Sommers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sommers - Essay Example Considering these aspects, I think Sommer is a little accurate about me as even I face dilemmas while thinking in terms of morale. But fortunately only at rare times, I believe, have I been in situations that have made me helpless to make confident moral judgments.  Sommer has suggested that adults, especially teachers should improve the youth’s knowledge and comprehension of moral values and they should guide the youth into believing in these values and ideals. â€Å"Teachers with integrity are viewed as morally sound models for young people to follow† and so I believe that teachers play a significant role in molding the children’s character and moral behavior. â€Å"Moral Conservatism† is what she thinks the society needs. She believes that people live in a moral environment and that they should respect and preserve it. She emphasizes the need to value and respect the traditions that we have inherited. She also wants to encourage the institutions, whic h promote moral teachings along with academics. The essay in total has a very interesting appeal to it. It does not present facts in a boring way like most essays do. However, the thing that interested me the most is the story about the hippies as I am coming across it for the first time. Also her phrases such as "hole in the moral zone," "social fabric" etc seem very unique and unique things. I am very grateful for being given this assignment, as it has helped me learn new facts and has inspired me to be more responsible towards my ethics.

Optimal Experiences, Temporality and Participation Assignment

Optimal Experiences, Temporality and Participation - Assignment Example From this paper it is clear that according to definition of the concept, it actually may be regarded as the most rewarding of all values, and thus the most important one. In my opinion, this is an ideal representation of flow that is hard to be reached on practice due to different limitation and obstacles like failure to understand what the client wants, clarity of final goal, main value prioritized by the clients in favor of other, extrinsic features, etc. Also, I would like to know what others think about relevance of helping the latter category of clients finding the occupations they enjoy more than others instead of seeking for jobs with high level of compensation and other material benefits. It is probably often not worthy of efforts since the person, even seeking more enjoyable occupation, would fail in reaching the flow due to the more complicated nature of enjoyment that is of combined nature.This essay discusses that  while there are people who know exactly what they are l ooking for and what activity brings them joy, there are also people who are not sure. This may be due to them still searching for their area of interest, as well as the possibility that some people like changing occupations, and this is their ‘flow’ of some kind. While such clients do not fit in the elaborated scheme, yet helping them is as necessary as helping others, this question necessitates further research and discussion.  

Changes in International Financial Markets

Changes in International Financial Markets What forces have brought a rapid change in the field of IFM? Today’s financial reality is that fiat money knows no national boundary. We do live in a global village era. Development in one country or region can spill over across borders. One branch of study that consider the financial landscape is Financial Management (FM) which is mainly concerned with optimal financial decisions, such as those pertaining to corporate finance with a view to maximize shareholders’ wealth. In case of International Finance the objective becomes more complex and importance of Management is inevitable because it is intricate to determine exchange rate fluctuations and to forecast the cash flow. So, International Finance Management (IFM) is thus, essential for financial managers to fully understand vital international dimensions in the light of maximizing stakeholders’ wealth. Rapid Changes In International Financial Markets Brought About By: The Internationalization Phase On the forefront, the greed to go international stems from the quest of being market seekers, raw material seekers and cost minimizers. Internationalization refers to the increasing importance of international trade, international relations, treaties, alliances and so forth. For these reasons, FM has expanded its global footprint. Included in this wave were the efforts to introduce a dramatic new commercial reality—the global market for standardized consumer products on a previously unimagined scale. Subsequently, IFM provides the required tools and expertise to deal with the international complexities encountered on the way. The Invisible Hand According to neo-classical economics, the market, left of its own devices, will efficiently allocate goods, resources, and services. Promising to benefit the entire globe via unfettered trade and growth, Adam Smith, the father of â€Å"invisible hand†, argued that the basic forces of supply and demand will help allocate resources efficiently. Consequently, the notion of the free market has expanded and today it is practiced on a global scale thus, further fuels the practice of IFM. Advances In Technology IFM gained momentum in the wake of a technological world. Technology has long