The Disappearance Analysis free essay sample

The short story â€Å"The Disappearance† by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni basically is about an Indian man who lived in America. At first, he married an educated Indian girl. However, she, unlike her husband, did not have a traditional mindset. She eventually left him, and this was something which he could not accept. He started to recall the times when she was with him. He was in a state of denial that his wife could possibly leave him when he thought he had been good to him, and that he had done enough to satisfy her. However, this was not the case. His wife wanted a modern husband – one who would let her have her say, and not only bringing her to Yosemite Park. He tried to forget about her, but he could not do so. He then came across a light old tea tin which she used to put her jewelry in. We will write a custom essay sample on The Disappearance Analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In his deep conscious mind, he knew that something was wrong in their marriage, although it seemed perfectly fine on the surface. He went to bank to find all her jewelry gone, but she did not take anything which was not hers. Reality slapped him in the face – he realized that she had really left him. Sad and humiliated, he remarried a simple and uneducated woman who would never be anything like his first wife – a modern woman with a need for say and equality. Before moving on to the analysis of the short story, one needs at least some background knowledge about the author to fully understand what compelled him or her to write a story. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was born in Kolkata, India. She went to the United States for her graduate studies, receiving a Master’s degree in English from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She also has a Ph. D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Most of her works are set in India and the United States, and the focus of her stories are often on the experiences of South Asian immigrants. She held many odd jobs to continue studying, including babysitting and working in the dining hall of the International House where she lived before. She also serves in organisations that help South Asian or South Asian American women who find themselves in abusive or domestic violence situations (Creative Writing program at the University of Houston, and the Advisory board of Maitri in the San Francisco Bay Area and Daya in Houston), and helps educate underprivileged children in India (the board of Pratham). Here, we can see why she writes mostly on stories based in India and the United States. We can also say that the influence of their culture has brought some impact to Divakaruni’s short story â€Å"The Disappearance† which  portrays some aspects of feminism and culture of both the traditional Indian and the modern society of the West. Knowing the theory used in the story is also instrumental. Feminist criticism examines the ways in which literature reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social and psychological oppression of women. This paper is about the analysis of the short story â€Å"The Disappe arance† using Feminist theory. This short story reinforces the oppression of women economically, socially and psychologically. The main theme of the story is about the delicate balance that is necessary in a marriage. In â€Å"The Disappearance†, the coming together of two different individuals caused a clash in expectations for both the husband and the wife. The husband had high expectations of his wife, wanting her to be dutiful and obedient, but also educated at the same time. This is absurd as most women who are educated would not be submissive to their husbands. On the other hand, the wife wanted to pursue her own dreams. She thought by marrying an Indian man living in America, she would get a husband who has a more modern mindset. However, this was not the case. All she got for a husband was exactly that – an Indian living in America, but still with a traditional way of thought. In short, it was traditional marriage which the husband wanted versus modern marriage which the wife strived for. Marriage should be a mutual agreement between two individuals, and both should be equal in terms of say and rights. However, in this short story, the husband had most of the say in things. For instance, his wife wanted to wear American clothes, but he insisted that she wore Indian clothing. He also objectified both his first and second wives as trophies. He had many expectations of his first wife at first – he described his ideal type of woman as if she were an object subject to his likeness. This is proved by the quotes in the short story, â€Å"If you can find me a quiet, pretty girl, he wrote, not brash, like Calcutta girls are nowadays, not with too many Western ideas† and â€Å"But she had to be smart, at least a year of college, someone he could introduce to his friend with pride†. His way of putting it makes it clear that he viewed his wife as a prize or trophy which he could be proud of and show off to his friends. After his first wife left him, again he had specific â€Å"requirements† that needed to be fulfilled in looking for a second wife. This time, he wanted a simple and uneducated woman. This main theme here reinforces feminist criticism in the way that women were viewed as objects rather than individuals, especially in this story where the society is patriarchal, and that the women were expected to obey and give precedence to their husbands. The sub theme of â€Å"The Disappearance† is the duties of women as wives. The women work as full-time housewives. The first wife was economically oppressed. This can be seen from the quote â€Å"Once in a while, he had to put his foot down, like when she wanted to get a job or go back to school or buy American clothes†. The husband denied the wife of the opportunity to hold a job and hence, she did not have the chance to support herself financially. She was also oppressed psychologically because she was restricted and