Organisational behaviour for Woolworths

Organisational behaviour for Woolworths Introduction Woolworths Woolworths was a high-street retail chain, which at its height operated more than 800 stores nationwide, and employed more than 30,000 staff. In late 2008, Woolworths entered administration, and subsequently closed in 2009. Each branch employed a mixture of full time and part time employees, and there was a distinct hierarchy apparent. At the top of the hierarchy was the head of branch responsible for the overall performance of the store. Then there were senior managers usually two present each day, they were responsible for the management of the general day to day operations of the branch. This included stock control, staff rotas, and the cashing of money at the end of the day. Full -time employees were next, and they tended to be middle aged, who worked week days. They were regularly delegated tasks by the management. At the bottom of the hierarchy were the part -time employees. They were often students, who worked during the evenings when the store was closed and at the weekends when the shop was busier. They were given little responsibility, as the majority of them were apathetic to the performance of the organisation. They were mainly there for financial reasons, rather than to pursue a career in retail. As the majority were students, the staff turnover was very high and this resulted in the management giving these employees few opportunities. This hierarchy was on the whole effective, as part time employees were happy to follow orders from full time employees and senior managers. Management at Woolworths were somewhat removed from their staff. Because of the informal hierarchical system in place, head of branch had little communication with part time employees. This meant that the management didnt know many of their staff on a personal level, which in turn resulted in a poor application of motivational methods. This report will look at the effects that management has on employee motivation at a particular branch of Woolworths. It will assess the different techniques used by the organisation as a whole, and by the branch managers, to motivate the employees. This report will also make a number of recommendations for ways in which management can motivate these employees more effectively in Woolworths future enterprises. HR/Organisational Behaviour Motivation In times of recession, the need to motivate staff is probably as strong as ever. As many employers wont have a large budget for recruiting and training staff, they will want to hang on to their most talented and skilled workers to ensure their business survives the recession and remains competitive in the upturn (Sullivan, 2009). Employees in any organisation need something to keep them working to the best of their ability. In most cases employees are driven by money. However, sometimes just a salary is not enough to stay at an organisation. An employee must be motivated to work for a company or organization. If an organisation fails to motivate its staff effectively, then productivity and quality of work will deteriorate. Keeping someone working to the best of their ability is the ultimate goal of employee motivation. There are many methods to help keep employees motivated, this report will look at a number of theories involving the effect that management has on employee motivation, and will aim to apply these to a branch of Woolworths. Motivating staff is one of the most important responsibilities for a leader in an organisation; however it is also one of the most difficult. Doing so goes a long way toward ensuring a professionally healthy and productive work environment (Staren, 2009). Because there were a large number of part-time student employees working at the branch of Woolworths, managements biggest challenge was to keep these particular staff motivated. It is common for younger employees to see this kind of job as simply a means to make money. As they have few financial responsibilities, they are less likely to feel the need to impress management and work to the best of their ability to keep their job. It is of the opinion that a low quality of service was a key factor in the ultimate failure of Woolworths. Because many staff were not motivated by their work, there was a knock-on effect on the quality of work carried out. This resulted in a poor customer feedback and most importantly a poor reputation. The emphasis was therefore on the management to try and change this impression. The following is a literature review of motivational theory. It will begin by looking at the factors of an employees job that most motivate them, followed by an in depth analysis of the effect of management on motivation. Literature Review What motivates an employee? In the early part of the 20th Century, employees were considered just another input in the production of goods and services. When Henry Ford first developed his assembly line for the Model-T, workers were treated as though they were another machine in the process, their skills reduced to a single task out of the 84 steps Ford had divided Model T production into. However this view of thinking changed after the publication of the Hawthorne Studies. Professor Elton Mayo examined the impact of work conditions in employee productivity, and following experiments conducted over six years, came to the conclusion that employees are motivated not only by money, and that employee behaviour is related to other behaviour. Studies in this area showed that â€Å"interesting work† has been the most important motivational factor. It is maintained by Hackman (1975) that interesting and challenging work inspires people to perform better than