Managing Credit Cards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Managing Credit Cards - Essay Example However, there are a few things that go un-noticed. Credit cards come with a premium. Prompt repayments will help avoid undue tension and misunderstandings. Experts believe that the majority of U.S. citizens have at least one credit card, if not two. Credit cards are an important source of identification as well; a credit card is mandatory for renting a car. Used wisely, a credit card provides a cushion on purchases by a long way before charges are levied. But yes, there are a few things to be kept in mind before one considers making a purchase, and there are ways to control the way one uses his/her credit card to avoid heavy debts. The purpose of this study is to find ways to protect students from falling into greater debts by following certain principals. This forms the focus of this paper. Many consumers find themselves in serious trouble over repayment. Only a few are able to take advantage of the benefits offered by credit cards, primarily because they follow the simple procedure of repaying their credit on or before time. Many fall back on the centuries old practice of carrying a balance for months, paying a part of the principal amount and an accrued interest. One thing that they fail to notice is that they could end up paying an all-time high of 23% at some point of time, a huge dent in one's pocket. Most credit card holders are so addicted to using the card that they end up being impulsive buyers. For the record, a survey in 1999 showed that American consumers were charged approximately $1.2 trillion on their general-purpose credit cards! (How Credit Cards Work, Howstuffworks. 2006) This has since gone up considerably. How does the credit card work When a customer uses his/her credit card at a merchant shop, the bank that issued the card, credits the account of the merchant on the sale slip(s) receipts. This amount is then billed to the card holder at the end of the billing period. The cardholder, in turn, pays the bank either the entire amount or in monthly installments with interest. When backlogs on installments occur, the interest increase and repayments become harder. This is one area that credit card users should strive to stay away from. Regular repayments will help stay away from trouble. Credit is an important economic force of great social magnitude. Cultural expectations with rewards for good payment records and sanctions for violating creditor expectations are all too familiar. Thus, promotion of consumer credit and punishment for nonconformity with creditor expectations emerges as a significant dialectical relationship (Klein, 1999). 3.0 Solution to the Problem Students find credit cards extremely user -friendly and handy. Most of their transaction in campus and elsewhere are performed by using a credit card. Students need to avoid unnecessary expenses, such as on clothes, entertainment and travel. Students wanting to get away for the weekend end up hiring automobiles to commute to places away from the campus and incur heavy bills. Students end up paying these bills through their credit cards. Always assess the comfort zone limit of credit that one can avail before embarking on a

Comparison paper between A Rose for Emilyby William Fulkner, and Research

Comparison between A Rose for Emilyby William Fulkner, and BattleRoyal by Ralph Ellison - Research Paper Example The setting of the story is in Faulkners imaginary city, Jefferson, in his imaginary county of Yoknapatawpha in Mississippi. The story is about an unusual spinster, Emily Grierson, the anonymous narrator gives the particulars the odd circumstances of Emily’s living and her strange relationships with her lover, her father and the town of Jefferson. The narrator also details the horrible secret Emily hides from the world. In a small number of pages, A Rose for Emily, cover roughly three-quarters of a century; from the birth of Emily Grierson which takes place sometime just about the Civil War, while her death happens sometime in the early 1930s. The Reconstruction following the Civil War had a deep and humbling consequence on Southern society. The South’s dated agricultural estate economy, centered so long upon slave labor, was overwhelmed by emancipation. Northern investors, recognized as ‘‘carpet-baggers,’’ came in large numbers to capitalize on the economic chaos. A number of Southern top class people found themselves employed on the farms together with tenant farmers and earlier slaves. Faulkner happened to come from a family that once possessed a plantation (Marie  ¶ 4). The past of his family plus that of the South in general was completely overturned by the reconstruction after the civil war. According to Royden (372), from the fact that Faulkner comes from a family background with an aristocratic attitude and linked with other comparable families, he was conversed with the arrogance of behaviors like the Griersons where Rose came from. A number of these people persisted to act as if they were still fortunate plantation owners even though their wealth had disappeared. Nevertheless, Faulkner used up much of his time examining ordinary townspeople too and this gives the reason why he was capable of capturing the voice of the ordinary people of

The barriers of communication in organizations