been a crucial behind-the-scenes financial collaborator. On one side of the coin, online transactions allow for very fast movements of capital between countries, facilitating information dissemination, and clearance and settlement payments without the need of a physical marketplace – often in a matter of seconds. It reduces the cost of doing business internationally. On the flip side, these advances threaten to eclipse the international infrastructure. The importance of IFM is critically questioned when hackers have access to sensitive information with a few clicks of a computer mouse. Liberalization IFM came into being when various countries started opening their doors to each other. This phenomenon is well known as â€Å"liberalization† whereby entrepreneurshad the freedom to capitalizethe opportunity to step their foot in different parts of the world. The spark of liberalization was further aired by swift development in telecommunications and transportation technologies. The resultant of liberalization is today’s dynamic IFM. Globalisation Companies today operate on a global stage and can ignore this fact only at their peril. The term globalization is no longer a buzzword; it already transpired. For Khoo (2003), globalization is understood as the trans-boundary movements of capital, people, goods, information and culture, burst into intellectual awareness in the late 1980s and the 1990s. Globalization allows firms to view the world as one marketplace for all goods and services. The impetus for globalized financial markets came from the governments that had begun to deregulate their foreign exchange and capital markets. For instance, in 1980 Japan deregulated its foreign exchange market. Perhaps the most celebrated deregulation occurred in London on October 27, 1986, and is known as the â€Å"Big Bang.† On that date, the London Stock Exchange eliminated fixed brokerage commissions. These changes were designed to give London the most open and competitive capital markets in the world. It has worked, and today the competition in London is especially fierce among the worlds major financial centers. Deregulated financial markets and heightened competition in financial services provided a natural environment for financial innovations that resulted in the introduction of various complex and sophisticated derivatives products, in particular in over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets with interest rates and equities as underlying securities. While the lever aged nature of derivative instruments poses risks to individual investors, IFM provides scope for a more efficient allocation of risks. Integration After the Second World War, the outstanding ingredient influencing trends in IFM is integration. The boundaries between national markets rapidly became blurred leading to the emergence of a global unified financial market. Banks in major industrialized countries increased their presence in each others countries considerably. Non-resident borrowers on an extensive scale are tapping major national market such as the US, Japan, Germany. Today both the potential borrower and the potential investor have a wide range of choice of markets. There are various challenges from the environment and accordingly the scope and relevance of IFM has increased in recent past. Capital Mobility The international mobility of capital has benefited firms by giving them more financial options which has made international finance more dynamic and complex. Capital moves around the world in huge amount; corporations are free to access different markets for raising finance. The enormous opportunities of investments, savings, consumption and market accessibility have given rise to IFM. It is important to note that in IFM, stakeholders are spread all over the world. This development allows investors to diversify their investment portfolios internationally. In the words of a recent Wall Street Journal article, â€Å"Over the past decade, US investors have poured buckets of money into overseas markets, in the form of international mutual funds. At the same time, Japanese investors are investing heavily in US and other foreign financial markets in efforts to recycle their enormous trade surpluses. Privatization The economic integration and globalization that began in the eighties was picking up speed in the 1990s via privatization. Privatization is the process by which a country divests itself of the ownership and operation of a business venture by turning it over to the free market system. Additionally, privatization is often seen as a cure for bureaucratic inefficiency and waste; some economists estimate that privatization improves efficiency and reduces operating costs by as much as 20 per cent. Free- Trade Agreements And Rise of Regional Economic Blocs The doctrine of comparative advantagestates that everyone gains if each nation specializes in the production of those goods that it produces relatively most efficiently and imports those goods that other countries produces most relatively efficiently. In this vein, during the post-war years, theGeneral Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT, founded in 1947)was established in order to improve trade. It has played a key role in dismantling barriers (tariffs, subsidies, quotas) over the years, as a result of which international trade grew manifold. The financial participation of the traders exporters and importers