John Locke Essay Essay Example for Free

John Locke Essay Essay John Locke, a philosopher of the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment, greatly influenced the American revolution and the French revolution. His beliefs were the social contract, natural rights, and the right of revolution. One of John Lockes beliefs was the social contract. A social contract can be either a written or unwritten agreement between a government and its people. Social contracts usually contain a basic set of laws and agreements explaining how the country should be run. Examples of a Social contract are the US constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. John Locke was a huge influence for both of these documents. Locke also believed that every person has natural rights. A natural right is a basic right that every citizen should be born with. Locke said that everyones natural rights were the right to â€Å"life, liberty, and property. † These natural rights have been quoted and used many times in history. Thomas Jefferson was influenced by this while writing the Declaration of Independence, saying that all men are created equal and that they have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Lastly and most importantly, Locke believed in the right of revolution. The right of revolution is the belief that if that a government does not meet the basic needs and wishes of its people, then the people have the right to revolt and overthrow that government. Examples of this are the American and French revolutions. The Americans revolted against England because they failed to grant them the basic rights stated in their social contract, saying no taxation without representation. The French revolted against their government because King Louis caused the countries economy to be almost non existent and most of the country had nothing to eat. Both these revolutions led to the rise of democratic nations. John Locke is one of the most influential people in history. His beliefs has influenced the formation of many countries, including our own. His ideas have be restated and reused throughout history, and still influence people today.

HSBC Pricing Strategy Analysis

HSBC Pricing Strategy Analysis As long as the wider economic situation remains doubtful, it is advisable for HSBC to adopt a wait-and-see approach and a careful look at their businesses, stress testing them for both economic downturn and full-blown recession. And it would be useful to factor in the wider commercial and operational impacts through combined risk, valuation, economics, operations and HR teams. Certainly, for financial services firms like HSBC, crisis management still necessary in the form of asset and portfolio revaluation on a mark-to model basis for both management and constitutional accounting purposes and this may need some independent validation. Within the last decade the best consumer bank HSBC garnered awards along with soaring rankings. This was just one of those awards won by the HSBC in its excellent performance. Such achievements, rankings, and awards can be directly resulting from HSBCs business strategies. As the last decades success is not ever lasting due to increased competition in the industry facilitated by globalization, trade liberalization rather is become more difficult for the corporation to maintain its leading position through offering the excellence in the service. The company needs to add diverse values to its strategy to establish its position in the target segment. Traditional views on competitive advantage have highlighted such barriers to entry as economies of scale, patent protection, access to capital, and regulated competition. More recent views have highlighted different aspects of competitive advantage, a firms human resources and human capital. New demands facing organizations as a result of heightened competition, globalization, and technological advances have put a premium on creativity and innovation, speed and flexibility, as well as efficiency. The UK government is amending its regulation in an aggressive manner to secure the industry from the future crisis. Operating environments in the economy have continued to improve as the effects of government and central bank policies work through the system and it may be that HSBC has passed, or are about to pass, the bottom of the cycle in the financial markets. Reducing branded activities that present high risks has become a key governing issue for the retail banking industry. After the crunch, the key challenges the banking industry facing is the shortages of capital liquidity/lack of funding, high credit costs, and global price volatility. HSBC may modify its strategy to comply with the economic down-turn and the tightened regulation. Financial projecting and strategy may need careful reappraisal as many expectations supporting HSBCs strategies, plans, budgets and transactions could well need revision and material change might also have to be disclosed under regulatory, statutory or stock exchange obligations. A comprehensive contingency strategy to overcome disaster and business continuity need to be organized to gain a transparent understanding of decision making process in the case of sharp market fall. Plenty effort may need to be considered to establish changes to models, policies, processes and operations in response to lessons learned. HSBC needs to be organized to comply with the next once in a lifetime financial shock. The UK government, which has been widely criticised in the wake of the near collapse of the Northern Rock, wants to reform the current system by imposing new rules and regulation. HSBC may follow a flexible strategy where it can easily adopt the regulation maintaining the higher customer satisfaction level. As the crunch could well shake out further changes in regulation, or prompt further demands for change from stakeholders. Reviewing risk model adequacy by transparency of exposures or by back-testing of model assumptions on asset volatility, correlation, and liquidity may be carried out by HSBC to maintain the safeguard. Reviewing the adequacy of the reporting system, focusing on the transparency, rationality and strength of valuation models; accuracy and quality of underlying reference data; adequacy of controls on model use and maintenance; consistency in the bases and assumptions of risk and valuation models (particularly as assumptions may not reflect recent experience); and effectiveness of risk escalation procedures in the event of serious market volatility or disruption. HSBC may check policies, procedures and availability of skilled people to