could not live the life she wanted even though they were living in a free country. She eventually escaped and left behind the only product of their marriage which she really loved – her son. This must be a hard decision for a mother to leave her child behind, but we can say that she is not entirely irresponsible. This is because chances of her child growing up normally like his peers would be unlikely if they were to be in hiding everyday. By leaving her son behind, the wife could ensure that he would be taken care of, at least financially, by her husband. She could not guarantee that for her child given the circumstances she would be facing by escaping from her husband. So, this point here reinforces Feminist criticism. However, there is also a quote in the story which undermines Feminist criticism. â€Å"She’d been out for her evening walk, she took one every day after he got back from the office. Yes, yes, always alone, she said that was her time for herself†. Here, we can see that the wife was allowed to go for a walk every evening. She was not really restricted to be at home 24/7. This point here then undermines Feminist criticism. Besides that, the characters can also show us whether the short story reinforces or undermines Feminist criticism. There are two main characters in â€Å"The Disappearance†, which are the husband and the first wife. The husband was one who had a traditional mindset. This is different from his wife who had a modern way of thinking. This caused them to have a clash in expectations, and such a matter would most likely affect the delicate balance in a marriage. Even though he loved his first wife dearly, he was blind to her interests and needs, resulting in her escape later. The quote â€Å"But he always softened his no’s with a remark like, What for, I’m here to take care of you, or, You look so much prettier in your Indian clothes, so much more feminine† shows us that he made decisions for his wife despite what she wanted, denied her freedom, and that he viewed women as weak creatures who had to be dependent on men. He also domestically abused his wife. â€Å"He was always careful not to hurt her, he prided himself on that. And he always told himself he’d stop if she really begged him, if she cried. After some time, though, she would quit struggling and let him do what he wanted. But that was nothing new. † Here, we see how the husband was insensitive of his wife’s feelings and needs. The wife needed something – something more than sex. She had learned to quit resisting and only meeting her husband’s needs, only because she knew that resisting would not do her any good. She was subjugated, and her feelings were not taken into account at all. Moving on to the next character, which is the first wife, we can see that she was economically and psychologically oppressed by her husband. The husband should not have the right to deny her of opportunity to further her studies or to get a job. However, he denied her of both. She was also forced to leave her son behind because she had made her decision – to be free of her ever-controlling husband. These oppressions had caused their marriage to lose its balance when two individuals are not equal – that one dominated the other. The first wife was also someone with a modern and progressive mindset, as opposed to her husband’s which was more traditional. This led to conflicts as she was merely a decoration – something for the husband to be proud of, like a trophy he brought home. Thus, she had to suffer psychologically not only from the treatment her husband gave her, but also from leaving her son behind after she decided to leave for good. These points here show the reinforcement of Feminist criticism, although one could say that the point where the wife decided to leave her husband oppresses Feminist criticism because she was still strong enough to make decisions on her own and to leave her family behind in pursue of her own dreams. As a conclusion, the short story â€Å"The Disappearance† shows us both the reinforcement and the oppression of Feminist theory, but the reinforcement of the theory is more obvious and portrayed through the oppressions faced by the main character, the first wife, whether emotionally, physically or mentally. As future teachers, it is our job to educate the younger generation so that they are aware of such oppressions and that they can stand up for their rights and fight for justice when necessary. Women should not be oppressed in any way because they can contribute as much to the country as the men can.

How to Write a High-Quality Marketing Term Paper a Complete Guide

How to Write a High-Quality Marketing Term Paper a Complete Guide A term paper is a written assignment you have to complete over a period of one term – it serves as a representation of your academic achievement over this time and accounts for a significant portion of your grade. In other words, it is certainly a kind of academic work you should learn how to do if you want to successfully graduate. The size of a term paper may vary depending on the task and the topic. Normally, a 10-page paper is considered appropriate, but there are no strict limitations (unless they are clearly imposed by the college). If you can write 15 pages, good for you – as long as these 15 pages are full of content and not filler. Likewise, if you are dealing with a narrow topic and manage to tell everything you wanted to tell in 5 pages, don’t try to bloat it up to a certain word count – conciseness is always preferable to wordiness, even if it makes your paper look rather short. Marketing papers are somewhat different from the rest because they are more concerned with the practical side of things and more often deal with case studies, examples from real marketing campaigns, analysis of existing marketing practices and their application in different situations and so on. How to Choose a Topic for Your Marketing Term Paper As you are going to spend an entire term writing this paper, it pays to be prepared and put some thought into what topic you choose. Even if the topic is simply