using an English keyboard, And Google Wave'(www.wave.google.com) which is Googles real-time social network initiative, it allows consumers to update and connect with their in real time by sharing messages, pictures, videos, and file sharing, etc. Many of Googles most successful products like Google Mail (Gmail), Google Documents (Docs), Calendar, etc are products of Beta testing that got successful reviews and are widely used and accepted today. Commercialisation: Commercialisation is the final launch of the product in the market; it involves the final production and promotion of its products. Proper use of technology is very important for the successful commercialisation of a product. Android is Googles highly successful and competitive smart-phone operating system, the commercialisation of the operating system was highly technological and advanced in nature, and compared to the other smart-phone platforms, like Windows and Apples IOS, it was well advanced. Google commercialised the operating system by venturing with Taiwanese phone company HTC to produce a Google branded phone, the first of its kind, which became highly successful. Also the handset was advertised and can be ordered from Googles search page. It was the first time a internet search based company entered the smart-phone industry. And the rest of the manufacturers like Samsung, Sony Ericsson, etc followed suite with their android handsets. The real technological breakthrough was when Google delivered OTA or Over the Air Software updates for smart-phones with their operating system. No other company has used OTA to update a phones software before, it was basically used to update subscriber settings, but Google made the use of that technology to deliver and optimise the smart-phone software, which was widely appreciated by customers worldwide. This is a good example of commercialising a product with the use of latest available technology. Conclusion Business Leaders today have realised that looking beyond the conventional ways of marketing and adopting the new technology is the mantra of successful business, in current business environment. Firms like Google that constantly aim for the refinement of technology are the new market leaders. Companies have become re-inventive in the way they manage their people, and in the use of technology. Thus we can say that Technology has had an huge impact on the functioning organisations and the process of marketing. Bibliography

The Power of Zeus Teleios in the Oresteia :: Aeschylus Oresteia

The Power of Zeus Teleios in the Oresteia      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Is the action in the Oresteia preordained? Is the trilogy simply a working through of destiny and fate; the ultimate telos of the events being the downfall of the house of Atreus? Are the characters in the story destroyed by themselves or by the necessity of the deeds that are carried out? These are some of the questions I will discuss in this essay.    I wish to concentrate on the end of the story as we know it, the Eumenides, with reference to character portrayal in the previous parts of the trilogy. The characters I am really interested in discussing are Klytaemnestra, the Erinyes and Orestes in particular, but am also going to make brief reference to the characters of Elektra and Athena.    Klytaemnestra appears in all three plays in the trilogy: which through repetition, for me at least, makes her the most important character. More than anything, in the Oresteia, we watch Klytaemnestra become powerless. It is her transgression of limits1 that we see rectified.    Klytaemnestra in Agamemnon is a strong and wilful woman, who relishes her part in the downfall of Agamemnon himself. She is proud of her action, accepts full responsibility for his death at her hands; she takes her vengeance against him for the death of Iphigeneia2. This is shown in lines such as 'I exult' (A 1417) and after she kills him, 'you think I'm some irresponsible woman?' (A 1425). Aeschylus uses her to embody the powerful 'heroic' ethic of vengeance - blood for blood.    This is unusual firstly because she is a woman; it would seem more appropriate to use a hero in the traditional Homeric sense to embody a heroic ethic. Secondly, we have the dichotomy between the markedly female Erinyes, visualising the nature of 'blood for blood' in Eumenides and the act of vengeance itself - expressed in Homer as a male 'heroic' ethic.    We know this is the start of a trilogy because an audience cannot see a woman - especially one as anti-matriarchal as Klytaemnestra - triumph over a king as famous and respected as Agamemnon. Her downfall is intrinsically tied in with his; she catches herself in the 'great net' (A 1402) and it is her struggles that 'merely tightened the tangle.' (A 1403).   

A Comparison of Heroes in Beowulf and A Lesson Before Dying :: comparison compare contrast essays

Everyday Heroes in Beowulf and A Lesson Before Dying Ernest Gaines novel, A Lesson Before Dying, is a story about, Jefferson, a black man who is wrongfully charged with a crime he did not commit. He cannot get a fair trial because he is a black man in the south. He is sentenced to be executed, but before he dies Grant, an educated black man, teaches him how to walk like a man, so people do not think of him as a hog. "Beowulf" is an epic poem over one thousand years old, which was told from one generation to another. It is about, Beowulf, a great hero who defeats three different monsters to save the kingdom. In his last battle he is much older than before and is killed by a dragon. A hero does something that other people do not do and he does things for others, and other people look to a hero for guidance. Grant does something that other blacks can not do he goes to college. Most blacks do not get the opportunity to go to college, but Grant went as soon as he was old enough. When he returned he was a well-educated man, but he was still treated the same way as he was before he went to college. Grant is able to teach Jefferson how to be a man, and Jefferson learns that he is somebody. " ... I cry cause you been so good to me mr wigin an nobody aint never been that good to me an make me think im somebody"(Gaines 232) No one else is qualified to help Jefferson they all depend on Grant to teach him, and Jefferson appreciates it so much it brings him to tears. Beowulf is able to do something that no one else has ever done even though many people have tried. He is able to kill Grendel because he uses Grendels own size to hurt him. Beowulf grabs Grendels arm and pulls it until Grandel finally escapes. "He twisted in pain, And the bleeding sinews deep in his shoulder Snapped, muscle and bone split And broke"(Beowulf 34). Grendel was so big that when Beowulf pulled his arm there was too much pressure on it and it started to tear.