respond quickly and effectively to serious market volatility or disruption to stem losses (or even make profits). It may also review the adequacy of: Limit framework; reporting framework; Stress-testing procedures. HSBC needs to play their pricing strategies very carefully; as it has generated many hundreds of millions of pounds per annum in revenue from these charges. Review operational capability to handle the situation, with particular focus on: effectiveness of the process, infrastructure along with functional capacity (front, middle, back office) and straight through process/workflow evaluation. Specifically, in response to a competitors pioneering new product introduction, academic research finds many conditions that suggest a greater desirability of immediate market entry while many other conditions suggest a greater desirability of a delayed response. The areas where there is a consensus among decision makers with the academic literature, as well as areas where views differ from that of the literature. Changes and discusses insights gained into the decision making processes of managers for market entry timing decisions. The study can help managers in follower firms achieve greater success in formulating market entry timing strategies by reducing ambiguity in the timing implications of many internal and external conditions, as well as by drawing attention to potential action biases. As the Crucial Official Government and Agency Economic and Financial Data are of highly questionable in terms of validity; HSBC may educate itself about the realities of the marketplace using Alternative Data Sources. Collecting and staying familiar to genuine information about the market can save one much financial grief as well as positioning one for profit. As technology plays an important role in the Banking industry, HSBC may integrate the latest features in their operational strategy to get the competitive advantage. Technology helps the company to introduce differentiation among the industry where it can help the bank to charge extra if that technology adds values to the customers. Customers Satisfaction by providing customized service to establish the bond with the customers so that they can rely on the Banks activities. By redesigning product with additional facilities HSBC can attract the lower and the mid-level customers. Customer-facing business requirements are also more easily accommodated, and if these principles are applied, operational productivity and operating performance can both be raised. The key to success relies on the quality customer interface and experience, with identifying the need to offer people/individuals something they want to be identified with; fits in with their own brand choices; gives them a sense of control; and is easy for them to use at the time that they want to use it. The expectations of the Customers of the Retail Banking industry towards the service providers is getting higher to get their transactional needs right for every time. With minimizing the tolerance level for error, politicians and regulators championing consumer rights and editors being ready to run headlines about banking mistakes, it is a must for HSBC to have resilient, available and effective transactions processing and management systems. These systems and the change environments within which they are maintained must also be capable of meeting the needs of the current and emerging market needs. It is observed that non-banks have achieved high levels of personalisation in their engagement with customers, and new entrants to the retail market such as PayPal have established the competitive standard. Although PayPal is now a bank, it has achieved a financial performance to rival that of a global banks transactions business by providing an interface to bank services, having an effec tive launch strategy and giving to customers the things that they valued: convenience and the ability to keep their financial accounts private. HSBC may create new channel to get the competitive advantage over the industry rivals. At this time all the organisations now understand the importance of knowing their customers as individually and uniquely as possible. This means understanding individual needs and then being able to relate those individual needs to the actual priorities of each customer at any given point in time. Few systems have the ability to provide insight into a customer lifecycle or into current customer priorities as transactions systems do. In mature markets with high barriers to entry and which display stable market share, data mining can be vastly effective in generating new revenue streams and in establishing a differentiated service proposition. Successful data mining will include the use of refined cross-examination tools and a periodic ad hoc analysis along with data warehouse. Success is determined by integrated process management, detailed transactions analysis and alignment with a clear customer segmentation and strategy. Small and Medium Enterprises have become key players in the retail banking industry as its segment it getting bigger day by day with the globalization and increased competition. A careful selection of SMEs and product modification to attract those SMEs can help HSBC may generate increased revenue. As interest rate is a parameter which plays a key role in the banking industry and investment industry, HSBC can tailor its product in a way where the customer will be attracted and communicate the benefit of the product to the target market to gain competitive advantage. Economic profit may be easier to manage though the environment is more competitive than before by simplifying the investment decision and clarifying the accountabilities. Understanding the value of the customers and identify the sacrifice the bank will have to make to that is the vital issue. Investing in understanding and developing this aspect of their service to customers is a parallel, to develop new products, services, markets and pricing strategies. Operational and business interactions may be obtained by bringing the transactions management at the same place, and these scale efficiencies may also be applied to effective risk and incident/ disaster management. Results for the affected banks are definitely substantial which damage to their good will, opportunity loss of potential revenue and also the cost of modification and remediation. For the people involved in managing the incident it was an uncomfortable time: dealing with imperfect and incomplete data while trying to provide coherent and reliable information to many internal and external stakeholders.