required, exerting additional effort in order to experience a sense of fulfilling their potential and accomplishing worthwhile ends. Creating interesting work might be a challenge for organisations however. According to Kovach (1989), its hard to make all work in an organisation interesting, as its on a personal level, and what may be interesting to one person may not be interesting to another. Situation plays an important role and motivation varies over time and situation as well. Kovachs study shows that younger workers with low incomes in non-supervisory positions were most concerned with money, job security and prospects of promotion while older workers with higher incomes and higher organisational positions were motivated more by the work and its quality. There have been many surveys conducted on the factors for employee motivation. The first of which was by the Labour Relations Institute of New York in 1946, on industrial employees. Appreciation of work done was most important motivating factor in the first survey, as well as in 1997. But in the last decade, good wages became the most common factor. Demographics, such as income and location, should be considered when analysing these attitudes, according to Wiley (1977). One of the key factors of a motivated workforce is the leadership they are given. Good management of staff can ensure an organisations employees work to the best of their ability. The role of leadership when motivating staff McGregor (1960) maintained that there are two fundamental approaches to managing people. Many managers tend towards theory X, and generally get poor results. Enlightened managers use theory y, which produces better performance and results, and allows people to grow and develop. With theory X, a manager has little respect for their employees skills and considers that they need to be closely supervised and that comprehensive systems of controls developed. A hierarchical structure is needed with narrow span of control at each and every level. They assume that the average person dislikes work and will avoid it they can, therefore employees must be forced towards organisational objectives, with the threat of punishment. They also assume that employees prefer to be directed, to avoid responsibility and wants security above all else. Beliefs of this theory lead to mistrust, highly restrictive supervision, and a punitive atmosphere. With theory Y, management believes employees to be ambitious, self-motivated and exercise self-control. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work duties. Theory Y managers believe that employees will learn to seek out and accept responsibility and to exercise self-control and self-direction in accomplishing objectives to which they are committed. An additional theory, Theory Z, was developed by William Ouchi, in his book 1981 Theory Z: How American management can Meet the Japanese Challenge. It promotes a combination of theory Y and modern Japanese management, which places a large amount of freedom and trust with workers, and assumes that workers have a strong loyalty and interest in team-working and the organisation. McGregors work can be related to McClellands achievement model. Due to their high task focus, achievement-motivated people have a tendency towards X-Theory style; however an nAch manager can be trained to see the value of employing Theory Y style. NPow managers are almost definitely Theory X and nAffil are typically Theory Y and if not can relatively easily be trained to be so. McGregors work was based on Maslows hierarchy of needs. This theory is one of the most widely discussed theories of motivation. The original Hierarchy of Needs model was developed between 1943 and 1954, and first widely published in Motivation and Personality in 1954. It concerned the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfil their own unique potential (self-actualization). He proposed that each of us is motivated by needs, and that these most basic needs are inborn. Maslows Hierarchy of Needs states that we must satisfy each need in turn, starting with the first, which deals with the most obvious needs for survival itself. Only when the lower order needs of physical and emotional well-being are satisfied are we concerned with the higher order needs of influence and personal development. Conversely, if the things that satisfy our lower order needs are swept away, we are no longer concerned about the maintenance of o ur higher order needs. McGregor suggested that management could use either set of needs to motivate employees. As management theorists became familiar with Maslows work, they soon realized the possibility of connecting higher level needs to worker motivation. If organizational goals and individual needs could be integrated so that people would acquire self-esteem and, ultimately, self-actualization through work, then motivation would be self-sustaining. Today, his Theory Y principle influences the design of personnel policies, affects the way companies conduct performance reviews, and shapes the idea of pay for performance. David McClelland proposed that an individuals specific needs are developed over time and are fashioned by ones life experiences. The majority of these needs can be classed as either achievement (nAch seek to excel), affiliation (nAff need harmonious relationships with other people and need to feel accepted by others), or power (nPow seek to benefit either themselves or the organisation). An employees motivation and effectiveness in certain job functions are influenced by these needs. Management should seek to understand their employees needs in order to achieve maximum motivation. The importance of each of these needs will vary