Financial Report Analysis of a Jute Mill Essay Example for Free

Financial Report Analysis of a Jute Mill Essay Market opportunity is big factor in shaping a company’s strategy. Opportunities may be plentiful or scarce. The may range from widely alternative to marginally interesting. A company is well advised to pass on particular market opportunity unless it has th e resource capabilities most relevant to a company are: i) ii) Those that offer important avenues for profitable growth Those where a company has the most potential for completive. Threats: Certain factors in a company extend environment may pose threats to i ts profitability and competitive well-being. Revels introduction of new product New government regulations that is more burdensome to a company than is competitors Vulnerability to a raise in interest rates Political upheaval and the like. It is management job to identify the threats to the company’s future well-being and to evaluate what strategic actions can be taken to neutralize or lesson their impact. Opportunities and threats point to the need for strategic action. Managers need to i. ii. Pursue market opportunities well suited to the company’s resources capabilities, and Take action to defend against internal threats to the company’ business. Why SWOT analysis? ? It involves evaluating the strengths, weakness opportunities and threats and drawing conclusions about the attractiveness of the company’s situation and the need for strategic action. From a strategy marking perspective strengths are significant because they can be used as the cornerstones of strategy and the basis on which to build competitive advantages. ? Management should build strategy around what the company dose best on the basis of the strengths and should avoid strategies whose success depends heavily on areas where the company is weak. A strategy also needs to aim at correcting competitive weakness that make the company vulnerable, hurt its importance of disqualify it from pursuing an attractive opportunity. ? Strategy must be aimed at pursuing opportunities well suited to the company’s capabilities and provide a defense against internal threats. Mashriqui Jute Mills Ltd. Consolidated profit and loss account For the year ended 30th June, 2 008 Revenue Cost of revenue Gross Profit Operating Expenses Administrative Expenses Distribution (selling) Expenses Profit before Interest, Tax Depreciation Depreciation Net Profit/Loss before Tax Theoretical Illustration Concepts relating to ratio analysis 3. 1 Liquidity Ratio o Liquidity refers to the ability of a firm to meet its short -term financial obligations when and as they fall due. o The main concern of liquidity ratio is to measure the ability of the firms to meet their short-term maturing obligations. Failure to do this will result in the total failure of the business, as it would be forced into liquidation. i) Current Ratio The current ratio expresses the relationship between the firm’s current assets and its current liabilities. Current assets normally include cash, marketable securities, accounts receivable and inventories. Current liabilities consist of accounts payable, short-term notes payable, short-term loans, current maturities of long term debt, accrued in come taxes and other accrued expenses (wages). The rule of thumb says that the current ratio should be at least 2 that are the current assets should meet current liabilities at least twice. (ii) Quick Ratio Measures assets that are quickly converted into cash and they are compared with current liabilities. This ratio realizes that some of current assets are not easily convertible to cash e. g. inventories. The quick ratio, also referred to as acid test ratio, examines the ability of the business to cover its sh ort-term obligations from its â€Å"quick† assets only (i. e. it ignores stock). The quick ratio is calculated as follows clearly this ratio will be lower than the current ratio, but the difference between the two (the gap) will indicate the extent to which current assets consist of stock. 3. 2 Profitability Ratio Profitability is the ability of a business to earn profit over a period of time. Although the profit figure is the starting point for any calculation of cash flow, as already pointed out, profitable companies can still fail for a lack of cash. Note: Without profit, there is no cash and therefore profitability must be seen as a critical success factors. o A company should earn profits to survive and grow over a long period of time. o Profits are essential, but it would be wrong to assume that every action initiated by management of a company should be aimed at maximizing profits, irrespective of social consequences.