To Have And Have Not :: essays research papers fc

Book Report: To Have and Have Not   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Harry Morgan is the central character of Hemmingway’s To Have and Have Not. Morgan plays the role of protagonist though he does not always act with â€Å"good† motives or goals. The book deals with the downfall of his life beginning with a murderous secret run from Cuba and ending in the bloody death of Morgan after suffering a gunshot to the stomach. 1. Appearance:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Morgan is a rugged fisherman who spent his life doing various seafaring activities. The long days under the sun on deck has given him a dark skin tone. His appearance describes visually the tough violent world in which he thrives. His looks are almost a uniform for the criminal underground scene where he lives his life. The author uses his wife watching him leave their home as a vehicle to describe in detail his physical appearance. â€Å" She watched him go out if the house, tall, wide shouldered, flat-backed, his hips narrow, moving, still, she thought, like some kind of animal, easy and swift and not old yet, he moves so light and smooth-like, she thought, and when he got in the car she   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nelson2 saw him blonde, with the sunburned hair, his face with the broad Mongol cheek bones, and the narrow eyes, the nose broken at the bridge, the wide mouth and the round jaw, and getting in the car he grinned at her and she began to cry.† (Hemmingway 128) Also worthy of notice, halfway through the book Harry losses his arm in a gunfight with some Cuban patrols on a liquor run. 2. Words and Actions:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Harry Morgan gives validity to the idiom, â€Å"Curse like a sailor.† He fights like one too. Morgan is the quintessential smuggler. All his actions seem violent and towards the ends of making money. His actions are done out of necessity or desperation. This is seen clearly in the way he handles a client of his, a client that knows too much. â€Å"He put his hand in his pocket and reached the money out toward me. I reached for it and grabbed his wrist with the money in his hand, and as he came forward on the stern I grabbed his throat with the other hand.† (Hemmingway 53) His actions are brutal and direct.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even towards close associates he seems ruthless. He came very close to killing a friend of his that sneaked aboard his ship for a ride back to America.

Essay --

Throughout Jewish History we have seen significant transitions from 2,000 B.C.E. to 1492 C.E. These transitions changed many different aspects of Jewish life. There are three specific events or turning points that caused tremendous change in Jewish life and had many ramifications. These three events were the Formation of the United Monarchy, the Rise of Hellenism and the Golden Age of Spain. Each of these transitions impacted Judaism in different ways that changed it forever. The different groups of people involved changed different parts of Jewish life including linguistics, politics, traditions, and literature. The United Monarchy took place between 1020 and 921 B.C.E. It was the transition between a tribal society and an actual form of government. In this monarchy, Samuel appointed Saul to be the first King. Saul was replaced by King David and eventually was followed by Solomon. This era was the most documented era throughout Biblical history. During this time period, David was God’s right hand man. Jewish people believed that the Messiah was once a living King somewhere in the Davidic bloodline. They believe the Messiah in the Bible was a human King. The word Messiah means â€Å"anointed one†. David is the one who brings together loose tribes into a government. He institutes many new things like scribe culture and census records. This becomes known as the prototype for the ideal Jewish monarch. He establishes the city of Jerusalem or the â€Å"City of David†. His legacy becomes a major theme in Jewish history. Through him, the First temple was built for worship and f or sacrifice in 950 B.C.E. This temple was extremely important to the Jewish people. It was the center for worship and politics for the kingdom of Judah. The Babylonians e... ...ed, you sent Seraphim to tell him of your great goodness. They sat down beside me and then Michael said: â€Å"This is God’s message who pleads your cause: ‘On the day that you cross waters of sorrow I am with you. When the enemy draws near, the rivers will not drowned you.’ † These three transitions had a huge effect on Jewish life in many different ways and were major turning points in Jewish history. In all three of these periods the Jews underwent many changes in their lives in many different categories. Although massive changes were made, in each of these eras the Jews somehow managed to keep their cultural identity even while adapting to other ways of life. They never lost sight of their heritage. Therefore, the Formation of the United Monarchy, the Rise of Hellenism and the Golden Age of Spain were the three most important points of ruptures in Jewish history.

