The Utopian Philosophy of Shangri-La in James Hiltons...

The Utopian Philosophy of Shangri-La in James Hiltons Lost Horizon For some people life may not be satisfactory. Life has many troubles including death, pain, and suffering. It leaves little hope. There are ways in which people can live to have a good life. This method of how a person should live is viewed differently thoughout the world. James Hilton represents this combination of ideas and cultures in the novel, Lost Horizon (1933). This novel tells the tale of four distinctively different people retreating from a war zone. In their retreat they are kidnapped and taken by plane deep into the Himalayan mountain wilderness. Little did they know that here in the confines of the mountains there is a paradise. This paradise is called†¦show more content†¦The mental environment of the people of Shangri-La is the search of knowledge. Platonism, the theory of Plato, maintains that to live the good life, one must first acquire certain kinds of knowledge. This theory represents the environment of Shangri-La, searching for knowledge. Hilton portrays the Shangri-Lites search of knowledge through their extensive library which contains the worlds best literature (95). This great asset of Shangri-La represents the theory of Plato and showed that Shangri-La is a place abundant is Platonic philosophy. The second philosophical view aiding in the setting of Shangri-La is the theory of Aristotle. Aristotle believed that the good life is one of balance. The people of Shangri-La also lived this way claiming that our prevalent belief is moderation. (74). The people are moderately sober, moderately chaste, and moderately honest (75). Moderation is abundant throughout the setting of Shangri-La, and the people claim that moderation [is], yknow-- the motto of the firm (180), whereas firm represents Shangri-La. This principle makes for a considerable degree of happiness (74). This relates to the view of Aristotle, that the good life is a life of happiness. The happiness of Shangri-La is portrayed as one of the pleasantest communities, (108) wh ere the inhabitants are courteous and carefree (108) and where one will doubtless find great happiness (198). Even in happiness there is moderation. Shangri-La

ethan frome motif essay - 975 Words

English 11 AT set 1 B/D Ethan Frome Essay Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome: Connections to Motifs Motifs are interesting literary devices, treasured by many authors, to make up or help support the plotline of each story written. In the novella Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, she uses the motif of parallelism of the setting of Starkfield, Massachusetts, and other characters such as Ethan Frome and Mattie Silver, to help describe the way that Starkfield and other factors entangle each character mentally, emotionally, and physically. The importance of this is evident, as it shows during key periods in the story. The parallelism all begins with the snowy, New England town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. The small community is a place†¦show more content†¦He is ultimately in the same position with Mattie, but with a more intense situation, making him rather impotent. Mattie is trapped mentally by the fact that her becoming paralyzed enervated her, and she can do little to nothing about it, as shown in the quotation, â€Å"Yes: it’s pretty bad. And they ain’t any of ‘em easy people either. Mattie was, before the accident; I never knew a sweeter nature. But she’s suffered too much-that’s what I always say when folks tell me how she’s soured (Ethan Frome pg. 98).† Mrs. Hale explains her as â€Å"sour†, which contrasts her usual, pre-accident imagery of sweet, showing her change and mind set as foul and more of a complaining boor than her past self. Lastly, the parallelism of Starkfield can be juxtaposed to Mattie and Ethan in an emotional state. Ethan is stuck in an emotional labyrinth: He knows that he must care for Zeena, his wife, but he also loves Mattie. He ultimately decides that life with Zeena would be worse than dying next to his true love, Mattie, which causes his suicide attempt, which he bails out on at the last second, causing his disfigurement. Mattie is trapped emotionally in the same way: her love for Ethan. She shows her feelings multiple times, with the major attempt during their dinner alone. Her plan is to eventually get him away from Zeena and to marry her instead, but this is not a valid option in Ethan’s eyes, again pointing back to the sledding accident. All in all, EdithShow MoreRelatedEthan Frome : The Parallels Of Ethans Arrivals1139 Words   |  5 PagesEthans Arrivals= In //Ethan Frome// Edith Wharton illustrates how Ethan views Zeena versus Mattie through the parallel scenes of when Ethan is greeted by Zeena/Mattie at the door of his farmhouse first coming home from the dance and second coming home from. Although both scenes play out almost identically, Wharton uses the slight differences to emphasize how Ethan sees Mattie as beautiful, submissive, and attractive compared to Zeena who he only sees as an obstacle. As Ethan comes up to the door