from one person to another. If management can determine the importance of each of these needs to an individual, it will help them decide how to influence that individual. By using these theories to address an individual employees needs, management could increase motivation by utilising Management by objectives (MBO). MBO is a systematic and organized approach that allows management to focus on achievable goals and to attain the best possible results from available resources. It was first outlined by Peter Drucker in 1954 in his book The Practice of Management. It aims to increase organizational performance by aligning goals and subordinate objectives throughout the organization. Ideally, employees get strong input to identify their objectives, time lines for completion, etc. MBO includes ongoing tracking and feedback in the process to reach objectives. With MBO, managers focus on the result, not the activity. They delegate tasks by negotiating a contract of goals with their subordinates without dictating a detailed roadmap for implementation. Management by Objectives (MBO) is about setting objectives and then breaking these down into more specific goals or key results. Application of OB theory to its organisational practice This review of management practise has a number of implications for Woolworths management. Recognising the needs of individuals within the workforce can help management develop their methods and will enable them to get the best out of each individual employee. By using Maslows Hierarchy of needs, management might be able to profile their full time and part time employees effectively. By applying McClellands principle at the beginning of an employees career, management can get a deeper understanding of the profile of their employees. In the past, it could be assumed that all part-time staff have the same desires and needs from their job. It is fair to assume that they are all there for financial reasons only. However by applying this theory, it might be found that there are employees who wish to pursue the job and turn it into a career. They would fit into the nAch group of McClellands theory. Recognising this will give the management the opportunity to develop this employee and to hand them more responsibility in their work. This will motivate the employees which in turn will benefit the organisation. The majority of the part time workforce would fit into the nAff character, as they seek to have harmonious experiences and would seek to make their job as straightforward as possible by forming friendly relationships. It is the managements responsibility to ensure that the working environment is suitable for these employees, as they make up the majority. It is vital that the management recognises McGregors X and Y theory. At the branch of Woolworths in question, there were a number of managers who would fit the theory X character. In this particular field, where one of the key roles of management is communicating with their staff, this had a very negative effect. Although it would be fair for a manager to assume that many of their part time staff are apathetic to the organisations success, this is not the case. By not offering them any responsibility would not be a pragmatic decision, as it would simply deter staff further from reaching their potential ability at work. A theory Y character on the other hand may not be suitable for this type of work force as well. As accepted in this report, the majority of the part time workforce is there simply for financial reasons. Giving them too much responsibility may result in a lack of effectiveness, as they feel they can get away with doing a lacklustre job without being held responsible. Instead a mixture of theories X and Y might be the most suitable to manage a retail workforce, where the management might delegate responsibility to employees and give them some independence at work, whilst still keeping a close eye on their progress. The MBO style is appropriate for knowledge-based enterprises when your workforce are competent. It is appropriate in situations where you wish to build employees management and self-leadership skills and tap their creativity, tacit knowledge and initiative. Therefore it may not be suitable for the majority of employees at Woolworths. However the head of branch should have used this style to set regular objectives for their senior managers. This would have a positive effect on all employees in the hierarchy, as the senior managers will become more motivated and will in turn motivate the staff more effectively. Conclusion Lessons for management Successful work environments are characterized by open communication at all levels. The effective manager realizes that identifying positive motivators requires knowing his staff on an individual basis. He recognizes that what motivates one member, even in the same role, may not be the same for another (Staren, 2009). Woolworths management should have considered indentifying each of their employees needs and motivating factors early on in their role and ensured that they treated their workforce as individuals. Woolworths management should take advantage of incentive based motivational methods in which performance is guided by objectives. By meeting regularly with staff to determine mutually agreed upon goals and objectives, this could have considerable motivational effects on its workforce. The managers should have ensured that the staff members had appropriate authority or are otherwise empowered to proceed as they deem necessary to accomplish their jobs. Giving staff more responsibility will only have a positive effect on their motivation. The key is understanding the type of responsibility they desire.