Emily Dickinson and Her Poetry Essays -- Dickinson Poet Poetry Essays

Emily Dickinson was ahead of her time in the way she wrote her poems. The poems she wrote had much more intelligence and background that the common person could comprehend and understand. People of all ages and critics loved her writings and their meanings, but disliked her original, bold style. Many critics restyled her poetry to their liking and are often so popular are put in books alongside Dickinson’s original poetry (Tate 1). She mainly wrote on nature. She also wrote about domestic activity, industry and warfare, economy and law. â€Å"Her scenes sometime create natural or social scenes but are more likely to create psychological landscapes, generalized scenes, or allegorical scenes.† She uses real places and actions to convey a certain idea or emotion in her poem. She blends allegory and symbolism, which is the reason for the complication in her poems because allegory and symbolism contradict each other (Diehl 18, 19). Dickinson did not name most of her poems. She named twenty-four of her poems, of which twenty-one of the poems were sent to friends. She set off other people’s poetry titles with quotation marks, but only capitalized the first word in her titles. Many critics believe she did not title most of her poetry because she was not planning on publishing her work. As Socrates said, â€Å"the knowledge of things is not devised from names†¦ no man would like to put himself or the education of his mind in the power of names†(Watts 130). Dickinson said that the speaker in all...

E-Tailing Persuasive Message

E-Tailing Many retailers have expanded their retail market to an online market. Using the internet to sell their goods is known as e commerce. â€Å"Ecommerce allows consumers to electronically exchange goods and services with no barriers of time or distance† (Network Solutions, n. d. ). E commerce has expanded rapidly in recent years due to its convenience for the consumer and the increase in businesses that use electronic retailing (e-tailing). Businesses use different marketing methods in order to reach their customers and attract new ones. Direct Marketing Direct marketing is when businesses sell a product or service directly to the consumer (B2C). With direct marketing, businesses have several options in marketing to their consumers. Businesses can use direct mail, television ads, and internet marketing just to name a few. There has been a rise in direct marketing in recent years. The use of direct marketing can be more costs effective for a business without having the additional cost of the overhead of a traditional store. Amazon. com took book stores to the next level when they began their website selling books via the internet in the mid 1990s. Some companies such as skin care products Proactiv and Skin ID advertise on television and direct you to their websites to purchase their products. Businesses can reach customers directly through email when they sign up for mailing lists. Emails Businesses will contact customers directly through email. This happens often with existing customers. Wells Fargo bank will contact their customers with special offers of products and services with occasional emails. Other businesses will email their customers coupons to draw them into their stores. Baskin Robins ice cream lure their customers in their stores with email coupons promising them free ice cream on their birthday. Email marketing that offers customers special savings and free products can be a very effective marketing tool. Websites Internet consumers can find great deals on travel when they go to travel websites such as Expedia and Travelocity where customers can purchase airfare, rental cars and hotels. Many of these sites offer price matching and other incentive when consumers book their travel plans with their company. They also allow the customer to comparison shop different travel deals in order to eliminate confusion for the consumer. Click-and-Mortar A popular trend in e tailing has been click-and-mortar retailers. Click-and-mortar is typically when e-tailers have an existing store and have branched out into selling their products online (Turban, et al, 2008). Many retailers have expanded their stores to an online market with their stores websites. Stores such as Walmart and Best Buy have tapped into this market. Some of these retailers have some products that are only available for purchase online. Best Buy for example, will sell products that were available at one time in their retail stores but are now only available online. There has also been a shift with e-tailers have moved from internet only to physical brick-and-mortar stores. They have taken a popular, successful way of shopping and brought it to consumers in a traditional way. These e-tailers turned brick-and-mortar as well as those who rely solely on direct marketing can target their consumers with emails, banner ads on popular websites such as social networking sites, and with internet mailing lists. Some businesses do not have enough of a market for their goods to convert to a click-and-mortar retailer â€Å"because they would not have enough consumers† (Turban, et al, 2008). When e-tailers are trying to attract potential customers, no matter what medium they use all messages must follow a similar model. The sender