The barriers of communication in organizations A good effective communication in a business is necessary and specially in this competitive business world. A good communication in an organization will alone lead the employee to success. A team member will be able to take a profitable and productive decision in favor of the organization but the knowledge of barriers in communication can be good for employee and important for human resource professional so that they can take different techniques to deal with the communication issue. And some of commonly observed communication problem in business are as follows. Language barriers: Language barriers are major issue and lack of language knowledge can also be one of the biggest problems in an organization workplace and this specially observed in multi- national organization where employee work from different countries, with different nationality and they speak different languages as their mother tounge is different. This is a big issue but can be sort it out by the senior managers. Cultural barriers : Different culture people working together can be lead to cultural barriers and which can be one kind of communication barriers in the multi- national organization. this basically because people belonging from different country and cultures. Employee may find it difficult to communicate and feel hesitant to mix up with each other. Cultural diversity in the workplace can help greatly in dealing with this kind of issues in an organization. HR manager should come up with some unique idea and try to solve this complicated issue. 3)Less grasping power: If listener has less grasping power can lead to communication differences in the business. In a communication between employee and manger the listener has have good active and passive listing skills. If the listener has does not have good listening and detail knowledge on the subject of discussion, then communication gets more complicated and take more time. And this kind of communication barriers can be avoided by extensive research and training to the employee. Importance of good communication in multi-national organization: Effective communication of information and decision is one of the essential component in management and employee relationship. There any other features of communication. It can also work as a motivational tool .all different ways of communication are vital and important it can be written, oral, verbal or non-verbal communication 1) Increase productivity and efficiency: In a multi- national organization when there is proper communication takes place between the employee and the management level. The perfect information is been conveyed between employee which leads to proper action. And as there is less scope of misunderstanding between employees indirectly increases the productivity and services in an efficient manner.. 2) Employee job satisfaction: A good communication in workplace provides a clear path and by this the higher-level and lower can communicate with each other and solve workplace conflicts and problem amongst themselves. By good communication with in workplace will give good scope and will be accepted in healthier manner by both the parties manager and employee. This will decrease the problems and conflicts that the organization faces .and it will increase the productivity and services in the organization. along with that, the employee will get scope to improve their work and will be motivated when they do good work and duties . every time they make mistake or were unable to perform some duties the management can communicate with the employee and get the result in future and healthy communication will eventually lead to satisfaction at work. 3) Convey messages:( http://www.buzzle.com) Effective communication allows a process to take place. A sender sends a message through a medium and the receiver receives it and then the receiver reviews it and gives the feedback to the sender. With out this process no two people can communicate effectively. Hence, no work or information will be send or received which will lead to no work done so effective communication in vital to convey messages. We can understand that the channels of communication plays an important an organization. Chapter 3 Research methodology According to Johnson p, research methodology is the process of gathering data related to research topic. It helps the researcher by showing the different ways to conduct the research and the systematic ways to solve the research problem (Johnson p, 2000) In the research methodology section, the researcher needs to follow certain steps, which helps the researcher to make the research, the ways to collect the data and the ways to analyze the data which is gathered. According to Saunders M, Lewis P and Thronhill A, we can classify the research methodology into 8 basic types based on the ways of collecting the data. Theoretical- in the theoretical type of research methodology the research is based on the experiment and some kind of hypothesis as to be used by the researcher to begin the research process Applied- in this type of methodology is not suitable for generalized cases and can be used for individual cases and it is empirical and suitable for real world problems. Analytical- in this method the researcher need to rely on the facts and available data to reach the solution to research problem. This research method aims to find out the reasons for the research problem. For example how and why it happened so? Descriptive à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ as the name indicates the research methodology, this method use descriptive ways to find a solution to the research problem. E,[orocal- this methodology is based on the experimental approach of data collection and it increases the possibility that result of the research finding supports the hypothesis of the research. This empirical method also based on the observation