Writing In A State Of Siege English Literature Essay

Writing In A State Of Siege English Literature Essay The ten years between 1948 and 1958 recorded the bustle and disturbance of social life and exhibited the necessity and possibility of a united fight against racial discrimination. The wide spread resentment at the pass-laws, liquor raids and inadequate amenities in 1950 resulted in the suppression of Communism Act. The word communist it self meant unlawful. In 1952, eight thousand people were imprisoned for opposing the apartheid regulations. Chief Albert Luthuli, the President General of the African National Congress was banned for his commitment to a democratic and inter-racial future in South Africa. Things were in oblivion and in 1958, as the whites did not require any permits, the Fugards were advised to go to Sophiatown, a freehold township, a place which combined magic and smut, respectability and crime, black and white and the most lively and crowded of all the African townships, where the blacks and the whites could move freely, with certain social constraints. As Jurger Schadeberg observes, There was poverty in Sophiatown. There were areas that were somewhat slummy. There were gangs. There were crime and there were cutthroats, but it was a real suburb. It had all the facilities a normal suburb has. Whereas when people moved to Orlando or Meadowlands, or whatever, there was nothing there. Sophiatown was romanticized afterwards. Sophiatown was a symbol because it was a place where people were not mixed than in other places. And people owned their own property. (Schadeberg, 2002: 111-112) Sophiatown was predominantly black and also predominantly poor. The greater part of Sophiatown was a sickening slum. As Don Mattera observes the little Chicago of Johannesburg was essentially known for its cosmopolitan flavor and every conceivable space was occupied by a living thing man or animal. (Mattera 1987:49). Derek Cohen also observes, The small corner of the world, the all but forgotten township of the 1950s, Sophiatown, teems with the variety and vivacity of the world itself. Deep in the bowels of this house of hunger, where men and women tread a diurnal mill of deprivation and indignity, lie, as Fugard reminds us, humanity and strength3.(1984:273-284)) The township also had a surprisingly stunning intellectual atmosphere as the black journalists were trying to express their feelings. Jim Baileys Drum magazine covered the township life. Drum ran articles almost every month, reporting on crime figures, the circumstances forcing ordinary citizens into a life of crime, and the shebeen culture, which fed these offences. Benjamin Pogrund, a liberal friend of the Fugards advised Fugard that he would find the right atmosphere in Sophiatown for his play. The only job Fugard could find was that of a clerk in a Native Commissioners Court where offenders of the pass-laws were tried. The cruel conditions gave birth to his pessimism and his earlier incomplete novel (Tsotsi) found its voice in the two plays of his apprenticeship years, No-Good Friday and Nongogo which represented the travails of the black township. Though they were his early plays and though they lacked the dramatic charm and vision of his later plays, they indicate the struggling mind of Fugard to represent his stance as a dramatist. If No Good Friday projects the impact of bad economic conditions on the individuals who aspire for better social conditions and education, Nongogo reflects the aspirations of the people who dream for better living and individual dignity. These two early plays belong to the formative stage of Fugards maturity as a dramatist. No-Good Friday and Nongogo both represent the apartheid trauma of the South African Society. An exploration (Gray,1981:56-63) into the manuscripts of the first novel of Fugard, (which he threw into the Fiji lagoon) Tsotsi, which was published in 1980, reveals Fugards anxiety during his apprenticeship years to present the problems within the existing conditions. Fugards early plays, No-Good Friday and Nongogo also share some of the aspects of Tsotsi as they were set against the same milieu. Stephen Gray5(1981:56) feels that the characters of Tsotsi appeared in the subsequent plays of Fugard like The Blood Knot, Hello and Goodbye, People Are Living There, Boesman and Lena and in many of his plays written during the 1970s. Fugard presents the burning zeal of an incipient black revolutionary against the exploitation faced by the blacks in No-Good Friday (1958). This play works at two levels at the surface level, it appears to be a mere representation of the conditions of the blacks; but at deeper levels, it records the helplessness of the blacks in the face of exploitation by their own fellow men during the conditions of the apartheid. Fugard presents the oppressive politics working on the life of the township in various forms. Crime by African against African was an everyday reality in Sophiatown. For example an article in the November 1951 issue of Drum, The Birth of a Tsotsi, describes the classic circumstances under which a young boy takes the wrong turning: With grinding poverty and the sea of squalor that surrounds the Gold City, it is not difficult to understand the rest. There is a struggle for existence, and the individual intends to survive. Fugard records this struggle in a naturalistic manner in his early plays like No-Good Friday and Nongogo. Willie Seopela, the independent and stubborn protagonist is an aspiring youngman and he stays with Rebecca, his lady love. Willie, an intellectual in the making, with hopes for a brighter and better living, is a student pursuing his undergraduate studies through correspondence. He represents the image of the desperately stubborn black young men of South Africa. Despite hard circumstances, Willie is optimistic and highly independent. He is liked by Father Higgins, the white humanist who visits the black ghettos to offer solace. Father Higgins introduces Tobias, an innocent villager, who comes to Sophiatown for a better living, to Willie and asks him to fix him somewhere, as he is badly in need of money for his living. Willie, aware of the catastrophic situation that awaits black people in the township, asks Tobias not to entertain big dreams. He does not make any promise to Tobias. The residents of the black township are frequently nagged by Shark, a black gangster who appears every Friday, the day of their weekly payment. The innocent residents ought to offer a share from their pay packets either to Shark or similar other gangsters in trains and on roads. They cannot even make a complaint against them to the police, for, they do not have the pass-books to stay in that town. In a way, they buy their protection from Shark, their fellow black South African. Even the independent Willie makes a passive living allowing the share for Shark from his Fridays pay-packet. Tobias, unaware of these facts innocently argues about the share and gets