Brief History Of Japanese Cinema Film

Brief History Of Japanese Cinema Film For the basis of my essay I shall try and delve into how Japanese cinema reflects and challenges the culture of the country, I will also look into several films and analyse them to show what connection they have with the cultural aspect of japan as a nation and also provide a brief history of Japanese cinema. The issues I will look at will involve the Hiroshima bombings and the effects of nuclear warfare as mentioned above and the relevance to Godzilla, as well as the cultural aspects of seven Samurai and how it reflects Japanese mentality in terms of lifestyle and also looking at the huge emphasis that martial arts plays in there cinema which sometimes may form a stereo type for Japanese people. Film makers I will look at will include Akira kurosawa and the creator of Dragon ball Z Akira Toriyama and Maseki Kobayahi. In terms of observations I will focus on mainly the culture which includes clothing/ mentality of the Japanese people and lifestyle. I will also look at the original Ja panese film, The Ringu which inspired the 2002 film The Ring and talk about how it acted as almost a renaissance for Japanese horror films, ultimately finishing with a conclusion on my thoughts about my findings and give my opinion on how culture is reflected. Japanese cinema dates back over a hundred years and is the fourth largest in terms of yearly films produced in the world. The arrival of the Lumià ¨re brothers cinematograph in 1897 marked the true beginning of cinema in Japan. The first moving-picture camera imported into the country was a Gaumont camera that was used on a few instances to film fashionable geishas in the traditional restaurants of Shimbashi, which received the approval of the Japanese audiences. The film made from these shots of the geishas is considered to be the first film made for entertainment in Japan. In 1899, a photographic engineer named Tsunekichi Shibata made what is thought to be the first Japanese cinematographic production, a film of purely theatrical content that showed a kabuki play named Maple Viewing or Momijigari. In 1908, ShÃ…Â zÃ…Â  Makino, considered the pioneer director of Japanese cinema, started his influential career with HonnÃ…Â ji gassen, produced for Yokota ShÃ…Â kai. ShÃ…Â zÃ…Â  then cast Matsunosuke Onoe, a former kabuki actor, to star in his work. Onoe became Japans first real film star, appearing in over a thousand films, most of them were shorts, between 1909 and 1926. The pair pioneered the jidaigeki genre. Tokihiko Okada was a popular romantic lead of the same era. Likewise the he first female Japanese performer to appear in a film professionally was the dancer/actress Tokuko Nagai Takagi, who appeared in four shorts for the American-based Thanhouser Company between 1911 and 1914. In the 1950s which is considered the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. Three Japanese films from this decade (Rashomon, Seven Samurai and Tokyo Story) made the list of Sight Sounds 2002 Critics and Directors Poll for the best films of all time. This led to a rise in diversity in movie distribution thanks to the increased amount of films produced and popularity of the film studios of Toho, Daiei, Shochiku, Nikkatsu, and Toei.It started with Akira Kurosawas Rashomon (1950), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival Which firmly put Japanese cinema on the map globally. It was also the breakout role for legendary Japanese star Toshiro Mifune The first Japanese film in color was Carmen Comes Home directed by Ke isuke Kinoshita and released in 1951. There was also a black-and-white version of this film available. Gate of Hell, a 1953 film by Teinosuke Kinugasa, was the first movie that filmed using the Eastman color film, Gate of Hell was both Daieis first color film and the first Japanese color movie to be released outside of Japan internationally, receiving an Oscar in 1954 for Best Costume Design by Sanzo Wada and an Honorary Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It also won the Palme dOr at the Cannes Film Festival, the first Japanese film to achieve that honour. Also that year of 1954 saw arguably the two of Japans most influential films released. The first was the Kurosawa Seven Samurai, about a group of hired samurai who protect a helpless village from a dangerous gang of thieves. The same year, IshirÃ…Â  Honda released the anti-nuclear horror film Gojira, which was translated in the English as Godzilla. Though it was severely edited for its Western release, Godzilla became an international icon of Japan and spawned an entire new genre in Japanses film known as Kaiju films which were basically monster movies. The 1980s saw the decline of many of the massive Japanese film studios and their associated cinemas, with major studios Toho responsible for Godzilla and Toei barely managing to be stable in business, Shochiku supported almost solely by the Otoko wa tsurai films, and Nikkatsu declining even further. Because of economic recessions, the number of movie theatres in Japan had been steadily declining ever since the 1960s. The 1990s saw the reversal of this trend and the introduction of the Multiplex in Japan. In the 2000s the number of movies being shown in Japan steadily started to increase, with about 821 films released in 2006. Movies based on Japanese television series were especially popular during this period. Anime films now accounted for 60 percent of Japanese film production. The 1990s and 2000s are considered to be Japanese Cinemas Second Golden Age, due to the immense popularity of anime, both within Japan and overseas. In anime, Hayao Miyazaki directed Spirited Away in 2001, b reaking Japanese box office records and winning several awards, followed by Howls Moving Castle and Ponyo in 2004 and 2008. Japanese films have been given several genres within them with Jidaigeki being historic pieces of work that are set during the Edo period (1603-1868) or earlier. Jidaigeki, which is covers films like seven samurai and the term meaning the sound of swords clashing, Horror films such as Ring Kaiju