The Theory Of Media Richness

The Theory Of Media Richness To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in a way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others. Anthony Robbins. Electronic mail is a method of exchanging digital message from sender to receiver. Email plays an important role in business today and has become a basic necessity in any organization just like paper and ink. It is been used by many as an all-encompassing collaboration platform than a simple communications tool. According to P.K McBride (2006), World Wide Web is an ever- growing aspect of internet with billions of web pages. Workers are given unrestricted access to the Web, allowing them to manage their own research. It provide facility to copy, reply or forward messages like document and graphical files to the sender or to the third party. Effective transfer of messages and informations within the organization and between top managers and employees is very essential for the betterment of company. Email is the most commonly used electronic messaging service. Smartphone which includes email as basic feature has increased accessibility of email. It influence mobile technology, email has a major impact on business, marketing, medical field and banking. The purpose of this essay is to evaluate Email as communication tool in personal and organizational level. However, this essay firstly define email and its use in organization along with different use of theories for email communications and which include Information overload Social cues Media richness theory Critical social theory Controlling effect From above all the theories, Media Richness Theory is the most effective for business communication as it deals with symbol carrying capacity which refers to face-to-face communication and which is a must for any organization to success and build relationships. This essay focuses on people attitude towards communications and its implementations in work place with respect to Media Richness theory. Essay explains employees use of email and mobile communication for their personal and organizations purpose and how Computer-Media Communications plays an important role in it. Advantages and disadvantages of the theory are specified with example of BlackBerry and Android. In the end, my own experience of use of mobile email communication is explained in relation to my personal email diary found in the appendix. Implementation of theory and Email communication. Communication helps coordinate and effective control resulting in clear understanding, good production and healthy climate for cooperation among the various levels. Both for personal as well as organizational use, email have become a part of our everyday lives from communicating with friends, for new job application. Most services on internet whether its social networking or professional ask for email address before using their service. According to Mullins (2010: 230), Email has some emotions woven creatively to encapsulate feelings through signs and symbols. It has many advantages like free communication between social groups and in organization which involves communication with employees, clients as well as potential customers. Email help maintain records and archive of business transaction, rechecking past information, file repository, contracts which could be recovered later. It help have a record of your clients database and act as a address books which has all the important co ntacts that could be conveniently retrieved anytime. The portable gadgets like mobile phones and laptops are able to send and receive emails and help manage your business even if you are travelling or in another part of the world. The communication tool for evaluating email could be best explained by Media Richness Theory by Richard L. Daft and Robert H. Lengel. According to them it is a frame work to describe a communications medium by its ability to reproduce the information sent over it. It helps understand the impact of different communication media type on message and help reduce ambiguity of communication through proper selection of communication media. It comes from Computer -Media Communication (CMC) and is often associated with business communication by Newburry (2001). Sitkin, Sutcliffe and Barios-Choplin (1992) found data carrying capacity and symbol carrying capacity to carry information. Face-to-face communication would be characterized as rich media while modern information technology such as email could be classified as lean media. It deals with internal communication within an organization context. The theory got upgraded to email and it was considered as a good way of communication in organization. Silverstone in the beginning of the 90s [Zhao 2005], put forward concept of Domestication of Technology Theory which deals with how technology gets integrated in people daily life and its impact on social environment where as in other hand it deals with communication in business and it is based on contingency theory and information processing theory. E.g. if a manager need to remind its employees about an upcoming meeting then which communication medium should be used to inform and send the message: face-to-face, telephone, memo