Recent orders
The Custom House
The Custom House
Introduction
“Hawthorne’s controversial of preface to The Scarlet letter, ‘The Custom-House,’ is a book narrated by a nameless person. At first it is considered to be vaguely ‘introductory’ but on the other hand, it is only relevant to novel itself. The narrator shares some few traits by the author of the book who is the chief executive of the custom House of the Salem. Customs are taxes paid into the country on the imports; the “customhouse” is a building where payments of taxes are done. The narrator found the building to be the run-down place, which is established on the rotten wharf in half-finished building. The colleagues are elderly, and they tell same repeated stories. The narrator in this case finds his colleagues to be incompetent as well as, innocuously corrupt. The narrator, on the other hand, he spends most of his times and days in the customhouse where he gets amused when few ships comes to Salem. One day when it was heavily raining, the narrator discovers some of the documents in the untenanted building. As he looks through the piles, the narrator notices that there is a manuscript which is bundled properly by the scarlet, a gold-embroidered cloth which has a shape of letter “A”. The interest of Pue to be in the local history enabled him to write accounts of each events that happened in the past, this happened in two hundred of years before the narrator narrated his story of the customhouse (147).
We also find a narrator mentioning his unease of attempting making a career that comes out as a result of his own writings. He also believes that, his ancestor are the Puritans, whom he is holding in high regards, would sometimes find it being frivolous as well as, “degenerate.” Nevertheless, the narrator decides in writing the experience of the fictional account of the Hester Prynne. He says that sometimes it may not be précised, but still believes that sometimes it might be remarkably faithful to spirits as well as the original general outline. From the first time in preface, the custom House as well as the town of the Salem are both presented as places of emptiness where only the dead people are living, in this case, the general community way of living is well as one being dead the main street is “lounging wearisomely, through the whole extent of the Peninsula”, the custom house is also said to be dead (148).
This paper tries to introduce us to narrators as well as establishing his desires in contributing to the American culture. This narrator seems to be having many things in common with Nathaniel Hawthorne – who worked as the customs officer. Hawthorne lost his job because of political changes. He also had the Puritian ancestors considering their legacy as both a curse as well as, a blessing. The narrator does not only stand-in for the Hawthorne, but he is also carefully constructed in enhancing the aesthetically of the book and the philosophy. Moreover, we can see Hawthorne setting the narrator up to the similar Hester Prynne into significant ways. Like Hester, it is seen that the narrator is spending his days with many people who surrounds him making him feel alienated. His case of relative youth as well as, vitality separates the narrator from the customs officers who had a career.
The narrator in this part tries to point out connections existing between himself as well as, Hester when he tries noting that, one day his name will be reduced to the custom stump, just like, she had been earlier reduced to the piles of the old papers as well as, craps of the clothes. The identification of the narrator and Hester helps the reader in universalizing her story as well as, seeing its application on other society.
Despite the narrator’s devotion to the story of Hester, the narrator gets trouble to writing it. First, the narrator feels that it would be frivolous for his ancestors who are Puritian, and for sure he cannot write until relieved of career responsibilities, which are real. Second, the narrator knows his audience might be in a small number, mostly because the narrator might be relating the events that had happened back of two hundred years. The narrator’s time to spend in the company of other customhouse men taught him that it may be sometimes extremely difficult for him to write, and to make the narrated story accessible to everyone particularly the people who are no longer remarkably young at heart. Although, conversely, the narrator regards it to be part of his challenges trying to tell the story of Hester in a manner in which the story becomes meaningful as well as, emotionally affecting all the readers. The narrator’s last step to prepare in writing is the stopping battling the “real world” concerning the work atmosphere of the story that he narrates.
The narrator here finds the job of writing to be highly therapeutic; in addition, he discovers the writing to be intensely practical in contrary to the assertions of the Puritian ancestors: the narrators introductions are seen to be providing the cogent discourse on the American history as well as their cultures. Hawthorne wrote this story at the time when the America sought in distinguishing itself from centuries of the European tradition in order to produce the uniquely the “American” writers – those people who, like the Hawthorne, would be able to encourage patriotism through enlarging the America’s comparatively sense of the world brief history.
Hawthorne, like the narrator, both had an idea of balancing the need of establishing the weighty past, and equally compelling of needs to write the intriguing as well as, a relevant story but, both does not want to see their works placed in the pigeonhole as “Only” the American”.