films which mentioned above are monster films which were stemmed mainly from the birth of Godzilla. Pink films which are soft core pornographic films. Yakuz, movies about the Yakuza mobsters, Gendaigeki which is the opposite of Jidaigeki are films set in the present day with contemporary themes. Shomingeki are realistic films about common working people and lifestyles. Anime which is Japanese animation and has become a massive boon in the Japanese film industry accounting for almost as much as 60% of productions and then Mecha Science fiction and Cyberpunk. Godzilla (1954) Moving on to the core of my essay the film I picked out and arguably being one of Japanese cinemas most important globally successful and iconic films, Godzilla.Initially appearing in IshirÃ…Â  Hondas 1954 monster film Godzilla, ever since then, Godzilla has then gone on to become a international pop culture icon appearing in 28 films produced by Toho Co Ltd. The monster has appeared in other numerous other mediums including video games, novels, comic books, and an American animated television series. A 1998 American remake was produced titled Godzilla but received mixed reviews and showed a different version to that of its Japanese roots and a second American version is currently in development at legendary pictures a warner bros that will be directed by Gareth Edwards after they acquired the rights from Toho with it promising to return to his original Japanese roots, with the producers behind it describing Godzilla as being a force of nature. Originally Godzilla was created after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Daigo FukuryÃ…Â « Maru incident still fresh in the minds of the Japanese people, He was portrayed as a monster created by nuclear mutation by the detonations of nuclear warfare and is supposed to be a metaphor for nuclear weapons in general. As the film series expanded and got bigger and bigger, the latter stories took on less serious undertones and began being more mainstream by portraying Godzilla as a hero while other plots still had him as a destructive creature. Baring in mind Godzillas nuclear origin, his abilities were stemmed as visual representations of the bombing by having atomic breath and a nuclear aura. By somewhat embodying the kaiju genre he has been viewed as a visual film graphic representation for the United States by giving the Japanese audience a very negative perception of America in general as well as an allegory of nuclear weapons in general. The earlier Godzilla fi lms, especially the original, showed Godzilla as a terrifying monster born of nuclear origin. Godzilla represented the fear that Japan as a nation had about the horrible nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and always counting the possibility of any recurrence. As the series progressed it also changed Godzilla into a less destructive and more heroic character as the films started to become aimed towards younger audiences. Godzilla remains one of the most recognisable fictional heroes in the history of film, and is also the second of only three fictional characters to have won the MTV Lifetime Achievement Award, which was awarded in 1996. It is clear the cultural reflection Godzilla has with Japan as a nation due to the bombing also portraying America in a negative vein. The idea of the atomic bomb was reflected in the second Godzilla movie. Gigantis, the Fire Monster. In the movie Godzilla fights for Japan against Angilas, who was also mutated by an atomic explosion. In Godzil la vs King Ghidorah, Ghidora starts out as a bat, but turns into a monster after exposure to an atom bomb test. Here it is not the idea of lizards and bats fighting but looking deeper it raises the issue of atomic bomb testing in a farcical manner. However, Godzillas status as a symbol for Japans collective fears carried on the next 40 years, Godzilla was used to symbolize other concerns as well being not only used to symbolise the atomic bomb but also the cold war. Godzilla also had a way of destroying symbols of the Japanese political establishment, including the national parliament. This can be seen in the 1992 release of Godzilla vs. Mothra. Here, the larva of the giant moth, Mothra, spins a cocoon around the countrys parliament building. Mothra was a comical insect created to do what Japan could never achieve single-handedly: stop a one party government that frustrated the nation. The aspect of women restoring the natural balance is seen again in Godzilla vs. The Thing released in the U.S. as Godzilla vs. Mothra. After a violent storm, an enormous egg is found floating in the ocean. It actually contains Mothras offspring. An entrepreneur decides to buy it and make it a tourist attraction by building a glass case around it. Metaphorically this man is Westernized in his hope to control and contain nature rather than live in harmony with it. So, a women reporter, two tiny women who are in a symbiotic and telepathic relationship with Mothra, and Mothra, herself, attempt to rescue the egg. This represents their attempt to restore the natural balance. Unfortunately, Godzilla also threatens the wellbeing of the egg and Mothra dies attempting to defend it. Eventually, though, two larvae hatch from the egg and envelope Godzilla in a chrysalis. He falls back into the water from which he came. Again, it is the women whether of the human or moth species who struggle and sacrifice themselves to resolve the films crises in favor of balance and harmony. The constant dep iction of an antagonist being a symbolic reference to the western shows that the nation of japan is united to a common threat outside their own walls showing external struggles so basically suggesting that they as a nation they stand together and dont show the internal struggles again referring back to the bombing. Foreign nations often wonder what the appeal of a giant latex dinosaur could possibly be, but I think the answer is simple, Godzilla is, after all, the overall opposite to the typical Japanese stereotype. Aggressive and monstrous in a country where people tend to be graceful and polite and honourable. He