The Character of Scrooge Essay Example for Free

The Character of Scrooge Essay Dickens suggests that Scrooge is missing out on the fun and games by saying, that the consequence of his taking a dislike to us and not making merry with us, is, as I think, that he loses some pleasant moments, which could do him no harm. This suggests that Scrooge starts to feel a bit of remorse, since he turned the invite down. Scrooge is forced to realise that he has missed a chance to be merry with the only family he has left in the world. Finally, the ghost shows Scrooge two personifications of the social situation in the form of two children: Ignorance (a boy) and Want (a girl), who symbolise mankinds downfall. Dickens uses this personification to emphasise the point of mankinds destruction, for instance the spirit says, Most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which Doom This signifies if people continue to ignore the poor, society will crumble. In this stave Scrooge feels new emotions such as regret for not paying his clerk Bob Cratchit enough money, since he lives in poverty with a huge family and a crippled son, and more regret for not attending the invite from Fred. Also, he feels a lot sadder and some happiness for Freds games and the laughter, Scrooges family had without him. The ghost of Christmas yet to come represents death and judgement, this ghost is also known as a phantom because it is wearing a black cloak which conceals its face and it doesnt say a word to add to the morbid atmosphere. They visited a house where there was one little knot of business men with a lady trying to sell some of Scrooges possessions, he sees nobody is upset by his death, but instead raiding his hose and selling off his property. I hope he didnt die of anything catching Eh? Dont you be afraid of that. This shows that people are joking over his death and no-one cares about his departure from the face of the earth. He is very upset that no-one cares about his death, all they can do is laugh and attempt to make a profit from his belongings. Scrooge asks the spirit If there is any person in the town, who feels emotion caused by this mans death Show that person to me, spirit They go to the Cratchits house, but The only emotion that the ghost could show him, caused by the event, was one of pleasure. This emphasises that no-one liked him and cared about him at all, so they were not sad to witness his death. After a while, they return to the Cratchits house where Bob has just returned from work. Dickens makes Scrooge feel miserable, regret and guilt that he did not offer his help to save Tiny Tim from dying, by making the Cratchit family more depressed, for instance, My little, little child! Cried Bob. My little child! He broke down all at once. This makes the reader feel sympathy for the Cratchits and anger towards Scrooge, as he did not help a poor family at need. Also, it makes Scrooge feel terrible and he realises that he must change his ways and become a better person, to stop these perceptions from happening. Stave four is a particularly religious section of the book, as it deals with Scrooges redemption and moral reformation. The language used by Dickens is similar to that used in a religious teaching, for example: Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful death, set up thine altar here. This biblical language is meant to make us aware that as readers we are being taught a moral lesson. All Christians believed strongly in heaven and hell; the thought of spending the rest of eternity in hell, frightened most Christians, so even the meanest of people would consider changing their ways to go to heaven. In stave five, Scrooge awakens on Christmas day as a changed man. He buys the largest turkey in town and donates it to the Cratchits. Ill send it to Bob Cratchits! This shows that Scrooge has finally reformed and he is now a better man, as he is being a lot more generous. Dickens shows that Scrooge has learnt his moral lessons and is not going back to his old ways, he does this by this continual joy, care and generosity, throughout the character of Scrooge in stave five, for example: Heres the turkey. Hallo! Whoop! How are you! Merry Christmas! This again emphasises that Scrooge has realised and acknowledged his faults and changed them; plus he donates lots of money to the poor, Scrooge says, not a farthing less This once more shows Scrooges generosity, the poor and the two gentlemen were very grateful. He also celebrates a lovely Christmas with his nephew; Dickens shows this by saying, Wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness This stresses the changes Scrooge has made and that he is having a magnificent time with his family, at last. The next morning Scrooge was at his office ready to meet Bob Cratchit and give him a pay rise, he says Ill raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family And thats exactly what Scrooge did, he did not just raise Bobs salary, but he became like a second father to Tiny Tim, who did not die. There are many references to heaven in this stave such as: I am as happy as an angel, He went to church and God bless us, every one! in contrast to the references to hell when he was parsimonious, mean-spirited and had a cold heart, for instance, It is doomed to wander through the world, ages of incessant labour by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass eternity and dark master! This creates the impression that Scrooge was going to hell in stave one because he was stingy, cruel and uncharitable. Dickens teaches a social lesson to us, near the end of the book, so we remember it. He tells us not to worry if people laugh at the sudden change in you as long as you are doing good deeds that is all that matters, for instance, Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him. This puts emphasis on Scrooges reformation and confirms that Scrooge has changed for the better and for good. A Christmas Carol is an inverted tragedy, since it has five staves similar to the five acts of a Shakespeare play; but Scrooge begins a cold-hearted, cruel, spiteful and uncharitable and ends a loving, caring generous man with a stronger, warmer heart, especially to the poor and needy. Through the character of Scrooge, Dickens hoped to change the views of society by showing the rich people, who would have read the book that they were Scrooge (not sharing their wealth; being grumpy and cold-hearted). It reflects that money does not lead to happiness, but living a high-quality Christian, moral life does. As the book continues on, Scrooge becomes more and more enthusiastic to learn his moral lessons, for example: As I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was This shows his eagerness to gain knowledge of his moral and social lessons and his acceptance of his faults. Christianity was a vast issue in the 1840s, and the idea of burning in hell would have made a lot of people change their miserable, tight-fisted ways. This Christian theme is set throughout the book and if you repent your ways you will be saved (go to heaven). Dickens uses Christmas because it is an occasion when generosity, exuberance and affection should be in our hearts as a time to convey this message of charity.

