Hamlet, The Metamorphosis, and Frankenstein Essay

Familial relations are often strained in the world of literature, especially between fathers and sons. However, these strains grow when traditional notions of fatherhood are altered or circumvented; so Hamlet has a difficult time dealing with an uncle-turn-father, and Gregor Samsa’s father is unable to truly be a parent to a gigantic cockroach. Even Victor Frankenstein is unsure how to treat his creation—as a son to care for and provide for, or as an out of control science experiment gone awry. Each of these texts shows traditional notions of father and son relationships breaking under the strain of unconventional fatherhood. Hamlet, perhaps, provides the most telling example of these strains of convention—Hamlet’s primary difficulty is his inability to be a good son to both of his fathers. To be a good son to King Hamlet means avenging his alleged murder by murdering Claudius; to be a good son to Claudius means ignoring the pleadings of his ghostly father. Prince Hamlet sees his role as son to Claudius as essentially void, due to the marriage of Claudius and Gertude being (at best) â€Å"damned incest† and, at worst, a politically-contrived accessory to the murder of the king. This is what fuels Hamlet’s odd confrontation with Gertrude—he sees his plan to murder Claudius as a way of returning the family to the way it was. Of course, Hamlet fails to freshen up what is â€Å"rotten in the state of Denmark†Ã¢â‚¬â€he merely added to the decay via the pile of bodies at the end of the play. Of these three tales, it is a morbid irony that the father/son relationship between a man and a giant cockroach of a son may, in fact, be the most conventional one. This relationship is highlighted by a kind of brutal utility—Gregor is useful to his father for as long as he is able to provide for his father. In this sense, the most profound change in the story in the eyes of the eldest Samsa is not his son into an insect, but his son changing from a provider to one who needs to be provided for. This sparks anger, outrage, and ultimately, abandonment. This brutal utility is highlighted by the end of the story, in which the family hopes to find a young man for Greta, essentially scheming to replace one provider with another. Gregor, in turn, feels his death is the best thing for the family: while dying, â€Å"he remembered his family with deep feelings of love. † Victor Frankenstein’s relationship with his creation is a mockery of traditional father/son relationships, just as Frankenstein’s actions are a mockery of God’s abilities. Victor wants his â€Å"son† to be a walking, talking example of his own genius. However, this focus on his own achievements means that he is unable to provide for his son—as he says, his focus is on â€Å"treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation. † His son, unable to experience the love of a woman or a father, is left to feel like he is â€Å"miserable and the abandoned† and â€Å"an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on. † The phrasing is very apt: the monster feels like he is merely the discarded and abandoned tissue that his â€Å"father† never wished to claim as a son. Three disparate tales—Hamlet, The Metamorphosis, and Frankenstein—prevent father and son relationship that are outside the bounds of normality. In this sense, the tales are normative, as they illustrate what a normal father/son relationship is by clearly exhibiting what one is not. Audiences are left to ponder whether they will treat family members differently when their family changes; whether shifting relationships means they, themselves, must change; and whether children from alternative circumstances are somehow worth any less of a parent’s love.