must make clear the purpose of the message, choose the best media for their message, and the technology they will use to deliver the message. When a business chooses the right forum they can be very effective in e tailing. Persuasive Message Member of the Community, Your local City Animal Shelter is making the move into becoming a no kill shelter by the year 2012. We are asking the residents of this city to assist us in meeting this goal by participating in our upcoming low cost spay and neutering clinics. We are also asking for your donations in order to get our new training program up and running so that we may train some of our older dogs to assist the elderly and disabled members of our community. Although the number of animals that are being euthanized is on the decline, any animal put to death is a precious life lost. Countless numbers of animals are being senselessly euthanized as a matter of population control. In order to reach our goals, the shelter plans to begin training as many of the older animals as service dogs because these animals are the least likely to be adopted out and the most likely to be euthanized. Hosting a low cost vaccination clinic will help reduce the number of strays and unwanted animals in the community. Euthanizing animals can no longer be used as a method of population control. We must begin to use our cities unwanted animals in order to help our neighbors in the community that need our help. Please help us by participating in our spay and neutering clinics or with a contribution to get our program off and running. Together we can make this a no kill city and improve the quality of life for our cities elderly and disabled. Sincerely, Your City Animal Shelter References Network Solutions. (n. d. ). What is Ecommerce? Retrieved, May 10, 2010, from http://www. networksolutions. com/education/what-is-ecommerce/ Turban, E. , King, D. , McKay, J. , Marshall, P. , Lee, J. , & Viehland, D. (2008). Electronic commerce 2008: A managerial perspective (5th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Crackling Day By Peter Abrahams Essay

â€Å"Crackling day’ is a story about a young black boy in South Africa that challenges three white youths and, in so doing, challenges the political system of the whole country. The very famous writer Peter Abrahams wrote it. It set in Africa in the times of apartheid. Apartheid was a â€Å"system’ or a mentality as it were was apposed on South Africa after the Second World War and the country gained independence from Great Britain. This did not mean that it would be the South Africans that â€Å"ran’ the country, as it was the British that were still in control. Apartheid laws were imposed on South Africa in 1948 and on June 13, 1950 the Group Areas Act was enacted. It segregated communities and relegated the black population to a minor percentage of the nation’s land, therefore meaning that white people mostly owned the land and the land on which the black people resided was often not even theirs. Everyone in the country had to register themselves as white, black (African), or coloured (of mixed race e.g. Asian). In 1953, the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act were passed, which empowered the government to declare stringent states of emergency and increased penalties for protesting against or supporting the repeal of a law. The penalties included fines, imprisonment and whippings. In 1960, a large group of blacks in Sharpsville refused to carry their passes; the government declared a state of emergency. The emergency lasted for 156 days, leaving 69 people dead and 187 people wounded. Wielding the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the white regime had no intention of changing the unjust laws of apartheid. In 1989 there were approximately 19 million blacks in the country and on 4.5 million whites and yet whites had 87% of the land and blacks owned only 13%. The whites also received about 75% of the countries income with the blacks receiving 25% or less. The health and education services that blacks were allowed was also appalling with one doctor per 44,000 blacks whereas the whites had one doctor per 400 people and 1 teacher per 60 blacks whereas there was 1 teacher per 22 whites. Apartheid and how it affected people is the main subject of the story and can  clearly be seen throughout. Lee had to collect cow dung everyday so that he, his Aunt and his Uncle could use it as fuel. It was the only material that they could use for cooking and as a fire, possibly the only thing that they could use to keep their â€Å"house’ warm. Lee and all â€Å"the children of the location made the long trek to Elsberg siding for the square of pig’s rind that passed for out daily meat’. The children had to do this once a week, every Wednesday. Also not the place where the lived was simply â€Å"the location’ and had no name, whereas the place they were heading towards (where all the white people lived) did have a name, Elsberg. This gives the reader the thought that where the black people lived was considered a place that didn’t matter hence it had no name. Elsberg was also not a close by town; it was a â€Å"long trek’. This meant that the white people lived far away from the blacks, coincidence or purposefully put so that they were split up from each other? From the evidence and the time in