The Pearl Essays - The Pearl, Kino, Pearl, Poetry,

The Pearl Character Analysis of Kino from The Pearl Kino, a character from the story The Pearl, is a prime example of a developing character. From the start through to the end, he develops drastically. At the beginning, he was thought out to be a good loyal husband but as time went on he became a selfish, greedy person who would do anything for money. When the story began Kino seemed to be a good husband who wanted nothing more than to be able to support his family. After a scorpion had stung Coyotito, Kino prayed that he would find a pearl not to become a rich man but so that he could pay the doctor to heal the baby, as he would not work free. After Kino had spent long hard hours searching the ocean floor, he finally found the pearl he had worked for. At first when he found it, he only wanted to pay the doctor to cure Coyotito. However as time passed he began to think of all the things that he could acquire with the money form the pearl and began to develop greed and selfishness. When people asked him what he would buy now that he was a rich man, he was quick to list several items that came to his mind. One of these items was a rifle. Kino wanted a rifle because he wanted to show power over the rest of his village. When Kino took the pearl to the pearl buyers to sell, he was offered one thousand pesos. Kino declined that offer claiming that his pearl was The Pearl of the World. By reacting in such a manner he yet again demonstrates his greed. It is not about saving Coyotito anymore, for he is already feeling well, it is now about the money. Although one thousand pesos was more money than Kino had ever seen he demanded that he would get fifty thousand pesos. Later in the text, Kino discovers Juana trying to destroy the pearl, causing Kino to become very angry, and resulted in him beating her. Although Juana was in very much pain she accepted the beating as if it were a punishment and stayed with Kino. A while later Kino was attacked by another man who wanted the pearl for himself and defended his pearl by killing the man. It is around this point in the story where Kino displays his greatest point of greed and selfishness. When Kino gets ready to attack the trackers Coyotito lets out a cry awakening one of the sleeping trackers. The tracker on watch described the cry as being the cry of a baby, however, the tracker who had just awaked described it as being a coyote. The tracker on guard then lifted his rifle and shot in the direction of the sound. This sparked the deadliest of fuses in Kino, which turned him from a normal man into a fearsome, uncontrollable, machinelike man killing everything in it's path. When Kino returned to the village he looked at the pearl and began to realize the effect it had on him, his family, and his village, and decided to throw it back into the ocean where it came from. Kino has paid a large price to learn such a valuable lesson, that we should not let greed and our want for something to overcome us and let us lose sight of the important things in life such as family, health, and life itself.

4 Ways to Combat Negativity at Work

4 Ways to Combat Negativity at Work We all have that one co-worker who’s just plain†¦ negative. He or she comes in from the elevator followed by a sad, grey cloud. They spend all of their time grumbling about work- having either too much or too little, and their personal lives don’t sound much better. There’s always one in every office, and often to caricatured proportions. But it can be easy to drift into that negative territory. Just to make sure you haven’t taken on any of these bad habits or deflated attitudes, be on the look-out for the following four signs of encroaching negativity at work.   Avoid your own black cloud.Watch Your PostureRemember your first days on the job? You came to work all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, spine straight, head up, typing with your fingers on your home keys, sitting tall in your swivel chair, and drinking vegetable juice for lunch! Or, you know, some version of that kind of effort.But with time, and setbacks, and disappointments, your bad moods h ave started to sink into your bones. Before you know it, you’re slouched over your keys, slumping as you walk, and sneering at your screen. Even if you’re just stressed or inattentive to the ways in which your posture might be wavering, it’s making you look bad to your boss, who values positivity in outlook and professionalism in demeanor. Straighten up!Curb the ComplaintsIt’s too cold, too hot. The meeting was too long, too short. The coffee sucks. The vacation package sucks. Your insurance sucks. Your weekend sucked. The printer†¦ don’t get me started on the printer.Make sure you’re not constantly complaining, even if there are things that you could (reasonably) constantly complain about. And stop complaining altogether about things not in your power to change. If you find yourself ranting and raving for 20  minutes at a time, sit yourself down and ask why you’re suddenly so frustrated at work. But whatever you do, keep the c omplaining to a minimum. Start to notice every time you do it and keep track.Force Yourself to be FriendlyThat sounds awful, but how many people pop by your cubicle for a chat? Ask you to grab a coffee? Wait for you to head to lunch? If the answer is no one (especially if it used to be everyone), then you have some work to do. Not spending at least a small part of your workday chatting to coworkers is a pretty good sign that you’re not universally well-liked. Even if you aren’t a people person, try encouraging a little more social atmosphere. And the best way to make friends is to be upbeat and pleasant to be around!Can the PessimismLand a new project? Get a promotion? Is your first thought one of annoyance at how much extra work you’ll have to do? Or what stress you will be under? Or how many more hours you’ll have to log? That’s a bad sign. When even good news seems like bad news, it’s time to give yourself an outlook makeover.But don†™t worry! Even if you have slipped into the negativity bubble, it’s not too late to pull yourself back into the light. Remember, nobody likes a Negative Nelly. Get yourself back on the right track.

