“Three Men in a Boat” by Jerome K Jerome Essay Example for Free

â€Å"Three Men in a Boat† by Jerome K Jerome Essay In this essay an attempt is made to discern the important themes that one can observe in the book â€Å"Three Men in a Boat† written by Jerome K Jerome. This book written by Jerome K Jerome became extremely popular among the English readers. One reason for this popularity was its different and new way of representation which differed from the books written by authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Cannon Doyle, Rudyard Kipling and other popular authors. This popularity perhaps was due to the use of different themes and style of language that one can see in the case of this book. Firstly, the language used in this book was the language spoken by the common masses which perhaps attracted the common people to read this book leading to its popularity although the critics condemned the vulgarity that they found in the book in the various terms that were used in the book. However unlike the writing styles of the times, Jerome did not use glorifying terms or artificial terms to express the feelings of the people. The book refers to the three men among whom one character was represented by the author himself. An important theme in this book is the importance that is given to pleasure trips wherein the friends took several excursions in the boat on the River Thames and other places. These pleasure trips were earlier enjoyed usually by the middle and upper middle class people. However, the writing of this book â€Å"Three Men in a Boat† made the pleasure trips on the rivers of England extremely popular. Another important theme in the book is the love for nature and in order to express their love for nature the three friends go on excursion over River Thames. This book can be considered as an important contribution to the travel literature particularly within England. This book is the story of three common people who speak the usual language spoken by the common people. They do not involve in any great adventures and there are no great heroes and villains in this book. The appeal to the masses is an important theme in this book. However we can consider that the most important theme is the love of these people for travel, pleasure trips and their love of nature. An important aspect of this book is that initially it was conceived as a serious guide to traveling on boat. However humor became the principal style narration in this book. The readers regarded that many jokes in the book are relevant even today. One important theme found in this book is the need for relaxation from work. Thus, one can find the theme of escape in this work. Hence, the three men go for a pleasure trip in order to escape from the problems which they faced. An important theme is the disease which had attacked the friend of Jerome which led to search for the proper medicine to cure this disease. After reading the various medical literatures, the author feels that he possesses all the diseases mentioned in these works. Jerome mentions that, â€Å"I sat and pondered. I thought what an interesting case I must be from a medical point of view, what an acquisition I should be to a class! Students would have no need to â€Å"walk the hospitals†, if they had me. I was hospital in myself. All they need would be walk around me, and, after that take their diploma†. (Jerome, 1995) In this statement one can also find the theme of humor as the author is not only discussing the serious issue of medical problems but at the same time he is finding that he has got various diseases and he describes this with lot of humor. The author after reading about the health problems states that â€Å"I walked into the reading-room a happy, healthy man. I crawled out a discrepit wreck†. (Jerome, 1995) In the second chapter there are preparations for the pleasure trips by the friends of Jerome. The author mentions â€Å"Having thus settled the sleeping arrangements to the satisfaction of all four of us, the only thing left to discuss was what we should take with us†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In this juncture one can find the humor in the statement: â€Å"George said he felt thirsty (I never knew George when he didn’t)†. (Jerome, 1995) The chapter three of the book refers to the further arrangements that were made for the trip. Humor also can be seen in the statement that â€Å"I notice that people always make gigantic arrangements for bathing when they are going anywhere near the water, but that they don’t bathe much when they are there†. (Jerome, 1995) While preparing for the travel the friends discuss regarding the question of food while traveling. While making travel arrangements, Jerome states that he thought that he is the most efficient person in packing which is essential while traveling. In fact he asked his friends to leave the task of packing to him because Jerome had confidence in his ability to pack. He stated that, â€Å"My tooth-brush is a thing that haunts me when I’m travelling, and makes my life a misery†. (Jerome, 1995) Here one can find both the seriousness of the fact that tooth-brush is necessary for travel and the sense of humor exhibited by the author. The friends visit various historical places and there is interesting discussion regarding the major events related to English history. There is reference to various adventures and misadventures of these three men while traveling. During travel the author states, â€Å"The boat seemed stuffy, and my head seemed aching†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Jerome, 1995). These people had some bad experiences which are suggested by the statement that â€Å"The people at the beer shop were rude. They merely laughed at us†. (Jerome, 1995) The experiences on the Marlow River are also explained in detail by the author. Jerome praised this river town due to its liveliness and they could enjoy in this place. In fact the author stated that â€Å"Our departure from Marlow I regard as one of our greatest successes.† (Jerome, 1995) There is also description regarding a procession which they noticed. The author mentioned that he did not like the steam launches and they had problems with these steam launches. The author also describes an incident wherein the friends prepare the meal and the author thought that this was the tastiest food he ever had.   This book by Jerome consists of themes such as traveling, escape from daily routine and humor. The various travel experiences of three men has been humorously presented by the author for the enjoyable reading. Reference Jerome, Jerome K. (1995). Three Men in a Boat, Etext #308, Project Gutenberg, Retrieved online on 10-09-2005 from http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext95/3boat10.txt