Misunderstood Adolescents

Stereotypes of a group of people can affect the way society views them, and change society’s expectations of them. And with enough exposure to a certain type of stereotype, society may come to view the stereotypes more of the reality, rather than it being a â€Å"chosen representation,† which can cause a misunderstanding between people. The public’s perception of today’s teenagers, stereotypes them in such a way that portrays teenagers as â€Å"bad. † Teenagers are believed to be obnoxious and ignorant (moody, insecure, argumentative, impulsive, etc. because of how society sees the majority of teenagers. People believe that teens are rebellious, immature, and trouble for their parents. People tend to think teens are violent, reckless, and lazy. Many people do believe that strict eye should be kept around teenagers, especially those who tend to create problems or those who misbehaves. However we all do realize and know that not all teenagers are like that. Some may fall into the mentioned criteria, while others do not. I do understand, there are teenagers whose overall, general idea during their adolescence, is to have fun and â€Å"explore† during their younger years (like how many people say to enjoy your teenage years), but there are also teenagers who focus on more serious aspects of life. We cannot classify teenagers as adults when in reality, there are some who act like children, but at the same time, we cannot and or shouldn’t classify them as children either for the few of those who do act like adults. In my opinion, society bases their stereotypes on the teens they come into contact with as well as the ones that stand out from the rest. These portrayals trigger the â€Å"involuntary response† that all teenagers must be that way—a false assumption of both parents and teenagers. The negative stereotypes not only affect how adults see teenagers, but they also influence how teenagers see themselves. Knowing the feeling that the majority of the world doesn’t respect or understand teenagers does little when trying to encourage a positive sense of self-worth in themself. Believing in a stereotype has its disadvantages. I believe that it is in partly because of the misinterpretation and hugely overstated way teenagers are depicted through he media (in movies, television, etc. ) First of all, nobody likes being judged because of a stereotype. Nobody wants to be known as someone their not. Adults insist on stereotyping teenagers because they often act in stereotypical ways. For example, making generalizations that adults think they are no good and will do bad things just because they don't agree with them on a particular issue. Teenagers want their voice heard and with these stereotypes, however nobody’ willing to listen to their perspective or side of the story. So teenagers appear to be rebellious, when they get stubborn in attempting to get their point of view across. These stereotypes about teenagers are so common that, now teens do re-question about themself, in general, if they are bad. A personal experience that I had with how people viewed me in comparison with other teenagers on school campus, was just recently when I was a new student to Mclane High School. Coming from Clovis Unified, and knowing what I hear about McLane, I already knew that McLane wasn’t the best school or was in the best neighborhood as well. I would often hear stories about how students would ditch their classes and not even come to school, probably like come to school every other school days. And sadly, some not even able to graduate with their high school diploma. My first day on the McLane campus, I was especially shocked when I met up with a counselor and was ask if I was â€Å"planning to drop out of school, or attend college. † Obviously, I wanted to go to college, but knowing about how some of the students in McLane aren’t eligible to go to college, I took that more of a concerned question rather than a put-down comment. It’s true that teenage is characterized by having mood swings and or abrupt behavior due to â€Å"hormonal† changes, but yet it is the same for every teen in the world. Teenagers are more intelligent and skilled than what society â€Å"assumes† they are. During our adolescence, it is simply more of a phase transition into adulthood, where there are various reasons why we do and act the way we do, to be able to understand us, society should let teenagers themselves explain the stories behind the stories that people assume about them, and let people listen. Stereotyping teenagers (and or for any other group of people) doesn’t seem unjust, but yet it happens in society. Groups are misunderstood because people aren’t willing to listen to what one another has to say about their view, which causes confusion or we just start to assume based on what we know only (which is only one side of the full story).

Comparator

COMPARATOR a device which compares two  voltages  or  currents  and switches its output to indicate which is larger. COMPARATOR WITH HYSTERESIS Hysteresis is achieved by positive feedback and makes the comparator less sensitive to noise on the input. [pic] VHYS = V2 – V’2 V2 = R2 R2 + R1 V2 = R2 R2 + R1 Jonathan Archer captain of the first starship Enterprise The most difficult task facing any captain, any crew, is the loss of a shipmate.We've come here to honor one of our own. In the time we knew him, he showed us just how much one life can truly matter. We will never forget what he did for us, and for the ship he loved so much. We will go forward with renewed determination to complete this mission, so that his sacrifice won't just have been for the people on this ship, but for all the citizens of Earth. Samuel J. Palmisano Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer IBM CorporationThere are, however, certain kinds of aspirations that can't be achieved th rough organizational capabilities, global reach or technology—or by applying the lessons of the past. To capture the biggest economic opportunities or to tackle society's most daunting problems—to imagine what the world might be, and actually to build it—people have sought something more fundamental: a unique ability to conceptualize opportunities, to analyze developments, to tackle and overcome grand challenges. SHINICHI SASAKI EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATIOFully aware that support from customers is essential to its continued success, Toyota is striving to provide its customers with the highest-quality products and services under its â€Å"Customer First† policy. Based on the â€Å"kaizen (continuous improvement)† philosophy at the heart of its manufacturing activities, Toyota is working hard to continuously improve customer satisfaction through initiatives in all areas of its business activities, including development, purchasi ng, production, sales and after-sales services, throughout the entire Toyota Group.