assigned to you by your tutor, it may be a good idea to do a bit of reading on it and, if you find a way to alter it to your advantage, discuss this possibility with your supervisor. Don’t approach the choice of a topic lightly – it is better to spend some time reading up on it than to suddenly realize half a term later that you don’t have enough material to work on. Here are some general principles that will help you choose a better topic: Read the syllabus. Supervisors always prepare detailed guidelines for word count, format, topic selection and other aspects of term paper writing – or at least they should. If you find that some instructions are missing, ask. 9 times out of 10 missing instructions are an oversight rather than an attempt to make you figure something out by yourself. Don’t take things for granted – if you’ve done a term paper before, read the syllabus just as attentively as the first time around. Requirements differ dramatically from class to class and from term to term; Make sure the topic is relevant. It is especially important in case of marketing, because what is considered best practices changes quickly, and a topic or idea may lose its relevance over the course of a few months. However, it doesn’t mean that old case studies won’t do – some of the older promotion campaigns can still give us valuable lessons; Marketing stories surround us at all sides, and promising topics can be found everywhere – you just have to make an effort to look. Newspaper articles and news websites, online marketing resources (Inc. and Forbes often publish high-quality relevant content), your syllabus, relevant journals and magazines – spend some time to skim through recent texts. If all else fails, ask your supervisor for help – you may end up with a less interesting topic this way, but there will certainly be enough sources for it; Generalize or narrow down your topic. Many good term paper ideas are wasted either because students try to encompass too broad topics and end up telling a little about a lot, or because they try to concentrate on too narrow topics and end up not having enough to say. A good rule of a thumb is to say what you must in your first draft and then either trim the fat or generalize to similar or related subjects. Here are some examples of what may constitute a good marketing term paper topic: The Importance of Brand Positioning Exemplified by Nike’s â€Å"Just Do It† Campaign; Cartoon Network 2007 Guerilla Marketing Campaign and the Importance of Due Diligence; The Use of Corporate Social Responsibility to Improve Company’s Equity; Target Corporation’s Statistical Marketing Strategy: Efficiency vs. Ethical Concerns; Incorporation of Standardization by Global Marketing. Pre-Writing Tips Some students rush to start writing immediately after they select a topic, believing that the faster they get something done, the faster they will complete the paper. This is a misconception most of the time you spend working on a marketing term paper should be spent gathering sources and doing research. Writing signifies the end of your work rather than its beginning – you should make notes as you read the sources and interview people, but you should already have a definite picture of the entire paper before you start your first draft. Otherwise, you will most likely have to make extensive corrections many times over. Gathering Sources No academic work exists in isolation, and it is true for marketing as well. You cannot simply take a case study, analyze it and write down your conclusions. Even if your analysis is impeccable and conclusions are innovative, without the support from existing body of literature your paper won’t be accepted by the academic community. So how should you approach hunting for sources? Use both primary (first-hand knowledge, documents, statistics, interviews, experiments, books, articles etc.) and secondary sources (other researchers’ interpretations and explanations of primary sources). You should understand that not all sources are equal – primary ones are more valuable, and you should use them whenever possible, resorting to secondary ones only where it is necessary. When you’ve finished gathering the sources, go over them and see if there are too many secondary ones – if they are too numerous you may want to remove a few or add a few primary sources so that it doesn’t look as if you rely on non-original sources too much; As a rule of a thumb, you should have 1 to 3 sources per page. So, for a 10-page paper you should have at least 10 sources, but closer to 20 for good measure. The more the better, just make sure your paper doesn’t turn into a list of quotations; Diversify your sources. Use a variety of resource types: articles from serious academic publications, mass media, Internet resources, case studies, statistical research, books, essays; Ask for your professor’s help. He has been dealing with this topic for years and knows literature that is worth reading; Look in online indexing and abstract databases like Business Source Complete, Emerald Insight or Factiva. They contain information on an enormous amount of top-notch business and marketing content – just by browsing the titles and abstracts of papers you will be able to understand if this or that topic has a lot of material to explore. Some of these databases require subscriptions but also offer free trial access, so make use of it. Besides, most universities and colleges provide subscriptions to a number of academic databases to their students – find out which ones you can use and don’t hesitate to do so. Market Research In marketing, it is not enough to quote other people’s work. You have to go out and do your own market research. The most common way to do so is to carry out a market survey – i.e., collect information from a sample group of consumers that may be selected either at random or following certain prerequisites. These surveys may be product-, customer- and company-oriented, each concentrating on different aspects of research. Sometimes it may be worth posing a survey as one type but in fact carry out