Apush Dbq 2

During the Washington, Adams, and Jefferson administrations (from 1776 to 1807) neutrality was America’s main foreign policy. In determining that neutrality was the overall focus of American diplomacy, one must assess the deviations from, as well as the success, of neutrality. Neutrality was originally implemented by George Washington in order to maintain the young country’s best interests. However, lapses in neutrality occurred when the government was forced to favor one foreign power, either Great Britain or France, through treaties. Furthermore, commercial interests ultimately drove America’s decisions and thus influenced the effectiveness of neutrality. Despite such lapses in success, America’s number one foreign policy remained neutrality. Political leaders found involvement in European affairs to be irrelevant and detrimental to the young nation, thus neutrality was the primary focus of America. George Washington was a strong supporter of neutrality despite his highly opinionated cabinet (Hamilton was pro-British and Jefferson pro-French). In 1793, in response to King Louis XVI’s beheading in the French Revolution, Washington issued the Proclamation of Neutrality which stated that America would â€Å"adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent Powers†¦ † (D). Washington opted to remain neutral in order to avoid conflict with Britain and France, refusing to side with either one. Furthermore, Washington emphasized the necessity of neutrality in his farewell address in 1796. He explained that the â€Å"great rule of conduct for [Americans] in regard to foreign nations†¦ † was to have â€Å"†¦ s little political connection as possible† (J). Thus, Washington established the importance of neutrality which was also supported by John Adams. During the Revolutionary War (right after the Battle of Saratoga) the Americans formed the Franco-American alliance and gained French support from the king. However, John Adams wrote in his diary in 1775, â€Å"That We ought not to enter into any Alliance with her [France], which should entangle Us in any future Wars in Europe,† (A). Adams supported Washington’s push for neutrality and recognized the consequences of forming an alliance with France. Adams was right about the Franco-American Alliance, which later resulted in France seeking American aide against Britain after Louis XVI was beheaded. On the other hand, Adams approved Jay’s Treaty with Great Britain which upset the French who were at war with the British. Jay’s Treaty settled the return of confiscated goods and ships to the Americans and established that pre-Revolutionary War debts must be paid as stated in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Americans had avoided these debts even though the Treaty of Paris stated that â€Å"creditors on either side shall meet†¦ o the recovery of the full value in sterling money of all bona fide debts heretofore contracted,† (E). During the Jefferson administration, foreign tensions rose and eventually lead to the War of 1812. Jefferson also enforced neutrality, claiming in his Inaugural Address in 1801 that the nation will maintain â€Å"honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none†¦ à ¢â‚¬  (K). Such ideas were evident in his response to the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair. In 1807, the British warship Leopard fired on an American warship, the Chesapeake, killing three Americans and impressing four others. Impressment was the act of forcing American sailors into the British navy as depicted in document M (M). Instead of declaring war as many American citizens wanted, Jefferson issued the Embargo Act, which cut off all American shipping to Europe in an attempt to cripple the British economy and prevent them from confiscating American goods and impressing their sailors. However, Jefferson’s attempt to maintain neutrality back-fired and crippled the American economy more than Europe’s. Conflicts between Great Britain and France often caused lapses in America’s focus on neutrality. Specifically, during the Washington’s administration and the French Revolution, â€Å"Citizen† Genet, the French minister to America, broke the typical rules of diplomacy by appealing directly to the American people. He called for American support of the French Revolution, pointing to the Franco-American Alliance which stated that the two nations shall â€Å"make all efforts in its Power, against their common enemy [Britain]†¦ † (C). Such support would directly violate America’s primary foreign policy, neutrality. Thus, Washington refused to support the French Revolution and make an enemy of Great Britain. This decision angered pro-French Americans who supported France’s aspiration to establish a republic. As a result, Thomas Jefferson, who was pro-French, resigned from his position of Secretary of State in disagreement with Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality. The ratification of Jay’s Treaty with Great Britain further infuriated French supporters, failed to solve the issue of British impressment, and even promised that Americans would pay pre-Revolutionary War debt to Britain (F). Moreover, it caused the French to be outraged with the Americans and started French seizure of American ships. Political tensions between the three nations continued during John Adams’ presidency with the XYZ Affair in 1798. Three French agents, known only as X, Y, and Z, demanded a high fee from American delegates to enter negotiations for a treaty regarding the French seizure of American ships. This tested the young nation’s focus on neutrality as outraged Americans called for war with France. As a result, neutrality was pushed aside as the Quasi War, which was never officially declared, broke out. The public anger caused by the war strengthened the Federalist party, who used the power to pass the Alien, Sedition, and Naturalization Acts. These Acts limited Democratic-Republican power by: increasing the number of years required for immigrants to become citizens (Naturalization Act), by authorizing the president to deport aliens deemed a threat to the nation (Alien Act), and by making it illegal for newspaper editors to criticize the president or Congress (Sedition Act). The Convention of 1800 concluded the Quasi War, however impressment continued into Jefferson’s presidency during the Napoleonic Wars, making it more difficult for the young nation to maintain neutrality. Thus, conflicts between Great Britain and France often involved America despite the American focus on neutrality. Commercial interests often times caused disruptions of neutrality and competed as a priority of the young nation. Because commerce was of high importance to the growing nation, neutrality, in order to maintain trade, was necessary. Thomas Paine even stated, â€Å"Our plan is commerce,† and emphasized the importance of neutrality to the American economy by saying â€Å"we ought to form no political connection with any part of it [Europe],† (B). For instance, Jay’s Treaty negatively affected American commerce and political relations with France. Additionally, James Madison criticized the treaty as being â€Å"ready to sacrifice†¦ the dearest interests of our commerce†¦ † (G). The treaty not only affected political diplomacy with France, but also affected relations with Spain and their North American colonies. Spain saw the treaty as a sign that the Americans were building an alliance with Britain and felt a need to strengthen their American territories. This lead to Pinckney’s Treaty, in 1795, which set the boundary line between the United States and the Spanish territories, as well as allowed the use of the Mississippi River and the Louisiana sea port to both the Americans and the Spanish (H). Pinckney’s Treaty protected American commerce along the Mississippi and resulted in peaceful relations with Spain. Later, during Adams’ presidency, the seizure of American merchant ships by France raised tensions that resulted in the Quasi War. The disruption of American commerce forced the nation to disregard neutrality in order to protect their trading rights. The Convention of 1800 concluded the war and promised that â€Å"Property captured†¦ shall be mutually restored†¦ † (I). The Convention revealed the evident commercial intentions of the Quasi War and set the American economy as a priority equal to that of neutrality. However, Great Britain continued to seize American ships and impress American sailors. Instead of engaging in war, Jefferson opted to pass the Embargo Act of 1807 in an attempt to sustain neutrality. The Act prevented trade with any European nation, attempting to damage Britain’s economy and preclude impressment. Unfortunately, the plan backfired and devastated the American economy. Thus, Americans felt a greater need to deviate from neutrality in order to better their commerce. Although America faced disruptions in neutrality, ultimately, it remained the nations overall primary foreign policy. From 1776 to 1807, neutrality kept the young nation out of unnecessary European conflicts and served to maintain the country’s best interests.