is spontaneous in a place that values the impassive, studied response. He is confrontational where conciliation is considered proper behaviour. He is, in essence, a nuclear bomb in a country that is emphatically opposed to nuclear weapons in effect challenging the countries culture. From looking at the hospital scenes after Godzilla destroys Tokyo, you get an accurate vie w to what it may have been for the unfortunate survivors of the Hiroshima blast. This was the first and only occasion in a kaiju film, the distress and suffering of innocent citizens is shown, with piles of dead bodies in hospitals that were seen. As Gojira is a hauntingly representation to the bombing of Hiroshima, Gojira no Gyakushu made in 1955 was a representation and reminder to the bombing of Nagasaki. Seven Samurai Seven Samurai was a 1954 Japanese adventure/drama film directed by Akira Kurosawa, the film is set in 1587 during the warring states period of Japan. The story revolves around a village of farmers that recruits seven master less samurai to fight against bandits who aim to steal the crops after the farms harvest. The film is looked back upon by many critics as one of the greatest and influential films of all time ever made and one of the films aswell as Godzilla which is widely known in the west and was subjected to critical acclaim voted in the list of greatest films of all time. Seven samurai has also inspired the 1960 film Magnificent seven in the west where the Samurai are replaced with gunslingers. The film also reflected Japanese agriculture with the emphasis being on a farm and crops acting almost like a metaphoric currency. It reflected the warrior culture of the nation incredibly well but in somewhat almost creates a stereotype of Japanese people. Akira Kurosawa Kurosawa was a Japanese film director/producer/screen writer and is considered by many as one of the most influential people in not only Japanese cinema but worldwide. He made his debut in Japanese film in 1936 and made his directorial debut in 1943 with Shansiro sugata. Kurosawa also left his mark on American cinema by influencing George Lucass epic science fiction Star wars from Akiras own Hidden fortress. If American film in full of action, European film has character, leaving the Japanese film rich in mood and atmosphere as Kurosawas work showed. It presented characters in nature, it raised issues like the universal topic in relation to basic humanity. However, how the story is told and the way it is viewed brand its identity to the worldwide stage. Traditional theatre Kabuki. It is a form of traditional Maseki Kobayahi The film Harakiri directed by Masaki Kobayahi in (1962) was a film made about throwing thousands of Samurai out of work and into poverty. This film took the form of militaristic power and they pose the same moral conflict in terms of the struggle of the individual against society. Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi came of age in the postwar moment, a time when filmmakers were at the frontline of dissident expression in japan. Drawing upon a rich history of protest in Japanese cinema, which had fallen dormant during the war and occupation years, filmmakers took the opportunity to challenge those institutions that remained wedded to the nations feudal past. Out of all the director in Japan Masaki Kobayashi was know to be the most passionate directors of them all and his films were marked by a insolence of tradition and authority, whether feudal or contemporary. Kobayashi found the present time to be no more different to the violation of personal freedoms than they did in the pre-meiji past, under official feudalism, had been. Kobayashi often showed his political disagreement when filming jidai-geki films, In which the historical past becomes a substitute for modern japan. When filming jidai-geki films Kobayashi exposed the historical roots of contemporary injustice. Most Japanese audiences were well schooled in history so this allowed them to connect the critique of the past with abuses in the present. The film Harakiri that was made in 1962 highlighted this. Japanese theatre, known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate makeup worn by some of its performers, like the Gieshas. This was all present in Kurosawas work especially Seven Samurai. Japanese society in film Japanese society and its culture is also a core of what cinema in the country portray or want to portray, Tokyo story is a brilliant example. It tells the story of an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. The film contrasts the behaviour of their children, who are too busy to pay them much attention, and their widowed daughter-in-law, who manages to host them properly. It is often regarded as Ozus masterpiece. It tells a realistic grounded. It reflected on the culture by showing day to day Japanese family life. Memoirs from a Giesha gives us an inside into the perspective female lifestyle of a Geisha, They are a Japanese entertainer often wearing the historic kimono dress which is almost like a visual representation of a common mans image of a common Japanese woman. It reflected culture of the feminine side and how it showed women were considered not to have any skills and that it was just there looks which could be used for entertainment. Gieshas are also sometimes referred to as prostitutes due to them having the entertainer tag for the fact of not having it label them vulgar and obscene and censorship issues in Japanese cinema. Anime has also been a huge part of recent Japanese cinema, often portraying culture and history. Conclusion Concluding my essay I feel that I have given examples of instances where the culture is reflected and where the culture is challenged, Godzilla provided a visual symbolic representation of the mind set of japan during the bombing, along with addressing issues with Japanese parliament as seen in a later instalment of Godzilla and also the countries mentality as united against a common threat in this case being the western. Referring to how I think it challenges the culture in a negative sense is Another issue is the constant depiction of martial arts often in Anime and in live action Japanese cinema, which is commonly exported to western territories due to their action-packed content, and so gives an unrealistic view of Japanese culture and creates a racial stereotype. . From looking at the film Memoirs of a Geisha and where she is sold shows an example of people trafficking which can create a negative perception of Japanese culture, this in my opinion challenges the culture. From thi s research and evidence I have found out that the cinema of japan does indeed http://www.gojapango.com/culture/culture.html 10 Essential Japanese  Films http://filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/on-japanese- cinema.html