Discuss the history of violent video games and its effect on crime Essay - 1

Discuss the history of violent video games and its effect on crime (using case studies as examples) - Essay Example This is particularly true of violent video games as there has been a strong association between the playing of violent video games and increase in crime amongst youths. It has been analyzed that the playing of violent video games has resulted in many criminal acts which include robberies as well as murders. This paper will serve to explain the history of these violent video games and their strong association with acts of crime that have taken place owing to the negative impact of these violent video games. There has been a great rise in the popularity of video games and the number of people playing these games has widely increased. It is believed that children of the age group from 8 to 18 years in the United States have an exposure of 40 hours out of seven days to different forms of media. There has been a sharp increase in the exposure to video games by the children and the teenagers. It has been analyzed that children even as young as two years play video games on an average of one hour every day. In the age group of 8 to 13 year old boys, it has been seen that they tend to play video games for more than approximately 7.5 hours in a single week. Another very important aspect that has been highlighted is that a research among teenagers explained the fact that the games that they purchased were not reviewed and analyzed by their parents and hence there is no check on the nature of the video games that are played by these children (Anderson et al 2001). It has been found out that 75 p ercent of the teenagers actually purchase and play video games that are meant for adults and these games have very high content of violence and negativities portrayed in them (Adams, 2010). The extent of the violence exposure has been explained by the statistics in a study which shows that in the United States, the young generation is exposed to 40,000 killings by some form of media by

SWOT analysis for outsourcing a business function, in this case - Essay

SWOT analysis for outsourcing a business function, in this case - inventory management to cloud computing - Essay Example Secondly, lack of knowledge of any particular company would lead to an inefficient service being provided by companies such as Cloud Computing at the expense of the time and resources of its client. The inventory function is one function that is central to any organization’s entire business, hence it should be kept in-house rather than out-sourcing it to companies like Cloud computing because it might further increase the chances of fraud and theft. The opportunities and risks that may arise would be: Opportunities: Specialist vendors would really manage the inventory management system more efficiently if they get good knowledge of the company’s activities, culture, environment, etc. Time would be saved Cyber embassies, if created, would really help in obtaining data from far away locations. Data could be retrieved quickly if the region of operation of the company is same where the cloud computing office exists. Focus of the business would divert towards the improvement of the business rather than focusing on the inventory management system Risks/Threats: The inventory management function might not be easily understood by Cloud Computing Having older and newer licenses would both have their respective complications. Data could not be easily accessible in any other regions e.g. a company operating in the EU would not be able to store its data with a U.S vendor.

Project Evaluation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project Evaluation - Assignment Example The document also summarises the theories and concepts learnt in the unit, how these theories influenced my work, example/case study of a successful IT project and its comparison with the developed database. Lastly, the document includes the impact of these lessons on my future work, and what I would do differently along with its rationale. Database of Local Recruitment Agency A local recruitment agency requested to have a database in order to store their business information and access the information in the form of reports. The agency deals with the information of customers (job applicants), jobs (currently available and archived) and tracks contact between customers. In order to fulfil the requirement of the agency, I have developed a database in Microsoft Access 2007. As mentioned in the (previous) assignment, the agency has the following requirements: i. A database to be developed in Microsoft Access that is able to store, retrieve and update the information regarding customers, jobs and track contacts between customers. ii. The agency should be able to add new customers, jobs and their information or details in the database through a form (separate for each) of MS database Access. iii. The agency wants several reports to be produced from the database; however, they specified only three reports that include the customer list; jobs list grouped by job type and the report showing contacts and track follow up. iv. The database tables should be populated with data of at-least 20 customers, 10 jobs and 20 contacts. To fulfil the requirements of the agency, I have developed a database in MS Access 2007 that has four tables, which include tblCustomer, tbljobs, tblContact, and tblJobType. The agency can store all the relevant information in these tables (requirement â€Å"i" fulfilled). I have developed three forms to add/update new customers and jobs along with their details (requirement â€Å"ii" fulfilled). I have developed three specified reports that show t he customer list, jobs list and contact group by the customer (requirement â€Å"iii" fulfilled). I have populated the database with required data in the respective table (requirement â€Å"iv" fulfilled). Features of a Smart Database The developed database should also be evaluated in terms of the characteristics of a high quality database as given below: Accuracy The database is considered accurate if the values stored in the fields of the database are correct. After developing, the database for the agency presumes that the information that is input into a database is faultless as well as accurate. Completeness The end user (agency) of the database has to be aware of the information to be provided to the developer(s) for the development of the database, as if they provide less or inaccurate information, the developed database would definitely be useless and inaccurate. In our case, the information of the customer has to be complete in every aspect, for example the customer profil e, education and experience etc. is missing in the developed database, which has not been asked by the agency. Consistency The consistency is as important as the accuracy and completeness of a database. As in our case, the database is considered to be consistent as we have stored the information/data of one item in a single field only. Uniqueness The data in one field must represent

