The Pardoner as Symbol in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales Essay

The Pardoner as Symbol for the Pilgrims’ Unattainable Goals in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer’s work, The Canterbury Tales, paints a portrait of medieval life through the voices and stories of a wide variety of speakers. The people on the Pilgrimage tell their stories for a wide range of reasons. Each Tale is told in order to accomplish two things. The Tales provoke their audience as much as they are a kind of self-reflection. These reactions range from humor, to extreme anger, to open admiration. Each story is symbolic for a meaning above the actual plot of the narrative itself. The theme of social and moral balance is one theme which ties every character and Tale together. The character of the Pardoner exemplifies this ideal. By embodying imagery of balance in his character and in his story, the Pardoner becomes a symbol for the Pilgrims’ unattainable goal of spiritual and moral balance. All the characters in The Canterbury Tales are on a pilgrimage. Their physical journey takes them to the cathedral at Canterbury, to visit the shrine of a former archbishop, Thomas a Becket. When their stories are looked at allegorically, the pilgrimage takes on a new meaning. Beyond a physical journey, these Pilgrims engage their minds and thoughts upon a symbolic journey. The subjects of their stories vary widely, but common to all is the desire for self-knowledge and understanding. The Knight’s Tale, with its emphasis on courtly love and chivalric ideals, is a portrayal of the changes happening within the higher classes of medieval English society. The drunken Miller shows his anger towards the aristocracy by telling a parody of the Knight’s Tale. The Pardoner’s Tale tells the story of three young men who wa... ...omes a way of reconciling the unbalanced portions of human experience in order to promote growth in the face of sin and death. Works Cited and Consulted Ames, Ruth M. God’s Plenty Chaucer’s Christian Humanism. Loyola University Press: Chicago, 1984. Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Pardoner’s Tale." The Canterbury Tales: Nine Tales and the General Prologue. Ed. V.A. Kolve. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989. Colby, Elbridge. Chaucer’s Christian Morality. The Bruce Publishing Company: Milwaukee, 1936. Ellis, Roger. Patterns of Religious Narrative in the Canterbury Tales. Banes & Noble: Totowa, 1986. Patterson, Lee. "Redemption in Chaucer's Pardoner’s Tale.† Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. Durham; Fall 2001. 507-560 Reiff, Raychel Haugrud. â€Å"Chaucer’s The Pardoner’s Tale.† The Explicator. Washington, Summer 1999. 855-58

The Pros and Cons of the Two World Wars :: Pro Con Essays

One would like to think about a world war as a war for the improvement of the whole world, but history ascertains that that was not the case in the two world wars of the twentieth century. Both world wars had vast global effects, which affected almost everyone in the world. The effects had both positive and negative aspects. The positive effects, in the areas of technology, world peace and global economy, make world wars look like â€Å"wars for good† but the massive destructions of the human lives supersede them all, as Voltaire said, â€Å"No opinion is worth burning your neighbor for† (Bulliet et al. 468). One can never put the world wars into the black-and-white categories of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ into which they have often been placed. But it will be interesting to explore the positive and negative effects of the wars, which changed the world forever as shown in The Earth and Its Peoples: A global History by Richard W. Bulliet et al., his torical films like History Channel’s Manhattan Project - The Century and Heritage: Jews and Civilizations -a documentary by Brian Winston. The twentieth century began with a period of relative peace and economic growth in most parts of the world. But on June 28, 1914, â€Å"the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand triggered a chain of events† and escalated into a global war because of the competition between nationalism and imperialism as practiced by major European powers (Bulliet et al. 752-753). Britain, France and Russia formed Entente, â€Å"understanding,† against the â€Å"Triple Alliance† of Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary. In April 1917, United States declared war on Germany, mainly because of which â€Å"on November 11 of 1918 at 11 A.M., the guns on the Western Front went silent† (Bulliet et al. 762). â€Å"On June 28, 1919, the German delegates reluctantly signed the Treaty of Versailles† (Bulliet et al. 763). The Peace Treaty of Versailles obliged the Germans to accept â€Å"responsibility for causing all the loss and damage† of the war (Bulliet et al. 763). The hostile Germany was humiliated and forced to pay for a large deal of war reparations. The open hostility and simmering feelings of revenge in German soldiers after the treaty foreshadowed the start of World War II. Second World War – often called a continuation of First World War, started in 1939 with Germany’s invasion of Poland.