Themes, Motifs & Symbols
Themes are substantially the subjects, the ideas or central topics, which are addressed, in literary work. While Motifs is the recurring structures, literary devices as well as contrasts helping in developing as well as informing the main themes in the texts. Lastly are symbols. Symbols are the objects or characters or the figures as well as colours, which are used to represent the abstract ideas and concepts. In this novel, many symbols have been used to symbolise something in the novel. In the novel, all different characters in the play have used the themes and motifs as well as the symbols. Some of the characters used them as illustrated below.
Sin, Human condition and Knowledge
These themes are portrayed in differently in the chapters. At first the theme of sin as well as knowledge is both linked together in Judeo-Christian tradition. The Bible, on the other hand, begins with a story of Eve as well as Adam who was by then expelled from Eden because of eating from trees of knowledge of evil as well as, diverting. By doing so, Adam and Eve humanness are made aware hence separating them from divine as well as, other creatures. Once they are expelled out of the Garden of Eden, the two are forced to procreate at the same time to toil – the two “labors” which is defining human conditions.
The story of Adam and Eve is recalled by the experiences of Hester as well as Dimmesdale because, in all cases, the sins results in the expulsion plus suffering. However, the results in the knowledge of being a human. In the other hand, the scarlet letter for Hester functions as her passport to travel to regions where women dared to be not tread hence she speculates about her own society as well as herself especially her body than anyone in New England. We also find Hester and Dimmesdale, on the other hand, contemplating their sinfulness on a daily basis as well as trying to reconcile their lived experiences.
The elders of the Puritan argue that the earthly experiences are obstacles which are on paths to the heaven hence, viewing sins as threats to communities which should be suppressed as well as punished.
The Nature of Evil
The theme of the nature of evil is portrayed frequently by many characters in the novel who deliberate about the identity of the “Black Man”, which represents the evil. Many questions have been asked to regard to the theme of evil in the novel throughout the story. Many people would love to get answers concerning whether Chillingworth’s selfishness to the marrying of Hester forced her to be an evil. The confusion regarding the nature as well as the evil causes reveals all problems with Puritan Conceptions regarding to sin.
The book continues to argue that the true evil may have arisen from a close relationship which exists between love as well as, hate. The narrator concludes that both emotions, which depend on a high degree in intimacy as well as, heart-knowledge, render individual dependent. An act of evil is no longer found in the Hester as well as Demmesdale’s lovemaking or in cruel ignorance fathers of the puritan. Evil is poisonous since it is found carefully plotted as well as precisely, which is aiming revenge at Chillingworth, because his love is perverted.
Identity and society
Hester feels shame when she is asked and forced by the Boston populace to put on a badge which indicates humiliation. She is not willing to leave town or imprisoned physically, hence by leaving the Massachusetts Bay Colony may allow her removing s scarlet letter as well as resuming a life which is normal. However, Hester reacts when told by Chillingworth that, she will be considered by the town fathers when she removes the letter. This behaviour has been premised on Hester by the desire of determining her identity than allowing other people to determine for her.
Motifs
Motifs are the recurring structures, literary devices as well as contrasts helping in developing as well as informing the main themes in the texts. There is a motif of civilization versus the wilderness that is shown in the novel. In The scarlet Letter, the forest which surrounds the town represents the behaviours opposing systems. Civilization is shown by the town, whiles the forest, on the other hand, and represents the space of the natural, not human authority. The nights and days have been used in the novel to emphasize the alternations of the sunlight as well as, the darkness. A person can do a specific activity in the daylight rather than night since in the night many inner natures are said to manifest at that particular time.
Symbols
Symbols are the objects or characters or the figures as well as colours, which are used to represent the abstract ideas and concepts. In this novel, many symbols have been used to symbolise something in the novel. For example, The Scarlet letter is a symbol, which represents shame, though it becomes a symbol to identify Hester. The pearl, on the other hand, is known to be a character whose primary function in the novel acts as, a symbol.
Conclusion
In summary, from the story of the story of the Customhouse, The scarlet letters’ tale adds legitimacy history and cultures to the Americans history. The story of Hester in this case comes twice removed. The story is filtered for the first time by John Pue, then through the narrator.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The scarlet letter. New York: Chelsea House
Publishers, 2004. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, and Leland S. Person. The scarlet letter and other writings:
authoritative texts, contexts, criticism. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2005. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The scarlet letter with Connections. London: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, 2000. Print.
Meltzer, Milton. Nathaniel Hawthorne: a biography. London: Twenty-First Century Books,
2007. Print.
Sterling, Laurie A., and Harold Bloom. Bloom’s how to write about Nathaniel Hawthorne.
