Short Stories- The Knife by Judah Waten Textual Analysis

Title -The Knife Author - Judah Waten Anthology - Spectrum One Ââ€" Narrative Short Stories. pg 133 Plot The Knife written by Judah Waten, is a short story about a young Italian- Plinio, who has immigrated to Australia from a ‘poor village in Calabria, in a very desolate part of Southern Italy. Plinio then starts to reminisce about the life he had back home and the reader learns that he lived in poverty and had a very modest life. It then goes on to describe Plinio walking home from work one night and he sees Mavis Keer- an attractive girl with a group of friends and her boyfriend Tommy Lawler. Tommy notices Plinio looking at Mavis and is jealous of him, his dislike for Plinio deepens because he is Italian, so Tommy decides to humiliate†¦show more content†¦This part of the story also makes a connection between Tommy and Plinio which that is that they both felt as if there dignity was humiliated in front of Mavis and they tried to out do each other but it all got out of hand causing them both to loose all of the respect that they had. For example Tommys friends all left and Mavis was bewildered at Plinio. Setting The setting for the story is in both Italy and Australia. The flashback is set in a poor Italian village and is described to be ‘a very desolate part of southern Italy. The setting is significant because it shows the life that Plinio had and contrasts the setting of his new home in Australia. In Australia Plinio lives in a small community with other Italians in North Melbourne. ‘They were in a single-fronted, two-story apartment house in North Melbourne where at least twenty other young Italian newcomers were crowded. The time the story is set in is in the 1950s, this can be inferred by the use of terms such as jukebox and milkbar, as well as the slang ‘garn, youre keen on that dago. Characterisation PLINIO v Plinio is the main character in the story and is viewed as the protagonist. He is a young man who is described to be a ‘A well knit, good looking young fellow of twenty-three. He is depicted to be very emotional and quiet due to the experiences in his life ‘he was A quietShow MoreRelatedThe Knife1115 Words   |  5 PagesEnglish  /  Short Stories- amp;Quot;The Knifeamp;Quot; By Judah Waten Textual AnalysisShort Stories- amp;Quot;The Knifeamp;Quot; By Judah Waten Textual AnalysisThis  essay Short Stories- amp;Quot;The Knifeamp;Quot; By Judah Waten Textual Analysis  is available for you on Essays24.com! Search Term Papers, College Essay Examples and Free Essays on Essays24.com - full papers database. Autor:  Ã‚  anton  Ã‚  24 November 2010Tags:   StoriesWords:  2398  Ã‚  Ã‚  |  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pages:  10Views:  1338Save essay in my profilePrintable

Everything for Sale Free Essays

Everything for Sale by Robert Kuttner: A Summary [Insert full name here] [Insert institutional information here] Everything for Sale by Robert Kuttner: A Summary In his book, Robert Kuttner (1999) tries to shake the dominant orthodoxy of laissez-faire economics, which he sees as the â€Å"natural form of capitalism,† by attempting to â€Å"reclaim a defensible middle ground† between when the market is â€Å"best left alone† and when it â€Å"needs help† (p. 5). Kuttner’s chief premise is that a mixed economy is necessary for a society that is civil and decent, a society where the economy is in optimum health. We will write a custom essay sample on Everything for Sale or any similar topic only for you Order Now For Kuttner, unfettered laissez-faire economy is in conflict with mixed economy, and that their opposition is essentially a struggle between the moderate but rational dissent — the call for a mixed economy — and the prevailing orthodoxy, or the desire to retain the economic status quo. He further maintains that a mixed economy is realistic precisely because there is virtually no escape from politics, especially in the economic landscape where the government can influence its course by adopting certain national economic policies. Kuttner readily accepts some notable contributions of the market system. For instance, he concedes that â€Å"[m]arkets accomplish much superbly,† and that â€Å"[t]hey offer consumers broad choices† (Kuttner, 1999, p. 11). Paraphrasing Adam Smith, Kuttner (1999) states that â€Å"the great paradox of the market is that the individual pursuit of self-interest aggregates to an efficient general good† (p. 11). He reaffirms the long-held belief that markets, when left alone, can lead to a vibrant economy. Yet, Kuttner eventually notes that the free market capitalist system is not entirely a rigid structure that has an aversion to changes. He believes that, â€Å"[f]or economies to operate efficiently, drastic change or abrupt disjuncture is the exception rather than the rule† (Kuttner, 1999, p. 12). Thus, markets may accommodate new prices, whether higher or lower than the prevailing prices. Old businesses may go insolvent, and new businesses offering the same goods or services may take their stead. Through the introduction of changes, the market is able to correct itself. In his book, however, Kuttner proposes something else. Kuttner seeks to dispel the complement notions that government interventions in the market are never successful and that markets are self-correcting and can thus work on their own. To reclaim the so-called middle ground, Kuttner offers detailed examples of how previous