Buddhism Versus Greek Mythology

â€Å"[A human being] experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness, â€Å"said Albert Einstein. â€Å"Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty† (â€Å"Heart Quotes†). Einstein’s view on nature is similar to that of Indian Buddhists. Life-giving Indian weather inspired the Buddhist cyclic view of rebirth while the rugged terrain of Greece inspired their harsh outlook on nature.Buddhists believe man is one with nature while Greek mythology emphasizes the all-importance of man. Buddhists live in harmony with nature whereas the Greeks show violence towards it and all its creatures. However, as the Greek mindset shifted towards philosophy, so did it shift towards similar reverence towards nature. The defining distinction between these two perspectives on life is that the ou tlook on nature of Buddhists show values from the belief that all is in harmony with Atman, whereas the Greek outlook on nature shows that man is above nature.India is a country of lush plains, striking mountains, beautiful deserts, and dazzling bays. 2, 545 years ago, this incredible scenery served as the backdrop to Buddha’s life and eventual Enlightenment, from which Buddhist teachings would one day grow (Eckel 6). The impact of Buddha’s surroundings on Buddhist thinking is obvious, especially when one takes into consideration India’s dramatic seasonal climate changes. Every summer in India, the monsoons arrive. Every summer in India is monsoon season, a time of torrential downpours raging uninterrupted for months.Before these monsoons, the earth is dried and parched; food and water are scarce. It is, in every way, a season of death. Then, however, the rain arrives, harsh and relentless, but life giving nonetheless. The rain is the amniotic fluid catalyzing t he re-entrance of life unto the barren earth. This annual cycle of death and rebirth presents the native people with a dire ultimatum: they must either obey nature or not survive. If they try to go against nature’s course, they will inevitably fail. Nature controls life. Observing this phenomenon, Buddhists learned from nature and realized that this cycle can be found everywhere.They realized that humans undergo an equivalent cycle called samsara, or reincarnation. ————————————————- â€Å"He could no longer distinguish the many voices, the cheerful from the weeping, the children’s from the men’s: they all belonged together. The lament of the knower’s yearning and laughing, the screaming of the angry, the moaning of the dying- everything was one; everything was entwined and entwisted, was interwoven a thousand fold. And all of it together, all v oices, all goals, all yearnings, all sufferings, all pleasures, all good and evil-the world was everything together.Everything together was the river of events, was the music of life. And when Siddhartha listened attentively to this river, listened to this song of a thousand voices, when he did not listen to sorrow or laughter, when he did not bring his soul to any one voice and did not enter them with his ego, but listened to all of them, heard the wholeness, the oneness- then the great song of the thousand voices consisted of a single word, which was ‘om’: perfection†¦belonging to the oneness† (Hesse 118-119). At the core of Buddhism lies an important lesson about maya and Enlightenment. To reach Enlightenment, one must understand all.One of the first steps towards such understanding is to understand maya, or illusion. Everything that one sees, feels, and tastes belongs to the world of maya. Even one does not exist but in the world of maya. Thus, if all doe s not exist, then all is equal. One is equal to everything in the surrounding world, especially nature. All are one in Atman, which is the heart of all of Buddhism. Everything is one. All of this separation from nature and from one another is simply maya, or an illusion. Consequently, in Buddhism, any injustice done to nature is an injustice to oneself.To reach Enlightenment, peace and oneness with nature are essential. Man and nature are one. Therefore, everyone and everything, especially nature, should be treated as so. â€Å"[Siddhartha said,] ‘This stone is a stone, it is also an animal, it is also God, it is also the Buddha, I love and honor it not because it would become this or that someday, but because of this because it is a stone, because it appears to me now and today as a stone, it is precisely because of this that I love it and see worth and meaning in each of its veins and pits, in the yellow, in the gray, in the hardness, in the sound it emits when I tap it, n the dryness or dampness of its surface. [T]hat is precisely what I like and what seems wonderful to me and worthy of worship†¦I love the stone and the river and all these things that we contemplate and also a tree or a piece of bark. These are things and things can be loved† (Hesse 126-127). In harmony with the principle of reincarnation, any plant, creature, or other aspect of nature is a part of the cycle of rebirth. Therefore, any of these can one day become a man, for when something in nature dies, it undergoes the cycle of rebirth and can be reborn as anything.One day, it will become a human. Nature holds the