Yukon Jack Essays - Klondike Gold Rush, Jack London, White Fang

Yukon Jack The short lived life of Jack London is a direct reflection of his literary works major theme, the struggle for survival of strong men driven by primitive emotions. ?To Build A Fire? and White Fang are two of his works that coincide his life experiences and illustrate his literary theme. London was born the illegitimate son of W.H. Chaney and Flora Wellmen in 1876. He never saw his biological father and his mother had little to do with him. Eight months after his birth, his mother married a man named John London. This is where Jack received his name. Even with his new family, that included two step-sisters, Jack still received little time or love from them. ?He claimed to have felt that he was a boy without a boyhood? (Marshall 749). In ?To Build A Fire,? a man is on a journey through the Yukon. He takes this journey alone, and therefore must face all challenges alone. This is much like the childhood of Jack London. London had to accept all challenges and obstacles in his childhood alone, because his family was not there to support him. Both Jack London and the man in ?To Build A Fire? are in control of their own destiny. As it turns out for the man in ?To Build A Fire,? he faces his death because of his solitude. ! London may be implying that if he had someone to guide him through the early stages of life, he might have turned out to be a more fulfilled and successful person. 2 By the age of twenty-three, London had held a numerous variety of jobs. He had been everything from a newsboy to an oyster bed pirate. He even bummed his way through the United States. In 1897, he traveled to Canada to try his luck in the Yukon Territory gold rush. This is the motivation behind his 1906 novel, White Fang. White Fang Centers around the ability of a man, through love and kindness, to tame a savage wolf, and turn it into a loyal domestic animal. This may not be relevant when talking about the relationship between London's life and the novels theme. What is relevant though, is that the story did take place in the Yukon, a place where London had been during his life. The story contains struggles of man's survival against nature, maybe London's own survival against nature. London could also be portraying his survival against life in general. During the same time period, London had evolved a working philosophy from Karl Marx, Herbert Spencer, and Friedrich Nietzsche which explained the world of his experiences to his own satisfaction. ?These experiences persuaded him to join the Socialist Labor Party and crusade for worker's rights? (Kennedy 118). Even though London claimed to be a socialist, he contradicted his belief in socialism with his individualistic notion of the survival of the fittest. In the short story ?To Build A Fire,? London shows us what happens to the weak. The man freezes to death and the dog survives. London maybe using this story to expand on his survival of the fittest belief. In order for a man to survive the potentially blizzard cold temperatures of the Yukon, he must not only be in top physical 3 condition, he must also be equally fit psychologically. The dog in ?To Build A Fire? had both, a physical conditioning and a mental instinct, something London saw in himself. The man in the story experiences regret for not following the advice given to him earlier, but the dog presses on without regret or pity for the man, the same way London treats life. London began writing in early adulthood. He found it was the easiest way for him to make money. His literary apprenticeship was comparatively short. He started by writing for a local newspaper in San Francisco, and before long the entire country took a liking to his work. London had published his first book, The Son of the Wolf, in 1900. Also in 1900, London married his first wife, Bessie Madden. In 1903 he had left her and his daughters to marry Charmian Kittredge. Shortly after their marriage, London had left his second wife. London had always longed for a