government interventions in the market did in fact work. He also writes about the shortcomings of the market for healthcare, the labor market, and the financial markets. By providing those examples, he then reduces the theoretical clout of contemporary laissez-faire economics, which he then deploys to draw attention to his position in favor of mixed economy. Kuttner further combines these examples with the premise that there are many kinds of economic and social goods that the market simply cannot provide without failing in one significant way or another. For instance, transportation and communication infrastructures are often financed by the government in association with other private and political entities. Though the funds are not entirely from the government, it cannot be doubted that the government has its share and that it is through its political efforts that the infrastructure projects are realized. Thus, for Kuttner, without the participation of the government in the economy, no matter how limited, the country will hardly be having the social and economic goods it now enjoys today. Clearly, â€Å"markets are not perfectly self-correcting† for Kuttner (1999) and, as a necessary consequence, â€Å"the only check on their excesses must be extra-market institutions† (p. 62), which is short of saying that the check is the government itself. Kuttner lists several areas upon which excesses have been committed. For instance, he states that even the seemingly innocent frequent-flyer program is guilty of frustrating shopping around for travel services by other airline companies since this program is designed to entice people to â€Å"stick with a favored carrier in order to earn mileage credits† (p. 261). To curb this, Kuttner (1999) states that there must be a regulated airline competition where â€Å"[r]egulators could set a zone of tolerable prices, to reflect actual costs more nearly† (p. 68). Another example is the case of the electric power market where the subsequent technological innovations in the first three decades of the mass availability of electricity led to the situation where â€Å"real prices rose dramatically between 1930 and 1933,† except that the â€Å"introduction of public power and federal regulation in the mid-1930s† brought back the â€Å"virtuous pattern of declining prices, technical advances, and increasing usage† (Kuttner, 1999, p. 272). Even the environment is not spared from the failure of a free market. Kuttner observes that the laissez-faire system has encouraged more spewing of pollutants, the manufacture of dangerous products, and others. Through regulatory measures out of broad public-policy goals, Kuttner believes that markets will have no choice but to cut down their waste discharges. The discussion cites other examples in order to illustrate the fact that the free market oftentimes finds help from the federal government. Kuttner (1999) concludes his book with a restatement of how nations â€Å"have now experienced more than two decades of the celebration of markets and denigration of government† (p. 361). Instead of continuing such prevailing notion, he reasserts that â€Å"the case for the market is much more of a mixed case than its champions insist,† especially since markets have become increasingly impulsive in breaching what used to be the province of rights. For Kuttner, the more these markets try to penetrate the province of inalienable rights in their relentless pursuit of profit, the more constraints from the government are needed. Otherwise, the whole foundation upon which the free market capitalist system stands will likewise become endangered. Reference Kuttner, R. (1999). Everything for sale: The virtues and limits of markets. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. How to cite Everything for Sale, Essay examples

Trade Investment and Economic Statistics †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Trade Investment and Economic Statistics. Answer: Introduction: Global Trade is one of an essential activity that undertakes between two nations in a modern world (Buckley Casson, 2016). It can be accessed not only by a wide range of product or service market but also accompanies competition through competitive advantage even though it is between countries like New Zealand and Australia. The international trade in these countries accompanies a total of 20-30% of GDP. However, the future growth rate of Australia and New Zealand is strong and opts to increase economic nationalism management through the continuous balancing of policies, globalization and technology. Australia and New Zealand has been in the trade business since a long time and aim at increasing the economic and social benefits through increase in the percentage of GDP globally (Hirst, Thompson Bromley, 2015). The following paragraph discusses the GDP of Australia through the percentage of exports. The data has been taken in 2106 from the World Bank data that shows the interconnectivity of trade integration (data.worldbank.org, 2016). The data is chart 2 is derived from variable exports from 1960 to 2015. The data is quantitative in nature with ratio scale. Also, this is a descriptive statistics data as only whole number of percentage is shown irrespective of probabilities. The data illustrates the percentage trend of exports through a line graph. The percentage is easy to depict the comparison of exports as a percentage of GDP through its yearly fluctuations. The data depicts