way of collecting the data. Conceptual- in this method the researcher need to rely on the existing data and interpret the existing data or develop new theories, which help the researcher to get the solution to the research problem. Quantitative- in the quantitative method the data collected is based on the numerical data . the method depends of mathematical calculations and the statistical reports. The results are in numerical number. Some of the statistical terms used in this type of research method are mean, median, etc. Qualitative- the results for the qualitative analysis prepared on the basis of facts of on the basis of the trend in the chosen sample size. It is not based on the numerical data and it depends on the quality of the chosen sample or colour of the chosen sample ( Saunders M, Lewis P and Thronhill A, 2007) In the given research problem we can choose any of the above defined research methodology. Let us assume we are going to use the quantitative analysis for this research problem. Data collection methods It is the term used to represent the way to collect data related to the research problem. There are two types of data type primary data and the secondary data. The way in which the data collects decides whether the data is primary or secondary. In the research problem we can use the primary data. There are many ways to collect the primary data. The different ways to collect the primary and secondary data are described in the following paragraphs. Ways to collect the primary data There are many different ways that a researcher can make use to gather the primary data. Primary data is the data which comes directly from the sample size. The nature and accuracy of the collected data depends on the method of data collection and the selection of the sample size and location of the research. The different methods to collect the primary data are observation, interviews and printed or mailed questionnaires. Observation method à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ in this method the researcher observes a limited sample size and findings are made on the basis of the observation. It is suitable when the researcher has a very limited number of samples and has enough time to finish the research. Interviews- by this method, the researcher directly or indirectly asks a set of predefined questions to the interviewee and the gathered data is used for the analysis purpose. The researcher can either conduct direct or telephonic interview with the interviewee and it is necessary for the researcher to prepare a set of questions which is related to the research topic. This method is also suitable when the chosen sample size is small. Questionnaires à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ this method of data collection suitable when the researcher need to collect a large number of data. The researcher needs to prepare a questionnaire and answers for the questions should be a one word or the researcher needs to provide a set of options from which a person can choose. Nowadays we can see the researchers use free websites or online tools (for example survey monkey website) to gather the data or the researcher may email the questionnaires to the participants email address. In the research problem we can use the questionnaire method to collect the data from the participants. Ways to collect the secondary data We can gather the secondary data by making use of the existing information or by referring the previous researches conducted by a trusted person or even we can make use of the reports of some trusted sources. For example sometimes it is necessary for the researcher want to know the profit earned by a company in a short period time and in this case we can say that the companyà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s annual report is an example for the secondary data source. In the research we can choose the quantitative analysis as the research methodology and questionnaire as the way to gather the data from the sample size. Set the sample size and location for the data collection The researcher needs to find a sample size which should represent the entire population and should be capable of producing an unbiased result for the research problem. The researcher can not include the entire population in the sample and can randomly choose items from the large population. In the give n research problem we can choose the sample size as 50 people from the population. The sample should contain employees working for the branded organisations and fresh graduates who all are looking for job. In the questionnaire we can include questions related to measure the effectiveness of the retention techniques and the employer branding. In the questionnaire the researcher can include both the popular employers and unpopular employers. For instance the researcher can asks the participant about the organisations which would they likes to work with. In the research we can classify the sample size 50 into 25 employees from the people working in the Sainsbury and 25 from the local people of the selected area. The researcher can approach the above mentioned set of people from the population. It is necessary for the researcher to prepare a schedule for the data collection and can choose a particular location for the data collection. Set timetable for the data collection activities. It is necessary for the researcher to set a date and a time for the collection of data related to the search. By doing this the researcher can track the number of days taken for each activity in the research. Chapter 4 Data analysis and findings After the collection of the data, the