or electronic mail? Such communication choice in organization varies from its level of ambiguity. Employee can be updated and get connected to top management through emails, and can also get latest news reports and this could be obtained by effective use of this Theory. Proper training and guidance is very much essential for introducing new technology at work place for obtaining complete employee involvement in the organization. An employee can obtain many different types of mails such as personal emails, emotional mails from friends and relatives, social emails involving some event or activities, professional mails with job interviews, notifications of ads etc Face-to-face communication medium is the richest one followed by email, telephone, memos and letters (Rice and Shook 1990). Advantage of Media Richness Theory: Ability to reproduce information. Sender chooses a communication medium. Reduces uncertainty and equivocality. Help improve employees performance. Disadvantages of Media Richness Theory: Choice of media is done by assumption of rational decision making. Actual use of media and social influence is not reflected. Ignores use of symbolism in communication. Theory is devised before the widespread use and developments of email. Mobile users like to get their mails in their mobile devices and which launched the mobile email solution with BlackBerry. The handheld device helps receive and send mails wherever they are and help stay employee connected and could give immediate feedback as soon as possible. Another example is the Android Operating System in modern mobile system which provides users to do array of operations as it can run multiple applications at the same time, multitasking and is more fluid than other cell phones. Mobile email allows composing, forward and responding to emails exactly in the same way as on a personal computer. With the fast spread of mobile email, it is getting integrated in our social and work life as it has potential to impact the way employees use email and work together. Mobile email is now becoming an important tool for mobile workers for effective communication, coordination, collaboration and to handle complex situations on move hence resulting in improved relationship with customer, co-workers and supervisors. After critically analyzing my own email for a week, I have found that the use of mobile email device for communication has some advantages as well as some disadvantages. In my survey, I have received mails from social network sites, personal mails, job vacancies and notifications. Mobile email help keeps me connected with the world and help to be updated; I could check my mails on a move and even reply to some important mails. For example there are situations when I receive irrelevant mails like advertisements and junk mails and I read them thinking its important and hence waste my own time. When I am on move and expect some important mails to arrive and then battery dies or I misplace my phone then it can give rise to major problem. Devices could be easily broken or misplaced and could also create privacy invasion towards personal and organizational security. It makes a person so dependent towards it that people spend less time with family and friends. The one main disadvantage of m obile mail device is it has a negative health effect and which a major problem in todays busy life. Conclusion: Communication is very essential for any organization to build relationship and for its success. The use of mobile device for email is been adopted by people for personal as well as for organizational purpose. It helps receive mails even when they are on outside their homes or organization. From the critical evaluation, Media Richness Theory is the most effective theory to understand the value of mobile email devices as an effective tool for communication. This theory help organization to select appropriate communication media to communicate with its employees and to stay connected through mobile email devices and an example of such a device is BlackBerry and Android which help send and receive mails at anytime and anywhere. Mobile mailing helps keep a record of their daily activity and also maintains database which enable them to communicate with people no matter where they are. The Human Resource professionals play supportive role in achieving organisations goals by making employees and technology join together for effective result in work place. The introduction of new technology help raise productivity of work, develop new product and services, innovative thinking and developed method of communication between colleagues and customers. Mobile communication acceptance device in an organization depends on its management and employees and how well they get mixed with technology and its usage. The devices has many advantages like instant mail alert, help stay connected while move and having peoples record and ease of communication where as the disadvantage include lack of social participation and privacy factor. The use of new technology like mobile email for communication in relation to Media Richness Theory is now reaching its heights and is been adopted by organization for its employees personal and professional use.