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Essay

Mary Wollstonecraft, who was born during the age of enlightenment in the 18th century, is one of the most prominent feminists in women’s history. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman led her to become one of the first feminists, advocating for the rights of women. Born in a time where women’s education was neither prominent nor important, Wollstonecraft was raised with very little education. However, events in her life influenced her to begin writing, such as the way her father, Edward John Wollstonecraft treated her mother, â€Å"into a state of wearied servitude† (Kries,Steven)1. In 1792, she published Vindication on the Rights of Woman, which is one of the most prominent feminist pieces to date. This book is considered a reply to the male dominated society opinion on women’s roles in society. Wollstonecraft states that the lack or neglect in education is the main cause of female misery. Because of the lack of education, (the conduct and manner of women, in fact, evidently prove that their minds are not in a healthy state†¦.strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty) 2. Because education is the basis of achieving fundamental rights equal to that of men as Wollstonecraft’s describes, women in today’s modern day society should endorse the feminist movement in order to achieve the same fundamental rights as men; education of one’s potential and rights is vital in achieving self-respect and reviving ones self-image that would enable women to have a dynamic place in society akin to men. The off beam thought that beauty outweighs education is blamed on (a false system of education, gathered from the book written on this subject by men who, considering females rather a women than human creatures) 2. In order to understand t... ...en, their minds and future generations’ minds will be stimulated. Their brain will have the capacity to learn many things that range from simple puzzles to abstract thoughts. By educating both men and women equally, they will better understand the development of their children and the issues in the world that they will affect their children in the future. Works Cited 1. Kreis, Steven. Mary Wollstonecraft [Internet]. 2000. [cited 2012 April 15] Available from: http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/wollstonecraft.html 2. Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman [Internet] 1792. [cited 2012 April 15] Available from: http://www.bartleby.com/144/ 3. Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. The Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Conference, 1848 [Internet]. 1889. [cited 2012 April 15] Available from: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/senecafalls.asp

Essays --

ACCOUNTING – UNIT 3 Explain the difference between financial and management accounting, the fundamentals of management accounting. Explain how costs are classified using examples. Accounting is a systematic process or work that identifies, records, reports and analyses financial transactions and information of a business. It allows a company to analyse the financial performance of a business and reveals profit or loss for a certain period of time and the value of assets, liabilities and owners’ equity. Thus, its purpose is to provide information needed for decision making. However, there are two types of accounting. In this essay I am going to explain the differences between financial and management accounting including what fundamentals of accounting management are as well as the classification of various costs in accounting. Financial accounting is specialised to track a company’s financial transactions which are recorded, summarised and presented in a financial report or statements such as balance sheets, income statements, statements of cash flows and statements of owner’s equity. These statements are annual basis and considered external as they are given to people or stakeholders outside of a company. The audience of financial accounting reports are stakeholders or owners, lenders, board of directors and financial institutions, which are known as the primary recipients. Financial accounting enables them to see how the company has performed in the past. Once a company’s stock is publicly traded, its financial statements will be spread and the information will reach secondary recipients. They are competitors, employees, labour organisations, customers and investment analysts. The purpose of financial accounting is to provide e... ...f product. Examples of this type of costs are wood, electricity for factory, production workers wages, and so on. The indirect cost is the cost that cannot be easily and conveniently traced to a unit of product. This includes manufacturing overhead, rent, admin staff wages and so on. According to the behaviour, costs classify as fixed and variable. Fixed costs are the ones which remain constant or unaffected within a certain level of output or sales. Examples of fixed costs are rent, insurance, depreciation of building, managers’ salary etc., which remain constant even though a large number of units are produced. On the other hand, variable costs vary in direct proportion to the output. It can increase or decrease based on the production unit. Examples of variable cost are electricity for factory, materials used to manufacture a product, wages of workers and so on.