researcher needs to evaluate the collected data. The researcher can categorise the data on the basis of age, work and sex and can prepare the information on the basis of that. For example in the current research if we apply the data analysis we may get results similar to that of the following. Out sample size is 50.25 males participated in the survey or 40 people love to work with the branded employers.In this stage the researcher can avoid the unwanted samples from the sample collection and remove the samples which seem to avoid the occurrence of an unbiased result. After the data analysis process, the researcher gets the real data required for the research. Methods to reveal the research findings Once the researcher filtered the collected data, it is necessary to display the findings with the help of some graphs or charts. The common tools used in this method are the scatter diagrams, bar charts and pie diagrams. Sometimes it is necessary for the researcher to use some statistical calculations like mean, median, correlations and graphical displays such as scatter diagrams or regression analysis graphs. As we have chosen the quantitative analysis method and questionnaire method we can make use of some diagrams to represent the findings of the research. For example we can use pie diagrams or bar charts to represent the number of respondents for a particular question. In the case of qualitative analysis, the researcher can use some tabular forms to compare the features of the sample. Chapter 5 Scope of the research In the given research, the researcher has limited the size of the sample to 50 people and the result of the research based on the responses from the chosen sample. The researcher needs to choose the sample to get an unbiased solution to the research problem. In the research, the researcher have chosen 25 employees from the Sainsbury supermarket and 25 people from the public and the data collected from these two groups using the questionnaires. Ethical issues In this section the researcher needs to give much importance to the privacy of the participants in the data collection methods. In the research, the research does not want to collect any personal information from the participants. If the researcher has the details of the participants, the researcher has no rights to use the data with out the consent from the respective person. According to Resnik B D ,the persons who all participated in the data collection method should be independent of the influence of any third parties and the researcher needs to give equal opportunity to all to participate in the data collection process (Resnik B D, 2009). Preparation of research schedule using the Gantt chart According to Barkley B T, the researcher can make use of the Gantt chart to identify the length of the whole research process. It also the researcher to break down the research in to different processes and shows the effective ways to finish the research in time. It shows how the researcher can carry out more than one task at a time (Barkley T, 2006). In the given research also if we apply the Gantt chart, we can break down the processes in to different parts and allocate a particular time schedule for them. it helps the researcher to conduct more than one process at the same time. Conclusion: The report helped me to identify the importance of channels of communication and it gives me insight of how communication play vital role and can be improved and I can make use of these learned things n my final dissertation.

Way of Life in Nicaragua Essay -- Geography

Way of Life in Nicaragua Most Nicaraguans are mestizos. That is that they have white and Indian ancestors. Their way of life is somewhat similar to that of Spanish Americans in other Central American countries. Most people belong to the Roman Catholic Church and speak Spanish. Most of Nicaragua's people are poor farmers. Many of those in the Pacific Region are peasants who work on their own farms, cooperatives, state farms, or large private farms. In warmer areas, agriculture workers live in metal roofed houses. In the colder areas of the Central Highlands, they live in adobe houses with tile roofs. The only Indian groups in Nicaragua that follow their own languages and their old ways of life are in the thinly populated Caribbean Region. In the early 1980's some of these Indians became involved in anti-government things. Because of this, the government moved some Indian groups from their homes near the border to areas in the interior of Nicaragua. Education Nicaragua has a law that requires children to go t... Way of Life in Nicaragua Essay -- Geography Way of Life in Nicaragua Most Nicaraguans are mestizos. That is that they have white and Indian ancestors. Their way of life is somewhat similar to that of Spanish Americans in other Central American countries. Most people belong to the Roman Catholic Church and speak Spanish. Most of Nicaragua's people are poor farmers. Many of those in the Pacific Region are peasants who work on their own farms, cooperatives, state farms, or large private farms. In warmer areas, agriculture workers live in metal roofed houses. In the colder areas of the Central Highlands, they live in adobe houses with tile roofs. The only Indian groups in Nicaragua that follow their own languages and their old ways of life are in the thinly populated Caribbean Region. In the early 1980's some of these Indians became involved in anti-government things. Because of this, the government moved some Indian groups from their homes near the border to areas in the interior of Nicaragua. Education Nicaragua has a law that requires children to go t...