A Game of Thrones Chapter Sixty-eight

Daenerys Wings shadowed her fever dreams. â€Å"You don't want to wake the dragon, do you?† She was walking down a long hall beneath high stone arches. She could not look behind her, must not look behind her. There was a door ahead of her, tiny with distance, but even from afar, she saw that it was painted red. She walked faster, and her bare feet left bloody footprints on the stone. â€Å"You don't want to wake the dragon, do you?† She saw sunlight on the Dothraki sea, the living plain, rich with the smells of earth and death. Wind stirred the grasses, and they rippled like water. Drogo held her in strong arms, and his hand stroked her sex and opened her and woke that sweet wetness that was his alone, and the stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky. â€Å"Home,† she whispered as he entered her and filled her with his seed, but suddenly the stars were gone, and across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame. † . . . don't want to wake the dragon, do you?† Ser Jorah's face was drawn and sorrowful. â€Å"Rhaegar was the last dragon,† he told her. He warmed translucent hands over a glowing brazier where stone eggs smouldered red as coals. One moment he was there and the next he was fading, his flesh colorless, less substantial than the wind. â€Å"The last dragon,† he whispered, thin as a wisp, and was gone. She felt the dark behind her, and the red door seemed farther away than ever. † . . . don't want to wake the dragon, do you?† Viserys stood before her, screaming. â€Å"The dragon does not beg, slut. You do not command the dragon. I am the dragon, and I will be crowned.† The molten gold trickled down his face like wax, burning deep channels in his flesh. â€Å"I am the dragon and I will be crowned!† he shrieked, and his fingers snapped like snakes, biting at her nipples, pinching, twisting, even as his eyes burst and ran like jelly down seared and blackened cheeks. † . . . don't want to wake the dragon . . . â€Å" The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run. † . . . don't want to wake the dragon . . . â€Å" She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. Her son was tall and proud, with Drogo's copper skin and her own silver-gold hair, violet eyes shaped like almonds. And he smiled for her and began to lift his hand toward hers, but when he opened his mouth the fire poured out. She saw his heart burning through his chest, and in an instant he was gone, consumed like a moth by a candle, turned to ash. She wept for her child, the promise of a sweet mouth on her breast, but her tears turned to steam as they touched her skin. † . . . want to wake the dragon . . . â€Å" Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. â€Å"Faster,† they cried, â€Å"faster, faster.† She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. â€Å"Faster!† the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward. A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew. † . . . wake the dragon . . . â€Å" The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow of her wings. She could smell home, she could see it, there, just beyond that door, green fields and great stone houses and arms to keep her warm, there. She threw open the door. † . . . the dragon . . . â€Å" And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. â€Å"The last dragon,† Ser Jorah's voice whispered faintly. â€Å"The last, the last.† Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own. After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars. She woke to the taste of ashes. â€Å"No,† she moaned, â€Å"no, please.† â€Å"Khaleesi?† Jhiqui hovered over her, a frightened doe. The tent was drenched in shadow, still and close. Flakes of ash drifted upward from a brazier, and Dany followed them with her eyes through the smoke hole above. Flying, she thought. I had wings, I was flying. But it was only a dream. â€Å"Help me,† she whispered, struggling to rise. â€Å"Bring me . . . † Her voice was raw as a wound, and she could not think what she wanted. Why did she hurt so much? It was as if her body had been torn to pieces and remade from the scraps. â€Å"I want . . . â€Å" â€Å"Yes, Khaleesi.† Quick as that Jhiqui was gone, bolting from the tent, shouting. Dany needed . . . something . . . someone . . . what? It was important, she knew. It was the only thing in the world that mattered. She rolled onto her side and got an elbow under her, fighting the blanket tangled about her legs. It was so hard to move. The world swam dizzily. I have to . . . They found her on the carpet, crawling toward her dragon eggs. Ser Jorah Mormont lifted her in his arms and carried her back to her sleeping silks, while she struggled feebly against him. Over his shoulder she saw her three handmaids, Jhogo with his little wisp of mustache, and the flat broad face of Mirri Maz Duur. â€Å"I must,† she tried to tell them, â€Å"I have to . . . â€Å" † . . . sleep, Princess,† Ser Jorah said. â€Å"No,† Dany said. â€Å"Please. Please.