which the story is set I would have to say that this was no coincidence. In the time of Apartheid the different â€Å"race groups’ were split up and it is therefore my conclusion that the whites did not want to live near the blacks, whereas the blacks had no choice. What we also notice that is a very important fact is that they cannot have any â€Å"daily meat’ and are instead walking miles for some pig crackling. This is not a nutritious thing to eat but they either couldn’t afford to buy meat or are not allowed any by the â€Å"baas’. The crackling that they do get is not even given to them. Earlier in the story we read that Lee’s Aunt wore a â€Å"thin’ (she, therefore is thin) dress with a pocket that was â€Å"nearest the skin’ and that â€Å"from this she pulled a sixpenny piece’ and â€Å"tied it in a knot on the corner on the corner of a bit of coloured cloth’. With this sixpenny (worth about 2.5 pence in today’s money) he bought the crackling off of the white man. Also note that it says that Lee â€Å"tucked it into the little canvas bag’. The word little is quite emotive as it shows that Lee does not have much. The man that was serving the crackling to the black children â€Å"did it in leisurely fashion, with long pauses for a smoke’ and he â€Å"occasionally turned his back’. From this we can see the affects of apartheid and what it does to  people. The â€Å"young man’ that was serving them was taking his time, and being facetious, flippant and dismissive. Not only that, but he was doing this towards young children. We can see that apartheid has made this young man think that he is greater than black children. This, therefore in his mind has justified his actions in believing he had the right to behave in such a manner. Apartheid, being part of South Africa’s legislation did give him the right to act in this manner by law. Along with apartheid in â€Å"Crackling Day’, there are also tough living conditions evident. Lee lives with his Uncle and Aunt but it is the white man’s land that they are living on. We can see this when later in the story the white man wants Uncle Sam to â€Å"teach him’ and warns Sam â€Å"if you and he are to live here, you must teach him’. From this we can see that the white man wants Lee to be â€Å"taught a lesson’ but does not want to have to punish him himself. It would be much more upsetting for Sam, Liza and Lee if Sam himself did it. Note that he does not include Aunt Liza when he is talking about the people living on his land. This is because in the times of apartheid it wasn’t just racism that was infection, it was sexism as well. Aunt Liza, being a woman, was not considered much and not worth much. This plays a crucial part later on in that particular scene. Lee also had to walk out in the cold with bare feet and they therefore cannot afford or obtain shoes. The author also uses different language styles to emphasize just how tough it is. He uses hyperbole like when he said â€Å"after what seemed hours’. He uses personification of the cold so that it makes us picture in our minds just how bad it is and how much of a â€Å"cruel enemy’ it was. He uses similes like when he said that the morning air â€Å"went down my throat like an icy draught’. He uses alliteration like when he said that the â€Å"sun sat high in the sky’. Note he also used alliteration and personification and alliteration in that last sentence saying that the sun â€Å"sat’. To always have to be humble, differential and submissive in the presence of someone who is so arrogant, aggressive and forceful cannot be easy. They also have to deal with collecting cow dung for fuel, eating only crackling and bread for which they have to walk for hours for, always having to â€Å"turn the other cheek’ and deal with all the rest of the immoral acts injustices that they are regularly put through. As a result of these facts, all the characters feel fear and need to show courage on a daily basis. Some examples of the difficult conditions which individual characters face are like when Lee and Andreas were startled by a â€Å"Boer dog’ (Boer being the term that described the settlers that came from Europe and Settled in South Africa). These dogs were trained to kill black people and this is something that young children had to face. The two had to get away from the dog (even though it was behind a fence). Uncle Sam has to live in fear of the white man because, by law, he is their superior and the fact that they are living on his land means that he could throw them out into the realms of homelessness where the destitute struggle. However, there are also specific incidents, which reveal the themes of courage and fear. The most prolific, courageous and important incident was one that seemed almost hidden. After Uncle Sam had beaten Lee the white man and the boys were leaving. The white man said â€Å"Good Night’ to Sam, to which Sam replied â€Å"Good night baas, sorry about all this’. The white man then said â€Å"Good night, Liza’ and â€Å"Liza did not answer’. This is very significant, as not replying to the white man could be shown as disrespectful and even breaking the law. The family could have been thrown off of the land for it. But, as stated earlier Aunt Liza is a woman and as such was considered not worth it by the white man. Just Before this Aunt Liza had also shown courage. After Sam had beaten Lee the white man said â€Å"bet his father’s one of those who believe in equality’. Aunt Liza said very bluntly to this â€Å"his father is dead’. This was not a humble thing to say, which was what was expected of her being black and a woman. Lee showed courage on two occasions. The first was when he and Andreas were running away from the white boys who were shouting at them â€Å"your fathers are dirty black bastards of baboons!’ Lee showed courage by stopping, turning round and â€Å"screaming’ â€Å"You’re a Liar!’ What prepared us for this was the fact that when Andreas was telling Lee that they should run and then changed his mind and told him to walk quietly Lee kept on asking â€Å"why?’ Lee wasn’t as â€Å"street-wise’ as it were when it came to avoiding the white children and how to act around white people. This is probably due to Lee being an â€Å"out-of-towner’ and he had just come from Johannesburg. This was courageous in the sense that not only was he standing up to the white boys but also he was standing up to the whole political system of the country. The second time that Lee showed courage was when Uncle Sam told Lee to tell the white man that he is sorry. This he did not and instead pleaded â€Å"he insulted my father’. This is a lot of courage to show for a small boy, and I don’t think it was out of stubbornness. In â€Å"Crackling Day’ Lee faces many challenges: he feels fear and displays courage in dealing with his fears. One example of this is the cold whether. Lee has to go out every Wednesday and walk for hours in the cold. He first shows courage out of dealing with this instead of winging about it, he even â€Å"trotted off’ as if he was willing to go. This shows he has a positive attitude towards this, which in itself requires tremendous courage. The author talks about the cold a lot during the story. He also utilizes different language styles to do so. He started by using similes about how cold the morning air was: â€Å"There was a sharp bite to the morning air I sucked in; it stung my nose so that tears came to my eyes; it went down my throat like an icy draught; my nose ran’. That was a long sentence! He uses this repetition for the sake of emphasis and effect. He also used a simile in there when it said â€Å"it went down my throat like an icy draught’. This is to give the reader the right picture and feeling of what it’s like and how hard it is for Lee. So in one sentence  he put in repetition and a simile. The story continues: â€Å"I tried breathing through my mouth, but this was worse. The cold went through my shirt and shorts; my skin went pimply and chilled; my fingers went numb and began to ache; my feet felt like frozen lumps that did not belong to me, yet jarred and hurt each time I put them down. I began to feel sick and desperate’. The second sentence again had repetition and a simile. So from that paragraph there is a long sentence, a short one, a long one, and again a short one. All this adds up to allow some insight as to what it was like for him. We can see how immoral it is for this young boy to have to go through all the suffering, not once, but every Wednesday. It then says later on: â€Å"We were creatures haunted and hounded by the cold.’ There’s a metaphor. â€Å"It was a cruel enemy who gave no quarter’. That’s very emotive personification. â€Å"And our meanings of fighting it were pitifully inadequate. In all the mornings and evenings of the winter months, young and old, big and small, were helpless victims of the bitter cold.’ Now the writer has started referring to the cold as â€Å"it’ and â€Å"bitter’. The story continues: â€Å"Only toward noon and in the early afternoon, when the sun sat high in the sky, was there a brief respite.’ There we have two instances of alliteration. â€Å"For us, the children, the cold, especially the morning cold, assumed an awful a malevolent personality.’ A lot of personification there, even describing â€Å"its’ personality! â€Å"We talked of â€Å"it’. â€Å"It’ was a half-human monster with evil thoughts, evil intentions, bent on destroying us.’ Much more personification that helps us see how much of an â€Å"enemy’ the cold was. The author has just â€Å"painted us a picture’ of what it was like for these two boys and how the hated and feared the cold. All of this tells us that Lee and Andreas are two boys that accept the way that they have to live and face it with courage and with a positive attitude. They realise that that is the society that they have to live in  and accept their lives. Another thing that Lee and Andreas fear is Hunger. The author shows this by, again, using personification and use of language. We are told â€Å"Hunger was an enemy too, but one with whom we could come terms, who had many values and virtues’. We are told here how hunger was also an enemy but not as bad as the cold. The author uses personification of these two factors (the cold and the hunger) is very skilfully. The incident with the man giving out the crackling demonstrates the theme of power and it’s importance in society. As stated earlier the man that was serving the crackling to the black children â€Å"did it in leisurely fashion, with long pauses for a smoke’ and he â€Å"occasionally turned his back’. Lee, Andreas and the rest of the black children have to call the white man â€Å"baas’ as a sign of respect. The white man wouldn’t serve Lee until he did: † â€Å"well?