Lemurs of Madagascar Free Essays

Lemurs of Madagascar Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Lemurs of Madagascar 1. Madagascar biome is a tropical rain forest. The main characteristic of a tropical rain forest biome is the presence of Warm temperatures throughout the year. We will write a custom essay sample on Lemurs of Madagascar or any similar topic only for you Order Now In a tropical rain forest biome, there are three layers. These layers include the top trees, followed by the canopy layer characterized by dens leaves hence low light penetration and the third layer are the ground layer. The ground layer lacks any vegetation owing to the low amount of sunlight reaching it due to the dense canopy layer. 2. Changes happening in Madagascar pose challenges to lemurs in the island. The main changes that affect the lemurs include the effects of agricultural activities on the environment. Forestland conversion for agricultural use including the creation of pastureland, cropland, and degradation of the soil due to fire and clearing by humans is the agricultural changes on Madagascar. Soil erosion caused by slash-and-burn farming also forms the other changes in Madagascar that brings forth challenges to lemurs. As a conclusion, high deforestation rate and increased human population and erosion form the main changes that challenge the existence of lemurs in Madagascar. 3. The lemurs that are adapting well with the changes in Madagascar are the ones with the ability to live in an altered habitat. (This is a habitat with secondary characteristics owing to human activities in the island). These include the ring-tailed lemur lemma catta and sifakas, but between the two, the ring-tailed lemma catta is adapting better to changes in the ecosystem. The fossil lemurs’ disappearance in the island was due to inability to adapt well to the changes. The other types of lemurs that have disappeared due to change in the habitat include Palaeopropithecus, Daubentonia robusta, Archaeiindris fontoynonti and Megaladapis edwardsi. . A generalist behavioral type is required of the lemurs in Madagascar to be able to cope with the change s in the island for their adaptation and survival. The species favored in this criterion are sifakas and lemur catta, which are adapting well to the changes. Other behavioral characteristics required include being terrestrial for them to adapt well with the changes as depicted by the lemur catta. Physical characteristics that improve adaptation to the changes include ability to take advantage of changes by feeding on crops, tourist handouts, insects, flowers, and fruits. . Lemurs might not develop to adapt to changes in Madagascar because they lived on trees and the deforestation affects their form of livelihood. The reduction in the soil’s ability to support the vegetation that forms the main food for the lemurs is another reason owing to the high rates of soil erosion and degradation. Similarly, human actions in the highland affect their ability to adapt with the changes hence another reason for the inability to adapt to changes in the habitat. 6. The water cycle is the biochemical cycle that may be altered by activities in Madagascar. An alteration on the water cycle takes the following pattern owing to the activities in mainly deforestation and soil erosion and degradation. Cutting of rain forests results in low moisture transpiration to the atmosphere. The result is a reduction in the cloud cover, diminished precipitation, and lead to drought in the area. The replacement of the forests requires water hence an impossible occurrence when there is drought in the area. Reference â€Å"Lemurs in Madagascar: Surviving on an Island of Change. † Films Media Group, 2006. Films On Demand. How to cite Lemurs of Madagascar, Papers