ability within itself to be a human and, for that reason, should be considered as an equal. The true magnitude of nature’s presence in Buddhism is truly portrayed by the distinct mentioning of Siddhartha reaching enlightenment under a tree, specifically the Bodhi tree or the Asiatic fig tree (Gach 16). The scriptural account of the Enlightenment of Buddha gives this significance to nature when Buddha sits under the Bodhi tree for seven whole days.After the seven days, the Buddha gets up only to sit down again at an Ajapala banyan-tree for another length of time. He rises once again just to sit down once more at the foot of a Mucalinda tree (â€Å"Bodhi Leaf†). Nature is therefore made clear as one of the most important aspects of Buddhism. As Buddhists have such a deep reverence for nature, they believe in keeping peace with every aspect of nature. This does not just mean plants but also animals and other living creatures. However, that does not mean that all Buddhists must be vegetarians although it is strongly suggested to do so.It is said that the act of eating meat is a form of karma that will lead a person farther from Enlightenment. Therefore, the more meat one eats in one’s various lives, the more times one will have to experience the cycle of death and rebirth. On the other hand, some Buddhists believe in anoth er view of meat eating. One is allowed to eat meat that one receives unless one knows or suspects that the meat in question was killed especially for one (Epstein). As far as sacrificial practices, meat is not sacrificed but instead herbs and incense are given up in prayer.Peace is a very important aspect of treating nature. Peace comes in many forms: peace towards environment, towards creatures, towards man, etc. A Buddhist definition of peace is â€Å"softening what is rigid in our hearts† (Chodron 17). In keeping with their attitude towards nature, Buddhists also believe that a man should not kill another man for any reason. In Buddhism, war is never the answer. In fact, the first few lines of the Dhammapada, a Buddhist scripture, state â€Å"For love is not conquered by hate: hate is conquered by love.This is a law eternal† (Chappell 81). Therefore, instead of fighting hate with hate, Buddhists believe in fighting hate with love. That is the only way to overcome an d to reach Enlightenment. â€Å"’When someone seeks,’ said Siddhartha,’ then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.You, Venerable One, may truly be a seeker, for, in striving toward your goal, you fail to see certain things that are right under your nose. † (Hesse, 121-122) As previously stated, to reach Enlightenment, Buddhists believe all that is needed is understanding. The ultimate goal of Buddhists is to attain this understanding, this meaning, this Enlightenment. However, one must be aware that spending a life seeking is not the way to reach Enlightenment. To be a faithful Buddhist, one must understand that the key is not to seek.For, in seeking, as this quote say s, the obvious is not seen. Buddhism then teaches that to reach Enlightenment, one must find not seek. Therefore, Buddhists do not seek to explain nature (Hanh 78). They are content with nature as it is- unexplained, for nature’s explanations can be found without seeking. â€Å"’Is this what you mean: that the river is everywhere at once, at its source and at its mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea ,in the mountains, everywhere at once, and only the present exists for it, and not the shadow of the future? ‘That is it,’ said Siddhartha. ‘And when I learned that, I looked at my life, and it was also a river and the boy Siddhartha was separated from the adult Siddhartha and from the old man Siddhartha only by shadow, not by substance. Nor were Siddhartha’s earlier births the past, and his death and his return to [Atman] are no future. Nothing was, nothing will be; everything is, everything has being and is presentâ⠂¬  (Hesse 94). A final important aspect of Buddhism is the concept that time does not exist. Time is a man-made notion that does nothing but bring about worries.All sufferings in life can be attributed to time. Buddhists believe that once the concept of time is released, life will hold no more problems, worries, or stresses. Only then can Enlightenment be truly reached. When the concept of time is destroyed inside oneself, it allows for a completely new philosophy to surface. Greece is a country lined with hostile, jagged mountains, in which there are very few arable location surrounded by threatening seas. There is no cycle, no preconception, no structure. To the Ancient Greeks, it seemed that nature was not kind; nature was no friend to them.Therefore, their logic decided that they should be no friend to nature. Such was the physical and mental location of this people, and the beginning of many differences between Greek thought and Buddhism. Greeks living about six hundred years ere the birth of Christ were very religious, as well as very diverse spiritually. All the answers to their questions were found in different religions. Ancient Greeks passed down their religious traditions orally through myths. A myth is â€Å"a story about the gods which sets out to explain why life