New York: Bloom’s Literary Criticism, 2008. Print.
Future Employment Skills Requirements Part B
Future Employment Skills Requirements: Part B
Name of the Student:
Swansea School of Education
Implications of the Part A findings on PCET Organizations’ Leadership and Management
Part A of this research examined the essential skills that ESOL learners in the UK should acquire in order to meet employment requirements in the future. The research indicated that organizations are thriving in a diverse and increasingly competitive business environment during the 21st century. One of the strategies taken by organizations to cope with the rapid changes in the external environment is to employ human resources with the ability to steer them to maintain or achieve competitive edge in the future. As such, organizations are increasingly attaching importance to the future human resource needs. Part A of this research identified several skills that PCET organizations in the UK should offer to ESOL learners in order to enhance their chances of getting employed in the future. The findings derived in part A indicated that most ESOL learners focus on gaining grammatical skills, on top of other skills that are directly applicable for their jobs. For instance, immigrants and refugees with experience in teaching, but are not native English-speakers mostly focus on gaining grammatical competence through learning grammatical skills. They often focus on sharpening their comprehension, oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency and vocabulary skills. Although these grammatical skills are essential in employment settings in the UK, teamwork, problem-solving, decision-making, computer literacy and creative thinking skills are becoming very important to organizations, amidst increasingly competitive business environment. In other words, for ESOL learners in the UK to enhance their future employability chances, they must have such skills.
Although Part A of this project identified important skills that employees will be required to have in the future, the list was not comprehensive. Further research has identified that cultural pragmatic skills are very important in enhancing effective communication in all contexts. Cultural pragmatics refers to the patterns of interaction and rules of speaking of a given language (Wierzbicka, 2013). In particulars, cultural pragmatics constitute the speech acts that are applied by individuals in a given group or community within specific contexts (Wierzbicka, 2013). The theory of speech acts posits that people from different cultural backgrounds tend to use different communication strategies, whereas people from the same cultural background tend to use the same communication strategies. Learning pragmatic skills is important for ESOL learners in the UK. Although ESOL learners gain the essential grammatical communication skills needed for reading, comprehending, writing, listening and writing, they may not be able to send the correct messages when dealing with the native English-speakers. For instance, when making requests, a non-native English speaker may use direct language, without the use of syntax and lexical features. Such requests may be interpreted by the native English-speakers as rude or as a sign of impolite behavior. Gaining pragmatically skills is therefore essential in all contexts for ESOL learners in the UK, including at the workplace (Wierzbicka, 2013). Another weakness of the part A findings is that they only identified some of the future requirements for employment, without explaining why these requirements are important. Significantly, the findings failed to acknowledge the fact that some of the skills, such as decision making and problem solving may not be gauged by employers during job recruitment. Rather, such skills become important after joining an organization (McMillan, 2008).
The findings above findings have several implications on PCET organizations’ leadership and management. One of the major goals of such organizations is to provide students with instructional skills that match with the requirements of the employers. In this regard, the PCET organizations should cope with the changes in employment needs. In other words, the PCET organizations need to adapt to the changes in the external environment (Hiatt & Creasey, 2010). The school curriculum should be changed to include subjects that provide such skills. The skills can be incorporated in common courses that will be done by all students. The leaders and managers of PCET organizations should also plan to provide all essential instructional tools for such skills. Importantly, the existing staff should be provided with additional training so that they can provide the essential knowledge on the new areas to the students. Where need be, new staff with adequate instructional knowledge in the new areas should be hired (Edwinah, & Ahiauzu, 2013).
Such changes will definitely have a major impact on the existing culture of the PCET organizations. The organizational change theory proposes different approaches that leaders and managers should adopt in specific situations to enhance success during change. To achieve success in the implementation of changes, the leaders and managers at PCET organizations should adopt the bottom-up approach to change implementation, in which the opinions of the lower-level staff count as much as the opinions of the top leaders and managers in decision-making (Brown & Cregan, 2008). In other words, all the staff members at all levels should be actively involved in the change process. However, caution should be taken when incorporating the opinions of the lower-level staff; the management should incorporate the best opinions.
Implications on MEWN Profession
As Steenekamp, Botha and Moloi (2012) explain, organizations in both the private and public sectors are working hard to meet the challenges that are emerging during the recent years and to cope with the diverse working environments. Most organizations, especially in the private sector have already shifted attention to the importance of the additional skills that enhance productivity and quality of output. Organizations in the public sector are also devising strategies to enhance their volume output and quality of output, whether the output constitutes tangible products or services. Minority Ethnic Women’s Network Wales (MEWN), the organization that I work for is not an exception. In short, all organizations, in the near future, are going to recruit employees with ability to work in teams.