Marketing Implementation, Evaluation and Control, and Monitoring Research Paper

Marketing Implementation, Evaluation and Control, and Monitoring Procedure - Research Paper Example This paper illustrates that KFC is a functional marketing organization. In KFC stores, each and every activity is grouped on the basis of function. All the functions in the KFC are sub-divided into different sub-functions. All the sub-functions are supervised by the different managers and all those managers are controlled by the marketing manager of the company. In the last 11 years, KFC has sponsored all the Twenty20 international cricket tournaments in Australia. For the last 5 years, the organization was the main sponsored by the Australian Big Bash. In between 1998 to 2000, the organization was significantly related to the different gaming and entertainment related companies. During this time KFC US tied up with Game Freak, Nintendo, and 4 Kids Entertainment. In the last 16 years, Kentucky Fried Chicken Foundation has fulfilled different responsibilities. Starting from 2006 to 2012 the organization has continued with Colonel’s Scholars program. In this program, the organiz ation awarded $12.5 million educational grants. This responsible activity awarded scholarships to almost 500 brilliant students in the US. Since 2005 to 2013 the organization has donated almost 200,000 meals whenever any disaster struck the US. Sponsoring Twenty20 International in Australia has been significantly successful for the organization. This sponsorship has helped the growth of the company in Australia and it also has sparked the business growth in neighboring New Zealand. Overall performance standards are satisfactory and the company is considering continuing with it. The decision to tie up with the different gaming companies has increased the popularity of the brand among the children and youth. In the case of this activity also the company maintained superior performance standard. Colonel’s Scholarship program and donation of meals impacted the minds of the US people. Citizens of the country were emotionally attached to all these programs.

Critique of a text Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critique of a text - Essay Example Unfortunately, this article does just that. ‘Inconvenient lives’ is an insight into the reasons why humans resort to abortion, supported by statistics and facts and the writer’s own vehement anti-abortion views. Bork, in this article, answers the questions whether abortion is always killing of a human being and is it done mostly for convenience? He takes the stand that abortion is akin to taking a human life by stating scientific research regarding how human life begins; drawing comparisons between a fetus and an elderly human being; discussing the various reasons through statistics as to why women opt for abortion and criticizing the views of some of the pro-abortion advocates. The writer draws the conclusion that abortion is an immoral act and the reasons behind committing it are irrational. He believes that women solicit it because it seems to be the most viable and convenient solution for their own multiple problems that might arise due to unwanted pregnancy. The writer opens the argument by giving the summary of how a fetus comes into being and develops into a full-fledged human being. According to him, killing the organism formed after the fusion of a male sperm and female egg is like killing a human being. It is quite evident that the writer cannot demarcate between a human tissue (the zygote) and a living person (the mother). By stating scientific and medical opinion he is just trying to impose that this human tissue is important enough to have rights of its own. It shall be most unfortunate however, to grant it rights equal to or superior than that of a woman which is a human being, all flesh and blood with thoughts and emotions. It is an absurd comparison that only diminishes the value to a woman. Much dramatic light has been thrown on the rights that the fetus should be granted but at the end the writer himself admits that â€Å"†¦the fetus cannot survive

New Zealand Cultural Impacts on Health

New Zealand Cultural Impacts on Health Demographic distribution of populations In demographic distribution of populations, Primary Health Organisations are held in charge in New Zealand for the health of their registered populations. Primary Health Organisations brings services in a range of community settings in developing access, clearly taking account on inequalities of health and how these may best be condensed. Having a health population approach may involve promoting health beyond and above treating and diagnosing illnesses. It also involves a Primary Health Organisation to engage in promotion of health in the partnership with some other division or community organisations, and identifying such partnerships as important to improve health results and outcomes for its distributed population. Political values A nation’s politics replicates on the values and historical encounter of the public. It means a country’s values are essential part of its individuality and unique outlook. Each country has its own unique history, which is influencing people’s lives. Every nation is having its individual political institutions, and the way it works in practice is having a big deal to do with the prevalent habits, expectations and beliefs of that nation. People can acquire their political values; their political identification and identity through a bigger political community like for instance, a nation over and done with a process of political socialisation. For example; here in New Zealand, as somewhere else, most people obtain their political values from their family members. Primarily, most of the cases, they acquire it from their parents, schools, and even the media which includes the internet, television, films, books, and music also they get it from news sources, work place , peers, and unto their own individual unique experiences that impacts health viewpoints. Several health educators have tried to present a more organised approach with the process in which people attain their certain principles and beliefs. Although there is so much diversity in every society, every nation has unique sights, being