The English Bildungsroman Essay -- Literature Essays Literary Criticis

The English Bildungsroman      Ã‚  Ã‚   The novel has a strong tradition in English literature. In Great Britain, it can trace its roots back to Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe in 1719 (Kroll 23). Since then, the British novel has grown in popularity. It was especially popular in Victorian England. The type of novel that was particularly popular in Victorian England was the novel of youth. Many authors of the time were producing works focused on the journey from childhood to adulthood: Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre, George Eliot wrote The Mill on the Floss, and Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield and Great Expectations. All of these novels trace the growth of a child. In this respect, some of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century were part of the genre called the Bildungsroman. In the simplest sense of the word, a Bildungsroman is a novel of the development of a young man (or in some cases a young woman). In fact, the Webster's College Dictionary definition of Bildungsroman is "a novel dealing with the education and development of its protagonist". The Bildungsroman as a genre has its roots in Germany. Jerome Buckley notes that the word itself is German, with Bildung having a variety of connotations: "portrait," "picture," "shaping" and "formation," all of which give the sense of development or creation (the development of the child can also be seen as the creation of the man) (13-14). Roman simply means "novel." The term Bildungsroman emerged as a description of Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. This was the first Bildungsroman, having been published between 1794 and 1796 (Buckley 9). The word "lehrjahre" can be translated as "apprenticeship" (Buckley 10). "Apprenticeship" has many connotations, mos... ...sroman. It is these differences precisely that make each novel its own story. After all, even though every person's story is different, they must all go through stages of development in order to reach maturity and find their personal niche within the larger world. The basic formula of the Bildungsroman is universal and especially appropriate to the growing world of the Victorian age where the kind of opportunities presented to the hero of the Bildungsroman echoed the actual experiences of those growing up in that era. Works Cited "Bildungsroman." Webster's College Dictionary. New York: Random House, 1996. Buckley, Jerome Hamilton. Season of Youth: The Bildungsroman from Dickens to Golding. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1974. Kroll, Richard. "Defoe and Early Narrative." Columbia History of the British Novel. Ed. John Richetti. New York: Columbia UP, 1994.

Curb Your Enthusiam †an in Depth Analysis Essay

In the year 2000, the legendary comedian, Larry David ,created curb Your Enthusiasm. It is a comedy television series produced by HBO about Larry David, starring Larry David himself. He plays himself as a retired comedian producer and writer. The show follows him through his day to day life, which frequently puts him in awkward situations as he often gets annoyed with the status qua and normal social situations. Larry is extremely vocal about his irritations, involving not only him, but the other characters on the show. The show depicts an unflinching, self-deprecating depiction of his life and the lives of his family and friends. The show is called Curb Your Enthusiasm because Larry David feels that most people live their lives by means of false enthusiasm. He thinks they do this in order to give off the impression that â€Å"we are better than you†. Larry also called the show Curb because he did not want his audience to expect too much from the show following seinfelds enormous success. Curb eventually became one of the most critically acclaimed television series, reaping in numerous awards and fans. There are many versatile characters on Curb Your Enthiusiasm, which makes the show extremely dynamic. His wife and eventually ex wife, Cheryl, played by Cheryl Hines is usually Larrys voice of reason. She often guides Larry in the right direction of the social norms, and vociferously expresses her annoyance with him on his many social faux passe. Larrys best friend, Jeff Greene, played by Jeff Garlin, is another major influence on Larry’s character. He is known to be without morals and scruples, paying little regard to the fact that he is married and with a child. Many times, Jeff gets Larry involved in his infidelities, constantly building to Larrys own drama. His wife, Susie Green , played by Susie Essman, is a bully. She is constantly putting down her husband,Larry, and friends, often using profanity and sheer uncouth behavior. Although she has a foul mouth, she walks on the straight path of morality versus her husband and Larry. Last but not least, Larry himself. Larry is an uncivilized, crude, and neurotic individual. He usually has good intentions, but they are blinded by his selfish and stubborn personality. He is not shy about his thical principles and morals, and continuously voices his opinion when a situation does not go his way. Generally, he initiates his situations on petty details, which snowball into major issues and dilemmas. He pursues what he perceives to be the right path, although the social norms may dictate something else entirely. His actions continuously lead him into awkward, entertaining, and side splitting situations which he is persistent about correcting. His misjudgments are so extraordinary that Larry David created a place for himself in pop culture termed a â€Å"Larry David Moment†: an extremely awkward social situation. Some of Larry’s most famous indiscretions are â€Å"stopping and chatting† with acquaintances and tipping at restaurants. Larry David himself is an extremely talented comedian. He, along with Jerry Seinfeld co-wrote and produced the mega popular Seinfeld. After nine seasons of Seinfeld , it was an end to an era. Seinfeld ran its last episode in 1998. In 1999, Larry produced the first Curb Your Enthusiasm. Originally It was meant to be a one time exclusive, a one hour mockumentary- when the characters are aware of the precense of the cameras and crew. The show turned out to be a major success. The Larry David