Objectives of Coca-Cola, and Pepsi are Reflected in their Marketing Strategy Essay

The Coca-Cola Company: It is easy to ascertain exactly why Coca-Cola is a highly respected beverage producer and marketer in today’s society. In examining, Coca-Cola we can see that this company has sought to ensure that its products meet its high expectation levels. These expectations literally revolve around its vision to aid in the improvement of the world: Acknowledging that marketing strategy requires continues adaptations to ensure success, the circular vision statement reflects that an interplay of activities between people, profit, planet, partners, and portfolio are vital to sustaining its growth on multiple scales. By sustaining growth, its portfolio will globally address and bring products to suit people’s needs and desires. This engages the support of employees and consumers who see that the company’s actions reflects from their vision statement, and does not simply play ‘lip-service’. Surrounding the circular vision lies a key aspect: coca-cola’s recognition that it must at all times retain a positive working relationship with its bottlers and partners; hence building up mutual trust and loyalty. By enabling a constant positive relationship, the company will make sure that its products are going out the door in an efficient and effective manner; hence meeting its profit vision of ultimately â€Å"maximizing return to shareholders† while being cognizant of its social responsibility. From a planet perspective, the company’s vision iterates that it is a global citizen that not only makes a difference but truly desires too as well. When strife occurs, this leads to a shift from positive production to negative production. As the old saying goes: a happy employee, is a productive one. Via Coca-cola’s website, these components are further highlighted as the chief reasons why Coca-cola is continuously realigning itself to reshaping is strategic look at marketing. The website indicates that the vision was compiled from inquiring from 150 of their top leaders about what they believe the company’s vision should be. This attributes to the company’s vision to be a good place where people are inspired to be â€Å"the best they can be†. This reflects that Coca-cola’s managers are listened to and respected, which aids in the company’s interest in people relationships; in addition, this shows an empowered environment where managers are attuned to the objectives and direction of the company. It was interesting to see that the company’s mission statement aligns itself well to its vision. The company steadfastly seeks â€Å"To Refresh the World†¦in body, mind, and spirit†, â€Å"To Inspire Moments of Optimism†¦through our brands and our actions†, and lastly â€Å"To Create Value and Make a Difference†¦everywhere we engage.† . The mission statement is more subjective versus objective or measurable in nature, but it is geared to creating positive alignment amongst its employees, consumers, marketing teams, and partners. In evaluating which of its objectives is measurable we must turn to its portfolio to see if its objective to be a global seller is a reality or not. Overall, the company has created a shared value system (leadership, passion, integrity, accountability, collaboration, innovation, and quality) by which they live by within the company and without. This system helps create an aura of shared responsibility which is attuned to the best interests of all involved and can be measured based upon innovation and quality statistics. Pepsi: A plain, simple, and to the point vision statement is what Pepsi stands behind: In evaluating the vision statement, we can see that Pepsi believes that it is sustainability because the company will always stand behind its responsibility to improve â€Å"all aspects of the world in which† they operate. Symbolically, they used the â€Å"greater than symbol, >† to indicate that tomorrow’s future must be protected and Pepsi feels that it has a responsibility to aid in that goal. The website contains speeches from the PepsiCo President and Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi about corporate responsibility and how it must be applied in today’s society to make a difference in our environment and various societies. Pepsi has identified that in order to encourage other companies to partake in this responsibility it must be a role model. This vision statement is a clear point on giving back to society, but it doesn’t appear to indicate how this is to be achieved directly. It indicates why, who, where, and what must be improved but it is a little vague on how to achieve the vision. It motivates all parties involved, because no one, would state that they want the future to be handicapped by a lack of improvements made today. For shareholders, they would not desire to see a drop in maximizing profits or loss of consumers who might consider Pepsi uninterested in improving the global market or environment. For consumers, if Pepsi did not donate or contribute to global initiatives they would turn instead to competitive brands.   Instead of titling their mission statement as such, Pepsi instead appears to call it their â€Å"commitments† or guiding principles: These points iterate that Pepsi is truly staunchly dedicated to positions which are important to various constituencies. The sustained growth is measurable and vital to shareholders who monitor Pepsi’s annual growth and progress. Empowered people are those loyal Pepsi employees, partners, manufacturers, and consumers who stand behind a product which is created with quality in mind. These commitments are maintained based upon guiding principles that genuinely care about people, the world, truth and honesty, success in many aspects, and balancing short term goals with long term dedication to achievement and change. Pepsi’s objectives lie hand in hand with its commitments and guiding principles. One of Pepsi’s objectives as seen in its proxy statement is to sustain its long term performance by stretching out its financial goals, maintaining its great retirement plans for employees, and continue to nominate managers into governing positions within Pepsi who support Pepsi’s vision and mission statement. Both financial as well an non-financial objectives are referred to in the proxy statement, which reflects how well balanced these objectives truly are. Overall, Pepsi’s vision, values, mission statement, and objectives all intertwine around the idea of sustainability; whether it be sustainability of people, governance of Pepsi, global market, partnerships, marketing strategies, development, success, or growth. Assignment: Question 2 In order to evaluate if TCCC (The Coca-Cola Company’s) vision and objectives is conforming to its strategic business model, we must uncover from its annual reports, SEC 10-K Form, and other such public documents if this is so. TCCC’s strategy and business model lies in its desire to have sustainable and long term growth by relying on its key visions: inspiring employees in the workplace, globally bringing a solid beverage portfolio of products which addresses peoples desires, creating a network of loyal partners, maintaining an inspirational global citizenship practice on our planet, and maximizing profits for shareholders. Recognizing that strategy and business models must forever be willing to adaptive to changing conditions, TCCC has sought to reevaluate its consumer marketing via advertising investments geared to make consumer aware of their products. Such efforts have included activities such as sales promotions, advertising, and point-of-sale merchandising of TCCC items. Furthermore, the company’s strategy has included obtaining feedback from consumers which has enabled the company to know what its present consumers feel and what they would like to see change. As the firm sells its products to various global retailers it must identify and conform to the needs of those clientele. Hence, TCCC has made differentiated package offerings which are adjusted to the expectations and needs of all kinds of retailers. This allows for the company to directly compete with its competitors. Considered a â€Å"work in progress† the SEC 10K Form iterates how the company uses the right promotional tools to enhance value in their products for various retailers seeking to growth their businesses or distributional facilities. As the business model and strategy adheres to the idea of new business approaches, TCCC’s annual report indicates that it constantly has new franchise options and new leadership approaches which tend to allow for an overall flexibility between the parent company and its consumer’s wants and needs. As the supply chain network of its bottling partners is a resilient procession it has used this growth to aid in its competitive edge. Part of maintaining this edge is identifying distinctive elements that pose as opportunities, risks, or direct threats to the company well-being. This shows that TCCC is on the right track because it