† â€Å"Yes.† He covered her with silk, though she was burning. â€Å"Sleep and grow strong again, Khaleesi. Come back to us.† And then Mirri Maz Duur was there, the maegi, tipping a cup against her lips. She tasted sour milk, and something else, something thick and bitter. Warm liquid ran down her chin. Somehow she swallowed. The tent grew dimmer, and sleep took her again. This time she did not dream. She floated, serene and at peace, on a black sea that knew no shore. After a time—a night, a day, a year, she could not say—she woke again. The tent was dark, its silken walls flapping like wings when the wind gusted outside. This time Dany did not attempt to rise. â€Å"Irri,† she called, â€Å"Jhiqui. Doreah.† They were there at once. â€Å"My throat is dry,† she said, â€Å"so dry,† and they brought her water. It was warm and flat, yet Dany drank it eagerly, and sent Jhiqui for more. Irri dampened a soft cloth and stroked her brow. â€Å"I have been sick,† Dany said. The Dothraki girl nodded. â€Å"How long?† The cloth was soothing, but Irri seemed so sad, it frightened her. â€Å"Long,† she whispered. When Jhiqui returned with more water, Mirri Maz Duur came with her, eyes heavy from sleep. â€Å"Drink,† she said, lifting Dany's head to the cup once more, but this time it was only wine. Sweet, sweet wine. Dany drank, and lay back, listening to the soft sound of her own breathing . She could feel the heaviness in her limbs, as sleep crept in to fill her up once more. â€Å"Bring me . . . † she murmured, her voice slurred and drowsy. â€Å"Bring . . . I want to hold . . . â€Å" â€Å"Yes?† the maegi asked. â€Å"What is it you wish, Khaleesi?† â€Å"Bring me . . . egg . . . dragon's egg . . . please . . . † Her lashes turned to lead, and she was too weary to hold them up. When she woke the third time, a shaft of golden sunlight was pouring through the smoke hole of the tent, and her arms were wrapped around a dragon's egg. It was the pale one, its scales the color of butter cream, veined with whorls of gold and bronze, and Dany could feel the heat of it. Beneath her bedsilks, a fine sheen of perspiration covered her bare skin. Dragondew, she thought. Her fingers trailed lightly across the surface of the shell, tracing the wisps of gold, and deep in the stone she felt something twist and stretch in response. It did not frighten her. All her fear was gone, burned away. Dany touched her brow. Under the film of sweat, her skin was cool to the touch, her fever gone. She made herself sit. There was a moment of dizziness, and the deep ache between her thighs. Yet she felt strong. Her maids came running at the sound of her voice. â€Å"Water,† she told them, â€Å"a flagon of water, cold as you can find it. And fruit, I think. Dates.† â€Å"As you say, Khaleesi.† â€Å"I want Ser Jorah,† she said, standing. Jhiqui brought a sandsilk robe and draped it over her shoulders. â€Å"And a warm bath, and Mirri Maz Duur, and . . . † Memory came back to her all at once, and she faltered. â€Å"Khal Drogo,† she forced herself to say, watching their faces with dread. â€Å"Is he&mdash?† â€Å"The khal lives,† Irri answered quietly . . . yet Dany saw a darkness in her eyes when she said the words, and no sooner had she spoken than she rushed away to fetch water. She turned to Doreah. â€Å"Tell me.† â€Å"I . . . I shall bring Ser Jorah,† the Lysene girl said, bowing her head and fleeing the tent. Jhiqui would have run as well, but Dany caught her by the wrist and held her captive. â€Å"What is it? I must know. Drogo . . . and my child.† Why had she not remembered the child until now? â€Å"My son . . . Rhaego . . . where is he? I want him.† Her handmaid lowered her eyes. â€Å"The boy . . . he did not live, Khaleesi.† Her voice was a frightened whisper. Dany released her wrist. My son is dead, she thought as Jhiqui left the tent. She had known somehow. She had known since she woke the first time to Jhiqui's tears. No, she had known before she woke. Her dream came back to her, sudden and vivid, and she remembered the tall man with the copper skin and long silver-gold braid, bursting into flame. She should weep, she knew, yet her eyes were dry as ash. She had wept in her dream, and the tears had turned to steam on her cheeks. All the grief has been burned out of me, she told herself. She felt sad, and yet . . . she could feel Rhaego receding from her, as if he had never been. Ser Jorah and Mirri Maz Duur entered a few moments later, and found Dany standing over the other dragon's eggs, the two still in their chest. It seemed to her that they felt as hot as the one she had slept with, which was passing strange. â€Å"Ser Jorah, come here,† she said. She took his hand and placed it on the black egg with the scarlet swirls. â€Å"What do you feel?