Working in teams has various impacts to an organization, including enabling workers to focus on organizational objectives and improving the morale of workers (Nielsen & Randall, 2012). Importantly, workers are able to correct each other for any mistakes. Eventually, the overall quality and volume of products produced or the services offered is improved. Team working, therefore, can help to improve the quality of services offered at MEWN. Although workers at MEWN tend to have positive spirit towards their job, they are not organized in teams. Consequently, there are instances of inefficient services offered by the workers, which can be avoided through team working.
Secondly, as technology evolves, it is becoming imperative for all MEWN to embrace the new discoveries that help to improve its services. Computer technology is one area that is advancing at a rapid rate many organizations are already trying to keep pace with the rapid changes. In the future, employees in many organizations will be required to have adequate knowledge to deal with computers, which are increasingly used by organizations to automate services, with the aim of improving quality. Currently, workers at MEWN have basic knowledge in operating computers but as the agency adopts the new technology, the employees will need to get more training to operate the new technology (Schermerhorn, 2009). Any new employee in the organization will need to have knowledge of specific computer operations. Decision-making skills are essential since they enable individuals at any level of an organization to select the best option to solve a problem in cases where there are several alternatives. Decision-making skills are part of problem-solving skills. The problem solving skills enable workers, whether working in group or not, to solve conflicts that emerge between them. At the same time, the creative thinking skills enable individual workers to come up with innovative solutions to problems (Schermerhorn, 2009). In this regard, such skills can help to improve the services offered by workers at MEWN. Although this may not be part of the key requirements for employment, any non-native English-speaker employed at MEWN will need to have cultural pragmatic skills in order to communicate effectively with the work colleagues and also the people who re offered services.
Although I have not assessed many my colleagues in the organization, I have noticed that some of us are not conscious of the importance of such skills, yet there are instances where the skills are directly applicable. I assessed myself and realized that I lack the problem-solving, decision-making and cultural pragmatic competence skills. I therefore, need to come up with a strategy to develop my skills in those areas.
Personal Action Plan for Professional Development
The following is a summary of my personal development plan
My Specific goals
The following are my specific personal development goals;
To learn how to operate the new computer technology that is installed within MEWN that has direct implications on my daily tasks
To understand the patterns of interaction and rules of speaking embedded in the English culture
To gain problem-solving skills
To gain decision-making skills
In order to achieve the objectives related to skills, I will need to seek for assistance from my tutors to provide me with instructional tools. With regard to pragmatic skills, I will have to ask my school colleagues to brief me about the speech acts that they use in specific situations. For instance, I will have to seek help from my school colleagues to inform me about the speech acts that are commonly used when making requests or apologies. I will have to keep on practicing using available computers in order to advance my computer skills. I target to gain all the skills within two years. The main constraints that I may encounter are lack of enough instructional tools and lack of adequate time to learn from the tutors. Gaining the cultural pragmatic skills will enable me to;
Understand the differences in patterns of interaction and rules of speaking between the English culture and home culture
Learn how to use polite language in English
Avoid cases of misunderstanding with the native-English-speaking colleagues
Measuring the Progress
The following will be my criteria for measuring the progress
After learning new computer operation skills, I will be applying directly in my work. I will be integrating the skills in my services at MEWN.
I will be asking my colleagues at school and at work place to inform me whether I am using the correct words in specific situations, such as when asking for help and when making apology
I will be applying knowledge about problem-solving and decision-making in suggesting solutions to emerging problems at work place, as well as assisting in solving conflicts.
Assessing Attainability of my Objectives
My goals will be attainable due to the following reasons;
There are computers in school and at work place that are provided for individuals to train themselves
There instructional tools (books and other resources) available to train students about my target skills in the school
Assessing whether my goals are realistic
My goals are realistic because they are directly applicable during daily activities, both at work place and in other contexts. As such, the goals exert a high motivational force on me.
Timeliness of attaining my goals
I will be able to attain all my goals within the set time frame of 2 years. In fact, some goals will be met within a shorter time-frame. For instance, learning pragmatic skills may take les than one year.
ReferencesBrown, M., & Cregan, C. (2008). Organizational change cynicism: The role of employee involvement. Human Resource Management, 47(4), 667 – 686.