killed in the hands of Shark. It is only after the death of Tobias, Willie realises the gravity of the situation, the result of their passive attitude and decides to oppose Shark in spite of the murderous consequences. In the process, he sacrifices his love for Rebecca. The play ends with Willie getting prepared for the challenge. The play projects a story of loss of relationships, loss of values and loss of security or protection in the white repressive world. Willie, the protagonist condemns the situation in Johannesburg and very often he appears to be the mouth-piece of Fugard. We are frequently reminded of the life-situation described in Peter Abrahams Mine Boy ,Alan Patons Cry, the Beloved Country and Alex La Gumas A Walk in the Night and And a Threefold Cord. Life is not easy there and it has become unbearable, as observed by Father Higgins, a character in No Good Friday. The grim situation of an unprotected life is summed up by Guy very well. Speaking about Shark, he says: Dont you understand? Hes got shares in the police station. . . . . . You can forget about the police. They protect a fellow like Shark. You see they are only interested in our passes. But a Kaffir laying a charge against a criminal-that would be a joke. We are all criminals. Look, Father, do not be hard on us. You know what I have just said better than any other white8. (1977: 146) As in The Blood Knot and other plays here too Fugard arranges his scenes and the protagonist to present the conditions which reflect their predicament. Asked by Guy to explain their sad life, Willie says that the music of their life is a song of melancholy, loneliness and despair (1977:125) and this is reflected in every scene, every chapter and every dialogue. The play portrays the hard realities of the life in Sophiatown, especially on Friday, which is a fertile acre for troubles (1977:126). Father Higgins, though aware of the all pervading nature of sorrow, expresses his helplessness when Willie asks him if he wants to plant a daffodil in his yard. As Don Mattera describes: The ghetto-like township was unpredictable and dangerous. There were times of searching for a loved one in some alley; finding him or her wounded in a hospital or jail, or dead in a morgue. Or checking for husband or father, a brother or a son who had never returned home from work. Or waiting for a mother, an aunt or sister who did not get off the bus or tram where you usually waited for them. Then the anguish and anxiety that would follow reports of a woman raped, beaten and robbed by the jobless and wont work brigades of tsotsis who owned the days and ruled the nights.'(1987:50) No-Good Friday portrays all these problems in Sophiatown, absence of care by the government, unemployment, frustration, poverty, insecurity, gangsterism, evils of pass-laws, broken bonds of love and the cheapness'() of life seen through the lives of various characters. Despite the hard work, they can hardly reach homes safely with their Friday pay-packets. Reflecting the problems of township life, the play is presented in the back yard of Willie and it indicates their poverty amidst iron shacks. The play has black as well as white characters, like Father Higgins, who resembles Rev. Trevor Huddleston, who made a crusade against the stringent laws of the apartheid in the townships. It also records the migration of the innocent youth to the townships to find employment. The play records the raging gangsterism, a social evil, an oppression by the notoriously stronger ones, which has no opposition. It also shows how the underprivileged ones are victimised. The race-laws worsen the condit ions of living and the Group Areas Act had restricted the blacks in the name of the pass-books. The pass laws had been a permanent threat to the African people. As observed by Edward Roux: The pass laws held the people in conditions of abject poverty and subjection à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ were the cause of sharp racial friction between the peoples of South Africa upheld the cheap labour system which resulted in malnutrition, starvation and disease and filled gaols with innocent people, thus creating wide-spread crime19.(1964:320). Fugard also projects the hidden social angle the White police mans hidden understanding with the black gangsters like Shark. Speaking about the crime of Sophiatown Bloke Modisane writes, I learned there in Sophiatoown,that one looked at the killing and never at the faces of the killers; one also knew that the law is white and justice casual, that it could not protect us against the knives of Sophiatown, so we tolerated the murders whilst the law encouraged them with its indifference.( 1986:63) The residents of Sophiatown cannot approach the police, who are obviously on the side of law. The blacks continue their survival in hellish conditions. These and similar conditions are portrayed in a more powerful manner in Sizwe Bansi is Dead. If Tsotsi traces both gangsterism and the realisation on the part of the protagonist in a single individual, No-Good Friday projects the evils of gangsterism through Shark and the realisation appears in the protagonist, Willie. Having understood the significance of life and the way it is being shattered in Sophiatown, Willie mourns over the misery of their lives and the impossibility of living. He realizes that life is not a fairy tale with a happy ending. The absurdity of living forces him not only to be away from Rebecca but from his own life itself. To make his life more purposeful and less mundane, he wants to oppose Shark by informing the police. His dreams of living happily ever after get shattered and he says: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.I gave up dreaming. Tobias reminded me of too much, Guy. He was going to make some money and live happily ever after. Thecosy little dreamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ like this, Willie and Rebecca lived happily ever after! Thats how the fairy stories end and its stupid because, out there is life and it is not ending happily14. (1977:155) He feels that life is vain and useless without a protest against the problem. He blames the individuals within his society including himself for allowing such problems. Willies opposition to Shark and the words of the cunning politician Watson project Fugards anger against such conditions. When life becomes dreadful and unprotected, it becomes meaningless. The death of Willie is not the end of the sequence, but it makes a bold beginning of opposition against gangsterism. It is also the frustration and struggle for a better life. The action of the play takes place between two Fridays and the play carries various emotions like humour, satire, shame, anger, frustration and tragedy, the representative feelings of an impoverished, fragmented and violent society20. (Sheila Fugard: 1993:408).Watson, the politician stands as a satirical portrait of the townships black politicians, who demand a sacrifice from the innocent blacks, for their own betterment. The ironical dedication of the song of Guy, Friday Night Blues itself speaks about the theme of the play. Shark, the gangster with a significant name swallows people like Tobias and ironically praises those who pay him regularly. The play brings out the fact that the people of the township should not have cosy dreams about comfortable living. Going against the tradition of depicting the gangsters from the romantic viewpoint, as was done by other writers of his time, Fugard presents Shark, the gangster, as a cruel reality. As observed by Don Mattera, No story about gangsterism or violence in the townships of Johannesburg can be complete without that of Kort Boy- real name George Mbalweni the five-foot-nothing knifeman from Benoni, a former mining town on the East Rand near Johannesburgà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Kort Boy was a legend in his day much hated , much loved it all depended on which end of knife you were at.