is as it is† (Gaarder, 22).Greek mythology was an integral part of Greek culture. The ‘miracle of Greece’ is a phrase that describes the awakening of Greek culture and its effects on the rest of the world. One way the Greeks accomplished this was through their focus on man’s importance. They put mankind at the center of their world so that man was all-important. The Greeks even created the gods in their own image, complete with very human qualities. This was the first time in history that a god was made into a recognizable, tangible form. Erstwhile, gods had no lucidity about them. Greek artists and poets realized how splendid a man could be, straight and swi ft and strong. He was the fulfillment of their search for beauty. They had no wish to create some fantasy shaped in their own minds† (Hamilton, 9). Man was put on a pedestal and made the most prominent being in the world, so that he was made into a deity. Any human could be the son of a god, thereby half-divine, an idea unheard of before this time. This idea of man being the ultimate authority is in complete contradiction to Buddhism, where man was equal to nature, not above it. And soon as the men had prayed and flung the barley, first they lifted back the heads of the victims, slit their throats, skinned them and carved away the meat from the thighbones and wrapped them in fat, a double fold sliced clean and topped with strips of flesh. And the old man burned these over dried split wood and over the quarters poured out glistening wine while young men at his side held five-pronged forks. Once they had burned the bones and tasted the organs they cut the rest into pieces, pierc ed them with spits, roasted them to a turn and pulled them off the fire† (Homer 93)Myths were also used for other purposes than learning. â€Å"But a myth was not only an explanation. People also carried out religious ceremonies related to the myths† (Gaarder, 25). Like most other religions at the time, the Ancient Greeks’ religions consisted of brutal rituals and rites that contrasted greatly to the thoughts of Buddhism (Connolly 87). Buddhism teaches of kindness to animals whereas Greek religion utilized animal cruelty as part of their holy worship to the gods. The gods of Olympus, who were created in the ultimate image of the Greek people, used the forms of innocent animals to manipulate and get what they wanted.In many instances, Zeus used the guise of animals when he wanted to capture a woman and gain her trust. â€Å"[T]hat very instant [Zeus] fell madly in love with Europa [†¦ H]e thought it well to be cautious, and before appearing to Europa he chan ged himself into a bull† (Hamilton 101). However, rather than setting an example to revere animals, this teaches people to use animals in any way possible to reach the desired end. Even more opposed to Buddhism was the fact that a Greek hero was someone who had extreme strength or other physical features that he could use against animals.Hercules is one of the best examples of this notion. He is considered the greatest Greek hero ever to live. Through a tragic sequence of events, he killed his sons and wife, but was doomed to live on in order to undergo a series of trials to redeem himself. His first predicament was to â€Å"kill the lion of Nemea. Hercules solved [that] by choking the life out of [the lion]† (Hamilton 231). Hercules also had to drive out the â€Å"Stymphalian birds, which were a plague to the people of Stymphalus because of their enormous numbers† (Hamilton 232).This shows that, unlike Buddhists, Greeks could not live in peace with nature, but i nstead hated nature. Ancient Greeks did not want anything to do with nature, let alone be a part of it. Hercules also had to capture many animals in these trials such as the â€Å"stag with horns of gold†, â€Å"a great boar which had its lair on Mount Erymanthus†, â€Å"the savage bull that Poseidon had given Minos†, â€Å"the man-eating mares of King Diomedes of Thrace†, the cattle of Geryon†, and â€Å"Cerberus the three-headed dog† (Hamilton 232-233).Hercules inspired the Greeks not by staying in peace with nature but instead by forcing it to conform to his will in a harsh, cruel way. Hercules made sure he was above nature, a predicament the Buddhists avoided and even condemned. In summary, Greeks wanted to overcome nature whereas Buddhists wanted to be one with nature. â€Å"So by the beaked ships the Argives formed for battle, arming round you, Achilles –Achilles starved for war-and faced the Trojan ranks along the plain’ s high ground[†¦T]he Achaeans kept on gaining glory- great Achilles who held back from the brutal fighting so long had just come blazing forth.Chilling tremors shook the Trojans’ knees, down to the last man, terrified at the sight: the headlong runner coming, gleaming in all his gear, afire like man-destroying Ares† (Homer 503, 505). As previously stated, Buddhists lived by the doctrine to fight hate with love. If Ancient Greeks had a concise doctrine about war, it would have been to fight hate with more hate. Ancient Greek civilization centralized around their love of carnage. The majority of Ancient Greek myths revolved around war or other forms of fighting.The Iliad is a 537-page myth about one war and it