Mercury :: essays research papers

Mercury   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mercury is a metallic element that is a liquid at room temperature, it is one of the transition elements. Mercury's atomic number is 80. It is superconductive when cooled to within a few degrees of absolute zero. Mercury was once known as liquid silver or quicksilver which was studied by the alchemists. Mercury was first distinguished as an element by the French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier in his experiment on the composition of air. At room temperature mercury is a shining, moving liquid that has a silvery-white color, and slightly volatile. Mercury remains a liquid over a wide temperature range. Mercury is a solid when given a pressure of 7640 atmospheres (5.8 million torrs). It dissolves in nitric or concentrated sulfuric acid but is resistant to alkalies. Mercury melts at -39C, boils at about 357C,and has a gravity of 13.5. The atomic weight of mercury is 200.59. Mercury comes in its pure form or combined with silver in small amounts. It is mostly found in the form of the sulfide. Mercury has many uses and is a very important element. A major use of mercury is in electrical equipment such as fluorescent lamps, and mercury batteries. Mercury is used in thermometers because the change in volume for each degree of rise or fall in temperature is the same. The use of mercury in the thermometer instead of alcohol was done by Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit in 1714. It was also used in vacuum pumps, barometers, and electric rectifiers and switches. Mercury is used in a mercury-vapor lamps which are used as a source of ultraviolet rays in homes and for sterilizing water. Mercury-vapor is also used instead of steam in the boilers of some turbine engines. Mercury is sometimes used for amalgamation. Amalgamation is a metallurgical process that utilizes mercury to dissolve silver or gold to form an amalgam. This process has been largely supplanted by the cyanide process, in which gold or silver is

Compare and Contrast to “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin and “Hills Like White Elephants” by Earnest Hemingway Essay

To some people a baby can be the best thing that ever happened to them, but then there are others who have decisions to make. They will go through an important stage in any relationship, the make it or break it stage. The two stories that I will be analyzing will be â€Å"Desiree’s Baby† by Kate Chopin and â€Å"Hills like White Elephants† by Earnest Hemingway. In both stories the characters found out how babies can be a deciding factor in a relationship, and that’s what I will be focusing on. In â€Å"Desiree’s Baby† the morale of the story is â€Å"we often get into trouble when we assume† (Mayer, Gary H.). The husband even though he claimed to have loved his wife rejected her in a time of need, the result of it he ends up losing his wife and son. When the husband found out that everything he knew about his wife was a lie, he forgot about everything he said and just abandoned his family, in the text it said, â€Å"He could give her one of the oldest and proudest names in Louisiana† (Paragraph 4, line 4). Read Also:  Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for Middle School Armand let judgment deter him from what’s really important which is even if he and Desiree did not last he should still be there for his child. Even though â€Å"Desiree’s Baby† dealt with race I look at it as a deciding moment in a relationship, especially if the couple is married to know that you are going to stay together. The baby wasn’t the reason why the couple didn’t make it but the baby was the start of why they didn’t work. In â€Å"Hills like White Elephants† it shows the struggle one couple faced with deciding whether or not they wanted to tackle parenthood. The couple, â€Å"the American† and â€Å"the girl† both are unsure of their fate. The American just wants to walk away and the girl just wants to make him happy, â€Å"American male protagonist dominates the meeker, weaker-sexed jig of her femaleness† (Busch, Frederick; 234). There are lots of people that the man still has the bigger role in the rel ationship, but in those relationships comes a lot of animosity to the companion later. In one part of the story the couple were going back and forth about whether or not they should go through with it and to end it off Jig decides that she will, â€Å"just do it†[ because she doesn’t care about herself]. Never in anybody’s time should you ever put someone else first before over yourself. Doing that just leads down a road of destruction, and then the fact that this whole conversation is about abortion they probably should just get rid of it because she could just end up alone. Jig sounds as if she has no will or fight in her so she probably shouldn’t take care of a child. The baby in this story played a  huge role for its future possible parents. The couple had to make a decision that if it were the wrong one could have broken them up, or made their relationship a happy one. Both â€Å"Desiree’s Baby† and â€Å"Hills like White Elephant† realized their mistakes and tried and wished they could have corrected them. Babies shouldn’t be left the burden on people lives but that’s where they are placed at times. But it just makes you think to times where it wasn’t a good time to have kids or the situations that these people were placed in that made their children a downfall and a burden instead of a gift or a miracle. Bibliography Busch, Frederick. â€Å"On Hills Like White Elephants.† Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Ed. R. V. Cassill et al. 6th ed. New York: Norton, 2000. 761–62.  Mayer, Gary H. â€Å"A Matter of Behavior a Semantic Analysis of Five Kate Chopin Stories.† January 2010. 94-100 Rankin, Paul. â€Å"Hemingway’s Hills like White Elephants.† Hinds Community College. Heldref Publication

