Comparison Of Taoism V Socrates

Comparison Of Taoism V Socrates Historically, Oriental and western philosophies developed in isolation from each other. The geographical and cultural distance between oriental and western civilization determined substantial differences between oriental and western philosophies. On the other hand, works of ancient Greek philosophers, such as Socrates, and some oriental philosophies, such as Taoism, do have some common ideas and concepts, although, regardless of some similarities, differences between oriental and western philosophies are distinctive. In this regard, it is possible to dwell upon the philosophy developed by Socrates and Taoism as two different philosophies, which respected the strife of individuals for the improvement of their life and self-perfection but still had quite different views, beliefs and concepts. In such a way, Taoism worshiped Toa as the first-cause of the universe and developed the philosophy, which worshiped Tao and promoted the self-perfection of individuals to meet Taoist ideals, wher eas Socrates stood on the ground that individuals should seek for wisdom as the way of self-perfection, taking care of their souls to reach harmony and spiritual balance. Socrates principles As the matter of fact, Socrates is one of the most influential philosophers of ancient Greece that defined, to a significant extent, the development of not only ancient philosophy but also the western philosophy at large. Socrates laid the foundation to basic principles of western philosophy, which were modified, changed and adapted by other philosophers. At the same time, his views were, in a way, universal because Socrates focused on the development of ideas, concepts and values which were universal and applicable to different cultures. Hence, Socrates philosophy persisted throughout times and places for centuries. In such a context, it is important to dwell upon basic principles of Socrates philosophy and to compare them to fundamental principles of Taoist philosophy. First of all, Socrates stressed the importance of wisdom and knowledge. He insisted that people should learn the surrounding world, themselves and phenomena around them. He developed the idea that the unexamined life is not worth living. At the same time, he remained very critical in regard to himself and his knowledge. On analyzing his knowledge he estimated I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing. In such a way, Socrates stood on the ground that human mind can hardly become absolutely wise. In other words, Socrates had doubts that people could know everything. At this point, his views were close to Taoism, which respected Tao as the wisest deity, whose wisdom is not achievable for ordinary humans. In such a context, it is worth mentioning the fact that Socrates insisted that wisdom should not be the ultimate goal of human life but what made the life purposeful was the search for wisdom, learning: I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean. At the same time, Socrates argued that the most important task in life is caring for the soul: All mens souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine. Therefore, Socrates argued that people should take care of their souls and lead a virtuous life to be good and happy. Socrates places emphasis on the fact that people should work on their self-improvement and self-perfection to take care of their soul and to live a happy life. At this point, another principle of Socrates is of the utmost importance. Socrates believed that a good person could not be harmed by other people. In this regard, the material well-being of a person was not important for Socrates since: He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature. Therefore, Socrates believed that it is through the virtuous life people could be happy and live in harmony with their self and with other people. Principles of Taoism In fact, fundamental principles of Taoism are, in a way, similar to that of Socrates, although Taoist principles are built up on the religious ground. To put it more precisely, Taoist believe that Tao is the first-cause of the universe: We believe in the formless and eternal Tao, and we recognize all personified deities as being mere human constructs. We reject hatred, intolerance, and unnecessary violence, and embrace harmony, love and learning, as we are taught by Nature. We place our trust and our lives in the Tao, that we may live in peace and balance with the Universe, both in this mortal life and beyond. In this regard, Taoist views are quite different from that of Socrates because Taoist viewed Tao as the Supreme Being, deity that rules the world and humans, whereas Socrates insisted on the power of human mind. Therefore, Socrates was more anthropocentric compared to Taoists who viewed Tao as the supreme deity. At the same time, goals of human life and existence in Taoism were, in a way, similar to that of Socrates. Taoist stood on the ground that a believers goal was to harmonize themselves with Tao. This means that Taoist are supposed to seek for harmony and self-perfection to harmonize with Tao as Socrates suggested to seek for knowledge and self-perfection to take care of the soul. At the same time, Socrates was apparently concerned with the spiritual life of people above all, whereas physical aspects of human existence were secondary to him. He insisted on the necessity to develop knowledge and wisdom of humans. In contrast, Taoism stressed the importance of health and vitality in contrast to Socrates soul. In such a way, Taoist believed that the happiness is impossible without health and vitality, whereas Socrates was more concerned with knowledge, wisdom and soul of people, instead of their physical body, health and vitality. Nevertheless, Taoist developed believes which were close to Socrates philosophy. To put it more precisely, Taoist viewed the development of virtue as ones chief task. What is meant here is the fact that Taoist should lead a