Four function of management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Four function of management - Essay Example These are as following; 1. Planning: It is the ongoing process of developing the business' mission and objectives and determining how they will be accomplished. Planning is the initiating function of management and also embodies the other functions. It is the function of management, with which, management ensures directing employee efforts towards group and attainment of organizational goals. For the long-term success of an organization, it is necessary to set immediate and long- term goals, and to choose strategies of their achievement. This function is directly related to the arising of many questions; like, where are we now What do we want to accomplish How are we going to do it Who will do it When will we do it Why will we do it Etc. For example, Bill Gates - the founder of Microsoft Corporation - does the necessary planning by establishing missions and challenges for Microsoft management to accomplish, such as planning for the introduction of Windows Vista and its date for international launching. 2. 2. Organizing: This function is related with allocating and configuring resources to accomplish and establish the preferred goals and objectives during the planning processes. In this function, steps are taken out in order to translate the planned steps into reality while assigning the necessary tasks, setting up deadlines, allocating resources, and deciding what structures are yet to be created and to whom additional responsibilities should be delegated, etc; In the Microsoft, Bill Gates effectively organizes the use of company's resources while making sure that the company successfully achieves its objectives and long-term goals. For example, Bill Gates visits various countries across the world and hires top class I.T professionals so as to make sure that the final product is a world class one while making sure that the concurrent ongoing projects at Microsoft smoothly get inch to inch closer towards their successful completion. Bill Gates achieves this all by configuring Microsoft policies over the time and by allocating the financial resources for every single step forward. 3. Leading: It is the function which is directly related to the management tasks of establishing direction and influencing people to follow that direction (Carter McNamara, 2002). This function, perhaps, can be broken down into further three sub-categories of motivating, coordinating and directing. Directing is the way with which managers guide their subordinates while showing them the way with which some task is to be accomplished. Motivating is the set of managerial activities with the aim of causing proper employee performance while involving the finding out of employee needs and creating reward systems for quality and timely work. Coordinating is related with who informs whom about what. It also integrates details and/of events, and ensures coherent action. At Microsoft, Bill Gates leads the way out to success by setting his own example. His superior methodologies for motivating, coordinating and directing make sure that the company has the right leadership to carry it forward in the future with success. Rewarding the Windows XP team for coming up with such high quality software in due amount of time was an

Critically evaluate which theoretical approach in International Essay

Critically evaluate which theoretical approach in International Political Economy best explains the nature of power in the inter - Essay Example Governments have to relate with other government. Governments must also consider the non state actors if they are to have an impact in the trade and policies. Some states are influenced by liberal theories. Trade must be having some duty and tariffs. These tariffs are sources of government revenues. Mercantilists’ theory has also been instrumental in the International Political Economy. Liberalisms dates back to the revolutions in the 18th century. The mercantilist financial arrangement developed into free enterprise. They were initially termed as centrists believed there should be little state intervention in the economy. According to the liberal economic theory, states were discouraged to minimize intervention in the economy. The theory advocated for free market and believed that internal markets should have negligible intervention from the state. The theory suggested that tariffs should not be used to prevent competition between countries (Eatwell & Wright). According to Co mfort, the initial liberal market theory advocated for a free market approach and was referred to as left wing or centrist in terms of outlook (Agh 1998). The liberal theory was enshrined on the premise that people can acquire wealth and property whenever they want. The basis was that freedom in culture and belief was influential in developing capital and gaining property. According to Wright, states, individuals and businesses were encouraged to freely gain capital under the liberal theory. The classical liberal approach suggested that free market should come up with system of setting the process of goods and services. The theory set currency exchanges and wages and resources. The move depended on sheer optimism in the free market (Smith 2003). However, it became clear that fluctuations in the free market have caused serious consequences politically and economically. This has resulted in unemployment and poverty. This has made international competition hard. Governments have attemp ted to deal with this challenge by establishing strict tariffs on goods. Governments have attempted to set up welfare or subsidizing businesses and industries. According to Harvey, tariffs and restricting trade were the foundation and reasoning behind the capitalist premise. The theory suggests that the government should be involved in restricting trade and controlling the flow of goods and services. The government does this in an attempt to reduce the challenges that are created by international competition (Ambrose & Brinkley 1997). The government believes that the use of tariffs shields the populace from international trade aggression and becomes a dominant source of revenue. During the 19th century, the theory of broadmindedness was the popular in IPE. Britain dominated the global trade by lifting restrictions. This facilitated Britain’s spread in the international trade arena (Smith 2003). The liberal theory of the power of international political economy seemed unassail able. According to research, the economic elites in many developing countries had no reservations in playing subordinates because they made profits in the process. Nonetheless, steps were made to start restricting trade. The initial moves came from the United States of America and Germany. The United Kingdom started to doubt the free market venture. After the First World War, the prominence of the liberal theory appeared to decline in the sphere of international