African American Culture through Oral Tradition Essay -- Essays Papers

African American Culture through Oral Tradition African American folktales have origins rooted in West African literary and cultural forms of expression. When Africans were taken from their homeland and brought to America as slaves, they also brought with them their individual cultures, languages and customs. However, their white slaveholders suppressed this part of their heritage in them. Thus they had to find other ways of expression, mainly story telling and songs. It is incredible to see how African slaves could ever smile and laugh under the horrible and cruel circumstances, which were imposed on them by the brutal slaveholders. The whole body of folktales and spirituals arose from the experiences which slaves had on their plantations mingled with the memories and customs that they brought with them from Africa. They would tell stories using different methods such as acting, gesturing and singing. By these means they were able to elevate storytelling into an art. Most slave owners forbade their slaves from speaking their own language, and forced them to speak English. They were also forbidden from learning to read or write. In this manner slaveholders believed that they were keeping their slaves in ignorance so that they could neither rebel nor escape. They were greatly mistaken for many slaves would make use of their songs and stories to educate their people, and enlighten their minds and free their souls. For example the slave spirituals which they sang were a means with which they could communicate feelings of discontent and of homelessness and exile. However, not all their songs were of disparity and loss. They also sang songs expressing love, joy, and hope. Other than making use of lyrics as a form of expressi... ...Books, Inc; New York, 1963. Hamilton, Virginia. The People Could Fly. Knopf Publishing; New York, 1985. Jones, Gayl. Liberating Voices: Oral Tradition in African American Literature. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, 1991. Okpewho, Isidore. African Oral Literature. Indiana University Press; Bloomington, 1992. Plant, Deborah G. Every Tub Must Sit on It's Own Bottom: The Philosophy and Politics Of Zora Neale Hurston. University of Illinois Press; Chicago, 1995. Radin, Paul, Ed. African Folktales. Shocken Books; New York,1983. Smitherman, Geneva. Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America. Houghton Mifflin; Boston, 1977. Wright, Lee Alfred. Identity, Family and Folklore In African American Literature. Garland Publishing; New York, 1995. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ã ¿