gauges its own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats on many different levels of marketing and advertising. The annual report indicates that some threats include obesity problems among its consumers, water quality and quantity on the part of its risk management program, consumer preferences that are in constant change, and increased competition in the marketplace. TCCC has positively made action plans which seek to respond to these market conditions. Partaking in obesity programs and donating to research of diet foods, the firm has seen that this would aid in its sustained growth because consumers would feel that diet items are a viable alterative beverage. In terms of water quality and quantity problems, the firm knows that as water is a limited resource, alterative programs must be in place with provide water treatment or risk evaluation of the dire situation. This collaborative partnership with research and other beverage companies has shown the firm as having a strong dedication to social responsibility. From an external perspective, should TCCC not participate in such programs then consumers would be driven to advocate switching to other beverage companies. These factors have led proponents to challenge the health component of the quality of products being produced. This way TCCC can point out that it has heard the feedback and acted on it. By promoting and employing surveys and research, TCCC has strengthened its capabilities to monitor and adapt to consumer preferences to diet beverages while maintaining a strong consumer brand loyalty. Its corrective measures have shown that its business model is prospering and being measured via increases in its annual profits.   Acknowledging that there might be required adjustments to its business model to ensure that the company was making a profit, TCCC discloses concerns over foreign exchange due to monetary fluctuations overseas, interest rate changes between fixed and variable rate debts, and value at risk increases. By monitoring and simulating how these external elements could adversely affect the company, TCCC can also evaluating the overall company performance in terms of shareholder equity and cash flow generalizations. These public reports all reflect that TCCC’s business model and strategy are constantly being monitoring and adjusted as the need arises. By communicating to shareholders the affects or predictions of changes made, TCCC can promote new marketing ideas or suspend activities if called for.   This is all a positive support of the company’s mission and objectives because it allows for TCCC to remain on its toes in the event of a need to make a strategic or business model modification. 2 Websites Used:-References: Coca-Cola’s Official Website: http://ir.thecoca-colacompany.com/ and annual report: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/investors/pdfs/form_10K_2006.pdf Pepsi Official Website’s: http://www.pepsico.com/

Black House Chapter Fourteen

14 AT THE TOP of the steep hill between Norway Valley and Arden, the zigzag, hairpin turns of Highway 93, now narrowed to two lanes, straighten out for the long, ski-slope descent into the town, and on the eastern side of the highway, the hilltop widens into a grassy plateau. Two weatherbeaten red picnic tables wait for those who choose to stop for a few minutes and appreciate the spectacular view. A patchwork of quilted farms stretches out over fifteen miles of gentle landscape, not quite flat, threaded with streams and country roads. A solid row of bumpy, blue-green hills form the horizon. In the immense sky, sun-washed white clouds hang like fresh laundry. Fred Marshall steers his Ford Explorer onto the gravel shoulder, comes to a halt, and says, â€Å"Let me show you something.† When he climbed into the Explorer at his farmhouse, Jack was carrying a slightly worn black leather briefcase, and the case is now lying flat across his knees. Jack's father's initials, P.S.S., for Philip Stevenson Sawyer, are stamped in gold beside the handle at the top of the case. Fred has glanced curiously at the briefcase a couple of times, but has not asked about it, and Jack has volunteered nothing. There will be time for show-and-tell, Jack thinks, after he talks to Judy Marshall. Fred gets out of the car, and Jack slides his father's old briefcase behind his legs and props it against the seat before he follows the other man across the pliant grass. When they reach the first of the picnic tables, Fred gestures toward the landscape. â€Å"We don't have a lot of what you could call tourist attractions around here, but this is pretty good, isn't it?† â€Å"It's very beautiful,† Jack says. â€Å"But I think everything here is beautiful.† â€Å"Judy really likes this view. Whenever we go over to Arden on a decent day, she has to stop here and get out of the car, relax and look around for a while. You know, sort of store up on the important things before getting back into the grind. Me, sometimes I get impatient and think, Come on, you've seen that view a thousand times, I have to get back to work, but I'm a guy, right? So every time we turn in here and sit down for a few minutes, I realize my wife knows more than I do and I should just listen to what she says.† Jack smiles and sits down at the bench, waiting for the rest of it. Since picking him up, Fred Marshall has spoken only two or three sentences of gratitude, but it is clear that he has chosen this place to get something off his chest. â€Å"I went over to the hospital this morning, and she well, she's different. To look at her, to talk to her, you'd have to say she's in much better shape than yesterday. Even though she's still worried sick about Tyler, it's different. Do you think that could be due to the medication? I don't even know what they're giving her.† â€Å"Can you have a normal conversation with her?† â€Å"From time to time, yeah. For instance, this morning she was telling me about a story in yesterday's paper on a little girl from La Riviere who nearly took third place in the statewide spelling bee, except she couldn't spell this crazy word nobody ever heard of. Popoplax, or something like that.† â€Å"Opopanax,† Jack says. He sounds like he has a fishbone caught in his throat. â€Å"You saw that story, too? That's interesting, you both picking up on that word. Kind of gave her a kick. She asked the nurses to find out what it meant, and one of them looked it up in a couple of dictionaries. Couldn't find it.† Jack had found the word in his Concise Oxford Dictionary; its literal meaning was unimportant. â€Å"That's probably the definition of opopanax,† Jack says. † ‘1. A word not to be found in the dictionary. 2. A fearful mystery.' â€Å" â€Å"Hah!† Fred Marshall has been moving nervously around the lookout area, and now he stations himself beside Jack, whose upward glance finds the other man surveying the long panorama. â€Å"Maybe that is what it means.† Fred's eyes remain fixed on the landscape. He is still not quite ready, but he is making progress. â€Å"It was great to see her interested in something like that, a tiny little item in the Herald . . .† He wipes tears from his eyes and takes a step toward the horizon. When he turns around, he looks directly at Jack. â€Å"Uh, before you meet Judy, I want to tell you a few things about her. Trouble is, I don't know how this is going to sound to you. Even to me, it sounds . . . I don't know.† â€Å"Give it a try,† Jack says. Fred says, â€Å"Okay,† knits his fingers together, and bows his head. Then he looks up again, and his eyes are as vulnerable as a baby's. â€Å"Ahhh . . . I don't know how to put this. Okay, I'll just say it. With part of my brain, I think Judy knows something. Anyhow, I want to think that. On the other hand, I don't want to fool myself into believing that just because she seems to be better, she can't be crazy anymore. But I do want to believe that. Boy oh boy, do I ever.† â€Å"Believe that she knows something.† The eerie feeling aroused by opopanax diminishes before this validation of his theory. â€Å"Something that isn't even real clear to her,† Fred says. â€Å"But do you remember? She knew Ty was gone even before I told her.† He gives Jack an anguished look and steps away. He knocks his fists together and stares at the ground. Another internal barrier topples before his need to explain his dilemma. â€Å"Okay, look. This is what you have to understand about Judy. She's a special person. All right, a lot of guys would say their wives are special, but Judy's special in a special way. First of all, she's sort of amazingly beautiful, but that's not even what I'm talking about. And she's tremendously brave, but that's not it, either. It's like she's connected to something the rest of us can't even begin to understand. But can that be real? How crazy is that? Maybe when you're going crazy, at first you put up a big fight and get hysterical, and then you're too crazy to fight anymore and you get all calm and accepting. I have to talk to her doctor, because this is tearing me apart.