shared by most of the people, about politics, government and even could impact to health. A country’s political values/culture changes from time to time. Therefore, its viewpoint towards health could vary as well. New Zealand’s political growth is being considered more by evolution rather than revolution (slowly changing than hasty change) and New Zealand’s political system is functioning without a written legitimate statement of policy direction and principle. This country’s political value does not replicate a constant. Nevertheless, some features of a country’s general political outlook continue to be more or less persistent, and occasionally it’s strengthening over the time. That is why the approach to its political values through health could also vary from time to time. Health planning and implementation should conduct a survey and further first before implementing it. Religious beliefs Some sides of religion beliefs affect measures of disease, illness and death (Levin 1994). There will be several possible causal pathways, it includes t behaviour, effects psychosocially, religious faith and rites, also a divine explanations which includes â€Å"miracles† (Levin 1994). Various religions deliberately proscribe or sanction certain manners like for example: relating to alcohol, diet and sexual behaviour. New Zealand comprises a lot of religious beliefs. Some of it doesn’t agree with blood transfusions (Jehovah’s witnesses –religious group), and for other native people prefer having alternative herbal medicines rather than the modern medicines we are using now a days. However, religious membership could provide social support and encourage social cohesiveness. Beliefs may well lead to a better sense of coherence, though it could both boost up self-confidence and as well as contribute increase to guilt, self-doubt and the worst depression. It i s also very important to respect every belief we have as it is a right of every individual. Health education always contributes a big role in every society. It includes health awareness, prevention and healthcare alternatives from what they believe in. Human values It is said that human values are nearly unified with human life. They are tangled through our everyday tasks. There is no human life that is possible without having values and every human being exists by a certain values. It is merely the percentage and mixture of positive and negative values in which it split up a decent human being from a not so decent human being. Human values are important in relation to health. If you do care yourself, it will just simply reflect in to your health and even to others surrounding you. Human values or ethics is being emphasized as well to healthcare providers as their approach to their patients and clients. Showing compassion, love and sympathy is still the best therapeutic and effective way than giving just a medication to an ill person. Ethnicity New Zealand’s ethnicity data is basing on the individual self-identification principle. It is believed that self-identification is one of the most practical ways in bringing together this information. Overall, ethnicity questions in this country are drawing high responses. Publics involve ethnicity not only through traditional affiliation, on the other hand also with such aspects as race, lineage, country of current residence and country of birth. The precise mixture of all of these effects is not discernible from all the data collected. Young people also have a tendency to to declare several ethnicities more frequently rather than older people. Ethnicity is intensely related by almost each measure of disease and health. Well it is one of the robust ethnic influences; ethnicity is time and again used as a alternative for â€Å"culture† but then this could lead to inappropriate assumptions about the outcome of traditional influences towards health. Traditions New Zealand tradition is mainly inherited after European  custom and British people, intertwined with the Maoris and Polynesian custom. One of the traditions of the New Zealanders just before it was influenced by British is smoking tobacco. It is still most predominant especially for Maoris now days compared to any other tribal group in New Zealand. Generally, 40.4% of MÄ ori adults were being identified as current smokers much twice the smoking rate of the non-MÄ ori people. Smoking tobacco is one of the main causes of preventable death for MÄ ori people in New Zealand roughly 700 MÄ ori died/dying each year with different kinds of smoking related diseases. Health education about what smoking may cause to our health will always play a vital part. Though increased price rate for the cigarette market helps, public information like anti cigarette smoking campaign with the help of the media should take place to reduce mortality and diseases rate related to smoking. Second hand smoke could cause diseases and worst could kill children and adult who does not smoke, exposure to smoke (tobacco) could increase the chance of a pregnant woman to have miscarriage (abortion), pregnancy problems like stillborn birth; etc. smoking kills, it is best for the government to impose strict implementation towards smoking policies. The public concepts of what health is People usually think that health is just the absence of disease; it means that if you are not feeling any unusual into your body, you are considered healthy. Health is more than mere absence of disease; thus far, most of us think through ourselves well-off if we have been out of danger of major health mischance. We may say â€Å"so far so good† by way of a sense of relief. The (WHO) World Health Organization states that health is a encouraging impression, give emphasis to social and personal resources, also physical, spiritual and mental capabilities. Through proper health education with the help of the some health organisations, healthcare professionals, media, government, we can change the public concepts towards health. However, as there are multiple definitions of health, there are also multiple definitions of health education. It depends on the need of the society. Education for health originates through people. It hopes to encourage them with whatever interests they might have to improve their living conditions. It contains