Cmr Enterprises Essay

CMR, originally Mike’s Cabinets, is an architectural millwork business that competes in two different market segments: commercial and residential. In order to effectively compete in both markets, the nature of CMR’s business varies slightly between them. Commercial business provides two-thirds of the company’s projects as well as 80% of its sales. Due to the higher volume in demand, the commercial sales force is larger than the residential sales team, which relies heavily on CMR’s showroom. The market for commercial business is larger than residential market with projections of its value at upwards of $5 billion. Commercial contracts are also harder to secure than their residential counterparts. They must be bid on and won. Due to the heavy competition for these larger commercial contracts, the â€Å"got rate† for them is around 32%, whereas the residential â€Å"got rate† is around 69%. CMR’s residential department has to operate some what differently than the commercial facet of the company. First of all, project management requires a different degree of flexibility in order to meet ever-changing customer requests. Cash flow cycles are about four to six weeks, which is significantly shorter than the 6 months or more it takes for a commercial cycle. With less indirect labor and lower material costs, residential work actually boasts a higher net margin as well. The main difference between CMR’s nature of business between segments is the customer relationship factor. Residential customers require a softer approach with more face-to-face exposure. Commercial customers are primarily concerned with finding the lowest bid. However, CMR is building relationships with many contractors in attempt to make their jobs easier and potentially work with them in the future. Although CMR treats every customer as equally important, the commercial customers are arguably more valuable. 35 of the top 50 contractor prospects for 1999 were commercial contractors. Furthermore, commercial business typically achieves higher revenues and is likely the only means of meeting CMR’s aggressive growth goals. When Sam Marcus and William Walters bought Mike’s Cabinets in early 1997 they knew they were going to need to change some things abou t the way their business operated. Mike’s Cabinets was running very well as a small town cabinet shop that worked on projects for homeowners as well as large commercial buildings, and had a very good reputation with the people of Lincoln,Nebraska. Although things were running smoothly with the business, Sam and William wanted to produce more profits, and increase cash flows. Blackstone Homes was a homebuilding company that started only two years before Marcus bought Mike’s Cabinets. By the time Marcus was in charge of CMR, Blackstone was one of the largest homebuilders in the area. The president of Blackstone Homes approached Marcus in the fall of 1997, with the idea of starting a partnership. Blackstone was having problems with their current supplier because they couldn’t seem to deliver the cabinets when promised. Marcus was initially intrigued by the sheer volume of work they would be doing with Blackstone, but he thought it would be a great fit with where he was planning for his company to go, and seemed like a great way to make progress towards his profit and cash flow goals. Marcus had to work with his employees and overall business plan, but decided that the residential side of the business was worth expan ding, so he signed a contract with Blackstone Homes. Marcus’s decision to sign with Blackstone Homes was a very good idea for CMR Enterprises. Blackstone had great potential to become one of CMR’s largest accounts, and promised to have continual yearly growth. Blackstone agreed to specify only CMR’s cabinets in all their homes, and CMR assigned a project manager to work exclusively with their new partner. Both companies could see that they would both be benefiting from this partnership from the very beginning, and they were correct. Throughout the first year, Blackstone contributed heavily to CMR’s success, and eventually grew to be about 25% of the residential side of the business. Marcus saw that the residential side of the business had great potential for future growth, and he knew that this was a great way to get his company involved. The additional emphasis on residential work used more of the company’s resources, but it proved to be worth it with the increased revenue and cash flows. CMR Enterprises is confronting an issue with one of its most valuable clients, Blackstone. Blackstone as one of the biggest customers in the area, giving CMR an opportunity for immediate market share and his volume supported its goals to standardize its processes into flexible cells. They approached CMR looking for a new partner to work on a business that represented 25% of CMR’s residential business during the first year of this relationship. Sam Marcus was counting on further growth with his customer to pay his debt and fund expansion efforts. But relationshipswith Blackstone had become increasingly intense on residential construction. Marcus had aggressive goals of reaching $70 million in sales by 2007 by creating a scalable and replicable business model. Moreover, build close relationship with the Blackstone will gave CMR an opportunity to standardize its business processes to be able to benefit from improved operational efficiencies that comes because of scale of operations. However, the relationship between two companies had evolved unpleasantly over time. When Blackstone sells a house, it does come with a pre-finished and installed kitchen, which is included in the price. But if customers want to check CMR’s showroom, they would build these w oodworks according to their new specifications. So the added cost will then be charged to the contractor. After an increase in CMR prices, Blackstone transferred this increase to subcontractors, so impacting considerably their margins and making CMR looked as a too expensive product. This issue to some extent contributed to the clash with Blackstone. Also, internal miscommunication had played a part in this episode. Marcus had implemented a software system for the company, called InfoCentral, and insisted that the residential team use InfoCentral for all internal communications. But it did not work out the way he expected. The system is not frequently updated as required by the employees. The business relations between the two companies started well and was fulfilling for both part. Revenues from Blackstone represent a significant part of revenue growth of the year. However, when the business expended, so did the problems. What was more disappointing was that CMR had shown a weak ma nagement of its relationship with this big client and several operational failures that need to be controlled. Within CMR Enterprises, revenue is generated at different rates in the different segments. Commercial business is responsible for 82% of the revenues generated by the firm, leaving just 18% to residential. Not only do they generate revenue at different rates, but profit is generated at different rates as well. According to the CMR Enterprises Factsheet, SG&A Costs were $2,900,000. If we distribute these costs according to percent of revenue generated across the CMR’s business segments, we see that the commercial segment provided a Net Profit of $1,124,152 for a Net Margin of 15.5%, while the residential segment provided a Net Profit of $87,632 for a Net Margin of 5.4%. Blackstone’s Net margin of 5.7% is actually greater than the Net Margin for the residentialsegment without Blackstone. Net Profit from Blackstone for the year was $17,235. In the second scenario, SG&A costs were assigned in a different way. Indirect labor was assigned to the corresponding segment. SG&A expenses besides indirect labor were then distributed to the segments according to percent of revenue generated. This tells a different story. Whereas in the first scenario the commercial segment was responsible for almost 10% more Net Margin; in the second scenario, residential Net Profit was $274,632 for a Net Margin of 17.2%, while commercial Net Profit was $937,152 for a Net Margin of 13.9%. In this scenario Net Margin from Blackstone is only 13.3% of revenue, which is below the average for residential. The cause of the difference between the scenarios is the high number of administrative personnel assigned to commercial work. From the CMR Enterprises Factsheet, we see that there are 43 administrative personnel, of which only 4 are dedicated to residential work. This leaves 39 employees working on commercial work at an average of $50,000 per year, a total of $1.9 million dollars. Scenario 2 captures this more fully, placing a more realistic percentage of SG&A costs onto the commercial segment. Blackstone’s profitability is slightly less than that of the commercial business, and nearly 4% less than the residential business. Terminating the relationship with Blackstone would be a good choice in the situation for CMR Enterprises. It is obvious that Blackstone provides a significant amount of residential business, which means a substantial cash contribution to support CMR’s other business like commercial work. Especially in the initial partnership, CMR first grabbed residential market share and earned 25% more of its residential business and Blackstone benefited from CMR’s expertise and correction. However, some potential loss shows the general trend that CMR benefit less and less in the partnership with Blackstone. First, CMR acquires more profit per shop hour in commercial business than residential work. According to Exhibit 7b, the highest residential revenue per shop hour of $48.13 is less profitable than the lowest commercial revenue per shop hour. Even though we recommend letting Blackstone go as a client, the residential business on a whole is profitable and should be kept. It is integral to the companies’ core values, and provides a valuable link to the community. Moving forward with franchising efforts, however, we would advise sticking to commercial business. If CMR is to attempt to make headway into new markets, it would be advantageous to proceed with a strategy that is more singular in focus. CMR has had success implementing their InfoCentral tool in their commercial business, and it seems that they have a good business model going forward. Trying to replicate the success that they’ve had with the residential business would add unwanted complexity to their business model. CMR’s current residential customer base is there as a result of years of loyalty and good service from Mike’s Cabinets. This loyalty would not exist in a new market.