(1987:102) Characters in No-Good Friday are many, representing the unlimited problems of his society. Each character stands for a problem. Fugard does not offer any solution but he represents things as they are, for an understanding of what was going on in South Africa. As a symphathising white liberal he expresses his sense of helplessness in the wake of events and the act of writing itself becomes an act of courage and commitment as an individual and as a writer. Despite the removal of the apartheid condition, they enjoy their validity, for, these plays stand as records of the 1950s. Fugard brings out his message best the problem of survival in the wake of hopelessness, dejection and destruction. No Good Friday had its premiers on 30th August 1958 after ten years of the initiation of apartheid in South Africa on the primitive stage of the Bantu Mens Social Centre and Fugard was praised by the African monthly Zonk for giving his unknown actors, a wonderful opportunity to show their talents. Apart from the shows in Bantu Mens Social Centre, the play was also staged amidst church walls in the townships, to black audiences and in the White suburbs. Fugard was refused permission to see even the productions he directed. During the run of No-Good Friday Fugard established friendship with important directors like Barney Simon and Tone Brulin. Not only to the actors, but to the people (both blacks and whites) of Sophiatown, it offered a scope to see themselves and their problems on the stage. Although the play has its own technical faults, as observed by critics -like heavy plotting, unlimited characters etc, the play brings out the shaping mind of Fugard as a dramatist with social concerns. The characters apart from representing the troubled people of South Africa become potential images if Willie, Tobias, Rebecca and Guy stand as the victims, Shark and Watson stand as the wicked political images of the cruel exterior of South Africa. The repeated use of the fairy-tale image with its reference to the impossibility of comfortable life speaks about the predicament of the life of the blacks in South Africa under the pressure of the cruel racist law. Fugard does not present this drama as a mere piece of entertainment. It is a realistic document about the sorrowful living of the black people of Sophiatown who suffer from inter-and intra-racial oppression. Fugard recognises that to be black in South Africa is to be poor, and that black existence is imbued with the struggle to find release from the cycle of poverty and the mean quality of life indigence creates. (Albert Wertheim:) It provokes us to think and Fugard makes his observations and statements come alive through the characters he brings on to the stage. As observed by Sheila Fugard19, the germinative ideas of a nascent playwright got fortified in his later plays like The Blood Knot, Sizwe Bansi Is Dead, The Island, Master Haroldand the boys. Fugard incorporates his intellectual and individual stances of rebellion in Willie the black protagonist. Through him, he voices out his feeling, which necessitate the reason for opposition against the dreadful forces like gangsterism which bear the impact of several cruel racist laws; but according to Nkosi, the play had very little concern with the politics behind the chronic violence and gangsterism in the ghetto. (Vandenbroucke,Russell). Nkosi feels this as a limitation. On the other hand, white writers like Alan Paton and Fugard had observed moderation in depicting their conditions. As analysed by Albert Wertheim it was their moderation that drew world attention to the outrages of apartheid. The final speech of Willie is universal in its appeal, as it explains the reasons for the birth and growth of such evil forces within a society. By making the apartheid tragedy ACT on the stage, Fugard has achieved the theatrical and political meaning of two words acting and imagination. Although Fugard sets many of his plays in South Africa and more specifically in Port Elizabeth, he is not writing specifically South African tragedy, for he uses his South African setting and this presentation of South African life under apartheid rule to define a tragic situation imbued with meaning far beyond the geographical boundaries of South Africa.21 (Albert Wertheim) The play is not restricted to South Africa alone; it appeals to the living conditions of all common people who live in poverty ridden slums and ghettos of all parts of the world. As observed by Albert Wertheim, the play is set against a realistic background-it is a statement against oppression, a feature that is found everywhere in the world. REFERENCES Schadeberg,Jurger(ed).2002. Intervies, Johannesburg 15 March 2002:105-108(Transcript) Mattera,Don.1987.Gone with the twilight: A Story of Sophiatown. London,Zed Books. 3.Derek Cohen, Beneath the Underworld: Athol Fugards Tsotsi, World Literature Written in English, Vol. 23, No.2, (1984) 273-84. 4. Stephen Gray, The Coming into the print of Athol Fugards Tsotsi, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Vol. XVI, No.1 (1981) pp 56-63. 5. Ibid.P.56 6. Athol Fugard, No-Good Friday, Dimetos and Two Early Plays, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1977. All subsequent references are to this edition. 7. No Good Friday, p 144. 8. ibid, 146. 9. ibid, 152. 10. ibid, 152. 11. ibid, 154. 12. ibid, 155. 13.Modisane,Bloke.1996.Blame Me on History, Goodwood,Western Cape: A.D.Donker 14. ibid, 155. 15. ibid, 160. 16. Albert Wertheim 17. No Good Friday, p 155 18. Mattera,Don.1987:50 19. Edward Roux, Time longer than Rope, 2nd ed. (Madison: University of Winconsin Press, 1964) p. 320; Quoted by Mbulalo Vizikhungo Mzamane, Sharpeville and its Aftermath: The novels of Richard Rive, peter Abrahams, Alex La Guma and Lauretta Ngcobo, Ariel, Vol. 16, No. 2, April 1985, pp. 30-44. 20. Sheila Fugard, The Apprenticeship Years, Twentieth Century Literature, Ed. By Jack Barbera, Vol. 39, No.4, Win 1993, p. 408. 