glorifies all aspects of war. The heroes of The Iliad are not monks or The Buddha like in Buddhism. Instead, the heroes of The Iliad are Achilles and Hector, two soldiers magnificent in warfare and bloodthirsty through and through. In addition, Achilles is most illustrious in The Iliad when he is the most sanguinary. â€Å"[Diomedes] went whirling into the slaughter now, hacking left and right and hideous groans broke from the drying Thracians slashed by the sword-the ground ran red with blood. †¦]Tydeus’ son went tearing into that Thracian camp until he’d butchered twelve. [†¦]But now the son of Tydeus came upon the king, the thirteenth man, and ripped away his life. [†¦]Patroclus tore [Pronous’s] chest left bare by the shield-rim, loosed his knees and the man went crashing down. [†¦ Then Patroclus] stabbed [Thestor’s] right jawbone, ramming the spearhead square between his teeth so hard he hooked him by that spearhead over the chariot-rail, hoisted, dragged the Trojan out. [†¦Patroclus then] gaffed him off his car [†¦] and flipped him down face first, dead as he fell.Next [†¦] he flung a rock and it struck between [Erylaus’s] eyes and the man’s whole skull spl it in his heavy helmet. [Patroclus] crowded corpse on corpse on the earth. † (Homer, 292, 426-427) Even more horrific to the eyes of Buddhists would be the battle scenes in The Iliad that truly show the awe and glory the ancient Greeks saw in war. The Iliad was a myth that served more as entertainment than anything else. This shows that Ancient Greeks were amused by this kind of literature. Buddhists believe in not seeking to explain nature. By contrast, Ancient Greeks did precisely this with their myths. [A myth] is an explanation of something in nature; how, for instance, any and everything in the universe came into existence: men, animals, this of that tree or flower, the sun, the moon, the stars, storms, eruptions, earthquakes, all that is and all that happens† (Hamilton 12). Ancient Greeks wanted to know how everything happened around them so they could manipulate their environment more easily. This is a central division between Ancient Greeks and Buddhism. Whereas Buddhists believe that time does not exist, Ancient Greeks were engrossed by time.All throughout The Iliad, Homer stresses how long the war has been going on and how it worries and distresses everyone involved. Unlike Buddhists, the Greeks do not disown the belief of time. They stay true to the traditional man-made vision of time instead of throwing out their problems by abandoning the idea of time. â€Å"[The natural philosopher] Heraclitus (c. 540-480 B. C. )[†¦] was from Ephesus in Asia Minor. He thought that constant change, or glow, was in fact the most basic characteristic of nature. [†¦ ]‘Everything flows,’ said Heraclitus.Everything is in constant flux and movement, nothing is abiding. Therefore we ‘cannot step twice into the same river. When I step into the river for the second time, neither I nor the river are the same’† (Gaarder 34). Slowly, Greek culture started to move away from religion and more towards philosophy. It evolved from a â€Å"mythological mode of thought to one based on experience and reason† (Gaarder 27). People could make ideas for themselves and create new beliefs instead of going back to the myths. The world started a shift from relying on religion to analyzing the world with science and philosophy.Surprisingly, this is where similarities between Greek and Buddhist culture were born. At first, the two religions of the ancient Greeks and the Buddhists clashed greatly. However, through the move away from mythical religion the Greek beliefs were brought closer towards the religion of Buddhism. Heraclitus here used the same metaphor for his philosophy as Siddhartha used for his. Although the passages were said in different situations and with different words, both quotes have the same general philosophy that time does not truly exist. A river is usually a sign of separation; a river acts as a divider in most cases.However, this river brings two very different cultures together in a ve ry powerful way that is clear to all. Nature is everything outside and inside a man or a woman or a child. Nature is every breath taken, every step forward, every glance made, every wind blown, and every flower planted. The two cultures of Greece and Buddhism showed great contrasts in the beginning but one resounding similarity was found in something as simple as a river. India shows a cyclic weather that inspired the thought of rebirth while Greece shows a harsh terrain that inspired animosity between man and nature.As a consequence, Buddhists thought that nature and man are one while Greeks were taught to be above nature and manipulate it in any way possible. Buddhists lived in ultimate peace while the ancient Greeks lived in love of carnage. The Buddhist outlook on nature is derived from the belief that man is one with nature whereas the original Greek outlook is derived from the thought that man is above nature. Nature is the essence of the world, the aura of everything around p eople. These two cultures, although vastly different, impacted human belief and intellect forever.

Confrontations Between Young and Old in Shakespeares...