Lyndon Baines Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the United States (1963–69), was born in a farmhouse on the Pedernales River near Johnson City, Texas[i]. Johnson grew up amidst poverty. On both sides of his family he had a political heritage mingled with a Baptist background of preachers and teachers. He graduated (1930) from Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now Southwest Texas State Univ.), in San Marcos. He taught in a Houston high school before becoming (1932) secretary to a Texas Congressman. In 1934 he married Claudia Alta Taylor and they had two daughters, Lynda Bird and Luci Baines. A staunch New Dealer, Johnson gained the friendship of the influential Sam Rayburn, at whose behest President Franklin D. Roosevelt made him (1935) director in Texas of the National Youth Administration. In 1937, Johnson won election to a vacant congressional seat, and he was consistently re-elected through 1946. Despite Roosevelt's support, however, he was defeated in a special election to the Senate in 1941. He served (1941–42) in the navy. In 1948, Johnson was elected U.S. Senator from Texas after winning the Democratic primary by a mere 87 votes. A strong advocate of military preparedness, he persuaded the Armed Services Committee to set up (1950) the Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee. Rising rapidly in the Senate hierarchy, Johnson became (1951) Democratic whip and then (1953) floor leader. As majority leader after the 1954 elections he wielded great power, exhibiting unusual skill in marshalling support for President Eisenhower’s programs. He suffered a serious heart attack in 1955 but recovered to continue his senatorial command. Johnson lost the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination to John F. Kennedy, but accepted Kennedy's offer of the vice-presidential position. Elected with Kennedy, he energetically supported the President's programs, serving as an American emissary to nations throughout the world and as chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council and of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities. After Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, Johnson was sworn in as president and announced that he would strive to carry through Kennedy's programs. Congress responded to Johnson's skilful prodding by enacting an $11 billion tax cut (Jan., 1964) and a sweeping Civil Rights Act (July, 1964). With Johnson's insistent backing, Congress finally adopted a far-reaching civil-rights bill, a voting-rights bill, a Medicare program for the aged, and measures to improve education and conservation. Elected (Nov., 1964) for a full term in a landslide over Senator Barry Goldwater, he pushed hard for his domestic program. The 89th Congress (1965–66) produced more major legislative action than any since the New Deal. During the Johnson Presidency, Medicare and Medicaid were established to provide medical insurance for those over 65 and those too poor to pay. During the Johnson Administration, the first environmental legislation was passed. A bill providing free medical care (Medicare) to the aged under Social Security was enacted, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provided new safeguards for African-American voters, and more money went to antipoverty programs. The departments of Transportation and of Housing and Urban Development were added to the Cabinet. Johnson's domestic achievements were soon obscured by foreign affairs. Johnson's actions (Feb., 1965) of bombing on North Vietnam aroused widespread opposition in Congress and among the public and developed vigorous antiwar movement. As the cost of the war shot up, Congress scuttled many of Johnson's domestic programs. After Senators Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy began campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, Johnson announced (Mar., 1968) that he would not run for reelection. When Johnson retired from office (Jan., 1969), he left the nation bitterly divided by the war. He retired to Texas, where he died [ii]. In 1964 the American people seemed to give overwhelming endorsement to his achievements. His reelection was followed by the notable series of legislative victories establishing the Great Society–the most visionary domestic program in American history. Conventional wisdom suggests that President Lyndon Baines Johnson pushed each Congress to the limit to obtain a maximum number of controversial legislative victories. Consequently, slim margins were often expected and indeed planned for. A key Johnson legislative aide, Henry Hall Wilson, made this point explicitly, â€Å"When we have a fat Congress as we did in the Eighty-ninth, then we can hike up our demands to fit the situation. When votes are not razor thin in either case, then we are not doing a good job[iii]. Johnson used just about everything in his extensive repertory to get Congress moving and excelled. According to Hugh Sidey, â€Å"During 1965, Johnson would zero in on a congress- man