Fight club essay Essay Example

Fight club essay Essay Experiencing death and grief brings a new mindset to a persons life. Regardless of whether It Is a physical or emotional death, grieving for a person, or facing a broken dream, It defines and gives life a new meaning, along with a sense of happiness and gratefulness. It shows the other side of things, as its learning by experience, and this is one of the best ways to learn. In the book Fight club, the main character struggles and complains of his unimportant existence, and Marl is a suicidal, careless woman tit no motivation until she started attending cancer support groups, fell in love and experienced loss, when her life was given meaning. The men involved in the fights were seeking to add significance to their lives through the fights. It is in pain, death and grief that one acknowledges and appreciates reality, the hand of cards given to each one of us in life, and sets priorities straight and a passionate focus. Only through these feelings Is It possible that lifes fragility can be recognized and that maturity can be set In. With maturity comes setting Limits, values, and goals for ones life. In the book, Marl and the men of fight club show how Important pain Is as a part of the human experience, and that you have to embrace pain to experience life fully. For men, scars have a prideful meaning- it denotes grandiosity and bravery in living a life to its fullest. Scars bring about memories of moments of pain and that established a mark that changed our bodies from normal perfect skin to a place of reminiscence. We will write a custom essay sample on Fight club essay specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Fight club essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Fight club essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer In the book, fighting had a significant meaning. Being a men, being live, and having a body used for a purpose helped men overcome their fears. These fears were faced by these men every day. Fear of losing their job, or of staying in it for life, fear of not being able to use their strength or muscles, fear of not being able to feel, fear of continuing to live with a lack of guidance or paternal figure. It all started by an unusual moment where Tyler said, l want you to do me a favor. I want you to hit me as hard as you can. I didnt want to, but Tyler explained It all, about not wanting to die without any and then they fought. Tyler became that eternal figure for many and they all felt their lives were not a waste. They felt they had a purpose in life- to fight, to follow a leader, and to limit their time in wasteful things. Living under the shadow of death and pain brought acceptance to their lives. Embracing life by living on the edge of death was also the way Marl lived. She faked having cancer and explained how alive she felt at support groups. The narrator described [t]here was no real sense of life because she had nothing to contrast it with. Oh but now there was the dying and death and loss and grief Now that she knows where were all going, Marl feels every moment of her life (38). But where is this place we are all going? It is not that Marl was a believer of the existence of heaven, but that she now saw the light at the end of the tunnel and death, along with all of the grieving and mourning that was there, and she could feel those emotions and a sense of direction for her life. She was not sick, but she pretended being terminally ill to be able to belong with a group of those that had a purpose and a intense enjoyment and fulfillment. It was in having proof that the process of dying was taking place, like having some type of cancer, where the process of living started for her. The course of life in a cancer patient is reshaped dramatically when the diagnosis has been pronounced. In the TV show American Morning, CNN, 13 June 2003, Bill Hemmer said: you said cancer changed your life, and oftentimes for the better. To what Joel Siegel responded: Yes. Gilda Reader Said this in her book. What cancer does is, it forces you to focus, to prioritize, and you learn whats important. I mean, I dont sweat the small stuff. I used to get angry at cab drivers. Its not worth it. And when somebody says you have cancer, you realize its all small stuff. And what Gilda said is, if it werent for the downside, everyone would want to have it. But there is a downside. There is no way these realizations and priorities can be achieved in such a simple and fast way, unless cancer is in the picture. The suffering associated with cancer redefines what we used to think suffering was. There is a sense of freedom in this knowledge, in learning what is truly significant in fife and living only for those significant moments. The true significance of life originates when we realize that even in losing something, much is able to be gained in life. Fight club specifies this when the main character loses all of his belongings and starts changing his life significantly. Tyler tells the narrator Its only after youve lost everything, Tyler says, that youre free to do anything (70). Loss and failure teaches you what is it that you truly want from life and helps you set your priorities trait, because it is acting upon those priorities when your boring reality becomes an adventure, when you experience what fully living is. Gaining that meaning was accomplished by fighting, by inspiring other men to do the unthinkable, to dare to be how they really wanted to be and by caring for Marl, regardless of how unbalanced their relationship was. Support groups became supporting friends, and facing reality was the beginning of a healthy life for our narrator. Pain, loss and grief allow us to embrace life with freedom and live life to the fullest. 1019