† â€Å"What kinds of things does she say? Does she explain why she's so much calmer?† Fred Marshall's eyes burn into Jack's. â€Å"Well, for one thing, Judy seems to think that Ty is still alive, and that you're the only person who can find him.† â€Å"All right,† Jack says, unwilling to say more until after he can speak to Judy. â€Å"Tell me, does Judy ever mention someone she used to know or a cousin of hers, or an old boyfriend she thinks might have taken him?† His theory seems less convincing than it had in Henry Leyden's ultrarational, thoroughly bizarre kitchen; Fred Marshall's response weakens it further. â€Å"Not unless he's named the Crimson King, or Gorg, or Abbalah. All I can tell you is, Judy thinks she sees something, and even though it makes no sense, I sure as hell hope it's there.† A sudden vision of the world where he found a boy's Brewers cap pierces Jack Sawyer like a steel-tipped lance. â€Å"And that's where Tyler is.† â€Å"If part of me didn't think that might just possibly be true, I'd go out of my mind right here and now,† Fred says. â€Å"Unless I'm already out of my gourd.† â€Å"Let's go talk to your wife,† Jack says. From the outside, French County Lutheran Hospital resembles a nineteenth-century madhouse in the north of England: dirty red-brick walls with blackened buttresses and lancet arches, a peaked roof with finial-capped pinnacles, swollen turrets, miserly windows, and all of the long facade stippled black with ancient filth. Set within a walled parkland dense with oaks on Arden's western boundary, the enormous building, Gothic without the grandeur, looks punitive, devoid of mercy. Jack half-expects to hear the shrieking organ music from a Vincent Price movie. They pass through a narrow, peaked wooden door and enter a reassuringly familiar lobby. A bored, uniformed man at a central desk directs visitors to the elevators; stuffed animals and sprays of flowers fill the gift shop's window; bathrobed patients tethered to I.V. poles occupy randomly placed tables with their families, and other patients perch on the chairs lined against the side walls; two white-coated doctors confer in a corner. Far overhead, two dusty, ornate chandeliers distribute a soft ocher light that momentarily seems to gild the luxurious heads of the lilies arrayed in tall vases beside the entrance of the gift shop. â€Å"Wow, it sure looks better on the inside,† Jack says. â€Å"Most of it does,† Fred says. They approach the man behind the desk, and Fred says, â€Å"Ward D.† With a mild flicker of interest, the man gives them two rectangular cards stamped VISITOR and waves them through. The elevator clanks down and admits them to a wood-paneled enclosure the size of a broom closet. Fred Marshall pushes the button marked 5, and the elevator shudders upward. The same soft, golden light pervades the comically tiny interior. Ten years ago, an elevator remarkably similar to this, though situated in a grand Paris hotel, had held Jack and a UCLA art-history graduate student named Iliana Tedesco captive for two and a half hours, in the course of which Ms. Tedesco announced that their relationship had reached its final destination, thank you, despite her gratitude for what had been at least until that moment a rewarding journey together. After thinking it over, Jack decides not to trouble Fred Marshall with this information. Better behaved than its French cousin, the elevator trembles to a stop and with only a slight display of resistance slides open its door and releases Jack Sawyer and Fred Marshall to the fifth floor, where the beautiful light seems a touch darker than in both the elevator and the lobby. â€Å"Unfortunately, it's way over on the other side,† Fred tells Jack. An apparently endless corridor yawns like an exercise in perspective off to their left, and Fred points the way with his finger. They go through two big sets of double doors, past the corridor to Ward B, past two vast rooms lined with curtained cubicles, turn left again at the closed entrance to Gerontology, down a long, long hallway lined with bulletin boards, past the opening to Ward C, then take an abrupt right at the men's and women's bathrooms, pass Ambulatory Ophthalmology and Records Annex, and at last come to a corridor marked WARD D. As they proceed, the light seems progressively to darken, the walls to contract, the windows to shrink. Shadows lurk in the corridor to Ward D, and a small pool of water glimmers on the floor. â€Å"We're in the oldest part of the building now,† Fred says. â€Å"You must want to get Judy out of here as soon as possible.† â€Å"Well, sure, soon as Pat Skarda thinks she's ready. But you'll be surprised; Judy kind of likes it in here. I think it's helping. What she told me was, she feels completely safe, and the ones that can talk, some of them are extremely interesting. It's like being on a cruise, she says.† Jack laughs in surprise and disbelief, and Fred Marshall touches his shoulder and says, â€Å"Does that mean she's a lot better or a lot worse?† At the end of the corridor, they emerge directly into a good-sized room that seems to have been preserved unaltered for a hundred years. Dark brown wainscoting rises four feet from the dark brown wooden floor. Far up in the gray wall to their right, two tall, narrow windows framed like paintings admit filtered gray light. A man seated behind a polished wooden counter pushes a button that unlocks a double-sized metal door with a WARD D sign and a small window of reinforced glass. â€Å"You can go in, Mr. Marshall, but who is he?† â€Å"His name is Jack Sawyer. He's here with me.† â€Å"Is he either a relative or a medical professional?† â€Å"No, but my wife wants to see him.† â€Å"Wait here a moment.† The attendant disappears through the metal door and locks it behind him with a prisonlike clang. A minute later, the attendant reappears with a nurse whose heavy, lined face, big arms and hands, and thick legs make her look like a man in drag. She introduces herself as Jane Bond, the head nurse of Ward D, a combination of words and circumstances that irresistibly suggest at least a couple of nicknames. The nurse subjects Fred and Jack, then only Jack, to a barrage of questions before she vanishes back behind the great door. â€Å"Ward Bond,† Jack says, unable not to. â€Å"We call her Warden Bond,† says the attendant. â€Å"She's tough, but on the other hand, she's unfair.† He coughs and stares up at the high windows. â€Å"We got this orderly, calls her Double-oh Zero.† A few minutes later, Head Nurse Warden Bond, Agent OO Zero, swings open the metal door and says, â€Å"You may enter now, but pay attention to what I say.† At first, the ward resembles a huge airport hangar divided into a section with a row of padded benches, a section with round tables and plastic chairs, and a third section where two long tables are stacked with drawing paper, boxes of crayons, and watercolor sets. In the vast space, these furnishings look like dollhouse furniture. Here and there on the cement floor, painted a smooth, anonymous shade of gray, lie padded rectangular mats; twenty feet above the floor, small, barred windows punctuate the far wall, of red brick long ago given a couple of coats of white paint. In a glass enclosure to the left of the door, a nurse behind a desk looks up from a book. Far down to the right, well past the tables with art supplies, three locked metal doors open into worlds of their own. The sense of being in a hangar gradually yields to a sense of a benign but inflexible imprisonment. A low hum of voices comes from the twenty to thirty men and women scattered throughout the enormous room. Only a very few of these men and women are talking to visible companions. They pace in circles, stand frozen in place, lie curled like infants on the mats; they count on their fingers and scribble in notebooks; they twitch, yawn, weep, stare into space and into themselves. Some of them wear green hospital robes, others civilian clothes of all kinds: T-shirts and shorts, sweat suits, running outfits, ordinary shirts and slacks, jerseys and pants. No one wears a belt, and none of the shoes have laces. Two muscular men with close-cropped hair and in brilliant white T-shirts sit at one of the round tables with the air of patient watchdogs. Jack tries to locate Judy Marshall, but he cannot pick her out. â€Å"I asked for your attention, Mr. Sawyer.† â€Å"Sorry,† Jack says. â€Å"I wasn't expecting it to be so big.† â€Å"We'd better be big, Mr. Sawyer. We serve an expanding population.† She waits for an acknowledgment of her significance, and Jack nods. â€Å"Very well. I'm going to give you some basic ground rules. If you listen to what I say, your visit here will be as pleasant as possible for all of us. Don't stare at the patients, and don't be alarmed by what they say. Don't act as though you find anything they do or say unusual or distressing. Just be polite, and eventually they will leave you alone. If they ask you for things, do as you choose, within reason. But please refrain from giving them money, any sharp objects, or edibles not previously cleared by one of the physicians some medications interact adversely with certain kinds of food. At some point, an elderly woman named Es-telle Packard will probably come up to you and ask if you are her father. Answer however you like, but if you say no, she will go away disappointed, and if you say yes, you'll make her day. Do you have any questions, Mr. Sawyer?