Children Support Agency Case Study - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2615 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Information Systems Essay Type Case study Level High school Did you like this example? Children Support Agency Case Study Introduction The use and potential benefit to system developers is examined by use of the Semiotic Framework method in the case study information supplied regarding the Children Support Agency (CSA). Analysis of Semiotic Framework The framework as described by Kangassalo et al (1995) (1) refers to the work of Stamper (1987) (2) as it applies to information systems, and distinguishes the four levels of properties as empirics, syntactic, semantics, and pragmatics. This is likened to a semiotic ladder running from the physical world to the social (business) world. The semiotic framework consists of two main components, these being the human information functions and the IT platform considerations. These are both split to three sub-components. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Children Support Agency Case Study" essay for you Create order Social World, developer actives would be: To determine how best to match the negative responses of some staff to new technology with the high expectations of others, by designing a system which takes account of both To ensure the legal aspects such as compliance with the Data Protection Act (DPA) (2) are addressed. To ensure contractual information is protected in transmission. To meet the cultural standards held by those who work in an organisation whose purpose is to support disadvantaged young people. Issues are: Lack of computer literacy among some CSA staff, its status as a charity will probably restrict funding available for the system, feelings of protection for financial data versus lack of (apparent) concern voiced about personal data of vulnerable young people. The wish to accommodate training in IT for young people, without concern that this may lead to opportunities for any who have anti-social tendencies to affect the overall operation of the system by having access. The lack of realisation that todays young people in the age range 12 to 24, whether from a deprived or difficult family background may be conversant with the use of computers. _________________________ 1. Kangassalo et al, (1995), p 358. 2. Stamper et al, (1987), p 43-78. 3. Data Protection Act 1998. Pragmatics, developer activities would be: To attempt resolution between conflicting attitudes in conversation which were expressed about the value of the system, and consider capital and revenue funding for the new system. Issues are: To determine how the system would be supported, and responsibility for the support. Semantics, developer activities would be: To attempt to model the syntactic structures, which are by nature, the technical concerns, to the semantic which concern the world are matched, in a machine-independent manner. Issues are: Security concerns, which are people-related, with system issues, which are software dependent. Syntactics, developer activities would be: The formalisation of documentation of the system specification, and outline the programming requirements. This is the bridge between the conceptual and the formal rules governing system development. Issues are: The documentation may only be understood by the IT people who create the system Empirics, developer activities would be: To estimate the number of data fields required, their volume, the speed with which they require to be transmitted, and the overall performance as perceived by the user. Issues are: Limited information available, combined with inability of potential users to express these attributes. Physical World developer activities would be: To analyse of existing systems, networks, hardware and software. Estimation of storage and retention of data requirements, physical condition of room housing system equipment and communications, power supply, entrance restrictions to sensitive areas, policy on removal of media from buildings, printout handling, access by young people to IT equipment. Issues are: Replacement of existing communication links, introduction of encrypted traffic, offsite storage of backups, disaster recovery, software licences, fire detection and suppression, volumes of data transmitted and stored. To separate young peoples IT equipment. System requirements specification Hass et al (2007) (4) explains requirements analysis and specification as the activities involved in assessing information gathered from the organisation involved regarding the business need and scope of the desired solution. The specification is the representation of the requirements in the form of diagrams and structured text documents. Tan (2005) (5) describes the use of a rich picture as ‘a structural as opposed to a ‘pictorial description. It allows the practitioners to use any form of familiar symbols to depict activities and events, plus taking into consideration, conflicting views. The definition of a use case (Seffah et al 1999) (6) is a simplified, abstract, generalised use case that captures the intentions of a user in a technology and implementation independent manner. Use case modelling is today one of the most widely used software engineering techniques to specify user requirements. Dittrich et al, (2002) (7) suggest a new approach to developmen t they term ‘systems development as networking. They go on to suggest the key questions to ask is ‘How do systems developers recruit and mobilise enough allies to forge a network that will bring out and support the use of the system. Unified Modelling Language (UML) is described by Arrington and Rayhan (2003) (8) as a method, employing use case and activity diagrams for requirements gathering. They state that use case serves as a view of the overall use of the system, allowing both developers and stakeholders to navigate the documented requirements. _________________________ 4. Tan (2005), p67. 