virtuous lifestyle to reach the harmony with Toa. In contrast, sinful life lead to misfortunes and problems people could not cope with in their life. Hence, Taoist developed the belief that people should plan in advance and consider carefully their actions before making them. In this regard, the belief of planning human actions is intertwined with Socrates emphasis on the importance of wisdom in human life. On the other hand, Taoist focus on the importance of actions planning were determined by the belief that actions tend to be reciprocated that means that good actions of an individual lead to good actions committed by other people in regard to the individual and, vice versa, bad actions provoke misfortunes and bad actions committed in regard to the individual. Similarity between Taoism and Socrates Socrates and Toaism still have some similarities. For instance, both Socrates and Taoism believed that a person with great wisdom can still be uninformed And to act on that ignorance under the pretense that it is knowledge, both held, is folly that leads not to progress and betterment within the individual and society but to the opposite effect (Moore Bruder, 2005, p. 503). Therefore, wisdom is not achievable but worth striving for, while, in case of Socrates, striving for wisdom makes the life of people purposeful. At the same time, both Socrates and Taoism stressed the importance of the virtuous life. Socrates insisted on the virtuous life as a part of caring for the soul, whereas Taoist viewed virtuous life as a way to reach harmony with Tao. In such a way, both philosophies viewed virtuous life as essential because without virtuous lifestyle people could not be happy in their life. At this point, the virtuous life is one of the fundamental concepts of both philosophies. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning the fact that the ways of the achievement of the virtuous life and happiness differed in Socrates and Taoist philosophy. To put it more precisely, Socrates believed in wisdom and knowledge as the main tool with the help of which people could become virtuous, whereas Taoist believed that it was through worshipping of Tao and respecting principles of Taoism people can be virtuous and, therefore, happy. Conclusion Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that Socrates and Taoism developed philosophies, which had both similarities and differences. At first glance, Socrates philosophy and Taoism are absolutely different, especially in regard to the role of religious beliefs in the life of people. On the one hand, Socrates viewed knowledge and wisdom as issues worth living of and without which human life is pointless. On the other hand, Taoism viewed worshipping of Tao and living according to principles of Taoism as the only way of life for true Taoists. In such a situation, it is quite noteworthy that Socrates and Taoists developed views, which were, to a certain extent, similar. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the fact that both Socrates and Taoism viewed virtuous life as essential concepts for the happiness of people. At the same time, both Socrates and Taoism agreed that people, in spite of their efforts to learn and strife for knowle dge, cannot always be wise and wise people can be uninformed.

Marketing and Singapore Airlines Essay

I. Introduction Singapore Airlines (SIA) has been ranked as one of the top leading airlines in the world. Singapore Airlines began with three flights per week, and today their route network’s span is 99 destinations in 39 countries worldwide. Singapore Airlines Limited split from Malaysian Airways in 1972 and is the national airline of Singapore operating on global major routes. As stated in its website, the company is geared towards â€Å"providing air transportation services of the highest quality and to maximizing returns for the benefit of its shareholders and employees.†. It has constantly outperformed compared to many other competitive airlines and reported superior annual returns on profits. As airline is known as a mistake-free industry, Singapore Airlines has been proven its outstanding performance through its excellence services as well as being a pioneer in business strategies. Hundreds of industry awards are received by Singapore Airlines for its service quality. This report will outline in detail the fundamental issues in marketing of Singapore Airlines such as marketplace and customer needs, highlight the significant issues regarding the organization’s competitive environment as well as suggest possible enhancements for the organization. II. Body 1. Customers’ needs, wants, demand, product and market identified for Singapore Airlines. i. Customers’ needs, wants and demand.  Amstrong and Kotler (2011) defined needs as states of felt deprivation. They explained human needs comprise basic physical needs as food, clothing, warmth and safety, as well as social needs for belonging, affection, fun and relaxation. There are also esteem needs for prestige, recognition and fame, and individual needs for knowledge and self-expression.. On the other hand, wants are another sort of human needs that are influenced by culture and individual personality. Western people like Americans or Europeans would want breads for their daily meals, while eastern people from China or Vietnam would prefer rice, though they all have the same need of food. People’s wants expand throughout times. In the previous days, they might just simply want a transporting way to reach a destination. Later days they wanted a fast and safe transport. Today they also want comfort and entertainment while they are transporting. Organizations should be able to see and foresee the undiminishing wants of its customers to develop their products and services. Nevertheless, human wants are boundless, but not resources. What a person wants and what he can afford are two different matters. As described by Amstrong and Kotler, wants that are backed with buying power are called demand. For