show quickly snowballed into Curb Your Enthusiasm, one of the greatest and highly acclaimed shows of all time. Television has many different popular genres, styles, and programs. Before Curb Your Enthusiasm arrived on the scene, the most popular programs from the nineties were Roseanne, Friends, Full House, Family Matters, and Everybody Loves Raymond. These television shows formed TV into new directions and defined the humor of the decade. They were the start of television sitcoms- shortened for situation comedies. A sitcom is a show that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue. Originally, sitcoms started as radio shows, but as we evolved to a television-oriented society, sitcoms acclimated as well. One of the most famous original sitcoms is I Love Lucy, known for being one of the best and most popular shows of all time. It was the first show to perform in front of a studio audience. Lucy showed and influenced society in many ways such as the difference between the sexes. â€Å"The I Love Lucy show continued the ever-popular and age-old â€Å"battle between the sexes† scenarios. Ricky and Fred would try to â€Å"teach† the girls a lesson now and then, and vice versa. In many ways the â€Å"Ricky & Fred† team vs. The â€Å"Lucy & Ethel† team put men and women on equal ground, as the two continually schemed against one another with similar rates of successful schemes and backfired ones. This was one way for Lucy to escape the submissive housewife image with some defiance of her own. There was a constant desire to outdo the other sex, which perhaps was a signal of the changing times and changing roles men and women would hold in the coming decades†. Sitcoms used single camera filming style, which was more practical given the visual effects used in these shows. This allowed for the careful creation of special effects and sharp editing, features which were not possible with the same finesse in a multi-camera production. Many of these programs were not filmed before live audiences, and featured a laugh track. Jerry Seinfeld, in 1989, created Seinfield, the mega popular sitcom, known to be one of the greatest shows of all time. Seinfield follows the life and creator Jerry Seinfeld, as he lives his life using absurdism- conflict between the human tendencies to seek inherent value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any. The characters of Seinfeld have no morals, hope, ambition, and compassion. Everything they do leads to failure. The show is a show about â€Å"nothing†, meaning there is no climax or moments of pathos for any of the characters. Curb also uses many of the same attributes. The show is based on absurdism, with the characters having little or no morals whatsoever. It is also a show about â€Å"nothing†, following the characters mundane day to day tasks. Television shows have a major cultural affect on society. Friends, for example, was so popular that its influences still affect us till this day. Of example, Rachels haircut is called â€Å"The Rachel†, Joeys catchphrase â€Å"How you doin† and the Central Perk Franchise are just a few of the cultural affects Friends had on our society. It also changed the format of love and family, thriving on the concept that â€Å"all you need is good friends†. The sitcom depicts the idea that we can choose our family and live life in a more unconventional manner. According to pop-culture expert at the University of Buffalo, Friends is â€Å"one of those rare shows that marked a change in American culture†. Most of the Television shows that premiered when Curb Your Enthusiasm came out were complete opposites of it. For examples, shows such as Gilmore Girls, Smallville, Scrubs, and Degrassi were extremely popular. These shows are all drama comedies, scripted, and the fictional opposite of documentary style. Another popular television show is Grey’s Anatomy. Grey’s Anatomy is a medical drama about a group of surgeons working at Seattle Grace Hospital. The show centers on Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and her life as a resident at the hospital. In addition to her relationship with her neurosurgeon husband, Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), and best friend Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), it also explores her relationships with her peers and the other doctors around her. It is filled with romantic drama and ethical dilemmas that are extremely unrealistic. The characters are also very good looking and impracticable. Curb is unique in many ways that makes it exceptionally hilarious and an instant cult classic. The show is mostly improvised, meaning that there is no real script that the show sticks to. The characters have a storyline, based off of a couple of pages written by Larry David himself. The actors then improvise their dialogue based on the story outline, direction, and their own creativity. Unlike most other popular sitcoms, Curb has basically no writers, no script, and no rehearsal. The characters are raw, and easily believable. They do not dress in high fashions, look like models, or act like people normally would. There is no epic romances or crazy drama. The show is just Larry taking on the social scene in his own unique way. In many episodes, Curb—like its predecessor Seinfeld—tied together apparently unrelated events woven throughout a given episode into an unforced climax that resolves the story lines simultaneously, either to Larry’s advantage or detriment. For example, in the episode The Black Swan ( season seven, episode 7) that is exactly the case. In the beginning of the episode, Larry discovers that his mothers gravestone is misspelled and vows to fix it. Larry and his buddies are then seen at the snobby golf club, which has many rules that Larry constantly breaks, including accidently killing the owners swan and other golf member and refusing to tip the waiter. At the end of the show the grave says â€Å"mother of swan killer† and Larry gets caught. The whole show ties together beautifully, with every detail eventually playing a part in the ending. Another example of the show is Every show displays this brilliance, making it hilarious and highly enjoyable to watch. The show also uses a single camera setup. The single camera setup is generally utilized on comedy series that either require or strive for specific shots and camera