and the international transactions flowed significantly. It also created a permanent World Trade Organization (WTO), which has more power to enforce the rules. Also, The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has give promoted international trade and given it a shape. These advancements put into the idea of FM both domestically and globally. On the regional level, formal arrangements among countries have been instituted to promote economic integration. The European Union (EU) is a prime example. The EU includes 28 member states that have eliminated barriers to the free flow of goods, capital, and people. The EU is one of the most advanced forms of economic integration, a free trade area (like the NAFTA) is the most basic. Recently, however, the euro’s emergence as a global currency was dealt a serious setback in the midst of the debt crisis. It started in December 2009 when Greece revealed its budget deficit, surprising financial markets. The panic spread to other weak European countries, making borrowing and refinancing extremely costly and threatening the nascent recovery of the world economy from the global financial crisis of 2008. This debt crisis revealed a profound weakness of the euro as the common currency: the participating countries have achieved monetary integration, but without fiscal integration. Mea ning that taxation, spending, and borrowing remain under control of national governments. Therefore, a lack of fiscal discipline in one country can become a Europe wide crisis. So, what has been the role of IFM? Even the effective use of IFM could not prevent the disaster. The Rise of MNCs All because of liberalization and those international agreements, we have a buzz word called â€Å"MNC† i.e. Multinational Corporations. In the post WTO regime (after 1999 onwards), it has became pertinent to note that MNCs enjoy an edge over other normal companies because of its international setting and best opportunities with their world-wide. IFM has become an important wing for all big MNCs. Without the expertise in IFM it can be difficult to sustain in the market because international financial markets have a total different shape and analytics compared to the domestic financial markets. A sound management of international finances can help an organization achieve same efficiency and effectiveness in all markets. So far, so good! Foreign exchange risk As discussed above that globalization opened new horizons, but it also brings companies to a variety of risks that they can face while operating in an international arena and in this regard IFM is the only solution to mitigate these risks. One such risk is foreign exchange risk Seventeen years ago, The Bretton Woods System gasped its final breath whereby the present International Monetary System set up is characterised by a mix of floating and managed exchange rate policies adopted by each nation keeping in view its interests. The foreign exchange risks states the variation in the prices of currency will have a tendency to convert a profitable deal to a loss making one. If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. The wisdom of this old adage is just as applicable in risk management. IFM provides a variety of hedging techniques to control foreign exchange exposure since it jeopardizes profitability of all firms. They consider any use of risk management tools, such as forwards, futures and options that previously were virtually unknown. Financial innovation has played a role in promoting this unexpectedly good economic performance. At the same time, IFM has helped to raise global growth and to have made the economy more flexible and more resilient. Conclusion The foremost rapid changes in IFM have been the accelerating globalisation and integration. These developments have been fostered by the liberalisation of markets, rapid technological progress and major advances in telecommunications. Further the scope of IFM has widened its horizon with mechanism supported by multilateral trade agencies like WTO- and regional blocks like ASEAN, NAFTA, EU etc and the emergence of innovative financial instruments. In view of globalization and its impact on the economy of the world, it is pertinent to note that the theory and practice of IFM is in consonance with the tax environment, legal obligations, foreign exchange rates, interest rate fluctuation, capital market movements, inflationary trends, political risk and country risk, micro and macroeconomic environment changes, ethical constraints etc. These problems can be managed through proper adaptation of IFM methodologies. IFM is crucial to the success of every multinational business because the increase in complication and challenges for managers. The current scenario and outlook for evolution of the IFM registered sharp deterioration over the last years. To a great extent, the unfavorable environment is a result of cutbacks in net inflows of private capital. Among the factors responsible one could list the slow pace of world economic recovery, particularly in the United States in the wake of the 2007 recession; Ponzi scheme frauds; forecasts of lower business profits; reductions in consumer confidence; and accentuated growth in risk aversion on the part of investors. References Online EBook: Eun−Resnick: International Financial Management, Third Edition I. Foundations of International Financial Management.  © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2004