example, everyone wants to fly with a business or first class, but not all are willing to pay for those exclusive prices, thus some of the demand will go for the economy class instead. Singapore Airlines has identified there is a need of travelling, relaxation and prestige from its customers, as well as wants and demand for the aviation service and facilities. As so, Singapore Airlines offers best services in order to satisfy its customers accordingly . ii. Singapore Airlines’ products and market. Singapore Airlines mostly targets at businessmen and wealthy folds who are willing to pay a premium flight fares for a guarantee high quality service. The product line of Singapore Airlines is divided into three classes of travel: First, Raffles (Business) and Economy. First class accounted for 5% of passengers, Raffles class for 10% and economy class for 85%. The expectations of these particular customers were constantly rising and their  needs and wants keep on changing over years. Other than that, Singapore Airlines also offer many in-flight facilities and entertainment, such as free headsets, choice of meals, satellite-based inflight telephones, inflight meals from the International Culinary Panel, offer audio and video on demand capabilities on KrisWorld in all classes. They also have different luxurious lounges for different class of passengers. 2. Singapore Airlines’ market orientation. i. Market orientation According to Kohli and Jaworski (1990), the marketing concept is a business philosophy, whereas the term market orientation refers to the actual implementation of the marketing concept. Marketing management’s objective is to build profitable relationship with the target customers by designing strategies which following a certain business philosophy that the organization has chosen. There are five of them, including production concept, product concept, selling concept, marketing concept and societal marketing concepts. The newest business philosophy that has commonly been adopted by most of the large organizations nowadays, including Singapore Airlines, is the societal marketing concept. Kotler, et al. (2010:19) state that, â€Å"the societal marketing concept holds that the organization should determine the needs, wants, and interests of target markets and deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that maintains or improves t he consumer’s and society’s well-being†. In brief, this concept is all about balancing three aspects of an organization’s marketing approach: company’s profitability, customer satisfaction and society’s welfare. Bhasin H. (2010) stated that the marketing concept alone sidesteps the potential conflicts among consumer wants, consumer interests, and long-run societal welfare, yet some firms and industries are criticized for satisfying consumer wants at society’s expense. This has been a reason for the societal marketing concept to be formed, which could be seen as an enlargement of the marketing concept itself. Singapore Airlines’ official website publishes that, â€Å"Singapore Airlines firmly believes that supporting programmes that benefit the communities we serve throughout the world is an essential part of being a good corporate citizen†. Singapore Airlines has been contributing to the  community in arts, sports, community welfare, and education. It supports a wide range of local and overseas community groups and charity organizations. Some of the highlighted are providing air travel for Australian social workers to Dhaka in Bangladesh for a project to prevent hearing loss in textile workers, rebated air tickets to the newly established Singapore Sports School to nurture emerging sporting talents, helping to fly the nation’s flag high in the sporting arena as the Official Airline for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games held in Singapore, etc. By practicing this societal marketing concept, Singapore Airlines has shown their customers that profitability is not their number one and only concern, but also to be a responsible and contributive corporate citizen. By doing so, Singapore Airlines has gained respectable reputation and favor from the customers, and boosted to a notable sales and profits. ii. Product life cycle Singapore Airlines’ product set is in a mature life cycle. The airline has done an outstanding job of differentiating itself through customer service available through any of its commercial aviation products. In this stage of the product life, Singapore Airlines must reinvent itself every few years to remain competitive in the industry and to prolong the stage period not to reach the decline stage. Singapore Airlines is constantly examining other service industries to see how they respond to customer needs and then adjusts its products accordingly. Through this strategy, Singapore Airlines generally leads the industry in innovative customer service products and initiatives. As airline is a service industry, its products are intangible, yet Singapore Airline’s commitment to its service strategy is visible in every aspect of its operations. 3. Major competitive issues facing Singapore Airlines i. Singapore Airlines’ competitive advantages Ever since the separation from Malaysian Airways, Singapore Airlines has no domestic routes to serve, hence the company has been forced to rely on the international flights and compete with other major airlines. There are three core aspects that Singapore Airlines has gained competitive advantages over other players within the industry. These comprise of the excellent service, the continuity innovation, and the technology superiority. Firstly, as  explained by Roll (2004), the airlines have begun its branding strategy on it in-flight service. The company engaged French haute-couture designer Pierre Balmain in 1972 to design a special version of the Malay Sarong Kebaya as the airline stewardess uniform and then is branded as â€Å"Singapore Girls† for providing excellent in-flight hospitality. This later becomes one of the