an appraisal of what is recognised by a population about a illness/disease, an valuation of attitudes and habits of the people as they relay to occurrence and spread of the disease, and to the presentation of exact means to remedy perceived insufficiencies. Health education is the best way to promote the real concept of health in the society. The public concepts of what illness is There are some cases of public beliefs/concepts that the cause of illnesses among oneself is based on your bad doings in your past life (karma) that is resulting to your illness in the present. Some said it is God’s punishment of your sins, and others say it is the effect of bad luck. Whatever perspective in life we may have, it is still important to know and to have knowledge about what illness are its causes, prevention and cure. The he importance the public put on health Public put on health is important now a day (21st century). Public healthcare shares similar general aims as the rest of the healthcare structure; which helps decreasing early death and reducing the effects of illness, injury and disability. Nonetheless, the key intent of public put on health is to uphold better and healthier residents. This is typical to a maintainable healthcare system, as well as it delivers social and economic benefits for the region, due to increased output. The concentration of public put on health is prevention than curing of illnesses/diseases. Public health speaks the health necessities of people as a whole as a substitute of individuals. Refining the health of the public frequently needs varying personal health behaviours.Health care workers work through high-risk society in an exertion in changing these behaviours. Though taking along when talking to change could takes time and involves a mixture of training/education, community improvement and healthy com munity policy. Public health organizations and professionals are practised at evaluating and examining population health problems, understanding evidence and examination to guide the improvement of health programs and policies, working with a range of partners in addressing public health issues. Public attitudes towards health and medical professionals The mass media is in the industry that affect on what and how public/people think towards health and medical professionals. However, people and or the public are able to neglect entirety they observe and see in the mass media because the scenes which are presented are not literally true. It might affect public’s viewpoint and it may lead to a good and or bad impression for the watchers and hearers. Based on my experience as a healthcare professional, most of the time I receive a good feedback from my clients. As they were seeking medical attention, they would think that nurses as one of their hope for their medical condition. Working with my profession, I felt respected and happy that somehow people would think nurses like me to be hardworking and compassionate individuals. I guess public attitudes towards health and a medical professional depends upon the previous experience a client encountered with a healthcare professional. Though media has a great contribution to the way they think, previous encounter and experiences still gives a big effect on it. It is always important to tell the public what a healthcare provider should do not only in words but also in deeds. A social and economic influence has a major effect on health and its causes of health disparities contain:education, income, occupation, employment, and racism. Central and even the local government policies must reduce the health disparities objectively and must be keep an eye on frequently at regional and national levels. The Public Health Association of New Zealand is very active involving in persuading public health policy. It provides information which includes boosting research, formulating strategies to an effective and practical public policy. Here are some policies they have been implementing to the public: Alcohol Every year, a problem related to alcohol causes approximately 700 deaths and decreasing $15 billion from the country’s economy. Because of this, the government folds over $300 million per year in alcohol removed taxes, and expend a small portion of this to reduce  problems from alcohol. Breastfeeding The Ministry of Health aims to increase full breastfeeding at the first trimester (three months) to 75% and also in increasing partial or full breastfeeding at second trimester (six months) to 70% to reduce neonatal abnormalities and even death. Rates of breastfeeding in New Zealand stayed still for some years though there is an obvious drop in breastfeeding rates starting the period of discharge from the hospital at six weeks. Increasing breastfeeding rates can give to the primary population health aims of the Health Strategy in New Zealand as follows: reducing obesity; improving nutrition; decreasing the rate of cancer; decreasing the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases; decreasing the incidence of diabetes; and improving oral health. Child health There is a distress about the apparently small value put on children and their care givers. After several reports and cries for intervention, there are still small good outcomes. The full effect of the decline and variations in policy is still clarifying. Succeeding debates with this concern, the New Zealand Public Health Association has recognised the need for intensive action to make the public backing up for children so strong that the government would just come to an agreement. There is a need to contribute a vulgar, solid â€Å"child health voice† together with the other organisations supporting for children. Conclusion Every culture forms our health as much as our genetic factor does. In such a way we describe ourselves culturally and traditionally by religious belief, sexual orientation, politics, age and so much more that affects what we will be doing for our health. A good professional healthcare provider identifies this by trying to learn about the various cultures of his/her clients. It is important to learn so much more and understand about the overall health views, beliefs and practices of a particular group and implementing and planning towards health will just follow.

