The Old Demon free essay sample

The Old Demon In the short story The Old Demon by Pearl S. Buck, Mrs. Wang is a practical person, who takes things at face value, does whatever she thinks must be done, and accepts her fate. Foremost, Mrs. Wang takes things at face value. Seeing things as they truly are, after rescuing a wounded soldier from a fallen plane, she learns from a crowd of Chinese soldiers that he is Japanese. Though fully acknowledging that he is the adversary, Mrs. Wang saves the young man from being stabbed. The Chinese soldiers query to her concern for the Japanese monkey results in Mrs. Wangs ompelling response: If he is dead, then there is no use in sending him into purgatory all in pieces (Buck 159). Unlike the others, Mrs. Wang clearly distinguishes him not as Just one of the Japanese, but rather as an injured man who needs help. She perceives things as they are, rescuing the young soldier from a painful death. We will write a custom essay sample on The Old Demon or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Although he is Japanese, she sees him as she does everyone else, a human being in a time of great need. Additionally, Mrs. Wang does whatever she thinks must be done. For instance, as the silver planes crash headlong into the vast field, the villagers flee, striving to escape the burning catastrophe. Though Little Pigs wife pleads and implores her to run, Mrs. Wang seats herself against the bank of the dike and gazes at the extraordinary spectacle, replying l havent run in seventy years, since before my feet were bound (156). Stubborn, old Mrs. Wang refuses to leave and abandon her place, for she knows that she is slow and will only delay the others from escaping. Placing others before herself, she feels that it is her duty to stay behind (156). Acknowledging what is right, she puts others before herself, in spite of the fatal consequences that it holds. Lastly, Mrs. Wang accepts her fate. Exemplifying acquiescence of her destiny, in the arrival of an army of Japanese soldiers, she understands that if they are not stopped, then they will kill all the villagers. As they march across the plain, the circumstances pose a difficult choice: her death or the death of the villagers. Mrs. Wang soon realizes that there is an end to what one could see, and this is the end for her. Knowing what she must do, she opens the water sluice and unleashes the wicked river, drowning both herself and the Japanese. Mrs. Wang sacrifices her life for the villagers, prepared for life and where it shall take her. By shwetagunJan

Chicago Race Riot 1919 Essays - Red Summer, Chicago Race Riot

Chicago Race Riot 1919 Essays - Red Summer, Chicago Race Riot Dr. Edmund F. Wehrle His-2020G Chicago Race Riot 1919 On July 27, 1919, a young black man named Eugene Williams swam past an invisible line of segregation at a popular public beach on Lake Michigan, Chicago. He was stoned by several white bystanders, knocked unconscious and drowned, and his death set off one of the bloodiest riots in Chicagos history. The Chicago race riot was not the result of the incident alone. Several factors, including the economic, social and political differences between blacks and whites, the post-war atmosphere and the thinking of race relations in 1919, combined to make Chicago a prime target for this event. Although the riot was a catalyst for several short-term solutions to the racial tensions, it did little to improve race relations in the long run. It was many years before the nation truly addressed the underlying conflicts that sparked the riot of 1919. There is some history that explains why the incident on that Chicago beach escalated to the point where 23 blacks and 15 whites were killed, 500 more were injured and 1,000 blacks were left homeless. When the local police were summoned to the scene, they refused to arrest the white man identified as the one who instigated the attack. It was generally acknowledged that the state should look the other way as long as private violence stayed at a low level. This police indifference, viewed by most blacks as racial bias, played a major role in enraging the black population. In the wake of the Chicago riot, several efforts were made to strengthen Chicagos police power to effectively suppress future riots, make police power more neutral between the races, and allow the Federal government to acquire police powers by way of an anti-lynching law. The aim was to bring a more powerful and neutral force into local situations, but the effect was to concentrate the emphasis on maintaining law and order rather than correcting the conditions that caused the riot. Many Americans felt it was more important to ensure that violence on the scale of the Chicago riot never recur rather than deal with the root causes of racial conflict. The violence of the 1919 riot shocked and divided many Americans. There were those who believed it was necessary to eliminate racial inequalities in order to prevent racial conflicts and those who believed it was necessary to create or maintain a racial ladder in which each race would know and accept its place. It was the latter group that sought rules against the use of violence and focused on the accommodation of society to immediate conflicts rather than long-term solutions, such as restructuring society to reduce the level of racial tension. In the United States, the historical pattern of interracial violence, fear and distrust is a result of a class system which recognized white dominance and black inferiority and subordination. This social system was frustrating to the blacks who wished to rise from their subservient status while the white man had to employ force in order to maintain his position of social superiority. Add to this frustration what sociologists refer to as social distance, where fear, hate and ignorance block people from getting to know each other, and it is no surprise that racial tensions were high prior to the riot in Chicago. One of the most frightening aspects of the Chicago riot in the eyes of the white population was the fact that rather than accept the invisible line in Lake Michigan or police indifference, blacks actually fought back. For white Americans who had become accustomed to Negro complacency, this posed a tremendous threat. It was an important moment in black history. These heightened mixed-race fears and suspicions went beyond the personal level. Following the Chicago riot, many Americans came to believe that democracy itself was becoming endangered by black militancy. They believed that a challenge to white supremacy was a radical opposition to the government. Following the riot, white supremacists jumped to the conclusion that radical influences had encouraged Negroes to take up arms. Mayor William Hale Thompson, often accused of being a nigger lover, refused to draw the color line and consequently could claim the Black Belt as his area of strongest

Developing and Managing Performance (Organisation Essay - 1

Developing and Managing Performance (Organisation - Essay Example Over the years, there has been a lot of attention given on performance management and development with the demand for thorough information being actually intensified with the economic downfall. Human resources specialists have toiled to make sure that they keenly evaluate performance between relevant and fair measures putting most of their focus and efforts on essential aspects of any business. Essentially, the different efforts have circled around making sure that the processes are similar in temperament with the requirements of a changing breed of line manager, stream line the systems that are paper based and facilitate admittance through media. Nonetheless, most of the human resource strategies that have more experience are also focused in ensuring that managing the performance conveys in an environment where the evolution of numbers and effect on organizational brand and innovation is based on the ways of the business success. Concurrently, the report focuses on evaluating the challenges an organization may incur in putting it into place a performance and reward strategy using knowledge of the results past case studies and theories from different specialists on the field but mostly on human resources. Currently, the nature of work is altering with diverse organizations and corporations operating in more of a specialized network that is also flexible and natural; basically, the frequency of strategic partnering arrangements between organizations increasing the need for management relationships to be managed beyond the organization and hence further work is required. On the other hand, reward systems are also a critical part of any organizations design and how well they are compatible with the rest of the systems has an equal effect on to what extent they will be effectual and also on the quality of life that people will experience in the organization. There have been new reward systems practices