5. Seffah et al (1999), p21 6. Dittrich et al, (2002), p 311. 7. Arrington and Rayhan, (2003), p28. 8. Hass et al, (2007), p 4. Rich Picture People Activities Current system Future system Use Case Diagram See Appendix A Primary Scenario The likely outcome when the project specification is delivered is that the funding body will agree to the bid, but subject to some changes, which will reduce the overall cost. This will involve a degree of compromise in the design of the new system. Suggestions may be made to re-enter the Excel data and to delay the phasing out of the financial system. This would mean a phased project with an all-encompassing solution left to a later stage. The impact may be additional effort on the part of CSA staff. The system needs to be delivered in phases, with core functionality first. The successful delivery of core components will assist acceptance. A key component is the security of information stored and transmitted, as much of it is of a sensitive, personal nature. The protection of information will require conforming to the requirements of the DPA (1). Due to the number of area offices, with few staff, the data repository will require to be centralised, probably at HQ. This is for simplification of backups, which will require to be weekly full, stored offsite, and daily incremental with the last day stored on site. Communications between HQ and branches requires to be encrypted, and e-mail will require protected Internet access. Anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing and spam filtering software will be required, and a firewall introduced between the Internet-facing component and the main system. Rigid field input will be required to avoid erroneous numbers or characters. Menus will be restricted to selected functions and denied to others, and Admin level (privileged) control will be able to access all menus. The training for IT clients will need to be on a separate network segment from the main systems. Compatibility between the existing financial system and the new system will need to be established, and the system will require the capability to import Excel data. The system will be required to replace the functionali ty of the Excel data. Questions Developer questions to CSA staff: How much funding is available for the proposed system and who are the stakeholders? What facilities for computer systems exist at HQ: power, space, fire suppression, telecoms, operating staff, storage required, and records retained? Who will support the new system when delivered? What configuration does the finance system have: hardware, operating system, application software, network links, storage, number of users, support? Will staff time be available for training? Will only CSA staff use the new system and will they use it from home? Will there be allocation of CSA staff for user acceptance? Discussion of requirements analysis tools The usefulness of the semiotic framework is that it offers the system developer an insight into the attitudes and feelings of people who will use the proposed system. This aids the developer, in that he/she is more likely to pay attention to the human-computer interface (HCI) aspects of the system. This should, if properly delivered, make the new system easier to use, and consequently, be received with more enthusiasm, than might otherwise be the case. A key message that core aspects should be delivered first, rather than the full functionality required, may win more converts than might otherwise be the case. Also revealed by the use of the Semiotic Framework was the attitude of some of the staff, who sees the requirement for the new system as superfluous to their ‘real work, and consequently wish no contact with it as they are too ‘busy. This helps the developer, as it brings home the need for the employment of techniques to make the system simple to use and not forbidding in terms of error messages to may produce due to inexperience. What the round of interviews in the case study revealed was some conflicting attitudes among CSA staff. A key example was mention of the need for protection of financial information, but the requirement to protect personal data of clients of the CSA, some of whom may have criminal records, was not mentioned. Given that failure to protect this type of information could lead to more harm to the individual than any help they may receive from the CSA, this is cause for concern, and seems to indicate that some of the CSA staff have lost sight of the organisations mission in life. The interview process resulting in the case study report produced a lack of vital information any system developer would require to produce a workable system. Basic items were not uncovered. As an example there is no information on number of users, estimates of amount of data to be stored, how long it is to be retained, and wha t kind of systems are in use at the moment. The availability of capital and revenue information was not discovered, and it may well be that the funding will be dependent upon the proposed design in terms of capital and revenue costs to operate. The use of rich picture and case diagram illuminates the overall view of the required system, allowing the developer and the recipients of the system to see the whole picture and gain a better understanding of the likely finished product. It also simplifies the dependencies and collaboration