angles and visual set-pieces. When the potential of the single camera filming style is fully maximized the camera movement, the way shots are composed and edited, and other directorial flourishes, will be as much a source of comedy as the behavior of the characters. The shows asthetics are also plain and simple, making it seem as if its real life and easy to believe. This leads to the style of the show- a mockmentary. Mockumentarys are in the same style as a documentary, yet shot when the cast is fully aware that the cameras and crews are there- like a fake documentary. It is highly improvised, meaning the characters do not memorize a script and just act. They must be creative with the story and put their own â€Å"sparkle† in it. The show is not filled with the typical dramas and unrealistic actors that other leading television series are famous for. It is therefore easily relatable and loveable. Another example using all these elements is from season eight, episide three- The Palestinian Chicken. Larry relishes his role as a â€Å"social assassin† until it becomes a liability with his friends, on the golf course and at a Palestinian restaurant. The story once again has a beginning, middle, and ends which all ties together towards the end of the episode. Another appealing aspect to the show is its depiction of Jewish characters. Vincent Brook stated, â€Å"Curb’s commitment to Jewish identification greatly enhances its storytelling capacity, as it lends greater realism and dimension to the characters and opens the show up to episodes with meaningful Jewish themes. † Larry’s character mirrors the â€Å"schmiel† from Yiddish folklore. The schlemiel is usually a comic character whose actions lead to his inevitable downfall, but also stands as a form of resistance to social and cultural values and norms. David Gillota wrote: â€Å"As a true schlemiel, Larry’s failure serves as a direct challenge to the status quo and encourages viewers to question the myriad unwritten rules that we follow in our everyday lives. † Gillota also observed: â€Å"Whereas the schlemiel of Eastern Europe encountered problems that mostly affected Eastern European Jews (such as anti-Semitism and economic survival), Larry encounters problems that affect contemporary middle- to upper-class American Jews, namely, Jewish assimilation, secularism, intermarriage, and, as all of these uggest, the Jews’ precarious ethnic identity in an increasingly multicultural environment. â€Å" Alec Berg, one of the writers for Curb and Seinfeld said, â€Å"Structure, structure, structure. Every single thing in a script must advance the plot or define a character more deeply (ideally both, in a hilarious way) or it will die in the edit†. Larry David himself is nowhere near as vivacious as the Larry David he plays onscreen. Larry lives vicariously through his character, acting as a total social piranha wherever and whenever he pleases. He has said in an interview that, â€Å"he is my version of Superman. The character really is me, but I just couldn’t possibly behave like that. If I had my druthers, that would be me all the time, but you can’t do that. We’re always doing things we don’t want to do, we never say what we really feel, and so this is an idealized version of how I want to be. As crazy as this person is, I could step into those shoes right now, but I would be arrested or I’d be hit or whatever. I find the character to be honest. And honesty comes off as cranky or rude, I suppose. But that character is way happier than I am. I’m cranky. He’s not cranky. I’d be much happier if I were more like him. † He also said â€Å"From the character I play on the show? The only difference is he’s much more honest than I am. He’s brutally honest, and I am not. People seem to think that he’s cranky, I get that. I don’t see him as a curmudgeon. I just think he’s honest, and he gets in confrontations with people because he’s honest. I am not honest. Because of this very delicate, socially balanced world we live in, you can’t talk like that†. He feels as if he is breaking through a barrier, an inhibition that he couldn’t do as himself. In conclusion, Curb Your Enthusiasm is not your average Television show. Thanks to the comedic genius, Larry David, the show has become a smash hit success, running a full eight seasons and counting. It has become part of pop culture, establishing its own terms and concepts. The use of mockumentary, absurdism, dry humor, and realism are a major part of the shows charm and success. Filled with quirky and dry humor, Curb continues to break barriers, pleasing and shocking its audience’s episode after episode.

Does Crime Pay

Does crime pay? This is one of the most debated questions that has hit our shores in recent year. Ever since the introduction of basic human rights and many successful rallies against prisoner abuse, prisons have and are becoming increasingly pleasant places to lived. In this essay I aim to cover both sides of the story and give advice to the government on what is the next step. During my recent research I have found that roughly the average price to put one prisoner into prison cost ? 95,000 for one year. I also learnt that in prison you get an average wage of ? 9. 0 based on a 32 hour working week, and most surprisingly that prisoners get some fine food like Indian curries and Italian pastas. If we put this in contrast to the daily diet of a homeless person, who can go days without food and water, these people our victims of crime and yet our government still spends almost ? 100,000 on the people who victimise these helpless people in prisons. A logical and short term thinking home less person would be silly not to commit crime – a working wage, food, a bed and toilet facilities and showers provided and the option to complete a degree are just some of the perks.So crime does indeed pay on this level. Job seekers allowance now stands at ? 67. 50 for a single person, however these people need an address to receive this, the average price of a loaf of bread is approximately ? 1 and a pint of milk is now ? 0. 40, this shows that it is nearly impossible to survive from day to day as they are not eligible to apply for jobseekers allowance and therefore are depending on busking or begging money. For many homeless people, they have been forced to make crime pay, but there is a problem†¦