21. Mattera,Don 22. Albert Wertheim 23. Russell, Vandenbroucke, Truths the Hand can Touch, p. 24. Albert Wertheim, ************** b) NONGOGO (1959) Like No-Good Friday, Nongogo also, but in a different way exposes the travails of the black people in Sophiatown. It exposes the anguish of the women who ran shebeens for livelihood and who longed for decency, though impossible. If Willie of No-Good Friday gets ready to face death with existential courage, Queeny of Nongogo laughs in the face of indecency and shame after a stubborn struggle against them. Nongogo, like No Good Friday also deals with the external and internal aspects of the troubled individuals against the backdrop of troubled economic conditions and suppressive rule. The unique quality of Sophiatown was further enhanced by its shebeen culture. Although blacks were not allowed to drink in the 1950s, they were not stopped by the prohibition. The Sophiatown shebeens sold illegal booze, both store-bought European liquor as well as home brewed skokian. But the shebeens were not merely informal drinking clubs. They were homely places where everyone knew each other. As apartheid ceased to exist, intellectuals like Can Themba, Nat Nkasa and others used to spread circles of literature in these shebeens. As Anthony Samson recalls: The shebeens, however, were another story. Here was what Nat Nakasa called that noble institution, those hospitable homes. Here was a place outside of apartheid as the names reflected: Back Othe Moon, Cabin in the Sky, Little Heaven, The Sanctuary, Kind Lady.(Nicol: 1991:97) Modisane recalls how his mother, after the death of his father, was forced to become shebeen queen in order to keep body and soul together. Her customers, he remembers, drank for one reason only to get drunk, as for them, getting drunk was a purposeful destruction of the pain of their lies, a drowsing of themselves in this orgiastic expenditure. They were breaking out, escaping from themselves. (1986:39) The bad economic conditions forced the black women to take up beer-brewing and shebeens to support their families and to send their children to schools. Apart from the naturalistic portrayal, Fugards play focuses light on the hidden ugliness of evil economic backdrop. As observed by Gerald Weales (1978:) both plays deal with the enervating force of the black situation in South Africa, but they do not so directly as an agitprop would. As in the novels of Peter Abrahams we watch shebeens, drunkards, squalor, hunger, and prostitution- as results of oppression. Dennis Walder(1993:414) in The Genesis of the Township plays observes: The Sophiatown plays nevertheless reflected the aspirations, violence, and vitality of urban black people,offering a window into the world of the correspondent student, Shebeen Queen, Tsotsi (gangster) and rural migrant for predominantly white, liberal audiences.They may now also be seen to have helped to legitimate everyday urban black experience the experience of the majority of South Africans as a subject, for blacks as well as whites. Nongogo presents the conflict between hope and despair, the celebration of life in all its beauty and the devalued existence without virtues. As observed by Russell Vandenbroucke Nongogo is a play about the actuality of the past and forlorn hopes for the future (: 22). The conflict is the result of victimisation. The play has two acts-with the first act getting prepared for decency and respectability, the second act plays a dirge upon the death of these two qualities decency and respectability. The play as a whole exposes the guilt-racked victims of South Africa in both physical and psychological terms. Their physical destruction culminates in their psychological crisis, where their souls wail with the anguish for being the victims of the rough exterior of South African society. The play Nongogo exposes two individuals who experience such angst and a sense of guilt. Both of them are spoiled by social conditions of South Africa. Johnny is badly used by the masochistic, sex-starved mine workers and Queeny-is exploited by the carnal appetite of the South African masculinity, during her fight to eke out a living. Both of them dream for betterment -for a life of decency and respectability which remain to be dreams-the dreams of impossibility. Johnny and Queeny both stand as the physical images of destruction of the psychological self. Like La Gumas A Walk in the Night this play projects the brutalisation that has corroded the moral faculties of the poor.(1973:55) As Fugardxx himself observes, man is more concerned about hunger physically and mentally. Johnny and Queeny become the victims of the hunger of loins and of the poor conditions of the neglected lot. There are other characters like Sam, Blakie and Patrick, who make a parasitic living and work against decency; and who are also in a way, the helpless victims of the poor conditions which can not be bettered, and they in turn victimise their fellow beings-Johnny and Queeny and their dreams of better living for their selfish purposes. The process of victimisation here as in No Good Friday, is the result of both the internal and external aspects of South Africa. Queeny, a nongogo a woman for two and six- the proprietress of a shebeen gets enthused by the arrival and speech of an unexpected salesman Johnny at her door-step. His mode of address makes her feel that she should regain her lost sense of decency. His legitimate living makes her think of dispensing with her shebeen and make a cleaner life with a sense of decency and respectability which remain to be dreams- the dreams of impossibility. Her trust in Johnny encourages her to start a legitimate cloth-business. Her idea of legitimacy creates distaste in Sam, her business partner and her earlier pimp and Blackie, her attendant. With the help of Patrick, a way-ward drunkard, Sam and Blackie spoil the mind of Johnny by sowing the seeds of suspicion. Johnny and Queeny come face to face and compelled by Johnny, Queeny unwillingly digs into her past and in this process, hates Johnny for his inability to understand a womans heart. The play ends with Queeny re-opening the shebeen. Fugard has taken care in portraying the character of Queeny. Her desire for better life with a sense of decency and her despair for not finding it form the crux of the plot. If No-Good Friday presents the process of victimization on the physical plane, dealing with the death of Tobias and of Willie, Nongogo deals with the same process, on the mental plane, indicating the death of the self, when there is the sense of guilt and helpless acceptance of the past life of filth. The crisis of Johnny and Queeny, the victims of the South African society gets interiorized in Nongogo. As Robert M. Post observes, in other plays of Fugard too we find these victims(1985:3-16). Morris and Zachariah in The Blood Knot, Frieda and Errol in the Statements; John and Winston, the political brothers in The Island; Gumboot Dhalami in Tsotsi; Sizwe Bansi in