another – this can help you achieve interesting results unobtainable in any other way. Marketing Term Paper Writing Tips from Our Experts Just like any other academic assignment, a marketing term paper has a relatively fixed structure. It can vary from college to college, but usually you will have to deal with the same set of sections: Outline; Introduction; Thesis statement; Body paragraphs (sometimes further subdivided into explanatory and analysis/argument paragraphs); Conclusion. Let’s elaborate on them. Outline Outline is a detailed plan of your paper. Here you specify what you should write in each part of the paper. Pay special attention to introduction and thesis statement – they are short but extremely important as a part of a bigger picture. Body paragraphs can do with simple enumeration of main points to mention lest you forget them and logical connections between paragraphs. Some students omit writing the outline, but it is a mistake – if you have it, you won’t forget a single point and will be able to immediately see if some parts of the paper seem illogical or disconnected. Introduction Marketing is not different from any other academic discipline in this respect – an introduction should catch the reader’s attention and lead him up to your thesis statement. However, you shouldn’t forget that a term paper is a piece of scientific work first and foremost, which means that funny, whimsical and/or quirky introductions are out of the question. However, using a line like â€Å"My term paper is about the importance of logos in creation of brand identity† is also a bad idea. A good middle ground is to refer to an interesting fact related to the topic of your paper that suggests the direction in which you are going to take your argument, e.g., â€Å"In 2010 Gap launched a new logo, trying to follow the trend and look more modern. It lasted for two days before they had to revert to the old one following a massive public backlash†. Thesis Statement Contrary to popular misunderstanding, a thesis statement doesn’t simply repeat the topic of your paper. It is an idea you’ve come to, an assertion you make after doing the research on the topic, a statement of the truth which you try to prove in your paper. It should follow a few basic rules: It must be a statement, not a question (â€Å"Brands are an important part of corporate identity†, not â€Å"Are brands important†?); It should be able to serve as a very short outline of your paper. By reading the outline your reader should be able to get the point you are trying to make – the rest of the paper is just its proof; It should be specific. Be as precise as possible and avoid words like â€Å"certain†, â€Å"some† etc.; It should be written in your own words. Don’t use quotes. Body Paragraphs The most widespread way of writing body paragraphs is as follows: Introduce a new point relevant to the overall topic; Add factual evidence in support of this point; Address potential counter-arguments and explain what may look like inconsistencies in your reasoning; Go over the point one more time in relation to your thesis; Provide a logical connection with the following paragraph. As you may see, normally you should clearly delineate paragraphs so that each deals with an individual point. It makes it easier to both write and read your paper. When writing, follow these principles: Be laconic. The fewer words you use to express an idea, the better. However, don’t try to cut the unnecessary words now – you will have a chance to do it during revision. Simply keep it in mind when you arrange your thoughts; Avoid passive voice. (Write â€Å"Masterson proved this point in his work† rather than â€Å"This point was proved by Masterson†); Don’t use emotional language. Although marketing deals with emotions, you as a specialist should maintain perfect objectivity; Don’t overuse quotations. Although you are supposed to support your writing with existing body of research, your job is to do your own work, not recap what other people have written. Conclusion Usually conclusion is more or less a recap of the introduction: you return to your original point, refer to the evidence you’ve found and discussed in the course of a paper, decide if you’ve managed to prove your point and point out any outstanding issues that may remain. Post-Writing Tips You Can’t Ignore Revision is no less important than writing; probably more so. Unfortunately, many students don’t understand this and get worse grades than they potentially can with proper proofreading and revision. If you want to increase the chances of success for your marketing term paper, follow these suggestions: Finish early. You have an entire term to write, so try to plan your work so that you finish it some time before the deadline (e.g., a week earlier). This will give you plenty of time to correct your mistakes and rewrite passages that are particularly bad; Let it rest. Put your paper aside for a few days before starting to revise it; Don’t try to correct all types of mistakes in one go. It’s better to revise it several times, each time concentrating on a different type of problems; Check the paper for consistency. One of the most common mistakes marketing students make is inconsistency – in terms, in spelling, etc. Usually it concerns abbreviations and acronyms, inconsistent use of hyphens (-), en dashes (–), and em dashes (- ) and spellings of individual words (labor vs. labour, labelling vs. labeling); Change the appearance of your paper. Either print it or temporarily change the font or its size. This will help you notice mistakes that you could have got too used to seeing by now; Check formatting. Consult your supervisor about the format used by your college and carefully study its requirements. If going through an entire style guide is too much for you, try an online guide like Purdue Owl – they present a shorter variant of the same. You can learn to write high-quality marketing term paper through lots and lots of practice – but with the help of this marketing term paper writing guide, you can start out better off than most of your peers.