† â€Å"Where is Judy Marshall?† â€Å"She's on this side, with her back to us on the farthest bench. Can you see her, Mr. Marshall?† â€Å"I saw her right away,† Fred says. â€Å"Have there been any changes since this morning?† â€Å"Not as far as I know. Her admitting physician, Dr. Spiegleman, will be here in about half an hour, and he might have more information for you. Would you like me to take you and Mr. Sawyer to your wife, or would you prefer going by yourself ?† â€Å"We'll be fine,† Fred Marshall says. â€Å"How long can we stay?† â€Å"I'm giving you fifteen minutes, twenty max. Judy is still in the eval stage, and I want to keep her stress level at a minimum. She looks pretty peaceful now, but she's also deeply disconnected and, quite frankly, delusional. I wouldn't be surprised by another hysterical episode, and we don't want to prolong her evaluation period by introducing new medication at this point, do we? So please, Mr. Marshall, keep the conversation stress-free, light, and positive.† â€Å"You think she's delusional?† Nurse Bond smiles pityingly. â€Å"In all likelihood, Mr. Marshall, your wife has been delusional for years. Oh, she's managed to keep it hidden, but ideations like hers don't spring up overnight, no no. These things take years to construct, and all the time the person can appear to be a normally functioning human being. Then something triggers the psychosis into full-blown expression. In this case, of course, it was your son's disappearance. By the way, I want to extend my sympathies to you at this time. What a terrible thing to have happened.† â€Å"Yes, it was,† says Fred Marshall. â€Å"But Judy started acting strange even before . . .† â€Å"Same thing, I'm afraid. She needed to be comforted, and her delusions her delusional world came into plain view, because that world provided exactly the comfort she needed. You must have heard some of it this morning, Mr. Marshall. Did your wife mention anything about going to other worlds?† â€Å"Going to other worlds?† Jack asks, startled. â€Å"A fairly typical schizophrenic ideation,† Nurse Bond says. â€Å"More than half the people on this ward have similar fantasies.† â€Å"You think my wife is schizophrenic?† Nurse Bond looks past Fred to take a comprehensive inventory of the patients in her domain. â€Å"I'm not a psychiatrist, Mr. Marshall, but I have had twenty long years of experience in dealing with the mentally ill. On the basis of that experience, I have to tell you, in my opinion your wife manifests the classic symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. I wish I had better news for you.† She glances back at Fred Marshall. â€Å"Of course, Dr. Spiegleman will make the final diagnosis, and he will be able to answer all your questions, explain your treatment options, and so forth.† The smile she gives Jack seems to congeal the moment it appears. â€Å"I always tell my new visitors it's tougher on the family than it is on the patient. Some of these people, they don't have a care in the world. Really, you almost have to envy them.† â€Å"Sure,† Jack says. â€Å"Who wouldn't?† â€Å"Go on, then,† she says, with a trace of peevishness. â€Å"Enjoy your visit.† A number of heads turn as they walk slowly across the dusty wooden floor to the nearest row of benches; many pairs of eyes track their progress. Curiosity, indifference, confusion, suspicion, pleasure, and an impersonal anger show in the pallid faces. To Jack, it seems as though every patient on the ward is inching toward them. A flabby middle-aged man in a bathrobe has begun to cut through the tables, looking as though he fears missing his bus to work. At the end of the nearest bench, a thin old woman with streaming white hair stands up and beseeches Jack with her eyes. Her clasped, upraised hands tremble violently. Jack forces himself not to meet her eyes. When he passes her, she half-croons, half-whispers, â€Å"My ducky-wucky was behind the door, but I didn't know it, and there he was, in all that water.† â€Å"Um,† Fred says. â€Å"Judy told me her baby son drowned in the bath.† Through the side of his eye, Jack has been watching the fuzzy-haired man in the bathrobe rush toward them, openmouthed. When he and Fred reach the back of Judy Marshall's bench, the man raises one finger, as if signaling the bus to wait for him, and trots forward. Jack watches him approach; nuts to Warden Bond's advice. He's not going to let this lunatic climb all over him, no way. The upraised finger comes to within a foot of Jack's nose, and the man's murky eyes search his face. The eyes retreat; the mouth snaps shut. Instantly, the man whirls around and darts off, his robe flying, his finger still searching out its target. What was that, Jack wonders. Wrong bus? Judy Marshall has not moved. She must have heard the man rushing past her, his rapid breath when he stopped, then his flapping departure, but her back is still straight in the loose green robe, her head still faces forward at the same upright angle. She seems detached from everything around her. If her hair were washed, brushed, and combed, if she were conventionally dressed and had a suitcase beside her, she would look exactly like a woman on a bench at the train station, waiting for the hour of departure. So even before Jack sees Judy Marshall's face, before she speaks a single word, there is about her this sense of leave-taking, of journeys begun and begun again this suggestion of travel, this hint of a possible elsewhere. â€Å"I'll tell her we're here,† Fred whispers, and ducks around the end of the bench to kneel in front of his wife. The back of her head tilts forward over the erect spine as if to answer the tangled combination of heartbreak, love, and anxiety burning in her husband's handsome face. Dark blond hair mingled with gold lies flat against the girlish curve of Judy Marshall's skull. Behind her ear, dozens of varicolored strands clump together in a cobwebby knot. â€Å"How you feeling, sweetie?† Fred softly asks his wife. â€Å"I'm managing to enjoy myself,† she says. â€Å"You know, honey, I should stay here for at least a little while. The head nurse is positive I'm absolutely crazy. Isn't that convenient?† â€Å"Jack Sawyer's here. Would you like to see him?† Judy reaches out and pats his upraised knee. â€Å"Tell Mr. Sawyer to come around in front, and you sit right here beside me, Fred.† Jack is already coming forward, his eyes on Judy Marshall's once again upright head, which does not turn. Kneeling, Fred has taken her extended hand in both of his, as if he intends to kiss it. He looks like a lovelorn knight before a queen. When he presses her hand to his cheek, Jack sees the white gauze wrapped around the tips of her fingers. Judy's cheekbone comes into view, then the side of her gravely unsmiling mouth; then her entire profile is visible, as sharp as the crack of ice on the first day of spring. It is the regal, idealized profile on a cameo, or on a coin: the slight upward curve of the lips, the crisp, chiseled downstroke of the nose, the sweep of the jawline, every angle in perfect, tender, oddly familiar alignment with the whole. It staggers him, this unexpected beauty; for a fraction of a second it slows him with the deep, grainy nostalgia of its fragmentary, not-quite evocation of another's face. Grace Kelly? Catherine Deneuve? No, neither of these; it comes to him that Judy's profile reminds him of someone he has still to meet. Then the odd second passes: Fred Marshall gets to his feet, Judy's face in three-quarter profile loses its regal quality as she watches her husband sit beside her on the bench, and Jack rejects what has just occurred to him as an absurdity. She does not raise her eyes until he stands before her. Her hair is dull and messy; beneath the hospital gown she is wearing an old blue lace-trimmed nightdress that looked dowdy when it was new. Despite these disadvantages, Judy Marshall claims him for her own at the moment her eyes meet his. An electrical current beginning at his optic nerves seems to pulse downward through his body, and he helplessly concludes that she has to be the most stunningly beautiful woman he has ever seen. He fears that the force of his reaction to her will knock him off his feet, then even worse! that she will see what is going on and think him a fool. He desperately does not want to come off as a fool in her eyes. Brooke Greer, Claire Evinrude, Iliana Tedesco, gorgeous as each of them was in her own way, look like little girls in Halloween costumes next to her. Judy Marshall puts his former beloveds on the shelf; she exposes them as whims and fancies, riddled with false ego and a hundred crippling insecurities. Judy's beauty is not