Sizwe Bansi Is Dead; Boesman and Lena in Boesman and Lena; Piet in A Lesson from Aloes and the title character of Dimetos-all of them have been victims in various ways. Queenys curiosity in shaping her life as she had wanted gets shattered. She stands helplessly alone before her own life, a testament of time, as a victim of circumstances. Her disappointment as a living being against past, present and future life is made explicit through the use of two images indicating time the singing wall-clock and the wrist watch. Fugard very keenly exhibits the absurdity of human living against the unchanging nature of time in the South African context. Johnny and Queeny remain as the victims of their conscience. The two plays Nongogo and No-Good Friday exhibit the emotional involvement of Athol Fugard in the problems of the township. The pathetic predicament of man and woman in the South African townships comes alive on the stage. Fugard displays no political purpose in his portrayal of the characters in this play. His artistic involvement as a writer and his personal reaction as a liberal individual made him represent them in a realistic manner. As he observes No-Good Friday and Nongogo are inflated verse dramas by a liberally-informed white-but both the plays are in prose. (Quoted by Russell, Vandenbroucke, THCT, p.25) The gold mines stand as a contrasting back drop to represent the cruel exterior of South Africa. As in No-Good Friday, in this play too, we find the process of victimization. Johnny and Queeny stand as the victims of external conditions with a battered conscience and shattered inner self. Johnnys extreme craving for pure life makes him blind to his circumstances. He fails to treat Queeny as a human being like himself with a yearning for perfection and for a life of decency. Queeny dominates the whole scene with her knowledge of life and an awareness of the nature of men. Her shrewd thinking and her mature opinions about womanhood against the backdrop of her unfortunate murky past as a nongogo elevate her. She says: There is now. But there was a time I thought I had all I wanted when I got this. But when I had it that was the end. There has been times I never knew what day it was in hereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and I never needed to know. Id wake up and think is it Monday or Tuesday, be Friday? It did not make any difference. Giving it a name did not make it any different from the rest. (p.91) She exhibits a dignity in the climactic scene when she is found re-opening the doors of her shebeen. Her poor conditions had made her a nongogo; her desire for betterment made her think of the life of decency and respectability and the presence of Johnny had made her once again the Queeny of shebeen. Her resurrection as the proprietress of shebeen makes her a tragic figure. She bursts out: What do you think Ive been doing for five years? It had ended Johnny, it was dead and buried when you walked in here. But you wont let it stay that way, will you? Youd be worse than Sam, who just sighs when he passes the grave. Youve dug it up. Youve performed a miracle, Johnny. The miracle of Jesus and Dead body youve brought it back to life. The warmth of your hate, the breath of your disgust had got it living again. Im not too old . . . not too fat . . . even you looked at me like you never looked at another woman. Gods put a lot of streets Ive not walked, lampposts Ive not stood under, faces Ive not smiled at. (p.11

Hollys Coffee Based In Korea Franchising In Singapore Marketing Essay

Hollys Coffee Based In Korea Franchising In Singapore Marketing Essay Thanks to the growing popularity for Korean pop and Korean dramas, they are the main influences in recent years. To benefit from the trend, Hollys Coffee, being the largest coffee chain in Korea will venture into Singapore through master franchising to gain market share in the Food and Beverage industry. Hollys Coffee will distinguish itself from the rest of the coffee chain in Singapore by bringing their uniqueness and culture to Singapore. Hollys Coffee will emphasize on its brand promotion and advertisement to allow Singaporeans to be aware of the brand. This report will further introduce how Hollys Coffee set its global strategy, the opportunities and the challenges faced. Company Background Hollys Coffee is a specialty coffee company head headquartered in Korea. The company was established in 1998 and opened Koreas first espresso shop that year. Its shops offer espresso, coffee, tea, coffee- and tea-based cold and hot specialty drinks, a variety of pastries and other snacks, and coffee supplies. By 2008, there were more than 100 Hollys Coffee shops in Korea, and the franchise had expanded with additional stores in Japan, China and Malaysia. It has a barista academy called the Hollys Coffee Academy Country Background South Korea has a market economy which ranks 15th in the world by nominal GDP and 12th by purchasing power parity (PPP), identifying it as one of the G-20 major economies. It is a high-income developed country, with a developed market, and is a member of OECD (Organization for the Economic Co-operation and Development). On top of that, it is a country filled with rich culture and heritage. Koreas population is one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogenous in the world. Virtually all Koreans share a common cultural and linguistic heritage. With 48.7 million people inhabiting an area roughly the size of Indiana, South Korea has one of the worlds highest population densities. Other financial organizations like the World Bank describe Korea as one of the fastest-growing major economies of the next generation along with BRIC and Indonesia. South Korea was one of the few developed countries that were able to avoid a recession during the global financial crisis and its economic growth rate will reach 6.1% in 2010, a sharp recovery from economic growth rates of 2.3% in 2008 and 0.2% in 2009 when the global financial crisis hit. Entry Strategy Hollys Coffee will enter Singapore through master franchising method that allows individuals or corporations to buy the rights to sub-franchise within some specific countries. This is to minimize risk when it enters the country where its brand is seldom familiar to the local community as well as it is difficult to attract investments. It is essential to motivate franchisee to serve more people. Franchising can provide high motivation to franchisees as they just need to pay fixed royalty. It means that more customers they serve customers, the more profit they can expect. The most popular franchises are those with widely recognized brand names. In fact, the brand name or trademark of a company is normally the single important item desired by the franchisee. Having K-pop influences all over the round, the Korean fans must have heard of Hollys coffee since it is the largest coffee chain in Korea and on top of that, there were dramas and variety shows that were screened