that the future of trade amongst the driver globalization ranges from 10-25% which is making the country progress in trade for the coming years. The data can be refined with ordinal data where categories of exports have been defined and increase in the exports in the same category management. Also, in depiction a stacked bar chart would be helpful. The change in the trade has been seen in the previous years where Asian countries have caught hold of the market and continues to withstand against all odds. Australias top exports markets have been briefed in the table. The data in chart 3 is derived from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for Australia from 1995-2015. The data is categorical in nature. Also, there are no probabilities to be given in nominal scale The data illustrates the ranks of countries in Australias export markets. The information in the table highlights the impact of Asian foreign markets and the growing. China and Japan have been indifferently on the top position and has seen to takeover Unites States in the years stated (dfat.gov.au., 2016). There is no percentage, so the drawback lies in accurate comparison between countries amongst the distribution of export markets. Australia and New Zealand continue to provide technology with continuous innovation, efficiency and access. The Growth in demand for data highlights the change in digital world as adopted by countries. The data in chart 5 is taken from Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2016 for the data acquired till 2015 Internet Service provider (abs.gov.au., 2016). The data is quantitative in nature and is in ratio scale. The depiction of growth is shown through a line chart between the two countries that is simply contrasting. The volume of data can be depicted through probabilities. The data constitutes the data across years and the volumes of data that has increased in every following year. The change is more in New Zealand than in Australia across the years from 2011. The data could have been more effective if a broader of categories could have been made for the volume downloaded using internet. A bar chart with probabilities/ percentages would have been convenient. The total exports comparison have been manifested for Australia and New Zealand on the total exports with a GDP composition for the years 2016. The data for chart 11 has been taken from the article of The evolution of New Zealands trade flows by Zang (2009). The variables are exports and GDP composition of goods and services which are categorical nominal. As a result, there is no use of data spread as the largest segment covers services for both nations on Exports and GDP composition. The conditional probabilities for each type of good are shown in pie chart and the whole population of data is instance of descriptive statistics. Moreover, a pattern of factors illustrated would have been able to develop a comparison of types of goods and services exported in the Australia and New Zealand. The drivers of future trade have been broadly classified in globalization, technology and policies. However, a better analysis can be made by Next 5 years Top ranked drivers of change. There several drivers of change are demonstrated through broadly 4 drivers Technology, changing consumer preferences, policies and others in chart 12 (Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, 2016). The data is ordinal in nature with percentages as probabilities for each change. The comparison between the drivers is tedious to recognize though comparable in nature. The data spread is vast which could have further formulated through an ogive (less than/ more than graph) and mean for a rational data. Moreover, a past trend chart or depiction could have further explained the deviation from actual percentages. At last, it can be concluded that the business in these areas are seeking to expand their market because of various reasons like spurred industrialization, reduction in costs, increased demand as well as liberal trade policies. On the contrary, the charts given in the assignments could have been rational with proper labeling and use of different techniques of statistics like descriptive statistics updated till a much closed data till 2016. The evaluation of past data could have even enhanced the predictions of the surveys. References 8153.0 - Internet Activity, Australia, June 2016. (2016).Abs.gov.au. Retrieved 24 August 2017, from https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/8153.0Explanatory%20Notes1June%202016?OpenDocument Buckley, P. J., Casson, M. (2016).The future of the multinational enterprise. Springer. Exports of goods and services (% of GDP) | Data. (2016).Data.worldbank.org. Retrieved 24 August 2017, from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.EXP.GNFS.ZS Hirst, P., Thompson, G., Bromley, S. (2015).Globalization in question. John Wiley Sons. The Future of Trade. Survey Results. (2016).Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. Retrieved 24 August 2017, from https://www.charteredaccountantsanz.com/-/media/306686e57cc84420a6fb69e96f1c57c7.ashx. Trade, investment and economic statistics. (2016).Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Retrieved 24 August 2017, from https://dfat.gov.au/trade/resources/trade-statistics/Pages/trade-statistics.aspx Zhang, V. Y. (2009). The evolution of New Zealands trade flows.Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin,72(4), 42-46.