† â€Å"Shell, hard as rock.† The knight was wary. â€Å"Scales.† â€Å"Heat?† â€Å"No. Cold stone.† He took his hand away. â€Å"Princess, are you well? Should you be up, weak as you are?† â€Å"Weak? I am strong, Jorah.† To please him, she reclined on a pile of cushions. â€Å"Tell me how my child died.† â€Å"He never lived, my princess. The women say . . . † He faltered, and Dany saw how the flesh hung loose on him, and the way he limped when he moved. â€Å"Tell me. Tell me what the women say.† He turned his face away. His eyes were haunted. â€Å"They say the child was . . . â€Å" She waited, but Ser Jorah could not say it. His face grew dark with shame. He looked half a corpse himself. â€Å"Monstrous,† Mirri Maz Duur finished for him. The knight was a powerful man, yet Dany understood in that moment that the maegi was stronger, and crueler, and infinitely more dangerous. â€Å"Twisted. I drew him forth myself. He was scaled like a lizard, blind, with the stub of a tail and small leather wings like the wings of a bat. When I touched him, the flesh sloughed off the bone, and inside he was full of graveworms and the stink of corruption. He had been dead for years.† Darkness, Dany thought. The terrible darkness sweeping up behind to devour her. If she looked back she was lost. â€Å"My son was alive and strong when Ser Jorah carried me into this tent,† she said. â€Å"I could feel him kicking, fighting to be born.† â€Å"That may be as it may be,† answered Mirri Maz Duur, â€Å"yet the creature that came forth from your womb was as I said. Death was in that tent, Khaleesi.† â€Å"Only shadows,† Ser Jorah husked, but Dany could hear the doubt in his voice. â€Å"I saw, maegi. I saw you, alone, dancing with the shadows. â€Å" â€Å"The grave casts long shadows, Iron Lord,† Mirri said. â€Å"Long and dark, and in the end no light can hold them back.† Ser Jorah had killed her son, Dany knew. He had done what he did for love and loyalty, yet he had carried her into a place no living man should go and fed her baby to the darkness. He knew it too; the grey face, the hollow eyes, the limp. â€Å"The shadows have touched you too, Ser Jorah,† she told him. The knight made no reply. Dany turned to the godswife. â€Å"You warned me that only death could pay for life. I thought you meant the horse.† â€Å"No,† Mirri Maz Duur said. â€Å"That was a lie you told yourself. You knew the price.† Had she? Had she? If I look back I am lost. â€Å"The price was paid,† Dany said. â€Å"The horse, my child, Quaro and Qotho, Haggo and Cohollo. The price was paid and paid and paid.† She rose from her cushions. â€Å"Where is Khal Drogo? Show him to me, godswife, maegi, bloodmage, whatever you are. Show me Khal Drogo. Show me what I bought with my son's life.† â€Å"As you command, Khaleesi,† the old woman said. â€Å"Come, I will take you to him.† Dany was weaker than she knew. Ser Jorah slipped an arm around her and helped her stand. â€Å"Time enough for this later, my princess,† he said quietly. â€Å"I would see him now, Ser Jorah.† After the dimness of the tent, the world outside was blinding bright. The sun burned like molten gold, and the land was seared and empty. Her handmaids waited with fruit and wine and water, and Jhogo moved close to help Ser Jorah support her. Aggo and Rakharo stood behind. The glare of sun on sand made it hard to see more, until Dany raised her hand to shade her eyes. She saw the ashes of a fire, a few score horses milling listlessly and searching for a bite of grass, a scattering of tents and bedrolls. A small crowd of children had gathered to watch her, and beyond she glimpsed women going about their work, and withered old men staring at the flat blue sky with tired eyes, swatting feebly at bloodflies. A count might show a hundred people, no more. Where the other forty thousand had made their camp, only the wind and dust lived now. â€Å"Drogo's khalasar is gone,† she said. â€Å"A khal who cannot ride is no khal,† said Jhogo. â€Å"The Dothraki follow only the strong,† Ser Jorah said. â€Å"I am sorry, my princess. There was no way to hold them. Ko Pono left first, naming himself Khal Pono, and many followed him. Jhaqo was not long to do the same. The rest slipped away night by night, in large bands and small. There are a dozen new khalasars on the Dothraki sea, where once there was only Drogo's.† â€Å"The old remain,† said Aggo. â€Å"The frightened, the weak, and the sick. And we who swore. We remain.† â€Å"They took Khal Drogo's herds, Khaleesi,† Rakharo said. â€Å"We were too few to stop them. It is the right of the strong to take from the weak. They took many slaves as well, the khal's and yours, yet they left some few.