Scheduling and Project Management (PERT and CRM)

Project Management is an important aspect of every business in the current scenario. The importance of project management was recognized at a very critical stage. The importance of working on projects has been emphasized since then. The study of managing projects relates to activity or an endeavor undertaken to achieve a certain business objective. Project Management at Dell helps them in many ways. While working in cross functional teams on any project the project team faces new and interesting situations which result in the increase of the knowledge and experience level of every member. Interaction between people of different fields also results in increasing a person’s diversity of jobs he or she can handle. Project Management also works on bringing close all the departments of Dell to stand as a mutual entity (Project Management Institute, 2004). Collaboration with each other in different departments helps in improving communication and reducing the barriers. The nine major knowledge areas of project management are well followed at Dell. Difficulties in implementing CRM in Dell are basically common problems faced by any company. These are the huge amount of data and finance required to run this operation. Other limitations are the integration of the Customer Relationship Management System with the original ERP. The constant technological changes might tempt a company for getting the latest technology first. CRM also requires a highly professional and dedicated marketing approach, which is feasible in situations of high competition (Roger J. Baran, Robert Galka and Daniel P. Strunk, 2007). There are difficulties or limitation faced by Dell while implementing PERT in their organization. PERT is a tool for time estimates of various activities of a project. As PERT only gives estimates hence it can be subjected to biases. A person making the estimates might judge differently than the person actually performing the task.

Anil Ambani: a Biography

————————————————- Anil Ambani From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia | This  biographical article  needs additional  citations  for  verification. Please help by adding  reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced  must be removed immediately, especially if potentially  libelous  or harmful. (June 2012)| Anil Ambani| Born| 4 June 1959  (age  53) Mumbai,  Maharashtra,  India| Residence| Mumbai, Maharashtra, India| Nationality| Indian| Alma mater| University of Mumbai The Wharton School|Occupation| Chairman of  Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group| Net worth|   $6 billion (2012)[1]| Religion| Hinduism| Spouse(s)| Tina Munim| Children| 2[2]| Parents| Dhirubhai Ambani Kokilaben Ambani| Relatives| Mukesh Ambani  (Brother)| Website| Anil Ambani| Anil Dhirubhai Ambani  (Gujarati:   ( ) ), born on 4 Jun e 1959, is an Indian businessman. He is the chairman of  Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, one of the largest private  conglomerates  in India. Anil's elder brother  Mukesh Ambani, who heads as the chairman ofReliance Industries. 3]  The Ambani family is the richest family in India and one of the richest in the world, their wealth inherited from  Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of largest Indian conglomerate Reliance Group. [4]  He is known for having had affairs with bollywood divas and his affair with Sushmita Sen is well known. He is a member of the Board of Overseers at the  Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the member of the Board of Governors of the  Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur;  Indian Institute of Management,  Ahmedabad. citation needed]  He is a member of the Central Advisory Committee,  Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. In March 2006, he resigned. He is also the Chairman of Board of Governors of  DA-IICT,Gandhi nagar. [5] Contents  Ã‚  [hide]   * 1  Career * 2  Awards and recognition * 3  Personal Life * 4  Bibliography * 5  References * 6  External links| ————————————————- [edit]Career Ambani joined  Reliance Industries, the company founded by his late father  Dhirubhai Ambani, in 1983 as Co-Chief Executive Officer and is credited with having pioneered many financial innovations in the Indian capital markets. citation needed]  For example, he led India's first forays into overseas capital markets with international public offerings of global depositary receipts, convertibles and bonds. He directed Reliance in its efforts to raise, since 1991, around US$2 billion from overseas financial markets; with a 100-year  Yankee bond  issue in January 1997 being the high point, after which people regarded him as a financial wizard[citation needed]. He along with h is brother, Mukesh Ambani, has steered the Reliance Group to its current status as India's leading textiles, petroleum, petrochemicals, power, and telecom company. [citation needed])[citation needed]  He is a close friend of movie star  Amitabh Bachchan  and  Subrata Roy. One of his major achievements in the entertainment industry is the takeover of  Adlabs, the movie production to distribution to multiplex company that owns India's only dome theatre and the recently announced joint venture worth US$ 825 million with  Steven Spielberg. [citation needed] He has been embroiled in a dispute with his brother, Mukesh Ambani, over the supply of gas from the latter's KG basin. citation needed] He recently topped Business Sheet's â€Å"world's biggest loser† list of business leaders who lost money in the late 2000s recession,[6]  losing $32. 5 billion in 2008, which brought him out of the top ten list to number 34 in 2009. ————— Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- [edit]Awards and recognition * Conferred the ‘Businessman of the Year 1997' award by India's leading business magazine  Business India, December 1997. [citation needed] ————————————————- [edit]Personal LifeAnil Ambani is married to  Bollywood  Actress  Tina Munim  and has two sons Jai Anmol and Jai Anshul. [7]  He has taken part in the  Mumbai Marathon  race. Ambani is also a fan of  Premier Leagueclub,  Newcastle United  and was extremely close to buying the club in September 2008. In June 2004, Anil was elected as an Independent Member of the  Rajya Sabha  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ upper house of the Parliament of India. He is a  vegetarian. [8]He is known for having had affairs with bollywood divas and his love affair with former miss universe Sushmita Sen is well known. [9]