Factors Associated With Work Satisfaction of Registered Nurses Assignment

Factors Associated With Work Satisfaction of Registered Nurses - Assignment Example The authors have taken special efforts to document the most recent studies in the literature review. The literature review consists of recent references. As the article was published in 2006, it can be observed that of the 49 sources used in the article 42 belong to the last 10 years (from 1996-2006) whereas 19 of them are from the last five years (from 2001-2005). Certain contradictions in the findings of the literature such as the relationship between distributive justice and work satisfaction have also been pointed out. However, the researchers have failed to provide a detailed description of the previous studies. Even though the researchers have referenced the major findings conducted by the previous researchers in the literature review, details such as the research designs, methods, and samplings have not been included in the literature review. A considerable number of authors have been cited in the literature; however, the readers fail to grasp the nature and depth of the resea rches undertaken by them. However, it can be seen that the researchers have concisely summarized their review of the literature to reveal what is known and what is unknown regarding RNs’ work satisfaction. The lack of theoretical framework and differences in demographic characteristics has also been taken into account. Framework/Theoretical Perspective Critically analyzing the article it can be observed that no framework (theoretical model or theory) is explicitly expressed by the researchers in the introduction or the literature review.... on many factors (for instance, the relationship between distributive justice and work satisfaction) has contributed to the significance of this paper. Literature Review The authors have taken special efforts to document the most recent studies in the literature review. The literature review consists of recent references. As the article was published in 2006, it can be observed that of the 49 sources used in the article 42 belong to the last 10 years (from 1996-2006) whereas 19 of them are from the last five years (from 2001-2005). Certain contradictions in the findings of the literature such as the relationship between distributive justice and work satisfaction have also been pointed out. However, the researchers have failed to provide a detailed description of the previous studies. Even though the researchers have referenced the major findings conducted by the previous researchers in the literature review, details such as the research designs, methods, and samplings have not been in cluded in the literature review. A considerable number of authors have been cited in the literature; however, the readers fail to grasp the nature and depth of the researches undertaken by them. However, it can be seen that the researchers have concisely summarized their review of the literature to reveal what is known and what is unknown regarding RNs’ work satisfaction. The lack of theoretical framework and differences in demographic characteristics has also been taken into account. Framework/Theoretical Perspective Critically analyzing the article it can be observed that no framework (theoretical model or theory) is explicitly expressed by the researchers in the introduction or the literature review. However, the authors make it clear that their research is based on a theoretical