† â€Å"Eroeh?† asked Dany, remembering the frightened child she had saved outside the city of the Lamb Men. â€Å"Mago seized her, who is Khal Jhaqo's bloodrider now,† said Jhogo. â€Å"He mounted her high and low and gave her to his khal, and Jhaqo gave her to his other bloodriders. They were six. When they were done with her, they cut her throat.† â€Å"It was her fate, Khaleesi,† said Aggo. If I look back I am lost. â€Å"It was a cruel fate,† Dany said, â€Å"yet not so cruel as Mago's will be. I promise you that, by the old gods and the new, by the lamb god and the horse god and every god that lives. I swear it by the Mother of Mountains and the Womb of the World. Before I am done with them, Mago and Ko Jhaqo will plead for the mercy they showed Eroeh.† The Dothraki exchanged uncertain glances. â€Å"Khaleesi, † the handmaid Irri explained, as if to a child, â€Å"Jhaqo is a khal now, with twenty thousand riders at his back.† She lifted her head. â€Å"And I am Daenerys Stormhorn, Daenerys of House Targaryen, of the blood of Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel and old Valyria before them. I am the dragon's daughter, and I swear to you, these men will die screaming. Now bring me to Khal Drogo.† He was lying on the bare red earth, staring up at the sun. A dozen bloodflies had settled on his body, though he did not seem to feel them. Dany brushed them away and knelt beside him. His eyes were wide open but did not see, and she knew at once that he was blind. When she whispered his name, he did not seem to hear. The wound on his breast was as healed as it would ever be, the scar that covered it grey and red and hideous. â€Å"Why is he out here alone, in the sun?† she asked them. â€Å"He seems to like the warmth, Princess,† Ser Jorah said. â€Å"His eyes follow the sun, though he does not see it. He can walk after a fashion. He will go where you lead him, but no farther. He will eat if you put food in his mouth, drink if you dribble water on his lips.† Dany kissed her sun-and-stars gently on the brow, and stood to face Mirri Maz Duur. â€Å"Your spells are costly, maegi.† â€Å"He lives,† said Mirri Maz Duur. â€Å"You asked for life. You paid for life.† â€Å"This is not life, for one who was as Drogo was. His life was laughter, and meat roasting over a firepit, and a horse between his legs. His life was an arakh in his hand and his bells ringing in his hair as he rode to meet an enemy. His life was his bloodriders, and me, and the son I was to give him.† Mirri Maz Duur made no reply. â€Å"When will he be as he was?† Dany demanded. â€Å"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east,† said Mirri Maz Duur. â€Å"When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child. Then he will return, and not before.† Dany gestured at Ser Jorah and the others. â€Å"Leave us. I would speak with this maegi alone.† Mormont and the Dothraki withdrew. â€Å"You knew,† Dany said when they were gone. She ached, inside and out, but her fury gave her strength. â€Å"You knew what I was buying, and you knew the price, and yet you let me pay it.† â€Å"It was wrong of them to burn my temple,† the heavy, flat-nosed woman said placidly. â€Å"That angered the Great Shepherd.† â€Å"This was no god's work,† Dany said coldly. If I look back I am lost. â€Å"You cheated me. You murdered my child within me.† â€Å"The stallion who mounts the world will burn no cities now. His khalasar shall trample no nations into dust.† â€Å"I spoke for you,† she said, anguished. â€Å"I saved you.† â€Å"Saved me?† The Lhazareen woman spat. â€Å"Three riders had taken me, not as a man takes a woman but from behind, as a dog takes a bitch. The fourth was in me when you rode past. How then did you save me? I saw my god's house burn, where I had healed good men beyond counting. My home they burned as well, and in the street I saw piles of heads. I saw the head of a baker who made my bread. I saw the head of a boy I had saved from deadeye fever, only three moons past. I heard children crying as the riders drove them off with their whips. Tell me again what you saved.† â€Å"Your life.† Mirri Maz Duur laughed cruelly. â€Å"Look to your khal and see what life is worth, when all the rest is gone.