in the cafes as well. Franchising is an entry mode that allows for rapid geographic expansion. Company often gains competitive advantage by being first in seizing a market opportunity. Franchisers can benefit from the cultural knowledge and know-how of local mangers. This helps lower the risk of the business failure in unfamiliar markets and can create a competitive advantage. Marketing and RD Strategies There are two entry strategies of Hollys Coffee one is to introduce products that have Korean own characteristic, another is to differentiate with other coffee brands by focusing on side menus like waffle or patisserie. However, there are a lot of its own domestic coffee retailers in Singapore and Hollys Coffee is still not well-known to local people. Thus, it is very important to make Singaporeans aware of its brand and Hollys Coffee might be exposed to the financial risk linked with heavy marketing expenditure such as brand promotion and advertisement in the course of spreading its brand. Another key point of marketing approach would be unique selling point. There are a lot of coffee shop with varies target groups with their own brand all over the world, however, only few big brands have gained majority of market shares. Gaining public awareness by promoting a unique selling point as advertisement would be a good strategy. A global marketing strategy can also be successful if the firm has managed to change local preferences. A new product entering a local market will usually change preferences to some degree, whether by new features, promotion, or price. One of the good selling points to  stand on the  market  share of  cafe business  in Singapore could be either theme, or products. At the end of the day, it depends on whether the products or the theme of the cafe house attracts the customers, and subsequently the business sustains. To coffee lovers, they are looking for good coffee for sure; to non-coffee lovers, perhaps they are looking out for a place to rest with a drink and at the same time to enjoy the ambient of the cafe house. Uniqueness of the products as mentioned above, whereby to bring in the sweet potato latte definitely catches attention of the locals. By bringing in local product to overseas  stands chance in penetrating overseas market, ultimately the overseas acceptance will also be the significant factor whether it helps to boost up sales. With Korean trends being so popular, Hollys coffee may consider to implement with things that may relate to the Korean dramas or song. Opportunities and Challenges In Singapore, It is quite challenging to stand for market share in Singapore for cafe Food Beverage sector, especially there are a lot of its own domestic coffee retailers or popular brands already well known in the market, i.e. Coffee Bean, Starbucks which makes Hollys Coffee rarely known to local people. Thus, it is very important to make Singaporeans aware of its brand and bring out the uniqueness of this Korean cafe especially the sweet potato latte that that is not available in Singapore.  By bringing in Korea characters as a theme of cafe  could be  a good selling point and marketing strategy. As for business strategy, international strategy could be the appropriate strategy since its going to maintain Korea theme cafe. Therefore, Hollys Coffee might be exposed to the financial risk linked with heavy marketing expenditure such as brand promotion and advertisement in the course of spreading its brand. It is important to come up with the marketing and promotions to introduce to the locals about Hollys coffee, as it is not easy to change the taste and preference when they are used to the existing brands. On top of that, it is expensive to start up a cafà © in Singapore, therefore it is important to have a detailed breakdown of the startup cost like registration and licensing, and other operating expenses as well. Evaluation and Conclusion All thanks to the influences of Korean pop to all over the world, there are more people getting more interested in Korean culture and heritage. There is an average of 20,000 Koreans residing in Singapore. Many Koreans will start to patronize Hollys coffee when it opens in Singapore. Singapore has been a popular choice for foreign talents internationally, as mentioned above there are about 20,000 Koreans in Singapore. It remains one of the popular places for relocation for its reputation as a safe and orderly country to educated children in. For a business, we will like it to be set up in a politically safe developed country in  comparison  to a developing country with bad political situation. Government policies and regulations may change from time to time based on political stability and poses a risk for its foreign entities.  

The Bedroom inThe Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman :: Yellow Wallpaper essays

The Yellow Wallpaper - The Bedroom As the story progresses in, The Yellow Wallpaper, it is as if the space of the bedroom turns in on itself, folding in on the body as the walls take hold of it, epitomizing the narrator's growing intimacy with control. Because the narrator experiences the bedroom in terms of John's draconian organization, she relies on her prior experiences of home in an attempt to allay the alienation and isolation the bedroom creates. Recalling her childhood bedroom, she writes, "I remember what a kindly wink the knobs of our big, old bureau used to have, and there was one chair that always seemed like a strong friend . . . I could always hop into that chair and feel safe" (Gilman 17). Ironically, Gilman's narrator cannot retire to the otherwise "personal haven" of the bedroom because she is always already there, enclosed within the attic room of John's desires, bereft of her own voice and personal history. The narrator's imagination is altogether problematic for John, who would prohibit his wife fr om further fancifulness: "[John] says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try" (Gilman 15-16). For Gaston Bachelard, who devotes himself to a phenomenological exploration of the home in The Poetics of Space, "imaginative power" is the nucleus of the home, if not the home itself. Memories of prior dwellings are for Bachelard a fundamental aspect of creating new homes based on a continuity with the past and past spaces. "[B]y approaching the house images with care not to break up the solidarity of memory and imagination," writes Bachelard, "we may hope to make others feel all the psychological elasticity of an image that moves us at an unimaginable depth" (6). Bachelard's "elasticity" infers that spatial depth and expansion are contingent upon a psychological flexibility of imagination. Gilman's narrator is nota bly denied this elasticity when her physician/husband attempts to prevent her from writing. "I did write for a while in spite of them," the narrator explains, "but it does exhaust me a good deal--having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition" (Gilman 10).