The Efforts to Regulate the Internet Essay -- Computers Web Technology

The Efforts to Regulate the Internet Abstract â€Å"Cyberspace is both the popular media's new darling and new demon, revealing a new, expansive intellectual horizon but simultaneously providing easy access to an infinite, virtual Pandora's box† [1]. This paper shall discuss the situations that have raised the need for the Internet regulations, and in particular, Internet content censorship. Then, it shall review the regulatory efforts worldwide, with respect to the local cultures and governmental systems. Also, technological tools for regulating the Internet contents shall be presented. The ethical discussion shall focus on the right to regulate the Internet content, in light of the implications this restriction may have on the individual and common good of the cyber community. Introduction The popularity of cyberspace is growing. As more people gain access to cyberspace, unpleasant elements are getting more media attention, and there is a growing population of supporters for regulation. Some of the concerns of regulation supporters are pornography, pedophilia, vulgar language, and cyber scams. Pro-regulationers hope that a structured form of monitoring and policing will prevent such occurrences online. The idea that policing is imminent in cyberspace is quickly becoming a part of the cyber culture. Though currently self regulation is the main mode of practice, counties are beginning to take steps, which will define what is and is not acceptable online content. [2] The following headlines related to a child pornography case in Britain is an example that can serve as a good argument for those who are pro-regulations [3]: - Launched after FBI passed credit card details of 7300 alleged British subscribers ... ...] North Park University, â€Å"Adam Smith writes The Wealth of Nations: 1776† http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/WestEurope/AdamSmith.CP.html [14] Pontifical Council for Social Communications: Ethic in Internet, John P. Foley. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_20020228_ethics-internet_en.html [15] â€Å"Case studies in Information and Computer Ethics†, Richard Spinello, Chapter 2 [16] Privacy Initiatives, Federal Trade Commission. http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/index.html [17] Positions Based on Ethical Principals and Values, Chris S. Show. http://www.students.stedwards.edu/~cshaw/Position%20Based%20on%20Ethical%20Principles%20and%20Values.htm [18] Pornography and Ethics, Free speech or Civil rights, Muhammad Hozien. http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/mih/ethics/e5.htm

My Vision for Social Change Essay

My Vision for Social Change My goal in life is to grow and develop an understanding of the mysteries of human behavior, with the vision of learning new and more effective ways to assist others experience their full potentials. With this in mind, and further influenced by my career choices as a war veteran, a preacher, and a mental health counselor, I have come to the understanding that life is never in what you take. Rather, life is in what you give to effect a positive social change in your environment and /or the people around you. Using the definition provided by the Walden University, positive social change is â€Å"a deliberate process of creating and applying ideas, strategies, and actions to promote the worth, dignity, and development of individuals, communities, organizations, institutions, cultures, and societies.† (Walden University, n.d.). Embedded in this definition is the fact that positive social change is mostly made possible through deliberate and concerted efforts channel toward a specific goal. Therefore, having a vision is one thing, and realizing the vision is another. Yes, I want to help others experience their full potentials; but how will this be possible? Knowing full well that you cannot give what you do not have. This is where my choice of coming to pursue a MS in Mental Health Counseling at Walden University becomes so important. Walden University presented a vision statement of providing a â€Å"learning community where knowledge is judged rightly, to the degree that it can be applied by its graduates to the immediate solution of critical societal challenges, thereby advancing the greater global good.†(Walden University, n.d.) The practicality of this vision statement has been demonstrated. It is the truth that Walden University and I shared same vision statement. Better still, Walden University knows the how of realizing the vision, which I need to learn. Going forward, therefore, I must act on the advice provided by Matthew Buckley, â€Å"trust that the vision that you have for yourself will be realized.† (Laureate Education, Inc. 2012). He went further to say that the University professionals â€Å"are standing ready to work with you, and keep you, and support you.† (Laureate Education, Inc. 2012) References Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer), (2012). Walden MHC: Matt Buckley. Baltimore, MD. Author. Walden University. (n.d.). Scholars of change. (Video). Retrieved from http://www.waldenu.edu/About-Us/39004.htm Walden University. (n.d.). Vision and mission statements. Retrieved from http://www.waldenu.edu/About-Us/33598.htm

“Life is the most Spectacular Show on Earth!”- Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants.