Project Design Proposal A Mobile Application

Question: Describe about the Project Design Proposal for A Mobile Application. Answer: Updated Project Brief The project has been made for developing a mobile application for online activities of the book shop. The shopkeeper of the book shop wants to design and imply the mobile app for easing the current process of trading in the shop. Objectives of the project The objectives of the project of development of the mobile app for the book shop include: Creation of app structure- The project would be helpful for developing the structure for the application used in Smartphone. The structure would have to be user friendly and it should comply with the operations of the book shop Meet User requirements: The application developed for the books shop would have to meet the requirements of the users. The requirements of user include the easy to use, simple interface, and 250 numbers of simultaneous users for the application. Simple operation: The application developed would have to help the book shop customers with easy operations for buying or searching the books from the digital stock inventory. Outputs of the project The outputs of the mobile app development project are: Ease of sales operation: The mobile app development would result in easing the operations of sales in the bookshop. Customers would just have to check for the book in the digital stock inventory of the app and can place order from it. Automated data recording system: The automatic customers data recording would be possible with the help of mobile app development. The customer would feed the data himself/herself on the application database. Increase in targeted sales: The use of automatic data entering system would manage the customers and ease the flow of operations at the bookshop. Hence, the overall target of the information system would be for increasing the final sales by increasing the efficiency and pace of operations of the bookshop. However, the overall result of the application system would be increment of the final sales by increasing the efficiency and pace of operations at the bookshop. Targets of the project The targets for the mobile application development include the frequent customers, young readers, and nearby local book shops. Frequent customers: The customers that have been buying from the shops since a long time on a frequent basis are the target of the bookshop. The shopkeeper would want to make the frequent customers of the shop to become loyal by offering them quicker services. Young readers: The youths are the major target of the bookshop for implementing the application. The young individuals are techno freaks and they would be attracted to the new application system of the bookshop. Local book shops: The local bookshops can use the services of the app for quicker searching of the required books and magazines from the book shop inventory. It would enable them to search for books and place the order for their shops. Project Success Criteria The success criteria of the project can be evaluated from the feedbacks of the customers and the progress of the application developed (Alqahtani and Saba 2013). The success criteria of the project depend upon the appropriate function of the application, successful implementation of the system, and excellent customers feedback. Appropriate Function of the application: The sales process and the stock management of the bookshop must be improved with the implementation of the application. Successful Implementation of the system: The application developed from the project must assist the bookshop for installing the digital information system and align it with their operations and functions. Excellent Customers Feedback: The good reviews and excellent feedbacks from the customers would provide the base of the success criteria of the application system. Project Design Proposal The project design proposal is used for making an outline of the project that can provide an overview of the project details, description, objectives, cost, return, and benefits. Design aims The aims of the design for implementing the application system at the book shop are efficiency, cost reduction, and user experience enhancer. Efficiency: the primary aim of the design is to provide the efficiency for the operations of the book shop. The application development would have to provide the configuration of the design in terms of the processes involved (Borghoff and Pareschi 2013). The sales process of the book shop can be improved as the customers of the bookshop would be able to search for the book and place the order by using the mobile application. Cost Reduction: The application developed for the book shop should be helpful for decreasing the amount of work required for the data entry and stock management. It would result in decreasing the cost required for the processes of the book shop. User Experience enhancer: The application developed for the process of searching the books and placing the order must be kept user friendly and simple. According to Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons (2013), the complex design would tend the customers to get irritated from the application. Outline of the proposed design Outline of the proposed designs: The suggested proposal outline for the project of Development of Mobile Application for an online Book Shop. The proposed design would be based on the simple user interface and synchronized with the operations of the bookshop. The proposed design has been shown in the figure below: Figure 1: Proposed Design of the Mobile Application (Source: Developed by the author) Screen 1: The design of the application has shown that a simple user interface with two tabs at the main page namely login and register for new user at the home screen. Screen 2: The unregistered user would have to register by entering the contact details. The registered user would have to log in by their user ID and password. Screen 3: After login, the user can check the library of the bookshop or search the book by entering the title of the book, author name, or publication house. Screen 4: The inventory screen would show the book from genres, year, most read, or top selling. The customer can select the book and make the purchase query from the app. Screen 5: If the book is not available, the user would have to keep the book in their checklist. An email notification would be sent to the user when the book would be available. Evaluation of the design The mobile application development process would be helpful for developing and deploying the smart information storage and sales processing system at the book shop. The evaluation of the design can be done by using test run of the application and expert review. Test run: The test run is the test of the functionality of the application before deploying it in the book shop (Tran et al. 2013). The designer and tester would use the application to search for the books available in the digital inventory. Trial and error method is used for the testing of the mobile application of the book shop. Expert review: There are many application development experts and their research article that can be used for providing the theoretical knowledge for the application development. According to Verzuh (2015), it should be focused on the security of the application. Bibliography Alqahtani, F.A. and Saba, T., 2013. Impact of Social Networks on Customer Relation Management (CRM) in Prospectus of Business Environment.Journal of American Sciences,9(7), pp.480-486. Borghoff, U.M. and Pareschi, R. eds., 2013.Information technology for knowledge management. Springer Science Business Media. Fitzsimmons, J. and Fitzsimmons, M., 2013.Service management: Operations, strategy, information technology. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Fluckiger, L. and Utz, H., 2014. Service oriented robotic architecture for space robotics: Design, testing, and lessons learned.Journal of Field Robotics,31(1), pp.176-191. Gido, J. and Clements, J.P., 2014.Successful project management. Nelson Education. Kerzner, H.R., 2013.Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley Sons. Leach, L.P., 2014.Critical chain project management. Artech House. Schwalbe, K., 2015.Information technology project management. Cengage Learning. Tran, S.T., Le Ngoc Thanh, N.Q.B. and Phuong, D.B., 2013. Introduction to information technology. InProc. of the 9th inter. CDIO conf.(CDIO). Verzuh, E., 2015.The fast forward MBA in project management. John Wiley Sons.