Confrontations Between Young and Old in King Lear One of the underlying themes in Shakespeares play, King Lear is the concept of the generation gap. This gap is mainly illustrated between the family. The older generation is Lear himself, and the younger generation consists of his daughters Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. In the second plot of the play, Gloucester represents the older generation, and his sons, Edmund and Edgar exemplifies the younger generation. Both younger generations can be divided into two distinct groups. Goneril, Regan and Edmund are the villains in both the plots and Edgar and Cordelia are the loyal, faithful children. This little twist adds to the effect of†¦show more content†¦An example of this is Oswalds attitude towards Lear after his daughter, Goneril told him to show discourtesy towards Lear. [Act 1 scene 4, Lines 75-80] O, you, sir, you! Come you hither, sir. Who am I, sir? My Ladys Father. My Ladys Father? My lords knave! You Whoreson dog! You Slave! You Cur! Another example of lost authority and power in this act is when Lears Fool offers Lear his Coxcomb (Jesters Cap) and tells him how foolish he was when he gave up his power to Goneril and Regan. Lears 100 Knights symbolize Lears power in his mind. When Lear is confronted by his daughter Goneril and is told by her that his men are too disruptive and are to be trimmed to half because she feels he does not need them. Lear is angered at Goneril for this because the Knights represents the remainder of his limited power. Regan then tells him in order to stay with her, he had to dismiss all but 25 knights because he did not have need for these men. He realizes his lost of authority and power and leaves to seek shelter in a storm. Lears knights represent power and authority in his eyes. Another example of authority and power is Kent being placed in the stocks in the middle of the court yard by Regan and Cornwall. Not onlyShow MoreRelated Shakespeares King Lear - Suffering of Cordelia in King Lear1507 Words   |  7 Pages The tragedy of Shakespeare’s King Lear is made far more tragic and painful by the presence and suffering of the kings youngest daughter, Cordelia. While our sympathy for the king is somewhat restrained by his brutal cruelty towards others, there is nothing to dampen our emotional response to Cordelias suffering. Nothing, that is, at first glance. Harley Granville-Barker justifies her irreconcilable fate thus: the tragic truth about life to the Shakespeare that wrote King Lear... includes itsRead MoreThe generation gap in King Lear by Shakespeare1624 Words   |  7 PagesOne of the underlying themes in Shakespeares play, King Lear is the concept of the generation gap. This gap is mainly illustrated between the family. The older generation is Lear himself, and the younger generation consists of his daughters Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. In the second plot of the play, Gloucester represents the older generation, and his sons, Edmund and Edgar exemplifies the younger generation. Both younger generations can be divided into two distinct groups. Goneril, Regan and EdmundRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s King Lear3086 Words   |  13 PagesJerion Young Ms. Woods English IV 4 March 2015 King Lear William Shakespeare uses several literary elements in his writing, elements which are especially apparent in his play, King Lear. Shakespeare uses excellent creativity and description when writing this tragedy. â€Å"Neither has Shakespeare placed in the mouth of any other character in this play such fatalistic expressions as may be found in King Lear and occasionally elsewhere†(A.C. 2003). The way King Lear talks in this play is very evil comparedRead MoreMacbeth9435 Words   |  38 Pageshave been written between 1603 and 1607, and is most commonly dated 1606. The earliest account of a performance of what was probably Shakespeare s play is April 1611, when  Simon Forman  recorded seeing such a play at the  Globe Theatre. It was first published in the  Folio of 1623, possibly from a  prompt book. It was most likely written during the reign of  James I, who had been James VI of Scotland before he succeeded to the English throne in 1603. James was a patron of Shake speare’s acting company,

Huckleberry Finn, By Samuel Longhorn Clemens - 1520 Words

For the task I have been given in this paper, I believe that it is necessary to define the term â€Å"quintessential† both in my own words and from a dictionary. In my own words: All encompassing or summarizing Miriam-Webster dictionary however defines the words in two separate instances both applicable to this paper. They are as follows: 1. (adj.) the essence of a thing while in it’s purest and most concentrated form. 2. (adj.) The most typical example or representative. Huckleberry Finn, written in December of 1884, by Samuel longhorn Clemens (under surname â€Å"Mark Twain†) encompasses the life, thoughts and adventures of the 12-year-old title character Huckleberry â€Å"Huck† Finn. Throughout the book Huck struggles with a negative opinion of racism and slavery that is otherwise not voiced by your everyday American southerner. The book takes place in the southern Midwest region of America often referred to as America’s â€Å"heartland†. There are several other reasons for Huck Finn to be considered an American quintessential novel, some of which will be discussed in the following essay such as the themes, character conflicts as well as how the book connects to the American people as a culture. Also it will be covered, that some educators and parents believe that the novel should NOT be used in the classroom based on its at times difficult content and demeaning themes, as well as it’s portrayal of some religious and social groups of the time. One stated theme of this novel often times tied