put on in front of a mirror but grows, with breathtaking simplicity, straight from her innermost being: what you see is only the small, visible portion of a far greater, more comprehensive, radiant, and formal quality within. Jack can scarcely believe that agreeable, good-hearted Fred Marshall actually had the fantastic luck to marry this woman. Does he know how great, how literally marvelous, she is? Jack would marry her in an instant, if she were single. It seems to him that he fell in love with her as soon as he saw the back of her head. But he cannot be in love with her. She is Fred Marshall's wife and the mother of their son, and he will simply have to live without her. She utters a short sentence that passes through him in a vibrating wave of sound. Jack bends forward muttering an apology, and Judy smilingly offers him a sweep of her hand that invites him to sit before her. He folds to the floor and crosses his ankles in front of him, still reverberating from the shock of having first seen her. Her face fills beautifully with feeling. She has seen exactly what just happened to him, and it is all right. She does not think less of him for it. Jack opens his mouth to ask a question. Although he does not know what the question is to be, he must ask it. The nature of the question is unimportant. The most idiotic query will serve; he cannot sit here staring at that wondrous face. Before he speaks, one version of reality snaps soundlessly into another, and without transition Judy Marshall becomes a tired-looking woman in her mid-thirties with tangled hair and smudges under her eyes who regards him steadily from a bench in a locked mental ward. It should seem like a restoration of his sanity, but it feels instead like a kind of trick, as though Judy Marshall has done this herself, to make their encounter easier on him. The words that escape him are as banal as he feared they might be. Jack listens to himself say that it is nice to meet her. â€Å"It's nice to meet you, too, Mr. Sawyer. I've heard so many wonderful things about you.† He looks for a sign that she acknowledges the enormity of the moment that has just passed, but he sees only her smiling warmth. Under the circumstances, that seems like acknowledgment enough. â€Å"How are you getting on in here?† he asks, and the balance shifts even more in his direction. â€Å"The company takes some getting used to, but the people here got lost and couldn't find their way back, that's all. Some of them are very intelligent. I've had conversations in here that were a lot more interesting than the ones in my church group or the PTA. Maybe I should have come to Ward D sooner! Being here has helped me learn some things.† â€Å"Like what?† â€Å"Like there are many different ways to get lost, for one, and getting lost is easier to do than anyone ever admits. The people in here can't hide how they feel, and most of them never found out how to deal with their fear.† â€Å"How are you supposed to deal with that?† â€Å"Why, you deal with it by taking it on, that's how! You don't just say, I'm lost and I don't know how to get back you keep on going in the same direction. You put one foot in front of the other until you get more lost. Everybody should know that. Especially you, Jack Sawyer.† â€Å"Especial † Before he can finish the question, an elderly woman with a lined, sweet face appears beside him and touches his shoulder. â€Å"Excuse me.† She tucks her chin toward her throat with the shyness of a child. â€Å"I want to ask you a question. Are you my father?† Jack smiles at her. â€Å"Let me ask you a question first. Is your name Estelle Packard?† Eyes shining, the old woman nods. â€Å"Then yes, I am your father.† Estelle Packard clasps her hands in front of her mouth, dips her head in a bow, and shuffles backward, glowing with pleasure. When she is nine or ten feet away, she gives Jack a little bye-bye wave of one hand and twirls away. When Jack looks again at Judy Marshall, it is as if she has parted her veil of ordinariness just wide enough to reveal a small portion of her enormous soul. â€Å"You're a very nice man, aren't you, Jack Sawyer? I wouldn't have known that right away. You're a good man, too. Of course, you're also charming, but charm and decency don't always go together. Should I tell you a few other things about yourself ?† Jack looks up at Fred, who is holding his wife's hand and beaming. â€Å"I want you to say whatever you feel like saying.† â€Å"There are things I can't say, no matter how I feel, but you might hear them anyhow. I can say this, however: your good looks haven't made you vain. You're not shallow, and that might have something to do with it. Mainly, though, you had the gift of a good upbringing. I'd say you had a wonderful mother. I'm right, aren't I?† Jack laughs, touched by this unexpected insight. â€Å"I didn't know it showed.† â€Å"You know one way it shows? In the way you treat other people. I'm pretty sure you come from a background people around here only know from the movies, but it hasn't gone to your head. You see us as people, not hicks, and that's why I know I can trust you. It's obvious that your mother did a great job. I was a good mother, too, or at least I tried to be, and I know what I'm talking about. I can see.† â€Å"You say you were a good mother? Why use â€Å" â€Å"The past tense? Because I was talking about before.† Fred's smile fades into an expression of ill-concealed concern. â€Å"What do you mean, ‘before'?† â€Å"Mr. Sawyer might know,† she says, giving Jack what he thinks is a look of encouragement. â€Å"Sorry, I don't think I do,† he says. â€Å"I mean, before I wound up here and finally started to think a little bit. Before the things that were happening to me stopped scaring me out of my mind before I realized I could look inside myself and examine these feelings I've had over and over all my life. Before I had time to travel. I think I'm still a good mother, but I'm not exactly the same mother.† â€Å"Honey, please,† says Fred. â€Å"You are the same, you just had a kind of breakdown. We ought to talk about Tyler.† â€Å"We are talking about Tyler. Mr. Sawyer, do you know that lookout point on Highway 93, right where it reaches the top of the big hill about a mile south of Arden?† â€Å"I saw it today,† Jack says. â€Å"Fred showed it to me.† â€Å"You saw all those farms that keep going and going? And the hills off in the distance?† â€Å"Yes. Fred told me you loved the view from up there.† â€Å"I always want to stop and get out of the car. I love everything about that view. You can see for miles and miles, and then whoops! it stops, and you can't see any farther. But the sky keeps going, doesn't it? The sky proves that there's a world on the other side of those hills. If you travel, you can get there.† â€Å"Yes, you can.† Suddenly, there are goose bumps on Jack's forearms, and the back of his neck is tingling. â€Å"Me? I can only travel in my mind, Mr. Sawyer, and I only remembered how to do that because I landed in the loony bin. But it came to me that you can get there to the other side of the hills.† His mouth is dry. He registers Fred Marshall's growing distress without being able to reduce it. Wanting to ask her a thousand questions, he begins with the simplest one: â€Å"How did it come to you? What do you mean by that?† Judy Marshall takes her hand from her husband and holds it out to Jack, and he holds it in both of his. If she ever looked like an ordinary woman, now is not the time. She is blazing away like a lighthouse, like a bonfire on a distant cliff. â€Å"Let's say . . . late at night, or if I was alone for a long time, someone used to whisper to me. It wasn't that concrete, but let's say it was as if a person were whispering on the other side of a thick wall. A girl like me, a girl my age. And if I fell asleep then, I would almost always dream about the place where that girl lived. I called it Faraway, and it was like this world, the Coulee Country, only brighter and cleaner and more magical. In Faraway, people rode in carriages and lived in great white tents. In Faraway, there were men who could fly.† â€Å"You're right,† he says. Fred looks from his wife to Jack in painful uncertainty, and Jack says, â€Å"It sounds crazy, but she's right.† â€Å"By the time these bad things started to happen in French Landing, I had pretty much forgotten about Faraway. I hadn't thought about it since I was about twelve or thirteen. But the closer the bad things came, to Fred and Ty and me, I mean, the worse my dreams got, and the less and less real my life seemed to be. I wrote words without knowing I was doing it, I said crazy things, I was falling apart. I didn't understand that Faraway was trying to tell me something. The girl was whispering to me from the other side of the wall again, only now she was grown up and scared half to death.† â€Å"What made you think I could help?