The Ironic Title of Ordinary People
The significance of the title "Ordinary People" is that it is
ironic because there are not ordinary people in the book. It does not
correspond with the novel itself. As defined in Webster's Dictionary,
ordinary means usual, common, or normal. To most people, this is what they
think they are. However, in the book being unordinary is common for most
of the characters. The author of this book, Judith Guest, probably titled
this book "Ordinary People" to make readers ask themselves, "What is
ordinary? Am I ordinary?"
The title describes the book as being ordinary when the characters
are really unusual. For example, most teenagers do not try to commit
suicide. However, in this book, Conrad Jarett tries to kill himself. He
attempts suicide because he is depressed about his older brother's death.
He lost his brother in a boating accident and he blames himself for his
death. He believes that he could have prevented the accident by coming in
from the sea when the waters began to get rough. However, there was
nothing that Conrad could have done to prevent the boat from capsizing.
His attempt to commit suicide is one of the things that makes him
unordinary from normal teenagers.
In the real world, many teenagers attempt suicide. But, this is
not ordinary. It is unusual for a teenager to attempt or commit suicide.
Society does not look at this sort of behavior as ordinary. If a teenager
does attempt suicide, they are usually seeking attention and looking for
pity. As a result of these actions, they are seen as having some sort of
mental incapacity and are treated for it. Therefore, this is not ordinary
and Conrad was not either.
Another character in this book who is not ordinary is Beth Jarett,
Conrad's mother. Conrad feels as if she does not love him. She hardly
talks to him. She also treats him as if he does not belong in the family,
like a stranger. For example, in one part of the book, Conrad bends over
to hug his mother and she just sits there and does not hug him back. In
another part, his father wants to take a picture of Conrad and his mother
In the poem, "Ordinary Life," by Barbara Crooker, the speaker uses irony to signify how her life is anything but but ordinary. To the speaker, "this [is] a day when nothing [happens]," however, the readers can clealy see how busy the speaker's day is throughout the poem (1). The speaker's first duty of the day is to get her children ready to go to school. Then she spends her entire morning building "block stacks in the squares of light on the floor" (5-6). When "lunch [blends] into naptime" for the baby, the speaker "[cleans] out kitchen cupboards" (7-8). This indicates that the speaker is a hard working mother and does not relax until she finishes all her chores. Furthermore, in the afternoon, she "[peels] carrots and potatoes" for dinner
wanted to learn how to make those same sounds he went straight to his mother
...rson and he knows that she will take care of the little guy even if the Guy is not around. A distort desire to be free of the situation drive the whole family into tragedy and leave them grieves
Judith Guest's novel Ordinary People evinces some main principles of the modernist literary movement, such as the philosophy that modern man is beset by existential angst and alienation. According to Carl Marx, a renowned existentialist, alienation, as a result of the industrial revolution, has made modern man alienated from the product of his own labor, and has made him into a mechanical component in the system. Being a "cog in the wheel" prevents modern man from gaining a sense of internal satisfaction of intellectual and emotional pleasure. Further more, according to Sigmund Freud, there are two pleasures, work and love. Consequently, Freud would say that being disconnected from pleasure from work, half of the potential for psychological fulfillment would be lost. Modern man is suffering from alienation as a result of large institutions, and as individuals, modern man neither feels that they are part of them nor can understand them. Additionally, the existentialists say, man is shut out of history. Modern man no longer has a sense of having roots in a meaningful past nor sees himself as moving toward a meaningful future. The modern man also suffers from alienation in his relationships with other people. Since he lives life not authentically and not knowing who he is, he cannot relate to others authentically. Hence, there are no real relationships at work and there are no real relationships of love. Also, according to Sartre, modern man is absolutely not a victim of his environments, of his childhood, and the circumstances in his life. The events in life are only neutral and since modern man is free, he chooses the meanings of the facts of his life. Modern man lives in a constant state of existential angst, which is dread of the nothingness of human existence and the fact there is no underlying purpose to human existence or set of objective truths or morals by which to navigate life. According to Martin Heideggar, German existentialist philosopher, the unaware person tries to escape the reality of death by not living life to the fullest. However, death can be the most significant moment for the individual, his defining moment of personal potential, if accepted and confronted squarely will free the individual from anxiety of death.
In the last two years Family Video's employee retention has dramatically decreased. Employee retention has gone from sixty five percent to a staggering fifty two percent in the last two years. Family Video is currently growing at an average of sixty new stores each year. With this rapid growth Family Video must focus on how to increase the employee retention.
Stereotypes have become a socially accepted phenomena in today’s society. So socially acceptable, in fact, they have made it onto advertising billboards and into our daily language. We do not think twice as they pass our tongues, and we do tilt our heads in concern or questioning as they pass into our ears. In Judith Butler’s essay “Besides Oneself: On the Limits of Sexual Autonomy”, stereotypes are exposed and explored. Especially stereotypes pertaining to sexual orientation. Butler explains how stereotypes are unacceptable. She does this in a way which allows her to concurrently explore what it means to be human, and also what humans do or need to make Earth a livable place for ourselves. When examining Butler’s essay, one could say, and
That means all costs related to the service provided to the customer will be charged on that service and no transfer of the cost of the service to any other stage because services are provided according to the costumers' orders.
There are two primary rules, used by all properly managed companies, from one-appraiser firms to Fortune 500 companies:
Both of the stories I will be writing about are short stories with a great deal of irony. Even though both stories contain ironic background in a dark and sad way they are both different on a wide scale.
Saussy, P. F. (2004). EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANNING ROADMAP. Journal of Financial Service Professionals, 58(2), 10-10+. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.villanova.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/209618200?accountid=14853
The method of depreciation (straight line, reducing, sum of years’ digits or productive output method) used for each assets. The method is important in deriving the book value.
Variable costs- these are costs that change depending on amount of use and output of sales and the capacity of production e.g. Electricity, parts and materials.
On an income statement, profit calculated by deducting the cost of goods sold from total net sales is called gross profit. Gross profit has a meaningful role in the profitability of a company. (Hirst 2013). The COGS includes both fixed costs and variable production costs. Both types of production costs can reduce gross profits. However, fixed production costs, such as buildings and equipment, are unaffected by production levels, whereas variable costs, such as the wages paid to factory workers and the cost of raw materials increase when production levels rise.
Variable costs is the cost of an input whose quantity does rise when output goes up, when the firm requires to make or produce outputs, this cost will be occurred consequently. It can be reduced by reducing output. (William J. Baumol, Alan S Blender, 1997)
While most employees are all for workforce wellness programs, there are also employees who are against it. American employers have embraced the workplace wellness programs, going from 75 percent of employers embracing it to 93 percent (Bottles, 34). The one major thing employers are looking to do is to lower their costs. Safeway is one company that has totally embraced a workplace wellness program. The article points out that Safeway has had their wellness program in place since 2005 and it has helped to keep their healthcare costs steady for four years (Bottles, 34). With the cost of healthcare constantly increasing, this is a huge benefit for such a large company. Another positive comes from the community care of North Carolina, where a Medicaid program that firms have claimed has saved the state over $1 billion over three to four years (Bottles, 34). Since they have stated all the positives, then the negatives come in. For example, CVS is being sued by an employee because she refuses to pay $600 more for health insurance because she refuses to be screened,