No Restraint Needed in Our Response to Terrorism Essay -- September 11

No Restraint Needed in Our Response to Terrorism Many liberals have called for restraint in responding to the September 11 attack on the United States. These groups proclaim that we must not ask "who" committed these horrible crimes but instead ask "why" the killers were so angry at the United States. In other words, what has America done to lead these people to the conclusion that murderous terrorism is the only appropriate action. The liberals contend that the terrorists feel that such monumental wrongdoing have been inflicted upon them, their families and their way of life by the United States that such calamitous actions are the only remedy. The statements by these liberals directly implies that the terrorists who killed more than 5,500 innocent Americans were not themselves responsible for the bloodshed inflicted last September 11 but rather that American actions and policies have unjustly driven otherwise peace-loving human beings to commit unprecedented mass murder - the worst act of terrorism the world has ever seen. In response to these liberals' claim that America is at fault, we would like to point out a few of the American actions that Osama bin Laden has used as a motivational tool to drive his evil co-conspirators into violent, suicidal missions. Perhaps then we can decide whether or not these innocent Americans were truly asking for it, as The statements by these liberals seems to claim. This is the list of "monumental wrongs" that the United States has committed: 1) America supported British and U.N. actions to create the State of Israel in 1948. We have helped provide and protect this homeland for the Jewish people following the slaughter of six million Europe... ..., we were savagely and inhumanely attacked; Bush and company have since reserved judgment to make certain we identify the correct perpetrators before responding in an appropriate and effective manner. The outpouring of faith and patriotism are the only things that are helping those who have been bereaved move on with their lives in these dark days. We hope you liberals, would be ashamed to meet the families of 3,500 victims or to the exhausted firefighters who have been digging mutilated bodies out of the wreckage of two 110-story buildings and the Pentagon. At this moment of grief and pain we should all be proud to stand together and support our fellow Americans. Our leaders need our prayers as do the victims and workers. We don't need divisiveness, nor do we need cowardice masquerading as conscience. May justice be served and God Bless America.

Nostradamus :: essays research papers

Nostradamus   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Michel De Nostradame, otherwise known as Nostradamus was born December 14, 1503. His family was of Jewish ancestry. His grandfather, Pierre de Nostradame, had settled in Provence because by the mid-1400s, many Jews had come to live there. Nostradamus' father was Jacques de Nostradame. Jacques worked as a scholary, since most people didn't know how to write he wrote things for them, from love letters to formal documents. Jacques' income provided a good home at the time. Nostradamus' earliest recollection of his home was the following:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Typical of all provenà §al homes in the sixteenth century was the room where both domestic and social life was carried on. The center and symbol of the room's activity was the great fireplace, majestic, caver-   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  nous, holding a banked fire that never went out since his mother and   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  father moved in. Shining pots and pans of brass hung low from the   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  mantle shelf. At either angle of the fireplace was an oak settle were his grandfathers liked to laze and talk when they came to visit. On the walls hung light cabinet shelves holding salt and spices.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nostradamus had one definite brother, Cà ¨sar who wrote Histoire de Provence, a book which sustains the myth of the Nostradamus royal line. Historians think Nostradamus had three other brothers, Bertrand, Hector, and Antoine, but they are not sure and almost nothing is known about them besides their names.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nostradamus was educated by his grandfathers. First Peyrot, who had been a great traveler, brought Nostradamus up in his home. He taught Nostradamus the basics of mathematics, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Astrology. After Peyrot de Nostradamus' death Nostradamus moved back in with his parents, Jacques and Reynià ¨re. It is thought that his other grandfather took over his education for a while, but the family decided to send Nostradamus to Avignon, which at that period was the center of Renaissance learning. At Avignon, Nostradamus spent many hours at University libraries. Nostradamus' biggest interest was astrology. His interest in astrology began to worry his parents, and by the advice of his grandfather he was sent to the University of Montpellier to study medicine. The University of Montpellier was regarded as second only to that of Paris in all of France. Nostradamus arrived there in 1522 at nineteen years of age. In three years he studied all the subjects needed for his bachelor's degree. He was tutored by some of the finest doctors in Europe. The process of getting a degree was far more arduous than in the present day, and lasted much longer. A successful candidate was given his license to practice by the bishop of Montpellier.

Economic and more political

Both leaderships considered the state to be the engine of growth and suspected foreign sector development. In China, foreign Investments were prohibited and the mechanism for foreign trade was monopolized by the Ministry of Foreign Trade. In India, the Foreign Exchange Regulatory Act (1974) reduced foreign equity participation from 51 to 40 percent which led to the exit of companies like MOM, Shell and Coca-Cola. Since that time, both governments have significantly liberalized their FED regimes, however, China has been able to attract a much higher level of foreign Investment. ] Beijing initiated the reform process much earlier than New Delhi and both entries are far more â€Å"FED-led† than other developing countries have been in the past. Nonetheless, the experience of these two large, but strikingly different countries underlies the importance of political economy for growth and development. 2]The divergence of attitudes toward FED can be easily explained by the two countri es' different political systems. China has an authoritarian regime where policy-making is generally regarded as a top-down process, and where the government Is able to be flexible In Its decision-making.Additionally, the Chinese leadership has a clear focus n economic growth. In contrast, the formation of policy in democratic India is much slower. Short-term political calculations dominate as there are frequent elections conducted at different levels- national, state, municipal or village. Interest groups are Important constituencies for Indian parties since they have the ability to provide campaign finances and influence voting behavior.That is why for democratic, post- colonial India, allowing foreign investors to earn huge profits at the expense of domestic firms is unthinkable. A further part of the answer lies in the political economy of the local state. In China. Decentralization of economic responsibility and establishment of special economic zones (Sees) was a key feature in foreign sector reform. Local authorities, responsible for the economic growth of their province, undertook many initiatives to ensure