† the man repeated coldly. â€Å"Please, baas,’ I said. â€Å"What d’you want?† â€Å"Sixpence crackling, please.† â€Å"What?† Andreas dug me in the ribs. â€Å"Sixpence crackling, please.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Sixpence crackling, please, baas†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ. We can see that the white man has far more power than Lee or Andreas and as such they have to treat him as their superior. To respond in the way that Lee and Aunt Liza did to their fear demands courage because by law they are in the wrong. When Lee stands up to the white boys and when Aunt Liza stands up to the white man they are also standing up to the entire political system of their culture at that time. For doing so they could be beaten, thrown off of the white man’s land or even killed. The author is showing the difference in position between whites and blacks. He does this by showing that the man selling the crackling and the white man that owns the land can do whatever pleases them and get the black people to do whatever pleases them. The black people have to respond by being humble, differential and submissive. The character of Uncle Sam is what would be expected of him in that culture and time period. When he came home and Aunt Liza told him what had happened the author says â€Å"he, too, just looked at me and became more remote and withdrawn. They were waiting for something.’ Uncle Sam and Aunt Liza knew that that got beaten up by Lee would probably either tell his parents or his parents would see the bruises and ask what had happened. They knew that the white man would be coming round to their house to enquire what had happened. Uncle Sam was probably in a state of fear, of the white man, hence him becoming â€Å"remote’ and â€Å"withdrawn’. Another thing that displays that he is in a state of fear is that when they heard â€Å"a trap pull up outside’ Uncle Sam simply says â€Å"here it comes.’ When people are anxious, worried or afraid they tend to murmur or talk quickly. When the door â€Å"burst open’ and the â€Å"tall, broad white man strode in’ Uncle Sam greeted him in a respectful, humble manner (what was expected of him) by saying â€Å"Evening, baas’ and the text then tells us â€Å"Uncle Sam murmured’. It even tells us that he is murmuring! It then later says † â€Å"He’s sorry, baas,† Uncle Sam said quickly’. This definitely tells us that he is afraid of something as he is talking â€Å"quickly’. Uncle Sam does show courage when he lies to the white man. He tells him â€Å"I’ve given him a hiding he won’t forget’. The white man could easily find out, by examining Lee and this, again, could get the family thrown off of the white man’s land. When Lee doesn’t tell the white man that he is sorry and instead says that they â€Å"insulted’ his father the white man makes Uncle Sam beat Lee. As he is doing so he says â€Å"You must never lift your hand to a white person’ and it describes him as saying so â€Å"bitterly’. He is saying it â€Å"bitterly’ because of course he doesn’t want to have to hurt Lee. Sam beats Lee because he knows that he has to. If he doesn’t then all manner of things could happen to him,  Liza and Lee, the least of which being thrown off of the white man’s land. After they have left Sam begins to sob. This is because he feels so guilty and angry with himself, the white man, and the political system that they have to live under. The next day he simply says to Aunt Liza â€Å"One day†Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ This is a threat towards the white man and, again the political system. It is probably an empty and hollow threat but he has to keep thinking this to give him a reason to be angry and something to be angry at. The next day Liza was â€Å"dishing out the food’ to Sam and Lee and â€Å"insistently’ reassured Sam â€Å"It’s all right’. Liza understood that Sam did what he had to do and that Sam was feeling guilty. She knew that he needed some comfort and assurance that what he did was what he had to. In conclusion, the types of courage and fears demonstrated in â€Å"Crackling Day’ are facing up to reality, doing what you have to do, though it may not be right, standing up to what you feel is wrong. All the main black characters through the story show some type of fear one-way of another. Uncle Sam was afraid of the results if he did not do what the white man told him but he still did not want to hurt Lee. Sam’s courage was lying to the white man in a desperate attempt to prevent Lee from being hurt or being completely exposed to the injustice and immorality of apartheid. Aunt Liza showed incredible courage when she did not reply to the white man even though she knew that it might cause the family to suffer. Lee and Andreas both showed fear by actually going out and facing the cold, hunger and the long hours of walking. Lee single-handedly showed courage when he stood up to the white boys and when he did not say he was sorry (the first time anyway) to the white man. The message the author is trying to communicate in â€Å"Crackling Day’ is that fear and a hard way of life bring courage and even the most unlikely people can be the most courageous. I think the main point that the author was trying to put to the reader is the immorality of apartheid and racism and what it can do to people physically and mentally.