† â€Å"It was just a feeling I had, back when you arrested that Kinderling man and your picture was in the paper. The first thing I thought when I looked at your picture was, He knows about Faraway. I didn't wonder how, or how I could tell from looking at a picture; I simply understood that you knew. And then, when Ty disappeared and I lost my mind and woke up in this place, I thought if you could see into some of these people's heads, Ward D wouldn't be all that different from Faraway, and I remembered seeing your picture. And that's when I started to understand about traveling. All this morning, I have been walking through Faraway in my head. Seeing it, touching it. Smelling that unbelievable air. Did you know, Mr. Sawyer, that over there they have jackrabbits the size of kangaroos? It makes you laugh just to look at them.† Jack breaks into a wide grin, and he bends to kiss her hand, in a gesture much like her husband's. Gently, she takes her hand from his grasp. â€Å"When Fred told me he had met you, and that you were helping the police, I knew that you were here for a reason.† What this woman has done astonishes Jack. At the worst moment of her life, with her son lost and her sanity crumbling, she used a monumental feat of memory to summon all of her strength and, in effect, accomplish a miracle. She found within herself the capacity to travel. From a locked ward, she moved halfway out of this world and into another known only from childhood dreams. Nothing but the immense courage her husband had described could have enabled her to have taken this mysterious step. â€Å"You did something once, didn't you?† Judy asks him. â€Å"You were there, in Faraway, and you did something something tremendous. You don't have to say yes, because I can see it in you; it's as plain as day. But you have to say yes, so I can hear it, so say it, say yes.† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Did what?† Fred asks. â€Å"In this dream country? How can you say yes?† â€Å"Wait,† Jack tells him, â€Å"I have something to show you later,† and returns to the extraordinary woman seated before him. Judy Marshall is aflame with insight, courage, and faith and, although she is forbidden to him, now seems to be the only woman in this world or any other whom he could love for the rest of his life. â€Å"You were like me,† she says. â€Å"You forgot all about that world. And you went out and became a policeman, a detective. In fact, you became one of the best detectives that ever lived. Do you know why you did that?† â€Å"I guess the work appealed to me.† â€Å"What about it appealed to you in particular?† â€Å"Helping the community. Protecting innocent people. Putting away the bad guys. It was interesting work.† â€Å"And you thought it would never stop being interesting. Because there would always be a new problem to solve, a new question in need of an answer.† She has struck a bull's-eye that, until this moment, he did not know existed. â€Å"That's right.† â€Å"You were a great detective because, even though you didn't know it, there was something something vital you needed to detect.† I am a coppiceman, Jack remembers. His own little voice in the night, speaking to him from the other side of a thick, thick wall. â€Å"Something you had to find, for the sake of your own soul.† â€Å"Yes,† Jack says. Her words have penetrated straight into the center of his being, and tears spring to his eyes. â€Å"I always wanted to find what was missing. My whole life was about the search for a secret explanation.† In memory as vivid as a strip of film, he sees a great tented pavilion, a white room where a beautiful and wasted queen lay dying, and a little girl two or three years younger than his twelve-year-old self amid her attendants. â€Å"Did you call it Faraway?† Judy asks. â€Å"I called it the Territories.† Speaking the words aloud feels like the opening of a chest filled with a treasure he can share at last. â€Å"That's a good name. Fred won't understand this, but when I was on my long walk this morning, I felt that my son was somewhere in Faraway in your Territories. Somewhere out of sight, and hidden away. In grave danger, but still alive and unharmed. In a cell. Sleeping on the floor. But alive. Unharmed. Do you think that could be true, Mr. Sawyer?† â€Å"Wait a second,† Fred says. â€Å"I know you feel that way, and I want to believe it, too, but this is the real world we're talking about here.† â€Å"I think there are lots of real worlds,† Jack says. â€Å"And yes, I believe Tyler is somewhere in Faraway.† â€Å"Can you rescue him, Mr. Sawyer? Can you bring him back?† â€Å"It's like you said before, Mrs. Marshall,† Jack says. â€Å"I must be here for a reason.† â€Å"Sawyer, I hope whatever you're going to show me makes more sense than the two of you do,† says Fred. â€Å"We're through for now, anyhow. Here comes the warden.† Driving out of the hospital parking lot, Fred Marshall glances at the briefcase lying flat on Jack's lap but says nothing. He holds his silence until he turns back onto 93, when he says, â€Å"I'm glad you came with me.† â€Å"Thank you,† Jack says. â€Å"I am, too.† â€Å"I feel sort of out of my depth here, you know, but I'd like to get your impressions of what went on in there. Do you think it went pretty well?† â€Å"I think it went better than that. Your wife is . . . I hardly know how to describe her. I don't have the vocabulary to tell you how great I think she is.† Fred nods and sneaks a glance at Jack. â€Å"So you don't think she's out of her head, I guess.† â€Å"If that's crazy, I'd like to be crazy right along with her.† The two-lane blacktop highway that stretches before them lifts up along the steep angle of the hillside and, at its top, seems to extend into the dimensionless blue of the enormous sky. Another wary glance from Fred. â€Å"And you say you've seen this, this place she calls Faraway.† â€Å"I have, yes. As hard as that is to believe.† â€Å"No crap. No b.s. On your mother's grave.† â€Å"On my mother's grave.† â€Å"You've been there. And not just in a dream, really been there.† â€Å"The summer I was twelve.† â€Å"Could I go there, too?† â€Å"Probably not,† Jack says. This is not the truth, since Fred could go to the Territories if Jack took him there, but Jack wants to shut this door as firmly as possible. He can imagine bringing Judy Marshall into that other world; Fred is another matter. Judy has more than earned a journey into the Territories, while Fred is still incapable of believing in its existence. Judy would feel at home over there, but her husband would be like an anchor Jack had to drag along with him, like Richard Sloat. â€Å"I didn't think so,† says Fred. â€Å"If you don't mind, I'd like to pull over again when we get to the top.† â€Å"I'd like that,† Jack says. Fred drives to the crest of the hill and crosses the narrow highway to park in the gravel turnout. Instead of getting out of the car, he points at the briefcase lying flat on Jack's knees. â€Å"Is what you're going to show me in there?† â€Å"Yes,† Jack says. â€Å"I was going to show it to you earlier, but after we stopped here the first time, I wanted to wait until I heard what Judy had to say. And I'm glad I did. It might make more sense to you, now that you've heard at least part of the explanation of how I found it.† Jack snaps open the briefcase, raises the top, and from its pale, leather-lined interior removes the Brewers cap he had found that morning. â€Å"Take a look,† he says, and hands over the cap. â€Å"Ohmygod,† Fred Marshall says in a startled rush of words. â€Å"Is this . . . is it . . . ?† He looks inside the cap and exhales hugely at the sight of his son's name. His eyes leap to Jack's. â€Å"It's Tyler's. Good Lord, it's Tyler's. Oh, Lordy.† He crushes the cap to his chest and takes two deep breaths, still holding Jack's gaze. â€Å"Where did you find this? How long ago was it?† â€Å"I found it on the road this morning,† Jack says. â€Å"In the place your wife calls Faraway.† With a long moan, Fred Marshall opens his door and jumps out of the car. By the time Jack catches up with him, he is at the far edge of the lookout, holding the cap to his chest and staring at the blue-green hills beyond the long quilt of farmland. He whirls to stare at Jack. â€Å"Do you think he's still alive?† â€Å"I think he's alive,† Jack says. â€Å"In that world.† Fred points to the hills. Tears leap from his eyes, and his mouth softens. â€Å"The world that's over there somewhere, Judy says.† â€Å"In that world.† â€Å"Then you go there and find him!† Fred shouts. His face shining with tears, he gestures wildly toward the horizon with the baseball cap. â€Å"Go there and bring him back, damn you! I can't do it, so you have to.† He steps forward as if to throw a punch, then wraps his arms around Jack Sawyer and sobs. When Fred's shoulders stop trembling and his breath comes in gasps, Jack says, â€Å"I'll do everything I can.† â€Å"I know you will.† He steps away and wipes his face. â€Å"I'm sorry I yelled at you like that. I know you're going to help us.† The two men turn around to walk back to the car. Far off to the west, a loose, woolly smudge of pale gray blankets the land beside the river. â€Å"What's that?† Jack asks. â€Å"Rain?† â€Å"No, fog,† Fred says. â€Å"Coming in off the Mississippi.†