Fluency & Learning Essay Example for Free

Fluency Learning Essay The purpose of this paper is to specify an interesting story and design reading activities around it to increase the reading fluency of students. The paper starts with a synopsis of The Cay, a tale of survival, in which a young boy is blinded by a severe blow on the back of his head while his ship which makes him entirely dependent on Timothy. The adventurous nature of this story makes it interesting for the students to read and carry out different activities on it, thus contributing to their reading fluency The Cay The book is written by Theodore Taylor. The story deals with a young boy’s misconceptions about race and a black sea man, Timothy, with whom he gets shipwrecked on a deserted island. The young boy, Philip, is blinded by a severe blow on the back of his head while his ship was destroyed by the enemy torpedo. This makes him entirely dependant on Timothy, at least initially through his stay at the island. As Philip explores the island and learns the art of survival and relies less on Timothy, their relationship and mutual respect grows for each other, when they learn to survive and live within the means available at the island. Their struggle to face the odds and survive on an isolated island with no food and water, indeed makes this an interesting tale of survival. (Polette, 1995) I’ll be employing following five different activities for the children to work with the story. Student-Adult Reading In student-adult reading, the class will be divided into small groups and each group will be assigned a chapter from the novel to read. The student will read out loud from the novel with me while the rest of the children listen. I will read the text first, which will actually give the student a model of fluent reading. This is followed by the student reading the same text, while I would assist and encourage him or her during the process. I would repeat this process with individual student until the subject gains fluency in reading the particular passage. (Fluency Learning to Read Reading Fluency) c In this activity the students will read a particular passage from the novel along with me as a group. To carry out this activity, each student will be provided his/her own copy of the novel. I would read a particular passage starting from the first chapter so that the children begin to comprehend the story ad they are familiarized with the words. After reading a particular passage I would re-read the passage aloud to model fluent reading but this time asking the students to join in and read the passage along with me. This would be repeated three to five times on selected days of the week. At the end of this routine students should be able to read the text independently. (Reading Fluency, 2002) Tape-assisted Reading This activity follows a different method. Students are supposed to read from their books while they hear and follow a fluent reader read the text from the book on an audiotape. For this activity to be a success the recorded voice should be reading the text at about 80-100 words per minutes. Each student must have his/her copy of the novel in front of him/her and the recorded voice should be loud and audible. To start with, student should point along the text with his finger while listening to the recorded voice. After this practice the student must read out the text aloud with the tape. Reading the text loud with the tape must continue until the student gains fluency and can read the material without the support of the recorded voice. Fluency is important in readind as it allows the particiants to groud words together and focus more on their meanning rather than decoding the text. On the other hand less fluet readers direct more attention towards word recognition than comprehension of the given text. The above mentioned exercise is therefore aimed at easing the hesitation in reading. (Fluency, 2001) Partner Reading Partner reading is an activity which involves a couple of students taking turns to read the text aloud to each other. This would turn out to be an effective reading practice in which fluent readers can be paired with less fluent ones. The less fluent reader will use the fluent reader’s style of expression as a model and learn quickly. The better skilled reader provides help to the weak reader with word recognition and assists him in the process. Another approach to partner reading is check list reading where both the partners are given checklists. After explaining the students how they can change the pitch of their voice to make it more realistic, each students is asked to read out the passage to their respective partners thrice following the above instructions. At the end each students submits a report regarding their partner’s fluency which can be improved upon in the next session. (Murray) Readers theatre Readers theatre involves students rehearsing and performing a play for their fellow students and friends. Characters from the novel can be assigned to different students who can then act out the play by reading from their individual scripts derived from the novel. ‘The Cay’ will be a suitable book for this practice as it is rich in dialogues. This kind of activity makes reading more appealing and enhances fluency by providing students with the opportunity to interact with their peers on a different level. References Fluency Learning to Read Reading Fluency. (n. d. ). Retrieved July 2008, from http://www. time4learning.com/readingpyramid/fluency. htm Fluency. (2001). Retrieved July 2008, from Reading Rockets: http://www. readingrockets. org/teaching/reading101/fluency Murray, D. B. (n. d. ). Developing Reading Fluency. Retrieved July 2008, from http://www. auburn. edu/%7Emurraba/ Polette, N. (1995). The Cay by Theodore Taylor. Retrieved July 2008, from http://www. nancypolette. com/LitGuides/cay. pdf Reading Fluency. (2002). Retrieved July 2008, from http://readingserver. edb. utexas. edu/downloads/primary/guides/Fluency_Presentation. PDF