American Corporations that has outsourced jobs Essay

American Corporations that has outsourced jobs - Essay Example "Global access to vendors, falling interaction costs, and improved information technologies and communications links are giving manufacturers unprecedented choice in structuring their businesses. Through outsourcing, companies can now dump operational headaches and bottlenecks downstream, often capture immediate cost savings, and avoid labor conflicts and management deficiencies" (Doig, Ritter, Speckhals, & Woolson 2001). However, outsourcing has its drawbacks as well. When companies choose to farm out high capital manufacturing assets to overseas or other outside entities, they may also unknowingly be giving away those skills that have helped them to stand out in the marketplace. For instance, consider the company Gibson Greetings, which is the oldest greeting card maker in the United States. The company began to face hard times in the 1990s as it started to run out of cash. At that point in time, the company's management team chose to outsource its manufacturing. It was not very long before the company started to run into supplier-management problems. These problems caused the company to lose its place at large retailers. "In the meantime, its competitors had been investing in more efficient printing and production technologies. Ultimately, one of those competitors acquired Gibson. The final nail in the coffin was that Gibson got out of the manufacturing business and started outsourcing." Gibson Greetings is a NASDAQ publicly traded company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company has 4,600 employees and enjoys annual sales of $546.2 million. Gibson was incorporated in 1895 and, at that point in time, was known as The Gibson Art Company. It belongs to two industries: greeting cards and converted paper products. Coming in just behind Hallmark and American Greetings Corporation, Gibson is the third largest greeting card manufacturer in the United States. Gibson also makes gift wrap, gift bags, boxes of cards, calendars, party favors, and the related. Subsidiaries to the business are located in Memphis, Tennessee; Mexico; and the United Kingdom. "As Gibson readied itself for the 21st century, the company with the industry's hottest licensed properties, strategic alliances, and ethnic market leadership would have to overcome prior losses of customers and mismanagement of finances in order to reach its goal of becoming the leader in the social expression industry" ( About.com 2008 and American Greetings 2007). This is not to say that the choice to outsource always ends in this fashion, but it definitely can. If it is done properly, it can really turn a company around by lowering costs and, therefore, boosting their bottom line. However, it is necessary for each and every company that considers outsourcing critically analyze the pros and cons of doing so before taking such a big step. Simply assuming outsourcing will work for just anyone can be a fatal mistake. Memo To: Whom It May Concern From: Your Name Date: 2/15/2012 Re: Outsourcing Gibson Greetings The purpose of this essay was to identify an American company that had outsourced and to discuss that company in terms of its nature, size, and power, as well as how it presents itself to both stockholders and the

Argument Analysis of a Modest Proposal Personal Statement

Argument Analysis of a Modest Proposal - Personal Statement Example First of all, one needs to emphasize the importance of satire as a major genre of the text.   It is not necessary to read other pamphlets of that period in order to understand that Jonathan Swift does nothing, but making fun of similar pamphlets and proposals. It is obvious that Swift does not really want people to sell children as food, but he dares to use such an outrageous concept in order to attract public’s attention and make himself heard. To my point of view, this approach works pretty well. There are grounds to assume that a seriously written pamphlet emphasizing the importance of funding solutions for economic and social crises would never become a subject of such heated discussions. Thus, at least one objective, which is to attract public's attention, was successfully achieved by the author. Second of all, Jonathan uses standard rhetoric approaches in order to be heard. He, thus, apply to ethos, logos, and pathos, in order to persuade people with different beliefs and convictions. As for his appealing to ethos, one can notice how many times Jonathan mentions ‘a very knowing American’ that can be considered an expert of a discussed issue. By doing this, the author makes an attempt to convince those who tend to rely on professional opinion instead of composing its own.   Of course, satiric nature of the pamphlet does not allow us to consider this reference seriously.  One must admit that Swift should be appraised for his mastership in this field.  

Developing leadership challenges and solutions interviewing questions Assignment

Developing leadership challenges and solutions interviewing questions - Assignment Example One thing noted during the initial days after getting into the country that was quite different from UAE is that people stick to their families and do not even know who most of their neighbors are. They just choose to live isolated and do not care about the neighbor across the street unless the neighborhood is of a low-income level or middle-class. Not all middle-class neighborhoods appreciate people who come to knock at their doors but they also choose their favorites with whom they associate with greatly. In the event that the neighborhood is closely knit, the people will be inviting each other for barbeques and parties, and the neighbors always come with drinks and are ready to assist where they can to make the party a big event. The people here care about each other and are mainly divided by class. The level of participation in events in the country imply a great level of understanding that allows them to make good use of their skills as a way of creating the best moment in their lives that will remained etched into their minds until something else happens. In the UAE, the only life people have depends on the family values. Some families will have their extended families stay with them and the sharing of meals and events define their fun moments. In the US, the extended family mainly comes together once a year during thanksgiving and any more visits will be preplanned (Besamusca, 2011). In the UAE, families maintain close links with each other and define the importance of developing their ties further, appreciating what they do together. The children are also raised liberally, and that is different from what is practiced in the UAE. Children in the U.S. have a lot of freedom and some do not even listen to their parents because of the freedom accorded to them. They go to parties without their parents’ presence and some even indulge while at those parties. In the U.A.E., it is quite different. Strict discipline is used to raise children to be