â€Å"All I can do is put in time waiting for the inevitable. Observing the ghosts from my past, rattling around in my vacuous present. They crash and bang and make themselves at home, mostly because there's no competition. I've stopped fighting them. † says Jacob Jankowski, who is now ninety (or ninety three). Mr. Jankowski reflects upon memories of himself as a young man, tossed by an unnerving past into the lively world of the circus. Without a home, friend to call, or penny to his name- the circus must be ideal for Jacob, but is it? Page by page, this new life proves to be both a sanctuary and a literal hell for Jacob.Revealing the horrors of the circus, the beauty of all things living, and the reality that life that never stops moving forward, Sara Gruen presents; Water for Elephants- a profound, brilliantly written novel that lives, teaches, and captivates far beyond the last page. â€Å"I had my whole life planned, I knew exactly where it was taking me.. † said J acob Jankowski- before fate threw him into a whole new world; a world filled with freaks and secrets, a world with it's own set of rules, and it's own way of life. A youthful Jacob proves to be intelligent and compassionate, as well as honest and independent.Studying at Cornell, Jacob appears to be on a road to success. One moment he is taking the final exam at Cornell. And the next, Jacob's road to success is taken from beneath his feet. Both of his parents have died in a car accident, now orphaned and without a home or money, Jacob leaves Cornell and before he can blink he has jumped onto a train owned by the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. â€Å"Age is a terrible theif. Just when you're getting the hang of life, it knocks your legs out from under you and stoops your back. It makes you ache and muddies your head and silently spreads cancer throughout your spouse.†Says a now older Jacob Jankowski in his ninties, predestined to await his death in a nursing ho me. With his life now behind him, Mr. Jankowski is a defiant, frustrated old man with the same independence he had as a student at Cornell. His soul now weathered, we learn that he is a man with an old soul, he has lived his life honestly. However, life in this home has suffocated his independence, and frustrated him deeply. He feels he is being treated like an animal in the circus, not as a respected human being. He reminises, asking himself many of the questions that we ask ourselves; am I happy?Am I successful? am I at peace?. Mr. Jankowski is a man who lived through one of the biggest circus disasters in history, yet no one has found the time to listen to him, Mr. Jankowski is left alone to reflect on his life. Though his memory fails him at times in the present, his life in the past remains vivid and evident, he recalls every last detail of his life in the circus. Mr. Jankowski's memories, written as he remembers, become the unforgettable story- Water for Elephants. Jacob Janko wski is studying at Cornell, an Ivy league college, he is extremely successfull.At this moment, Jacob seems to have a healthy, successfull life in the palm of his hands, but Jacob soon finds himself in complete despiration, confusion, he has nothing. Both of Jacob's parents have died in a car accident, Jacob is notified that at the time of their death, his parents did not have a dollar to their name. They had stopped paying mortgage, in order to pay for Jacob's tuition. Jacob's home, and all of his parents possesions are now property of the state. Jacob has no friends to call, no money to support himself, and no family other than his deceased parents.Jacob is in shock, he is cold, he feels he is watching himself walk aimlessly throughout life. During Jacob's final exam at Cornell, Jacob discovers that his life has suddenly lost all meaning. Jacob leaves in the middle of his exam, and he never looked back. These events have brought Jacob to a river, where he finds, and boards a train . He did not know where this train was going, or why he was on it. All he knew was that his new life now lied within wherever the train was heading. Jacob finds that this train is owned by Benzini Brother's Most Spectacular Show on Earth. This begins the journey that turned Mr.Jankowski into the man he is today. On the train- Jacob meets Camel, an old, fatherly figure, and a harmless drunk. Camel warns Jacob about life in the circus, and advises him that if he has a home, to go back to it, that life on the train will prove to be more of a nightmare than whatever he's left behind. Jacob assures Camel that he has left nothing behind, all that he has lies ahead of him. With this said, Camel speaks to Uncle Al (the ringmaster), who is