Whether The Marketing Mix Contributes on the Success of Wal-Mart

Whether The Marketing Mix Contributes on the Success of Wal-Mart Introduction The marketing mix, as a paradigm, has been keeping applied in business since it was merged more than 50 years ago. Many companies are still using it as a guide in marketing (Zineldin, 2007) to gain more competitive power in the market. The activities integrated in marketing programmes to create, communicate, and deliver value for consumers were classified into product, price, promotion and place in marketing mix tool by McCarthy (cited in Davies et al., 1995) in 1960, and Kotler et al. (2009) defined the sub activities of each element of the 4Ps: product variety, quality, services, etc for Product; list price, discounts, allowances, etc for Price; sales promotion, advertising, public relations, etc for Promotion; and channels, coverage, locations, transport etc for Place. By using the guide and adjusting the elements and the sub activities of them, companies can find a marketing strategy suitable for both the industry and the organizations. Although the application of the marketing mix seems to be different among industries, it still has influences on the businesses in extents. To see whether the marketing mix can work to the achievements of the organizations, the strategies and the application of the marketing mix of Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, can be a great choice to analyze. As a well known hypermarket business leader, Wal-Mart serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at more than 8,650 retail units under 55 different banners in 15 countries (Anonymous, 2010), and it is still extending its business globally. This essay will analyze the contribution of the marketing mix on the success of Wal-Mart, and a brief scheme of improvement will also be looked at. Product As a retailer, the term product can be divided into two parts, the retailing service to suppliers, and the products and services to customers. Since both suppliers and retailers are pursuing a low-margin, high-volume strategy (Kotler et al., 2009), the stable and high-volume orders from Wal-Mart can meet the needs of the suppliers. However, only large orders are not enough in current business, according to Hansen (2009), a service-centered philosophy and service quality are crucial for building long-term relationship with suppliers. To keep a high quality of service, Wal-Mart is innovative and a pioneer in technology development. It is among the first retailers using computers to track inventory (1969), adopting the bar codes (1980) and wireless scanning guns (late 1980s), and introducing EDI for better coordination with suppliers (1985) (Johnson, 2002), which developed the efficiency of distribution and turnover of goods so that it can meet the requirements of suppliers. To individual customers, not only selling products of suppliers, Wal-Mart has private-labels such as Great Value, OlRoy, Partents Choice etc, which provides products in wide fields. Kumar et al. (2007, cited in Geyskens et al., 2010) argued that private-label products are positioning at mid-quality, and they are as good as national brand offerings but cheaper. However, Wal-Mart focuses on the quality rather than only mimic other brands (Neff, 2009), trying to meet the needs of most customers focusing on cost performance. Because of the efforts Wal-Mart made, customers are increasingly relying on the private labels (Rae, 2009). Also, according to Min (2010), customers evaluate the service with product quality, which is followed by cleanliness of the store, competitive price, product variety and fast checkouts. By making collection of customer information and IT innovation, these factors are getting focused on by Wal-Mart, which keeps the service quality and satisfaction of customers. Price The price factor of Wal-Mart can be looked at by the view of both B2C and B2B businesses. For the pricing strategies towards individuals, a lower price can capture more market share even competitors build price wall to fight in the market (Chiu et al., 2009). Wal-Mart has a great advantage in the competition among retailers because of offering a lower price and promising it the lowest among all, but lowering the price does not definitely lead to a cut in the profit. Wal-Mart uses a broad line and low value added product lines to keep prices low and raise the volume that is increased greatly enough to make up for the low margin (Kotler, 2009). However, there is always a risk: if the added revenues from the increased demands cannot cover the loss of margin, it will diminish the profit (Nijs et al., 2007). By using and collecting a huge database of consumption of products in large regions and super centers, according to the law of large numbers, the demands of the products could become stable and predictable. With a prediction of consumer behavior and risks, an aggressive pricing strategy helps Wal-Mart gain huge advantages and profitability. Place For Wal-Mart, a company that has been focused on discount merchandising and growth (Graff, 1998), cost is always a key to it. With mature management and decisions on places the products available to customers, distribution and channels, Wal-Mart gets phenomenal growth and excellent performance. First of all, considering the size, majority of Wal-Mart supercentres are located in nonmetropolitan counties and get around the distribution centers (Graff, 1998), which can make Wal-Mart benefited from a low land-rent cost and a more efficient distribution. However, a great negative impact on Wal-Marts market share occurred because of the factors of the growing maturity of internet retailing industry and lower prices offered by on-line retailers (Bock et al., 2007). In order to keep the market share and the customer satisfaction, Wal-Mart launched its own retailing websites and planned to build multichannel. This shall benefit the giant retailer as researchers found that the adoption of inte rnet and a multichannel strategy will be more profitable for retailers than traditional strategies (Zhang, 2009; Bock et al., 2007). Other than the location of