or a senator and get what he wanted, a good deal. He would lie, beg, cheat, steal a little, threaten, intimidate. But he never lost sight of that ultimate goal, his idea of the Great Society[iv]. Substantial preparation was required to identify that the linchpin of the whole system was â€Å"the treatment,† Johnson's personal techniques of political persuasion and political skill[v]. â€Å"A Great Society† for the American people and their fellow men elsewhere was the vision of Lyndon B. Johnson. In his first years of office he obtained passage of one of the most extensive legislative programs in the Nation's history. During World War II he served briefly in the Navy as a lieutenant commander, winning a Silver Star in the South Pacific. After six terms in the House, Johnson was elected to the Senate in 1948. In 1953, he became the youngest Minority Leader in Senate history, and the following year, when the Democrats won control, Majority Leader. With rare skill he obtained passage of a number of key Eisenhower measures. Johnson's Great Society program was designed to fight poverty in the United States. It consisted of a series of legislation, which included the Job Corps, to provide vocational training for disadvantaged youth; Volunteers in Service of America (VISTA) – a domestic Peace Corps; Head Start, to instruct disadvantaged preschoolers, among other programs. The other part of the Great Society program was the passage of civil rights legislation proposed by the Kennedy Administration. In the 1960 campaign, Johnson, as John F. Kennedy's running mate, was elected Vice President. First he obtained enactment of the measures President Kennedy had been urging at the time of his death–a new civil rights bill and a tax cut. Next he urged the Nation â€Å"to build a great society, a place where the meaning of man's life matches the marvels of man's labor.† In 1964, Johnson won the Presidency with 61 percent of the vote and had the widest popular margin in American history–more than 15,000,000 votes. The Great Society program became Johnson's agenda for Congress in January 1965, an aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, urban renewal, beautification, conservation, development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control and prevention of crime and delinquency, removal of obstacles to the right to vote. Lyndon Johnson faced the toughest transition after Kennedy's death[vi]. Johnson had to confront the grief and despair many people felt over the loss of a beloved leader and their antagonism toward someone who, however much he identified with JFK, seemed like a usurper, an unelected, untested replacement for the man the country now more than ever saw as more suitable for the job. Johnson understood the essential need for continuity, for reassuring people at home and abroad that the new President would be faithful to the previous administration. The death of a President was trauma enough, but Kennedy's assassination made his passing a national crisis in self-confidence, a time of doubt about the durability of the country's democratic system and its tradition of non-violent political change. Despite his private fears, Johnson was an inspiration to the country. His public appearances, his use of language, his management of the press promoted feelings of continuity and unity[vii]. The hallmark of his Great Society social reform program, the War on Poverty strove to achieve what LBJ's mentor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, could not, an end to the nation's most distressing social ills and recognition that racism still divided the nation into distinct economic and social groups. For American Jews, LBJ's reformulation of New Deal liberalism into a group-based, race-sensitive political philosophy challenged long-held assumptions about the role of the state and pressed the community's organized leadership into the forefront of national public policy debate. Millions of Democratic voters registered their disapproval of LBJ by abandoning their long-time political home and bolting to the Republican Party[viii]. Johnson's cynical idealism and the unmanageable mysteries of the times converged into the early-American, frontier-style presidency that finally forced us to begin to redefine our nationhood. Lyndon Johnson was rude, intelligent, shrewd, charming, compassionate, vindictive, maudlin, selfish, passionate, volcanic and cold, vicious and generous. He played every part, he left out no emotion; in him one saw one's self and all the others. He was not an idealist, but he served ideals when it suited and pleased him. He was not a reactionary, but he fanned reaction when it helped him advance himself. He was tireless and diligent, but he was also narrowly political, and he was suspicious of new ideas. He berated intellectuals because he envied them. He was as personally responsible for American history since 1950 as any other man of his time. Throughout his career he was consolidating his private wealth by a calculating use of public power, and there is an affinity between this squalid side of his success and the corruptive commercialism in the national ethos[ix]. President Johnson's Presidency will be remembered for the â€Å"Great Society† programs for which he wanted to be remembered, and for the Vietnam War, which eventually forced his resignation. [i] On both sides of his family he had a political heritage mingled with a Baptist background of preachers and teachers [ii] Encyclopedia Article Title: Johnson, Lyndon Baines. Encyclopedia Title: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Publisher: Columbia University Press. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 2004. [iii]   Doris Kearns, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream ( New York: New American Library, 1976. [iv] Merle Miller, Lyndon New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1980. [v] Bernard J. Firestone.1988.Lyndon Baines Johnson and the Uses of Power. Editor, Robert C. Vogt Publisher: Greenwood Press. Place of Publication: New York;Page Number: 7. [vi] At the height of his power as Senate leader, Johnson sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1960. When he lost to John F. Kennedy, he surprised even some of his closest associates by accepting second place on the ticket. [vii] Robert Dallek .2004.Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President. Publisher: Oxford University Press. Place of Publication: New York; Page Number: 227. [viii] ) Marc Dollinger .2001.The Other War: American Jews, Lyndon Johnson, and the Great Society. Contributors: – author. Journal Title: American Jewish History. Volume: 89. Issue: 4. Publication Year: 2001. Page Number: 437+ [ix] Ronnie Dugger .1982.The Politician: The Life and Times of Lyndon Johnson the Drive for Power, from the Frontier to Master of the Senate. Publisher: W. W. Norton. Place of Publication: New York; Page Number: 13.   

Famous poem Essay

William Cullen Bryant’s famous poem â€Å"Thanatopis† literally means a view of death. This poem is one of the classics about death as it offers a peaceful view of death, comfort for the living, and no matter what a person’s religious beliefs, the poem is still applicable. â€Å"Thanatopsis† views death as part of the return to nature, like death is just another phase of life itself. â€Å"Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again,† (Bryant). This quote explains that as a person has lived upon the Earth, the Earth will now live upon that person. The person will live on but in another way. â€Å"Surrendering up Thine individual being, shalt thou go To mix forever with the elements,† (Bryant). What is meant in this quote is that the person goes on living in Nature although each part of the person as an individual is gone. â€Å"Thanatopsis† also tells the reader that he/she will not go to death alone. Everyone who has ever died will already be there. Everyone who hasn’t gone yet will be there eventually. Social class or age do not matter; we all share one thing, and that one thing is death. In that way, we are all equal and death becomes the great equalizer. â€Å"Thanatopsis† also provides comfort for the living. â€Å"and what if thou withdraw In silence from the living, and no friend Take note of thy departure? All that breathe will share thy destiny† This statement provides comfort for the living as well. For those who seemingly have no one in life, they will not be alone in death. No person ever wants a friend or family member to suffer or to be alone, and Bryant tells us that no person will ever be alone. It is much easier to let someone go in this case. The real beauty of the poem is that it provides comfort to a person no matter what his/her religious beliefs are. If the reader is an agnostic or atheist, the poem views death as just all part of the cycle of Nature. We return to nature. If the reader is Christian, the poem becomes a split between body and soul. The body returns to Nature, and there is no mention of the soul or spirit. The spirit can be seen as going anywhere because there is no mention of it. So this poem is absolutely able to translated to Christianity. In fact, Bryant purposely rejected Puritanism in this poem in favor of a more open and accepting Unitarianism. In fact, if the reader is Buddhist, the return to Nature can be seen as reincarnation. Therefore the poem is in sync with many different religions. The wonderful way that Bryant views death gives the living and the dying much comfort in the process. In the end, death is like lying down on the couch and drifting off to sleep. It is painless and easy. Bryant also gives the reader advice on how to live life so that there is no need to regret death or to be afraid of it. The poem can provide comfort to any person of any religion and according to William Long provides an appreciation of nature that we cannot forget. Works Cited William Cullen Bryant. Retrieved November 24, 2007 at Web Site: http://www. msu. edu/~cloudsar/thanatop. htm Thanatopis. Retrieved November 24, 2007 at Web Site.