A Modest Proposal for Marijuana Essays - 997 Words

Each year the United States government documents drug related deaths in our country, breaking the deaths down into categories of cause. These categories include tobacco, alcohol, prescription medications, illegal drug, and of course marijuana related deaths. Every year the number of deaths coming from marijuana is equivalent to zero. So why is there even controversy over the issue of legalization? Obviously, there are still some people out there who believe the drug is a topic for concern in our nation. In recent years, there has been tremendous progress being made in the field of medicine. University hospitals around the country have been proving again and again that the drug poses no threat to human health and well being, even†¦show more content†¦For the last century there has been an abundance of false information being spread about the drug marijuana. Even in commercials on television, misleading facts about the drug have been presented to the audience. Some mis conceptions about the drug include its potential to cause addiction, the damaging of brain cells, genetic damage, violent behavior, and damage to the immune system. These misconceptions, which have plagued a large percentage of the population into thinking that marijuana is a bad drug, have caused many set backs in the process of gradual legalization. (http://legalizationofmarijuana.com/ ) In order to gain an understanding of marijuanas so called harmful negative effects; it should be compared to other drugs that are presently legalized in this country. In the pharmaceutical world, over-the-counter drugs are being prescribed for everything these days. Ritalin and Adderall are readily available for college students in the university health centers across the country. Kids are staying up all night studying, complaining that they can not pay attention, and are immediately referred to the prescription drugs which in many cases they do not even need. 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