very insterested in Jacob. Having an Ivy league veterinarian makes Benzini Brother's one step closer in comparison to their rival, Ringling Brother's.Jacob now has a job, a home, and more or less, a family on the train. Jacob is staying in a car with a per former named Walter, and his dog Queenie. Jacob does his job, and goes far beyond that. He sees that the animals are being mistreated, underfed, and are not supplied with clean water, this is unsettling to Jacob, who does what he can to help these abused animals. Jacob meets August (head of the animal acts) and his wife, Marlena (one of the show's stars, lead of the equestian act). Jacob is attracted to Marlena, but August and other workers have made is clear that Marlena is off limits, and August will do anything to make that clear.Jacob quickly falls in love with life under the big top, and discovers the beauty in circus ‘freaks'. They are all people just like him, with nothing in their past but sorrow, and no way of continuing forward, besides the train. Jacob discovers all the the show's secrets, some beautiful, some horrifying. As the show travels from city to city, the effects of the Great Depression become more apparent, more people get redlighted, less animals get fed, the conditions for all life depending on the Show get drastically worse. Benzini Brothers eventually accumulate a circus elephant named Rosie.She was the ‘great gray hope' the new act that was going to put Benzini Brothers on the map, Rosie would be the salvation of the show. Unfortunately, Rosie is deemed useless. August cannot communicate with her, therefore he cannot train her, and she may not preform and save the show. August's anger and mental instability cause him to abuse her on a regular basis. Jacob sees this, and it upsets him. Jacob learns that Rosie is indeed intellegent, she can be trained, and she can perform. The barrier between August and Rosie was that Rosie did not understand English.With Jacob's help, August trains Rosie in her vernacular- German. Meanwhile, Camel has become incredibly sick. Jacob searches restlessly for answers, from town to town looking for a doctor with answers. Camel has become useless to the show, now paralyzed, and slowly dying, he co uld no longer work. In the times of the Great Depression, Benzini Brothers couldn't afford to feed a man who can't do his job. It is apparent to Walter and Jacob that if Uncle Al hears of Camel's illness, he would be redlighted that evening. Jacob discovers that Camel has Jake Poisoning.Jake Poisoning was common during the 1930s Prohibition Era, it came from drinking Jamacian Ginger extract. Jacob and Walter hid their old, now paralyzed friend in their traincar, planning to meet up with Camel's son in one of the cities of Benzini's performances. Unfortunately, Uncle Al discovers Camel before he could be taken to safety. This is during one of the shows most financially tragic times in the Great Depression, in order to stay in bussiness and be able to feed the animals, they must cut more performers, and more workers. Walter and Camel are redlighted, Jacob escapes death.Jacob and Marlena become closer, they share an unconditional love for the animals, and a passion for eachother. They are both running from their pasts, and reaching out for someone to hold. Their romance must remain secret to ensure their safety. They are cautious, but August suspects that Marlena is unloyal. August becomes progressively more violent, and eventually lashes out- beating both Marlena and Jacob. Marlena explains to Jacob that August charmed her during her earliest days in the circus she felt lust for him and they married, but this perfect image soon turned dark. August was abusive, bipolar, and very angry.In conclusion, Marlena leaves August and is finally able to aknowledge her love her Jacob. A surviving group of men that were redlighted during the Depression catch up with the show, and start an animal riot during one of it's performances. With animals running wild in the bigtop, there is chaos amoungst the performers. During this, Jacob struggles to find Marlena to ensure her safety. As Jacobs eyes lock onto Marlenas, he sees Rosie behind her, lift the stake the once constricted h er from the ground. She ‘lifted the stake high in the air and brought it down splitting his (August's) headlike a watermellon'. Jacob and Marlena live happily together, they marry, and have children. Jacob gets his degree at Cornell, Rosie, Bobo (Jacob’s baboon), and four of Marlena’s beloved horses accompany them in Ringling Brothers Circus. Jacob's children grow up, Marlena dies of cancer, and Jacob retires to a nursing home. prohibition era important to plot- caused camels