Our Daily Bread Essay

Our Daily Bread, as the title suggests this is not about bread, as I hoped it was. Rather it’s about people earning their bread, their livelihood. The term ‘bread’ is derived from the larger term ‘bread-winner’ as the one who is the primary provider of the household, and the ‘daily bread’ is simply referring their daily livelihood. As my time spent in the US, I often used to wonder how the different food companies were able to produce mass amount of food to keep the population fed. This movie is the answer and the revelation of how food is produced in Europe and the Western hemisphere. The film starts off as we get a glimpse of daily sanitation rituals being carried off at a meat farm. The different scenes show us to transportation of livestock, machine assisted watering of plants, and a conveyor belt at a poultry farm where they separate the males from the female chickens (I know this as I have seen this done before in a different settin g). The machinery at poultry farm shows precision and efficiency as it sorts the young chicks into moving bins. The vaccination routine is also machine assisted which increases efficiency and production for the poultry farm. After few seconds, the young chicks have grown and we are shown the worker feeding them. The shot transitions into a break room where the worker is on a break with bread and tea, all alone. Next, we get the scene from a vegetable farm. A tractor picks the potatoes from the ground. Next shot, the workers prepare and wear protective gears to apply pesticides and fertilizers to the plants. But most of the work is done by machine assistance, needing almost no human intervention. It seems as the vegetables are being grown inside a greenhouse setting which allows vegetables to be grown all year long, without any weather restrictions. The only human labour being done is picking of the ripened vegetables. After work, the worker seem to be enjoying a small break, again alone. Now we see a bull and a cow where it seems breeding is in process. A closer look and we find that the workers are actually collecting the sperm. We find the sperm is transferred to medical examinations, I don’t kn ow exactly why but possibility could be to efficiently use the sperms to fertilize every fertile egg they can afford without any loss. And of course, we see a healthy calf being born. But it is pretty amusing to see how the cow was cut open and the calf was pulled out, how could that really be possible? How much medication could the animal be on since it wasn’t moving or making any noise as such? And are there any advantages of this type of birth for animal? Next, we see a series of shots of men in tractors who are doing farm work with machine assistance. This shows the efficiency that is earned by machine which helps humans achieve more with less time spent and more time to spend on luxury, or more work. We return back to the poultry farm, the egg farming room to be exact. The eggs are hatched and due to the design, they are conveniently accessible by the farmers to pick. A worker is shown to be holding a chicken as he walks around the egg farm, possibly to warn other hens who don’t lay eggs. In actual note, he maybe was checking for chickens which are dead. In the next shot, the workers are transported to a huge plantation to harvest crops growing under the ground, only time where tractors aren’t used. This is possibly the first time where machine use is limited to just watering the plants. Now we are shown our way to a pig farm. They are transported on a line into a machine where they are slaughtered by a machine. The human labour is limited to keep the line moving and in order. The machines are also used for most of the heavy work as boiling the skin and dissecting the pigs open. The human job is limited to cleaning up whatever else the machines may have left out and separating internal parts. We are also shown the marvel of modern technology with a biplane is used to fertilize the crops. There are also shots of heavy machinery usage in farms. Then we see a moving harvest truck where the outside workers are picking the vegetables and inside simply packaging them . Now we