most recognized signatures of the airline, and is one of the critical reasons why Singapore Airlines always ranked at top for the customer satisfaction sur vey about in-flight service observed by various sources such as independent institutions or online social networking sites. The second aspect that supports the Singapore Airlines’ success is their effort to always be innovative – particularly about the in-flight services. Additionally justified by Roll, Singapore Airlines has pioneered many in-flight experiential and entertainment innovations, and strived to be best in class. It was the first to introduce hot meals, free alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, hot towels with a unique and patented scent, personal entertainment systems, and video-on-demand in all cabins. The company keeps driving innovation as an important part of the brand, and the cabin ambience and combined experience are key factors of its success. Lastly, on the technology side, Roll also evaluated that Singapore Airlines still maintains the youngest fleet of aircraft among all major air carriers, and keeps to the stringent policy of replacing older aircrafts for newer, better models. It has always been first in line to take delivery of new aircraft types like Boeing 747 jumbo jets, Boeing 777, and it will become the first airline to fly the Airbus super jumbo A-380 in 2006. Even the aircrafts are sub-branded like 747-Megatop and 777-Jubilee to further distinguish SIA and its brand from competitors. Singapore Airlines also flew Concorde between Singapore and London in the late seventies in collaboration with British Airways (BA). The aircraft was painted with SIA’s colors and logos on one side, and BA’s on the other, and it carried crew from both airlines. ii. Porter’s five forces analysis of Singapore Airlines a) Suppliers power Suppliers’ power is consistently high in airlines industry. This hence will have a great impact in the company’s product and service costs, prices and profitability. However, Singapore Airlines is financially strong and has its own ground service such as baggage handling and in-flight food and beverages supply. Aircraft maintenance and servicing is also carried out by SIA Engineers. Thus the main supply for Singapore Airline is basically the aircraft manufacturers. Since the firm has been known as an airline with youngest aircraft usage, Singapore Airlines has been a significant customers and has bargaining power over the suppliers. b) Buyers power The buyer bargaining power is indeed high for Singapore Airlines. Singapore Airlines’ targets mostly on businessmen and people who are affordable for premiums flight fares. These types of passengers are not too sensitive to prices, but concentrating more on the flight time that is flexible for them, and also the comfortability of the provided service. However, regardless of which type of passengers, all of them might just switch to other airlines without hesitation if time and service match their demand better. Since customers are willing to pay for their enjoyment and flexibility, Singapore Airlines’ target market has a strong level of buying power. c) Substitutions Singapore Airlines generally has medium to low threat on substitution of its services. As mentioned above, Singapore Airlines’ target passengers are not cost-conscious travelers, they can afford high fares in return for their comfort and time efficiency. Hence with excellence both in ground and in-flight service quality and updated high-tech facilities, Singapore Airlines easily retain customers’ loyalty. Other substitute transport mode would not be a big threat especially for long flights or long distance travel. d) Competitive rivalry The level of rivalry is medium for Singapore Airlines. Although there are not many airlines can compete against SIA, these airlines in the entire industry share the very similar market. Most of the carriers are using differentiated strategy that focus on both booking and in-flight services. SIA with outstanding and uniqueness service offerings has helped the firm to have  lesser pressure on competition. However, Singapore Airlines has to continue on innovation and maintain and improve service quality if they do not wish to lose out. e) New entries Threat of new entrance is consider low in airline industry, since the capital investment for the industry is massive. According to Calingo (1997) it would require a lot of logistic works, highly skilled personal such as pilots, aircraft technicians and specialize managerial personnel which are often limited in resources in the industry. Limited access to airport and route are also another difficulty post to new entrant. 4. Segmenting, targeting and positioning of Singapore Airlines. i. Segmenting According to Kotler et al. (2010:199), marketing segmentation is defined as dividing a market into distinct groups who might require separate products and/or marketing mixes. The objective is to help determine marketing strategies and realistic marketing objectives by understanding customer trends and buyer behaviors. Singapore Airlines segments its market based on geographic, demographics, psychographic and behavioral. For geographic segmentation, Singapore Airlines customers are located globally with varying wants and needs thus the firm attempts to exploit this by providing airline services to major cities or routes. Evidence given is Singapore Airlines operates flights to over 90 destinations in more than 39 countries over 5 continents. Its strong presence is however still the Southeast Asia region. Demographic segment works on the basis of customer factual characteristics such as age, gender, family lifecycle, social-culture, occupation, education and income that can influence purchasing decisions. Singapore Airlines, for example, demographically segment their customers from their choice of the service class. Suite class and First class passengers are dominantly traveling on business purpose and mostly are male between 25 to 45 