The Weather Underground

The Weather Underground The official name of the group is Weatherman, but it was called â€Å"the Weathermen† and when members withdrew from public view, became the â€Å"Weather Underground.† The group, founded in 1968, was a splinter organization from the group Students for a Democratic Society. The name comes from a song by American rock/folk singer Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues, which contains the line: You dont need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. Objectives According to the groups 1970 Declaration of War against the United States, its goal was to lead white kids into armed revolution. In the view of the group, revolutionary violence was necessary to combat what they perceived as a war against African-Americans, and military actions overseas such as the Vietnam war and the invasion of Cambodia. Notable Attacks and Events May 19, 1972: The group set off a bomb in the Pentagon.March 1, 1971: The bombing of the U.S. Capitol was designed to protest the US invasion of Laos, according to a communiquà © issued at the time. There were several hundred thousand dollars of property damage, but no one was injured.March 6, 1970: Three members were killed while making bombs in a Greenwich Village house. This incident drove the group fully underground.October 8, 1969: The violent Days of Rage riot was staged by the Weathermen in Chicago, to protest the Vietnam war. History and Context Weather Underground was created in 1968, during a tumultuous moment in American and world history. To many, it appeared that national liberation movements and left-leaning revolutionary or guerrilla movements were harbingers of a different world than that which prevailed into the 1950s. This new world, in the eyes of its proponents, would upend political and social hierarchies between developed and less developed countries, between races, and between men and women. In the United States, a student movement loosely organized around these new left ideas grew over the course of the 1960s, becoming increasingly vocal and radical in its ideas and activities, especially in response to the Vietnam War and the belief that the United States was an imperialist power. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was the most prominent symbol of this movement. The university student group, founded in 1960 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, had a broad platform of goals related to their critiques of American military interventions overseas and their charges of racism and inequality in the United States. The Weather Underground came out of this ethos but added a militant spin, believing that violent action was required to effect change. Other student groups in other parts of the world were also of this mind in the late 1960s.

International Marketing Strategy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

International Marketing Strategy - Assignment Example A key issue for the company is the positioning strategy for the products; whether it should sustain the luxury image line or give in to modern design trends in order to broaden its target markets. This paper critically analyzes the influence of cultural environmental changes on Wedgwood's international marketing strategy in UK, Japan and USA. In the end, the paper summarizes a range of proposed strategies for the Wedgwood brands. Traditionally the houseware and specialties market, including the tableware market, has been characterized by slow yet steady market growth (Morgan et al, 2005). The compound annual growth rate for the market between 2000 and 2004 is 5.1% (Datamonitor, 2005). The market performance, respectively Wedgwood's sales have been driven by some strong consumer shopping preferences and spending patterns in several of the world's developed economies (Datamonitor, 2005). Internationally, Wedgwood operates in eastern (Japan) and western (Europe and USA) markets that have different cultural characteristics in terms of language, religion, and context in communications, values and many other aspects. For a product category like tableware that is culture-dependent, the socio-cultural aspects in Japan, United Kingdom and USA exercise key influence on local demand. These factors determine local branding and positioning and should guide Wedgwood in developing local marketing and communications strategies. The cultural elements that shape demand are grouped by Geert Hofstede according to five large dimensions - power distance, individualism and collectivism, masculinity and femininity, uncertainty avoidance and long versus short term orientation (Wikipedia, Geert Hofstede, 2006). All the three markets are masculine cultures (Wikidedia, Geert Hofstede, 2006), which reflects in more assertive behaviour, and visible search for achievements and self-expression (Wikipedia, Masculine and Feminine Cultures, 2006). The US market is characterized to be the most individualistic culture, whereas Japan is characterized by Hofstede as a collectivistic culture of the so called "community man" (Wikipedia, Collectivist and Individualist cultures, 2006). Still, social and economic changes in the Japanese society, "the end of guaranteed lifetime employment, [] and the loss of confidence in Government and financial institutions []" have shifted the collectivistic behaviour towards greater expressed indiv iduality and customization. What this means to Wedgwood is that it is increasingly facing similar demographic and cultural patterns on a global scale. Cultural changes are reflected in the need for self-expression, uniqueness and independence (Wikipedia, Collectivism and Individualism Cultures, 2006). Consumers look for products that closely fit their lifestyle and express their individuality better. Casual dining, frequent eating out, the decrease in importance