† Dany called out for the men of her khas and bid them take Mirri Maz Duur and bind her hand and foot, but the maegi smiled at her as they carried her off, as if they shared a secret. A word, and Dany could have her head off . . . yet then what would she have? A head? If life was worthless, what was death? They led Khal Drogo back to her tent, and Dany commanded them to fill a tub, and this time there was no blood in the water. She bathed him herself, washing the dirt and the dust from his arms and chest, cleaning his face with a soft cloth, soaping his long black hair and combing the knots and tangles from it till it shone again as she remembered. It was well past dark before she was done, and Dany was exhausted. She stopped for drink and food, but it was all she could do to nibble at a fig and keep down a mouthful of water. Sleep would have been a release, but she had slept enough . . . too long, in truth. She owed this night to Drogo, for all the nights that had been, and yet might be. The memory of their first ride was with her when she led him out into the darkness, for the Dothraki believed that all things of importance in a man's life must be done beneath the open sky. She told herself that there were powers stronger than hatred, and spells older and truer than any the maegi had learned in Asshai. The night was black and moonless, but overhead a million stars burned bright. She took that for an omen. No soft blanket of grass welcomed them here, only the hard dusty ground, bare and strewn with stones. No trees stirred in the wind, and there was no stream to soothe her fears with the gentle music of water. Dany told herself that the stars would be enough. â€Å"Remember, Drogo,† she whispered. â€Å"Remember our first ride together, the day we wed. Remember the night we made Rhaego, with the khalasar all around us and your eyes on my face. Remember how cool and clean the water was in the Womb of the World. Remember, my sun-and-stars. Remember, and come back to me.† The birth had left her too raw and torn to take him inside of her, as she would have wanted, but Doreah had taught her other ways. Dany used her hands, her mouth, her breasts. She raked him with her nails and covered him with kisses and whispered and prayed and told him stories, and by the end she had bathed him with her tears. Yet Drogo did not feel, or speak, or rise. And when the bleak dawn broke over an empty horizon, Dany knew that he was truly lost to her. â€Å"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east,† she said sadly. â€Å"When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When my womb quickens again, and I bear a living child. Then you will return, my sun-and-stars, and not before.† Never, the darkness cried, never never never. Inside the tent Dany found a cushion, soft silk stuffed with feathers. She clutched it to her breasts as she walked back out to Drogo, to her sun-and-stars. If I look back I am lost. It hurt even to walk, and she wanted to sleep, to sleep and not to dream. She knelt, kissed Drogo on the lips, and pressed the cushion down across his face.

Harry Potter And The Novel The Rye - 1546 Words

The complexity and Rowling’s willingness to take on difficult and contemporary issues such as racism, genocide, classism, and difference – makes Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone uniquely valuable. While both books can be regarded as controversial due to the moral fibre of them, Catcher in the Rye, captures an adolescent protagonist wavering between childhood and adulthood. Holden Caulfield, a confused teenager, explores how adult life appears complex and incomprehensible to teenagers on the brink of entering it. Likewise, Harry Potter focuses on a timid young boy, unsure of his abilities. While both characters are young and dissatisfied with the world around them, Harry finds ways to resemble positive change and adjusts to the world surrounding him. Holden, however, refuses to acknowledge that adulthood scares him, using the ‘museum’ to symbolise something that remains unchanged. By the museum representing childhood as a world of innocence, c uriosity and honesty, readers are able to distinguish that adulthood to Holden is a world of superficiality and hypocrisy and phoniness. (Reference) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and The Catcher in the Rye both depict bildungsroman. A bildungsroman being defined as â€Å"a novel that recounts the development of an individual from childhood or adolescence to maturity, to the point at which the protagonist recognizes his or her place and role in the world† (Murfin Supryia 39). While Holden Caulfield is an unusualShow MoreRelated Harry Potter: Good or Evil? Essay1486 Words   |  6 PagesHarry Potter: Good or Evil? Throughout adolescents, a child is taught to use his or her imagination. A child is read stories of a talking cat or a silly old bear while still young and naà ¯ve. The child is read such stories to encourage use of his or her creativity. 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Foerstel, is a list of the top 50 most banned books in the 1990s. Among these books are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Catcher in the Rye, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and The Grapes of Wrath. If I am not mistaken these are all books known to be American classics, books that everyone should read. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was on my list of books I was required to read,Read More Censorship - A Clash of Wills and Morals Essay4147 Words   |  17 Pagesof these works contains a new and exciting concept. If there were nothing striking about these works, they would never have been canonized. However, with these new ideas and points of view comes suspicion and fear. If one critic lauds a novel for giving a new perspective on a controversial issue, there is no doubt that there will also be a citizen looking to maintain the status quo and suppress these new ideas. 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InRead MoreChildrens Literature13219 Words   |  53 PagesLocke: Late 1600s 8 3. Beginning of Children’s Literature: Late 1700s 10 4. Fairy and Folk Tales 12 The Golden Age of Children’s Literature: Late 1800s 12 5. Victorian Childrens Literature 16 6. Contemporary Childrens Literature 18 6. Analysis of Harry Potters’ series 21 7. Conclusion 30 8. Summary 31 Children’s Literature Definitions 31 The Ancient World [ancient Rome; 50 BCE to 500 CE] 31 The Middle Ages [500 to 1500 CE] 31 The European Renaissance [1500-1650 CE] 32 The 17th Century 34 The 18th andRead MoreLiterary Criticism : The Free Encyclopedia 7351 Words   |  30 Pages Bildungsroman From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search In literary criticism, a Bildungsroman (German pronunciation: [ˈbÉ ªldÊŠÅ‹s.Ê oËÅ'maË n]; German: novel of formation, education, culture),[a] novel of formation, novel of education,[2] or coming-of-age story (though it may also be known as a subset of the coming-of-age story) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood (coming of age),[3]Read MoreBanned Books On The American School System1824 Words   |  8 Pageslist, nine were found in the high school’s library and quickly removed. 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Vitality Health Enterprises Inc Essay examples - 1464 Words

POLYTECHNIC OF NAMIBIA HAROLD PUPKEWITZ GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc Case Report By Leonardo Imerne Strategic Human Resources Management (SHM910M) Date: 21 June 2014 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report will focus on the performance management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc, which is a cosmetics and beauty products oriented business. The business started off well with a fast expansion approach. As the company grows, performance management of its staff was necessary to reward top performers as a motivation factor, and also to identify poor performers so they could be trained further or relieved from their positions. The report will therefore highlight the problems associated†¦show more content†¦The performance management system had 13 different rating levels (from A to E, including minutes and pluses). This system had later proved to be less effective since managers who used it were dishonest, and rather rated employees averagely rather than deservedly. Since this system was developed to reward top performers, they ended up feeling under-appreciated because they were rated as average as any other employee, regardless of productivity. According to Bingham B eer (2012), the employees frustration was caused by the point system of calculating salaries and performance-based raises. The formula that was used was: pay policy line = Base Salary + (Job Evaluation Points * Increase per Point, which was later modified by a comparative ration, or â€Å"compa-ratio†, based on individual performance in the company. Comparative ratio analysis is a method companies use to assess their financial performance, http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-comparative-ratio-analysis.htm. With compa-ratio, the employees with consistently higher performance sometimes even receive smaller raises than their less productive colleagues. The Vitality Health Enterprises Inc had later decided to increase the salaries across the entire workforce, with no provision for bonuses or alternative forms of compensation. This resulted in all employees receiving high salaries regardless of their overall performance. In response to these issues, theShow MoreRelatedCase Analysis: Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc1483 Words   |  43 Pagesï » ¿ Case Analysis Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc Situational Analysis: Introduction: Vitality Health Enterprises initially started its business as Vitality by importing small quantities of cosmetics from Japan. Initially it started marketing in its neighbourhood and to local organizations. 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