that Sees would attract foreign investors.In India, decentralization was less ‘economic' and more ‘political'. It began In the early 1 sass only because central government lacked sufficient political power and was not able to create an efficient coalition without depending on the state governments purport. Thus, local officials have no direct incentives to promote FED and state governments heavily rely on centrally-led strategies. Helmet City- a special economic zone In Hydrated, designed to attract investments in the IT sector, Is a case In point.Every significant aspect of the project, from negotiations with investors to the design FIFO broadly, local bureaucracy in India- epitomized in this case by the license-quota- permit raja- do not perceive themselves as independent actors in terms of economic reform and oblige central government to be responsible for the implementation of placement programs. Such dependence on central government also has an impact on infrastructure. In China local governments have far greater control over local revenues than in India.Under the new fiscal system that resulted from economic decentralization, Chinese provinces entered into negotiated revenue sharing contracts with the central government. This means that local governments are allowed to keep a share of revenue that they collected before handing over a negotiated amount to the central government. The ability to extract these revenues revised them with the financial resources to build a strong infrastructural base to foreign investors and maintaining a reputation for the rapid completion of infrastructure projects. Unlike in China, the tax assignment system in India is imbalanced: most broad-based taxes have been assigned to the center, while taxes narrow in scope are assigned to the states. The impact is that central government has a greater income and less expenditure whereas state governments are collecting less and spending more. This deficit in local state budgets needs to be balanced by entree funds, which in turn means greater central control of the allocation of financial resources to state governments while simultaneously laying responsibility for infrastructure development on them.Since the central government itself is running on the deficit, transfers to state governments must take second place to central consideration. This has resulted in their decline in recent years, throttling state-level infrastructure investments. State governments are not able to quickly and effectively implement these projects, thus decreasing its appeal to FED. Local states eave a little impact on macro-policy issues but they can provide the base that is crucial for attracting foreign enterprises.Local political economy and the coherence of institutional aims provide a partial answer for the promotion of FED in China. I n India, local policy was one of change Within institutions' rather than change ‘of institutions'. Existing bureaucracy had to adapt to a new circumstances within old institutional arrangements instead of following incentives created by newly established institutions Ã'‘ FED in china grew from us$3. 5 billion in 1990 to us$52. 5 billion 2002; excluding mound-tripping, china's FED inflows could fall to us$40 billion. Those to India rose from SIS$O. Billion to SIS$3. 45 billion during the same time period. Even with these adjustment, china attracted about fifteen times more FED than India in 2002 Ã'‘ FED has contributed to the rapid growth of china's merchandise exports, at an annual rate of 15 percent from 1989 to 2001. In 1989, foreign affiliates accounted for less than 9 percent of Chinese export; by 2002 they provided half. In some high-tech industries in 2000, the share of foreign affiliates in exports was over 90 percent, for example, electronics circuits (91 percent) and mobile phones (96 percent). Ã'‘ In India, by contrast, FED has been much less important in driving export growth, except in information technology. FED in Indian manufacturing has been and remains domestic market-seeking. FED accounted for only 3 percent of Indian's exports estimated to account for less than 10 percent of Indian's manufacturing exports. Ã'‘ On the basic economic determinants of inward FED, china does better than India. China's total and per capita GAP are higher than Indian's, marking it more attractive for racket seeking FED.China has higher literacy and education rates making it more attractive to efficiency seeking investors. China has large natural resources endowments. In addition, china's physical infrastructure is more competitive, particularly in the costal areas (CUTS 2010, Marianne corporation economic research institute 2009). But, India may have an advantage in technical manpower, particularly in information technology. It also has better English language skills. Ã'‘ Some of the differences in competitive advantages of the two countries are illustrated by the composition of their inward FED flows.In ‘CT, china has become a key center for hardware design and manufacturing by such companies as Acre, Ericson, General Electric, Hitachi semiconductors, Hounded electronics, Intel, LEG electronics, Microsoft, Imitate international corporation, Motorola, Neck, Monika, Philips, Samsung Electronics, Sony. Taiwan semiconductor manufacturing. Toshiba and other major electronic trans-national corporations (Tan's). India, on the other hand, specializes in IT services, call centers, business back -office operations and R. Rapid growth in china has increased the local demand for customer durables and non durables, such as home appliances, electronics equipment, Automobiles, housing and leisure. This rapid growth in local demand, as well as competitive business environment and infrastructure, have attracted many market seeking inves tors. It has also encouraged the growth of many local indigenous firms that support manufacturing. Ã'‘ Other determinants related to FED attitudes. Policies and procedures also explains why china does better in attracting FED.

The Second Coming Analysis

Between the symbolism and allusions, the poem covers the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelations. In the first stanza, â€Å"mere anarchy† refers to the flood in Genesis. The last stanza refers to the anti-christ and the time of the apocalypse. In the final lines Yeats describes the sinners as â€Å"rough beasts† dragging themselves to Bethlehem for the second coming of Christ. The body of the poem describes the decay of society. It refers to the non-believers, or atheists and the real problem, the sinners. However, he does point out that even Christ was tempted in the desert, hell on earth.He uses a metaphor to allude to the Great Sphinx (The body of a lion and the head of a man), which symbolizes the devil’s home. Furthermore, this is also a reference to the Book of Exodus, which describes the morphing of locusts and scorpion’s tails. These layers of meaning make it difficult for high school students to interpret the poem. I suggest that a teacher star t with eight vocabulary words: gyre, vexed, anarchy, revelation, falconer, Spiritus Mundi, reel, indignant. Denote the text. Then discover all the metaphors and symbols. It takes quite a bit of research to connote â€Å"gyre†.The dictionary definition is simple, but Yeats uses gyre in many of his writings. He uses a double-helix to symbolize the spiraling decay of society through â€Å"blood-dimmed tides† or wars. Then he uses the upward spiral to symbolize the times of peace. For Yeats society was a never-ending cycle of war and peace. From there he takes us to medieval times, to a violent, but orderly sport of hunting, until the falcon cannot hear the falconer and it turns into chaotic, unreasonable violence. Is you use the Bible to interpret the rest of the poem, it will be clear: Yeats is a pessimist who saw the underbelly of society.