years old. Passengers in business class are split evenly between traveling for business and leisure. Mostly are male with average age 32. Economy class passengers are a much broader group, traveling mainly for leisure and evenly spread across most socio-economic groups and age ranges. Another approach to  segmentation is psychographic, which is an attempt to capture what is driving the customer’s behavior, such as values, personalities, attitudes, opinion, interest and lifestyle aspirations. For instance, Singapore Airlines provides variations of cabin classes (First, Business and Economy) to meet the product demand of people. Singapore Airlines employs tier membership to provide status preferences to customers. The last segment approach is behavioral which is based on observable issues on consumer behavior when purchasing the products. Characteristics include frequency of consumption, buyer readiness and commitment. The corporate market tends to be a frequent flyer that could gain benefits from Singapore Airline’s Frequent Flyer program, in return for customers’ loyalty to the airlines. Some people are â€Å"brand loyal†, they tend to stick with their preferred or familiar brands even when a competing one is on sale. ii. Targeting Market targeting, explained by Kotler et al. (2010:199), is the process of evaluating each segment’s attractiveness and selecting one or more of the market segments. Singapore Airlines uses differentiated market targeting, which refers to where firm target several segments and develops distinct products/services with separate marketing mix strategies aimed at various group approach, where they target in accordance to consumers’ needs and to their occupation. Singapore Airlines has two target markets. The first aimed at people who mostly have a high income with a high class lifestyle and prefer to seek comfort with excellent services rather than to get a cheaper price but do not get the as good facilities and services. The other target market is customary passengers who mostly just want to travel and not too demanding about the services and the facilities. For this market, Singapore Airlines owns a budget airline as well to compete, which is Tiger Airways, to meet the market needs. iii. Positioning Kotler et al also described market positioning is developing competitive positioning for the product and an appropriate marketing mix. Added by them, a product’s position is the way the product is defined by consumers on important attributes – the place the product occupies in consumers’ minds relative to competing product. In this specific circumstance, is how the  passengers perceive Singapore Airlines’ service compared to other major carriers, such as British Airways or Cathay Pacific. There are many different general strategies for positioning products. Attribute or benefit, quality and price, use or application, competition, high-tech and high-touch can achieve desired positioning. Market positioning is about how Singaspore Airlines wants its customers to perceive their products and services in relation to their competitors. Singapore Airlines positioning strategy is using Singapore Girl as a central ingredient in marketing its image. Personified through the girls, customers will have a sensory and emotional experience when travelling with Singapore Airlines, with its commitment to service and quality excellence. Since the traditional marketing communication has often been focus on cabin design, food, comfort and pricing, this strategy of Singapore Girl has successfully gain a positive market positioning in the customers’ heart. III. Conclusion There are concrete substantiations why Singapore Airlines has grown from a regional airline into one of the world’s top leading carriers. This paper has analyzed some of the vital marketing issues concerning the strategic way that Singapore Airlines operates to reach their upward achievement nowadays. They have always been setting their customers’ needs and wants as the first priority in order to understand and provide excellent quality service to match the growing demand of the passengers. Only with the clear comprehending and effective implementation of the organization’s selected societal marketing concept, precise identification of the competitive concerns as well as the market segmenting, targeting and positioning, Singapore Airlines has been able to successfully differentiate its brand image and endorsed its prestige status to the whole world. IV. Recommendations Performing the SWOT analysis would help Singapore Airlines to identify the key issues for enhancements in its operational strategies. Singapore Airlines needs to keep its superiority and stay on the top of the competition in the international market, by understanding the plans that being pursued by other major players such as British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic, etc. Singapore Airlines should continue to  differentiate itself and keep on provide up scaling service quality to the customers. It is recommended for Singapore Airlines to regularly renovate its facilities as well as install new technological features. Improvement and installation of in-flight entertainment system such as latest technology electronics and DVDs, access provision to the CD music and interconnected network games with the passengers inside of the aircraft, ability to send and receive email and internet surfing on selected content, Satellite telephones can be some of the suggestions. Nevertheless, Singapore Airlines should carry on contributing more in its social responsibilities to the community well-being to remain an ethical and trust worthy corporate citizen. V. References and Bibliography Ayob, A.M (n.d.). Singapore Airlines Limited: Building a culture of service excellence. Retrieved August 5th, 2012, from https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:aDhMN-GX8s8J:mahdzan.com/papers/sia/SINGAPORE_AIRLINES.pdf+singapore+airlines+marketing+strategy&hl=en&gl=sg&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjah_jaSacO-NJn77hv6rhqruT9KQnCLqiKJD4opuCV-hAT_rzvAM8eS_FMZqlhy2rmS8CRLxxhV7Jf8_p0XU-2ZaGHuzUF5I4yAOHzIGGbgCYMLq0C7pngKnOuKjFTWRAiMHID&sig=AHIEtbRwCtZUzXuAJ5G-SBBjU3CSURqkBQ Bhasin, H. (2010). Socetal Marketing Concept. Retrieved August 5th, 2012, from http://www.marketing91.com/societal-marketing-concept/ Calingo, L.M.R. (1997). Strategic management in the Asian context. Singapore Airlines: Comparative case studies of the British and Singaporean national airlines. Based on research by Douglas Sikorski. John Wiley & Sons Heracleous, L. & Wirtz, J. (2009) ‘Strategy and organization at Singapore Airlines: Achieving sustainable advantage through dual strategy’: Journal of Air Transport Management. Kotler, P. & Amstrong, G. (2011). Marketing an Introduction. (10th ed). Kotler, P., Bowen, J.T & Makens, J.C. (2010). Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism. (5th ed). Market Orientation. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved August 4th, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_orientation Roll, M. (2004). Singapore Airlines flying tiger. From Brandchannel. Retrieved August 6th, 2012, from http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=209 Roll, Martin. Undated. Singapore Airlines – An Excellent Asian Brand. Venture Republic Retrieved August 4th, 2012, from http://www.venturerepublic.com/resources/singapore_airlines_-_an_excellent_asian_brand.asp The critical success of Singapore Airlines. (n.d.). Retrieved August 5th, 2012, from http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/02/the-critical-success-of-singapore-airlines.html#_Toc212902244

Explore the Ways in Which Bullies and Victims Are Present in Lord of the Flies and Dna Essay

English coursework, James Luxton Explore the ways in which bullies and victims are presented in Lord of the Flies and DNA. Bullies and Victims play vital roles in both the novel and the play. The authors, Golding and Kelly, both put their characters through similar trials. In Lord of the Flies, Golding’s characters turn from normal school boys, to savages who are prepared to kill one another to gain power. Golding suggests that under certain circumstances, people will naturally begin to become more violent and savage. In DNA the characters are thrust into a world of secrecy where they have to cover things up to save themselves, Kelly himself wrote this; ‘I don’t think I write characters who are bad, I think I write characters who are trying to do the right thing, but are failing’. Kelly gives no description to the lives of his characters before the death of Adam, suggesting that they may have lead innocent lives, but they have been thrust into a world of violence that spirals out of contro l. In Lord of the Flies, Golding impresses upon the reader how children’s judgements of their peers are based around their physical appearance which will directly impact whether they are seen as possible leaders or victims. In contrast, Kelly gives us no description of his characters’ appearance and offers no real clear reason why Adam is the victim; in this way the violence is less readily understood, and ultimately more frightening. Golding clearly demonstrates to the reader how physical appearance effects a character’s treatment in the opening chapter of Lord of the Flies. Even though they have just survived a plane crash and are apparently the only survivors on the island, Ralph constantly snubs Piggy; based on the fact that Piggy is fat, has asthma, and also wears glasses. Ralph shuns him, despite Piggy being incredibly intelligent, and it is Piggy who suggests most of the things for the boys to do, such as using the conch to call an assembly. Ralph doesn’t realise the true value of Piggy until after his death. ‘There was no Piggy to talk sense’ shows Ralph’s despair. When he really needed help, Piggy was always there to offer advice, whereas now, after his death, Ralph doesn’t know what to do. Through this Golding is inferring that people judge others solely on their appearance, and people who appear weak will always be targeted by society, no matter how intelligent they are. In complete contrast, Kelly gives the reader no description of any character in DNA, and in fact no description of the  scenery. Kelly gives no clear indication of why Adam is the victim, which suggests that any other one of the characters in the play may have been the victim, and on a much wider scale, it suggests that anybody in society may be susceptible to becoming a victim; this makes the violence that the group inflict on Adam much more frightening, because we are more likely to think that this could even happen to us. Kelly shows us through his depiction of Adam just how desperate some people are to become part of a group. Adam must continually show loyalty to them all in order to feel safe. They become so desperate to be popular and accepted by people, they are willing to do anything for the group or the people in power; to the point where they are literally willing to risk their lives. Kelly also depicts just how far a group of ‘bullies’ will go to test loyalty. The group made Adam ‘run across the motorway’ and ‘nick some Vodka’; these criminal and life-threateni ng activities were readily undertaken by Adam even though Jan acknowledges that ‘you could tell he was scared’. Alarmingly, the group were simply testing ‘how far he’ll go’. Kelly demonstrates how groups can manipulate people and exploit their fear and desperation to belong rather than be alone. . Kelly shows this through Mark when he says ‘we can make him do, we can make him do-‘ Mark’s repletion and unfinished sentence suggests that he was possibly so uncomfortable with what was done that he struggles to fully acknowledge it. Although he claims that they were ‘having a laugh, really, he was laughing’, his words give him away. He sounds as if he is trying to convince himself and the separation of the word’ really’ makes him sound desperate. Golding also suggests to the reader