Edwinah, A., & Ahiauzu, A. (2013). Employee involvement and organizational effectiveness. Journal of Management Development, 32(7), 661 – 674.
Hiatt, J., & Creasey. T. J. (2010). Change Management: The People Side of Change. New York (NY): Routledge.
McMillan, E. (2008). Complexity, Management and the Dynamics of Change: Challenges for Practice. New York (NY): Routledge.
Nielsen, K., & Randall, R. (2012). The importance of employee participation and perceptions of changes in procedures in a team working intervention. Work Stress, 26(2), 91–111
Schermerhorn, J. R. (2009). Management. London: John Wiley & Sons Steenekamp, K., Botha, G. & Moloi, K. C. (2012). Sustaining change in a learning organization. Africa Education Review, 9(2), 380-394.
Steenekamp, K., Botha, G. & Moloi, K. C. (2012). Sustaining change in a learning organization. Africa Education Review, 9(2), 380-394.
Wierzbicka, A. (2013). Cross-cultural pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction (2nd
ed.). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
Future Challenges for Healthcare Management Final Paper
Future Challenges for Healthcare Management
Name
January 22, 2014
Healthcare management has evolved with time, restoring hope to many helpless patients who had resigned to their fate. The prospects for healthcare management are great, opportunities are immense, but there are also daunting challenges that threatening to the future success and prospects of this sector. These challenges range from those related to the patients, socio-economic backgrounds of the patients, health insurers, and healthcare providers.
Key Future Challenges to Healthcare Management
With the many inventions taking place in the field of medicine and health, many tend to believe that the future of healthcare management is very bright. Although promising, there are a number of challenges that limit effective healthcare management. First and foremost, change in the lifestyles of people presents a major challenge to the management of healthcare. The current generation breeds individuals who are lazy, hate doing exercises, consume fast foods, and prefer hybrid lifestyles that come at a cost. It is such associated costs that make the future of healthcare management gloomy and hopeless. It is therefore not a surprise that many diseases keep creeping in unbidden.
With the changing lifestyles, managing healthcare will become a major challenge as many will get infected with ailments that are avoidable through living healthy and observing individual wellness. Healthcare providers will get overwhelmed with the number of patients making dates with them for check-ups and screening for chronic health conditions such as obesity and various types of cancers.
Another daunting challenge that is will burden healthcare management is the shouldering of the financial liability of providing for healthcare to the insurers. With the rising demand for medical cover and insurance, insurers have spotted an opportunity to exploit and benefit themselves at the expense of the insured. Besides, most of these health insurance companies are likely to view this as a gateway to profit-maximization without minding about the contributors. This will limit the ability of patients to get access to affordable healthcare services without further digging deep into their out-of-pocket funds. It will not be a surprise when fake insurers come up to extort money from innocent and unsuspecting individuals, making their life miserable and unworthy of living. This will probably have adverse impacts on healthcare management and service delivery.
The professional and academic qualifications of the healthcare providers are also likely to change. While many of the health colleges become endowed with the necessary facilities to professionally, efficiently, and competently handle healthcare management, their performance fall below the expected standards. Besides, some of these institutions will take advantage of students only to reap money and provide low quality academic standards. The production of half-baked health providers will be one of the greatest challenges that healthcare management will experience. And with the explosion of many colleges and schools with questionable integrity and reputation, this is going to become unavoidable.
Many healthcare providers and institutions continue to emerge. Some of these facilities are ill-equipped to provide superior healthcare management as they purport to do. This trend is likely to continue into the foreseeable future, thereby presenting a major challenge to healthcare management. Many hospitals are quickly becoming business hubs that value money over the lives of their clients. Such a trend would be detrimental to the future of healthcare management as it will lower the quality of care provided by healthcare facilities. Healthcare providers no longer value the lives of their clients: they value the money since they will be profit-driven.
Conclusion
In conclusion, these challenges need to be addressed to bring sanity back to the field of healthcare management. Patients have a right to quality healthcare and insurers have a duty to provide medical cover for these health conditions. The healthcare providers, on the other hand, have a responsibility to provide quality healthcare to their patients. The stakeholders in healthcare management have to wake up to the realization that there are challenges and that these challenges need should be exhaustively addressed; otherwise, the major setbacks awaits health this sector.
Bibliography
Price, S. A., Koch, M. W., & Bassett, S. Health Care Resource Management: Present and future challenges. St. Louis; Toronto: Mosby, 1998.
Walshe, K., & Smith, J. Healthcare Management. Maidenhead: Open University Press, McGraw-Hill, 2011.