death. came from jamacian ginger extract, jamacian ginger itself was not dangerous, but during prohibition the government recognized it as a source of alochol, and changed its contents.Setting- Setting greatly impacts the course of this novel. In fact, many of the struggles Jacob faced as a young man in the circus were a direct outcome of the time period this novel was set in. One major setting of this novel is the Benzini Brothers circus. Where a young Jacob runs to in a time of complete de spiration, where he is hired as a veterinarian, meets and falls in love with Marlena, a star in the show. After leaving Benzini Brothers, Marlena and Jacob work at Ringling. This later impacts his life one final time; Mr. Jankowski leaves the nursing home to return to the circus, his real home.In the final pages of this novel, Jacob resorts back to the circus, the only place he feels accepted. Jacob becomes the tickmaster for Ringling. Another main setting of this novel is the retirement home. This retirement home is where he relives his youth, and tells it in story form, which is what we read. It is here that Jacob reflects on his life, and we watch and understand his thoughts and frustrations. This retirement home was set next to a park, Jacob looks out his window and sees the circus is in town, which sets this story into action.In the retirement home, Jacob feels alienated, alone, and forgotten. The time period also greatly effected this novel- both the Great Depression and the 1 930s Prohibition took place during this novel. Due to the Great Depression, the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth was sturggling financially, resulting in it’s workers being ‘red lighted’. The Prohibition evidentially caused Camel’s death. The prohibition was a national ban of the transport, consumption, and sale in the United States from 1920 to 1930.As a result, the government Jamacian Ginger as a potential alcohol source, and because of this, required manufactures to change its contents before sale. It was later dicovered that these modifications to Jamacian Ginger cause paralayzation, which Camel suffered from. Symbolism- Symbolism is an important, and commonly used element in this novel. One symbol used in this novel is the stake that holds Rosie to the ground. August chained her up, in order to control and confine her. This stake represents captivity, and pain.Later in the novel, this stake also symbolizes freedom. The stake that was on ce used to confine Rose, fulling exposing her to August’s abuse, was used to kill August, freeing Rosie, Marlena, and Jacob. Included in the title, water is another evident symbol in this novel. Throughout the entire novel, water represents purity, and a fresh start. When Jacob left his final exams and walked to the trains, there was a river nearby which he rinsed his feet on. Being by this river led him to the train tracks, which led Jacob to a whole new world.Throughought the book, each of it’s characters carry heavy burdens, mistakes, and haunting memories from the past, water represents an escape from these horrors. The train tracks represent life’s way of continually moving forward, never pausing to wait for it’s passengers. Rosie’s desperation represents the American’s struggle during the Great Depression. Conflict- Man vs. Nature (Barrier between domesticated animals and the humans that try to train and confine, rather than understand them. ), Man vs. Self (Mr. Jankowski vs. Jacob Jankowski), and Man vs. Man (Jacob vs.August over both Marlena and the animals) are all represented throughout this novel. Flashback- Flashback is another literary element used throughout this novel. Flashback greatly impacts the mood of this book, allowing us to see the conflict between young Jacob and old Jacob. This flashback also allows us to see Mr. Jankowski’s yearning for young love, young passion, and feeling accepted. Foreshaowing- Foreshadowing is introduced within the first few pages, revealing to us that Jacob has witnessed a murder, this keeps the reader’s attention, the details of the murder are not revealed until the final chapter.I thoroughly enjoyed this book, page after page it captivated me. I would find myself reading for hours on end, Gruen’s imagery made you, yourself feel like you were living a hectic life in the circus. Each page pulled you farther into a world of freaks, ringmasters, anger, love, and above all, passion. Water for Elephants taught the lifechanging lesson, that in the end, everyone returns home. I storngly suggest this novel to a mature audience who wants to be enchanted by rich memories of the circus, and an old man’s fight to maintain dignity and sanity in a changing world.