move to a cow-ranch. The cows are milked by machines in a rotating carousel. The cows don’t seem to mind so much, as it seems to be part of their daily routine. Next, a visit to the deep underground salt mines where machines are used to do most of the heavy work such as carrying out the salt from place to place and outside the mine itself. A transition moves from underground to underwater as we see a fish-farm where hundreds and hundreds of fishes are seen in a small area. This also makes it easier for the huge pipe to suck out the fishes from the water and into the boat. They are transported to a factory where humans align the fishes to feed into the machines. Apparently the machines haven’t learned to distinguish the fish head from the tail, yet. The fishes are cut and cleaned by series of machines and then moved onto another human where he puts them on another machine to move them to another section. Here, the worker seems pretty bored of the routine task he h as, perhaps feeling like the machine at this point because of his job task. Next we see bunch of workers cleaning the fish for final prep before shipping them out. Now we come to a pig-farm. The two series of shots seems interesting as the first represented insemination of pigs by tube and next shows the piglets born in captivity, just like ‘The Matrix’. Just like in the movies, they grow up and the next shot seems as if the male pigs were being castrated. One can only understand why so, as they don’t want to overproduce and give out the employees any bonuses. Or maybe not. The next series of shots show how chicken and cattle are prepared for consumption; as they are killed by the machines with little or less human effort required in the process. The final shot shows the end of the day routine- how everything is cleaned and sanitized for the next day of work. Despite all this, the workers in all places couldn’t wait for their daily bread, their hard earned break from their work. Perhaps the routine manner of their tasks has become so innate to them that they don’t seem to mind how their own food is being produced. For me, it was a bit amusing and shocking to see the conditions of animals but maybe after a few more views, I wouldn’t mind it either. This movie shows the heavy usage of machinery used in the production of food, be it salt, pigs, chicken, vegetables, fish, or pigs. It was also amusing, in a way, to see how breeding had gone into the next level by scientific usage to effectively get their result financially and also in economic ways to feed the ever growing world population. It seemed as almost if humans were not the only ones alienated from nature, but also the animals which were being artificially inseminated and mutilated against their wills. The workers didn’t seem to care much for what they were doing either, as long as it made their breads. It seemed as they had been trained to do this for so long that they were used to it- like machines with machine hearts and machine minds. In another view, the unnatural size of the bulls in the breeding house seemed as if they were so-much genetically engineered to produce the maximum amount of meat possible. Perhaps they had mixed something in the dry grass that was being blown into their small cages they were put-in. The growing population also has seemed to affect the unnatural process by which plants were grown with usages of pesticides and fertilizers. The use of greenhouses portrays, in a way, the plant’s alienation from nature as it was now possible to grow all plants in any weather or conditions. The absence of narration or subtitles leaves the movie-watcher to make their own conclusion and perspective. The filmmaker, as I understand, doesn’t want to change our habits but simply be aware of the ways in how the planet is being fed. If anything, this should be seen by as many people as possible to make them aware of the status of food production and the status of the subjects which are involved in the food production i.e. humans, plants and animals alike. I must say some of the scenes in the movie are quiet disturbing but that is the current status of our population and food production required to feed them.

Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott Essay

Take a moment and imagine a family of six traveling from city to city in order to survive, their only home, a car. Suddenly as their driving along a women speeds into them crashing, and wrecking their home. They are all then taken to a hospital, where the family discovers that the mother has progressive cancer in her lymph nodes. After this discovery, the father decides to skip town leaving his wife, three young children and elderly mother homeless. Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott is an exceptional novel. Endicott won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best book in Canada and the Caribbean for Good to a Fault. Why might you ask? Each character is so extraordinarily developed and so well described it feels as if you know them yourself. Their emotions, thoughts and actions are so personal that at the end of the novel Endicott has created a wonderful and realistic person. Their conflicts are so profound, that they are crippling to the characters that suffer under them. And a theme that so important that the book is named after it. Like most novels Good To A Fault has a variety characters with an array of personalities, thoughts and behaviors. What sets it aside from others, is the vivid characterization of not only the fundamental characters of the story, but even the characters that are only introduced once. The rotation of perspectives gives the novel a whole new view on each character’s true personality and on the conflicts they face. As Mary Jo Murphy from the New York Times said, â€Å"it’s the quieter introspective dramas, provided by Endicott’s skillful rotation among the characters’ points of view, that hold your attention.† Each character’s thoughts are described by the author in exact correspondence with their personalities. For example; Paul, who is a pastor, often indirectly makes allusions to faith. Like when he and Darwin are fixing up Clara’s basement Paul says, â€Å"Today is a time for rejuvenation â€Å"pg.153 or when he is speaking to Clara about her generosity towards the Gage’s he says â€Å"You sacrificed yourself for others† pg.329 Through this, Endicott solidifies Paul’s personality, tying him to his religion. Making Paul a symbol of Christianity which brings into question the faith of many characters. Allowing the reader to experience the many sides of faith. Apart from that , appearance and reputation help to build complete characters. Take the protagonist Clara , Paul describes her as â€Å"†¦single, childless of course, took care with her appearance, fortyish, Christian, and not in good spirits for some time since her mothers death.† pg.26. This information helps develop a rounded character. It isn’t enough just to say that Clara is a nice person, so that is why she takes care of the Gage family. The author uses her faith, age and relationship status to give reason for her generous actions. It helps the reader gain a better understanding of Clara’s personality, and accordingly builds a relationship between the reader and the protagonist. Above all things what sets this book aside from any other is the conflicts. Unlike most books the conflict of this story introduces itself in the very first paragraph, â€Å"The other car came from nowhere, speeding through on the yellow, going so fast it was almost safely past when Clara’s car caught it.†pg. 7. Because of this you would think that there would be no rising action, no excitement and no great lesson for the protagonist to learn, but you would be wrong. This conflict originally appears as if it will have the most impact, but it does not. In fact it stems off into several other conflicts that characters struggle with individually, and as a group. For instance, Lorraine’s diagnosis with cancer. This leads to her husband, Clayton, struggling to find his family a safe home, which he fails to do on his own. This leaves him bitter because instead of him finding a solution through hard work, he is left to stay with the very women who put them in the situation, Clara. As he says when confronting Clara at the hospital, â€Å"Hard on you? Hard to sit and watch the results of what you did?†pg23. He decides to deal with this by leaving the family. His actions burden Clara with the care of the family he left behind. Leading to Clara’s guilt of driving the children’s father away and leaving the mother all alone. Ultimately she struggles with the idea that she cares for the Gage family either out of guilt or to fill the empty spaces not only in her spare rooms, but in her life. It only took Endicott one simple incident to create a million other problems throughout the novel. Each conflict faced, allows the reader to understand more about each character’s role in the story. Finally molding the novel into the theme. The theme I took from this novel was ; personal satisfaction of goodwill is the only payment for charity,for if it’s not, the deeds bring no true meaning. However when I contacted Marina Endicott on twitter she described the theme as follows; â€Å"How the debt of charity is redeemed; Love your neighbour as yourself.† After Clara divorces her husband, she is left wounded by their short, detached marriage. Her parents then become ill and she must care for them. But soon they both die leaving Clara alone with all their possessions and burdens. When Clara opens up her home to the Gage family and a friend’s daughter, she must decide whether her actions are truly pure and for others benefit, or greedy and only being used to fill the void left by her parents and husband. So she questions herself, â€Å"I see what they need, but I am unwilling to help.†pg 25 When Clara takes in the Gage family she originally believes she is doing it to make up for the car accident she caused. As the visit becomes longer Clara grows more and more attached to the family as she brings them into her life. Caring for them soon becomes less of an obligation, and more of a desire as she grows to truly love the Gage’s like they were her own. She becomes so attached that she does not wish that they leave her home, and when they do she is deeply angered. â€Å"She did not want anything, except Pearce back, and Dolly, and Trevor; except the life she had left this afternoon, to run over and help Lorraine- to help her again!†pg.327 .This theme is a great topic that adds depth the novel. The whole story Clara is faced with deciding whether what she does is out of loneliness or out of good will. It is a topic that we should all consider when we decide to do something charitable. And yet another reason why I believe this is a wonderful piece of litterature. Ultimately this book incorporates everything that makes a good, memorable novel . It’s realistic, likeable and relatable characters keep the reader the attached to the story. These characters face conflicts that challenge them physically and emotional but lead them to fulfilling rewards. Finally these elements are all summed up to create a concrete theme of charity versus selfishness, a topic rarely touched on in our society. These elements of the novel piece the story together as a whole and make it strong enough to last the test of time. This is a great novel.