16 Misquoted Quotations

16 Misquoted Quotations 16 Misquoted Quotations 16 Misquoted Quotations By Mark Nichol Many quotations attributed to famous people are at best paraphrases though often superior to the original. Others might be subtly altered in the retelling, sometimes with little impact on their effect, at other times irresponsibly changing the meaning. Here is a selection of well-known sayings or writings that aren’t quite accurate (followed by a couple that are but are mistakenly identified as erroneous): 1. â€Å"Be the change you wish to see in the world.† This quotation attributed to Gandhi is a later invention by an unknown person, likely inspired by the following passage: â€Å"As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. . . . We need not wait to see what others do.† 2. â€Å"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they attack you. Then you win.† Gandhi was also credited with this pithy progression, but something like it was actually uttered in a speech at a union meeting in the United States in 1914: â€Å"First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.† 3. â€Å"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.† This is an amended version of a line by playwright William Congreve, who flourished around the turn of the eighteenth century. The actual comment is â€Å"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned / Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.† 4. â€Å"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.† As with many of these lines, the person to whom it is attributed in this case, Voltaire, perhaps would have wished he had been so eloquent. This ringing pronouncement, however, derives not from the French philosopher’s own pen, but from an early-twentieth-century biography of him. 5. â€Å"Methinks the lady doth protest too much.† This is a slightly recast alteration of Queen Gertrude’s response to Hamlet’s query about how his mother likes the play he has, unbeknownst to her, scripted to prompt a guilty reaction from her and King Claudius, who Hamlet believes conspired to murder his father. She is saying that the character of the queen is trying too hard to appear innocent. The original, no better or worse merely measured differently is â€Å"The lady doth protest too much, methinks.† 6. â€Å"Money is the root of all evil.† This alteration of a biblical verse, by omitting a vital element of the original, changes the meaning significantly. The verse actually reads, â€Å"For the love of money is the root of all evil.† 7. â€Å"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.† This misquotation lacks the equivocation of British historian Lord Action’s actual statement, â€Å"Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely† and omits the blunt next sentence: â€Å"Great men are almost always bad men.† 8. â€Å"Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast.† The actual quote, from the same play from which the line in the third entry above is taken, is â€Å"Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast.† The next line, elaborating on the theme, is â€Å"To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.† 9. â€Å"Nice guys finish last.† Legendary baseball manager Leo Durocher wasn’t making a blanket statement when he uttered these four words. They are a contracted repetition of his assessment of a baseball team’s prospects for the season. The entire quotation is â€Å"All nice guys. They’ll finish last. Nice guys finish last.† 10. â€Å"No rest for the wicked.† This line, uttered jocularly by a busy person, perhaps as an excuse for departing, is probably inspired by the biblical verse â€Å"There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.† 11. â€Å"Now is the winter of our discontent.† These first few words of Shakespeare’s Richard III are often expressed to mean â€Å"The present time is the winter of our discontent.† What the titular character means, however, is made clear by including the second part of the statement, which demonstrates that the phrase is merely a preface to the counterpoint of a reference to better times: â€Å"Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York.† 12. â€Å"Pride comes before a fall.† This is a contracted version of the biblical verse â€Å"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.† 13. â€Å"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.† Mark Twain’s actual comment is more straightforward: â€Å"The report of my death is an exaggeration.† In addition, the statement is in reference not to a prematurely printed obituary but to a reporter’s inquiry about his health. 14. â€Å"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.† This quotation is a vast improvement over this vaguely similar statement by Irish-born British statesman Edmund Burke: â€Å"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.† 15. â€Å"Theirs but to do or die.† The legendary phrase from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s â€Å"The Charge Of The Light Brigade† has a subtly but significantly different penultimate word. The entire line reads, â€Å"Theirs not to reason why / Theirs but to do and die.† 16. â€Å"Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.† The line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s â€Å"Rime of the Ancient Mariner† has been tidied up a bit. The original is â€Å"Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink.† Two other well-known statements considered to be misquotes are actually later versions of lesser-known comments. Winston Churchill’s phrase â€Å"Blood, sweat, and tears,† widely believed to be an erroneous version of â€Å"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat,† is actually a more concise and euphonious update of the more extended form. By the same token, â€Å"I laughed all the way to the bank† is an alleged misquotation (and misunderstanding of Liberace’s quip â€Å"I cried all the way to the bank,† but he actually did use laughed in response to a poor review of a financially successful concert of his. When he later won a lawsuit with compensation stemming from a newspaper’s veiled contention that he was gay (the nerve!), he altered the earlier utterance with a change of verb to reply to a query about whether the accusation made him distraught. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:20 Words with More Than One SpellingThe Possessive ApostropheCharles's Pen and Jesus' Name

Global Trade issues of Boeing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Global Trade issues of Boeing - Essay Example In fact, the company’s stock is part of Dow Jones Industrial Average. Absolute and Comparative Advantage A company is said to have an absolute advantage when it is capable of producing a specific good or service at a lower cost per unit compared to other companies in the same industry (Newquist 2010). It also pertains to the ability to produce a good or service more efficiently than other companies in the same industry. On the other hand, a company is said to have a comparative advantage when it has the ability to produce a particular product more efficiently than any other product (Newquist 2010). As earlier stated, Boeing is currently the leading exporter and manufacturer of airplane in the U.S. This is attributed to the absolute advantage it has acquired through the idea of the economy of scope. Report indicates that Boeing is the only aircraft manufacturer that has implemented the economy of scope making it possible for Boeing to produce two different products in two diffe rent markets at a relatively lower cost than two different firms do (White 2010). This has given Boeing an absolute advantage over other firms in the same industry. This is evident from the fact that Boeing manufactures both commercial and military aircrafts that sell in different markets (Rankin 2008, p.6). According to Benkard (2000, p.1035), all the competitors of Boeing competitor do not use this idea. Boeing also has a comparative advantage in its manufacturing processes. The company is regarded as the best manufacturer of military and commercial aircrafts in the U.S. The company has demonstrated these through quality airplanes it has manufactured for many years now (Benkard 2000, p.1035). Restrictions of trade Newquist (2010) reveals that Boeing is among the leading exporters of commercial and military aircrafts. Despite having enjoyed free trade with many countries that the U.S. trades with, the company has also faced a myriad of trade challenges. One such was witnessed when China imposed trade restriction on Taiwan, which placed Boeing at an awkward position (Bloomberg 2010). It is reported that China forced Boeing to comply by its trade restrictions or risk losing its U.S. arms contract in case it went ahead to sell its military arms to Taiwan that was then at a political dispute with China. China also went ahead to threaten Boeing of cancelation of its lucrative contract and expulsion out of China in case of noncompliance with trade restrictions imposed on it (Naele 2009, p.44). Marketing Marketing of Boeing products is normally done through segmentation. However, since traffic and economic growth rates vary from one region to another, Boeing segments its market geographically. For example, Boeing has focused most of its marketing efforts in Europe and North America regions because of their mature economies. As such, Boeing believes that these regions have a great potential of continuing to buy most of its airplanes (Golich 1992, p.899). In fact, the ability of the company to segment its market geographically gives it the opportunity to ascertain the demand of each segment. For example, Boeing can easily forecast the demand of Europe and North America due to their mature economies. This is due to the high number of air travelers in these regions (Golich 1992, p.899). Strategic Issues Boeing operation and reputation was recently affected due to what can be described as a strategic problem. The company has continually delayed the delivery of Boeing