just how desperate people are to become part of a group, and how in some situations, becoming part of a group may literally be a life and death decision. Ralph, Jack and Simon set out to explore the island, and Piggy suggests to Ralph that he should go too, because he ‘was with him when he found the conch’ and he ‘was with him before anyone else was’. Ralph seemingly tries to put Piggy down gently by saying ‘you’re no good on a job like this’ implying, again, because Piggy is fat and has asthma, he won’t be able to keep up and he will be a burden to the other boys. In contrast Jack is blunter with Piggy. He simply says ‘we don’t want you, thre e’s enough’. In this, Jack shows obvious contempt for Piggy. When he firsts speaks to Piggy all he has to offer is ‘you’re talking too much, shut up fatty’. Jack’s obvious loathing of Piggy is evident  throughout the novel. Through Jack’s first contact with Piggy it strengthens the idea that children judge people solely on looks, and as well as this it is obvious that the constant name calling and bullying of Piggy will render him the victim of the boys throughout the novel. Both Golding and Kelly alarm their readers with evidence of real violence from the bullies to their chosen victims. Violence with stones occurs both in Lord of the Flies and DNA, but they have different consequences. In Lord of the Flies the violent acts begins with Maurice and Roger kicking through the littleuns’ sandcastles. Before the arrival of Roger and Maurice, the littleuns’ seem content with being detached from the other boys. Three boys played on the beach, ‘if not happily, at least with absorbed attention’. Golding suggests that the littleuns’ had nothing else to do besides eat, sleep and play, so the novelty of the being able to do anything has worn off, but ‘with absorbed at tention’ indicates they still posses the innocence of childhood, so they carry on playing regardless. In contrast, once Roger and Maurice had kicked over their sandcastles, the littleuns’ seemed disinterested, ‘so they made no protest’. Maurice kicks sand into Percival’s eyes, and his reaction to doing this is interesting. Maurice feels guilt through the description of his actions. Instead of staying with Roger, ‘he muttered something about a swim and broke into a trot’. The use of the word ‘muttered’ is significant because it infers that Maurice is trying to create excuses for himself, which shows unease at his actions. In his decision to run to the boys who are swimming, Golding shows that Maurice wants to detach himself from Roger. It is also noteworthy that he runs away from Roger towards the other boys, inferring that Maurice wishes to distance himself from Roger and the possibility of further actions. Johnny, one of the other littleuns’ playing around the sandcastles, then begins to copy the actions of Maurice; he begins to throw sand into Percival’s eyes. This is reminiscent of the Bandura experiment of 1977, in which he placed an adult in a room with a young child. The adult was given a Bobo doll, which he was told to abuse repeatedly in the presence of the child. The adult then left and the Bobo doll was given to the child. Over time the child would begin the re-enact the actions of the adult, the child would begin to abuse the Bobo doll; this suggests that children are influenced by a person in authority, and that they will copy their actions. Johnny repeats the actions undertaken by  Maurice, and this suggests that natural order on the island is beginning to weaken, and that aggression and violence is taking over, now even the youngest children on the island are beginning to experiment with violence. Golding then demonstrates this experimentation of violence t hrough Roger’s ‘stalking’ of Henry, the third littleun’ that was playing around the sandcastles. Henry ‘wandered off along the beach’, he detaches himself from the rest of group, in this sense his exposes himself and leaves himself vulnerable, but in doing this it shows the reader that he still posses childhood innocence and naivety. Roger follows Henry, hiding in the shadows along the beach. Golding creates and air of menace around roger through his ‘stalking’ of Henry. As well as this he suggests to the reader that Roger has no fear, when coconuts ‘as big as rugby balls’ , ‘fell about him with a series of hard thumps’. This lack of care for his own safety is frightening because he doesn’t think in the expected way of a young child. The violent acts Roger then commits are frightening because they are simply not expected of a young child. Roger ‘picked up a stone, aimed, and threw it at Henry-threw to miss’. But then he doesn’t stop there. He continues with these violent acts, he gathers ‘a handful of stones and began to throw them’. Roger’s violent acts tell the reader that now almost all of the expected childhood innocence has gone, and that the victims are starting to become apparent. The young, weaker children will be picked on because they are ‘batty’ and even some of the older boys such as Piggy and Simon will be targeted by looks and personalities. The violen ce on the island becomes more real and much more terrifying because the violence that would normally be expected of adults is being carried out by young children. In DNA the use of stones is much more violent, to the point where it leads to a death. The group continue to humiliate Adam, and they continue to test his loyalty to the group. They ‘went up the grille.’ They force Adam to climb a fence and go walk over a grille covering a hole. This alone is potentially life threatening to Adam. The group see that he is scared, and the group mind set is simply to taunt him and to humiliate him. They then being to start ‘pegging’ stones at him. The use of the word ‘pegging’ is important because it suggest to the reader that the group are actually trying to hit Adam ‘just for a laugh’. Even when the stones hit Adam directly on the head, they carry on laughing at him, because ‘the shock on his face is so†¦funny.’ When Adam slips and falls into the hole underneath the grille, that’s when it becomes evident that Mark, the character describing the ‘stoning’, realises the consequences of their actions. He repeats ‘so he’s†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ a number of times. It is clear that he is unable to come to terms with the fact that he has participated in a murder, and it takes John Tate, the assumed leader of the group, who earlier banned the word ‘dead’, to finish Mark’s sentence. ‘Dead. He’s dead’. In Lord of the Flies the same violent symbol is used by Jack and Roger. The sharpening of a stick at both ends. The symbol first comes into use after the ‘hunters’ kill a pig. He orders Roger to ‘ram on end in the earth’. After doing this, Jack, who has decapitated that dead pig, then ‘jammed the soft throat down on the pointed end if the stick’ this is the first real sign that the boys have transcende d into savages. Jack then says ‘it’s a gift’ for the beast. Through this it suggests that the boys want to pacify the ‘beast’, and in killing the pig and offering its head it’s almost as if they are worshiping it, as if it has become like a god in which they must pay tribute to. When Roger sharpens the stick at two ends, the meaning of this is much more menacing. The boys have now turned into savages, after the deaths of Piggy and Simon, Jack is adamant that Ralph must be captured, and it is evident that Ralph will eventually be killed after torture if he is caught. Ralph is hiding from the rest of the boys, but he meets Sam’n’Eric one night so he can find out what will happen to him. At first the twins are reluctant to tell him what Jack has planned, but then came ‘the incomprehensible reply’, ‘Roger sharpened a stick a both ends’. Ralph is unable to see the true meaning in this, but it is obvious to the reader that Jack wants the same fate for Ralph, as the pigs head earlier in the novel. Roger throughout the novel is presented as the ruthless bully, from when he was throwing stones at Henry, he was the one who released the rock that killed Piggy, and now it is clear that he has been ordered to literally bring back Ralph’s head. The most frightening moment in DNA comes as a threat from Cathy once she has found Adam. She finds him ‘living in a hedge’ and after she tries to coax him out, Cathy openly admits that she ‘used violence’, she ‘threatened to gouge one of his eyes out’ this is a reference to Shakespeare’s King Lear when Goneril and Reagan rip out Gloucester’s eyes. Cathy throughout the play is shown to be the most frightening character. She is solely motivated by becoming famous through  interviews after Adams memorial, she says ‘it’s quite exciting’, suggesting that she enjoys the violence of the situation and she is enjoying the spot light. She has no consideration for Adam’s well being, she is self absorbed. In Richard’s speech at the end of the play, he tells Phil that Cathy is ‘insane’, and that ‘She cut a first year’s finger off’. Cathy and Roger are similar in that they both seem to enjoy inflicting pain on other people; they both come across as sadists. Their actions are terrifying to the audience because their extreme acts of violence would normally have been carried out by adults, but because they are both children, and Roger being so young, the violence is much more frightening. In Richards’s final speech in DNA, he is sitting in a field talking to Phil. This reminds us Leah, who throughout the play has long monologs when she is talking at Phil, in hope of a response. Phil blanks Richard, which tells the audience that he shuts out everybody, and that his silence wasn’t personal to Leah. The scene also suggests that nothing has changed, and it makes the audience reflect on the characters. Golding’s portrayal of the boys stays clearly on the same route. It’s suggested that Jack is evil and that evil continues through the novel, whereas Kelly makes us remember in the final scene of Leah, through Richard, and that Kelly wants to make us reflect on our views of each character, because they could be interchangeable, and they can represent anyone in society.

What Should a Government Do For a Country to Become Successful

The Role of the Government in Countrys Success The freedom to choose is one of the most basic needs of man. Without the freedom of thought, the freedom of expression and the freedom of choice, man cannot function in the way he is designed to be. A government that rules over a nation, therefore, has to provide its citizens with the freedom to choose their own rulers. This is the reason that people in democratic nations are able to shine and live a life that makes a difference in this world. In communist nations, where this basic freedom of choice is curtailed, people would not be able to realize their full potential in their lifetime. Therefore, a government first of all has to provide freedom of choice. The next important thing that the government should do is provide good education to its citizens. Freedom is a powerful tool, but it can be dangerous in the hands of people who are illiterate. Thus, people need to be educated on how to use their freedom. For instance, the freedom to elect their rulers is a great privilege enjoyed by people in democratic countries. But this freedom is exploited by many politicians in the third world countries so as to entice uneducated people to elect them to office by bribing them with food and clothing. Such politicians never care for the people’s real needs as soon as they come to power. People, therefore, need to be educated so that they can use their freedom to vote wisely and efficiently. Thirdly, the government should provide the right infrastructure and the economic environment for growth and progress. It should properly manage the natural resources, manpower and all the other factors that the country is specifically blessed with. When the government fulfills its duties in these three areas, a country can truly prosper and become successful.