required in a pictorial from which makes the ‘big picture easier to understand. The importance of the Semiotic Framework is that it helps shed light on areas which the developer, using traditional systems development methodologies, may neglect. It concentrates the mind on the human-computer interface required, and influences the design attributes which need to be built in, in order to gain user acceptability. Taking the step-wise approach down through the levels, brings home to the systems developer, the need to start with the social needs, which focuses on the human aspirations (or not) of the proposed system. Working through the Pragmatics is very revealing of the contradicting attitudes of the potential users in conversation, and should lead to the developer making compromises between technical elegance in the design and being able to obtain a favourable reaction from at least a majority of the eventual users. The scope of the system required to be developed has not been revealed during the case study, which impedes the ability of the developer to estimate size and nature of the hardware or software required. The Syntactic level assists the design in that it forces concentration on the logical handling of data input, with system response to incorrect entry, being handled not with abrupt error messages, but more friendly advice messages and suggestions on data re-entry. This tracks back to the importance o f human reaction learnt from the Social Word level. The software chosen should be influenced by the Pragmatics influence in that the choice should reflect the fact that the CSA is a charity, and both hardware and applications should be in the affordable range for an institution dependent upon charitable funding. The Empirics portion of the framework should include the estimation of required system performance, speed of telecommunications, volume of data to be stored, and response times of the system. In the CSA case study there is no information which can be used to project such requirements, so the developer would be required to utilise an educated guess, based only on the existing finance system, which could be measured, or practical experience. Some of the required information may be gathered by contact with whichever vendor delivered the existing finance system. The framework also draws attention to peripheral items, such as the Excel spreadsheet, which may well contai n valuable data, not subject to strict input criteria, and possibly not backed up. The Physical World portion of the framework focuses the developers mind on what will be acceptable to the users in terms of speed of response, the time and effort potentially to be saved, and the type of reporting of information capabilities of the system. It emphasises that there needs to be demonstrable benefits in the way of management information, and therefore capability to respond, which would otherwise have been unavailable. From a system developers point of view, this is probably the section he/she would feel most comfortable with, as it consists of tangibles, which can be translated into MIPS, baud rated, gigabytes, and other terms which IT developers are expected to be completely conversant with. Probably the most difficult aspect of the framework for the developer is the Semantics level. The reason for this is that it tends towards the abstract, and system developers as a breed , operate mostly in a practical, exact, measureable fashion. They act as a translator between the business requirements as expressed by the stakeholders and eventual users, and the technical people who deliver code, hardware and communications to realise the stated needs. The developer has to perform a balancing act between what is sometimes conflicting requirements and technical possibilities. This required the ability to converse with, and understand, both participants in the overall project to deliver the required system. The use of the Semiotic Framework leads the developer to address these issues and attempt to develop a clear understanding of the CSA business activities, as opposed to trying to force fit them into a prejudged idea of the system. The developer may reflect that the application of the Semiotic Framework forces undue attention on the people-related aspects of system engineering, to the detriment of a design which embodies good technical practice and the n ecessary protective aspects required complying with any legal implications. Against this, the aim of developers to attain elegance and efficiency in design may be meaningless to the users of the system, whose main concerns are to assist in the capture of information, its ease of retrieval and the management information it can produce. In short, how it can help improve the users work practices and make life easier for them. References Arrington, C.T., Rayhan, S.H., (2003), Enterprise Java with ULM, Second Edition, Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indiana, USA, p28. Clarke,S., Elayne, (2003), Socio-technical and human cognition elements of information systems, Idea Group Inc, p 8. GOOD Diagram. The Data Protection Act Available from: https://www.ico.gov.uk.what_we_cover/data_protection.aspx. Hass, K.B., et al, (2007), Getting it Right, Management Concepts, p 4. Kangassalo, H.,et al, (1995), Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases, IOS Press, p 358. Seffah, A. et al, (2005), Human-Centered Software Engineering –Integrating Usability in the Software, Springer, p 21. Stamper,R.et al, (1987, Critical Issues in Information Systems research, Wiley, Chichester, p 47-78. Tan, J.K., (2005), E-health Care Information Systems, John Wiley and Sons, p 67. Tipton, H.F., Krause, M., (2007), Information Security Management Handbook, Edition 6, CRC Press, p1290-186-587