supercentres, the performance of distribution of Wal-Mart is outstanding. Firstly, by geographical segmentations, distribution centers, around by supercentres, are located in appropriate regions. Suppliers make most deliveries to distribution centers, and retailer then ferry goods between the regional centers and individual stores using its own trucks (Burritt et al., 2010), which reduces the cost of transportation and enhances Wal-Marts control on the whole inventory and process of delivery. Also, a mature IT system weighs greatly for Wal-Mart: hand-held computers used by employees can collect the information of products such as storage, packaging and shipping, and a satellite communication system set up in 1983 helps managers to track sales and inventories in stores across the country (Chandran et al., 2003), which keeps the distribution under control and improves the efficiency. In addition, Wal-Mart puts a great concern upon the suppliers and the integration of supply chain. Because great volumes of products are sold through Wal-Mart, suppliers are delighted to do business with the retailer at a lower price because of the large orders, which increases the bargaining power of Wal-Mart. As what Davies et al. (1995) found: strength in bargaining power positively relates to commercial success. It seems that Wal-Mart keeps a superior power upon its suppliers to squeeze the cost. However, Even suppliers treat Wal-Mart as a primary customer perform worse financially (Bloom, 2001), there may still be benefits for suppliers to keep a long-term relationship with a higher performing channel member being efficient and aggressive to attract consumers to suppliers products, because the revenue with a high volume sold might cover the squeeze, and some suppliers hope it might help them expand their market share (Bollm, 2001; Erdem et al., 1997). By cutting the cost in the B2B part, the prices of products could be lower and more advantages Wal-Mart can gain in the market. Also, with a thought that putting the volume together of both itself and its suppliers are buying from one supplier can reduce costs (Muntaner, cited in Boyle, 2010), Wal-Mart has been trying to team up with suppliers to purchase the raw materials, like teaming up with Pepsi to purchase sugar together from one sugar supplier at a lower price, in order to reduce the cost of private labels so that more attractive prices can be offered to customers. A good management of the place factor improves the efficiency of distribution and lowers the cost of the company. Promotion The element of Promotion was divided into sales promotion, including reduction of price, discount etc, and communication, including advertising, public relations, store design etc (Van Waterschoot et al., 1992; Davies, 1995). In sales promotion, Wal-Mart uses reduced prices to increase the sales of the inventory in order to keep a high turnover rate and release the problem of stocking of inventory. Also, as it was found that a slight change in the price will lead to great improvement of business performance in a high price-elasticity product (Driussi, 2007), Wal-Mart uses short-term discounts on particular products to stimulate the consumption of products. Concerning about the communication of Wal-Mart, with an increasing budget on advertising from $405 million in 1999 to $2.3 billion in 2008 (Norman, 2009), the brand name and the slogan of save money, live better, formerly always low prices are getting widely known, which leads to a greater awareness of public and an increase in brand equity (Keller, 1993). Also, it uses diversified advertising methods such as TV, websites and newspaper, which is crucial to the success of any advertising campaign (Scott, 2009). In addition, according to Ataman (2010), by making efforts on advertising can improve the customer loyalty to the companies, which might also be an important reason for Wal-Mart being attractive and well accepted by publics in either new or existing market. It seems that Wal-Mart focuses greatly on communication with customers and trying to get more strength of brands. However, there are still some factors that Wal-Mart needs to take into consideration. First of all, although Wal-Mart is widely accepted by the public, the public relationship and the social image from the public tell a different story. With a history of anti-union tactics and worker disputes, including an ongoing gender discrimination lawsuit (Bustillo, 2010), Wal-Mart is getting into a social issue negatively affects its social image. Society worries about Wal-Marts lacking of consideration to health, life and rights of employees. However, Wal-Mart has been trying to making efforts on its CSR while the public does not realize. It offers a better health care plan than the retail average, in which 80% of its US workers can get health coverage while only 58% for the retail sector as a whole (Bustillo et al., 2010). This phenomenon shows that Wal-Mart needs to make effort o n PR to change the biases made by the society. In addition, with a development of customer perspectives, physical environment and social cue, factors influencing customers feelings and satisfaction (Bitner, 1992; Hu et al., 2006) are getting more focused. Wal-Mart can try to collect more customers preference to the store environment such as store designing and employees behaviours in order to build a welcoming feeling to customers and serve customers better. Integration of The Marketing Mix Although each element of the marketing mix Wal-Mart focuses is analyzed, the marketing mix should be treated as a whole. An application of the marketing mix upon the business needs the coordination among departments of a company, not only marketing department, and part-time marketers who are not working for marketing department but have connect with customers need to be greatly relied on to generate and disseminate the market intelligence (Davies et al., 1995; Grà ¶nroos, 1994). It can be shown from the above analysis that the elements of the paradigm influence each other such as price and PR, supply chain and price, cost and distribution etc, and Wal-Mart controls them in a macro vision. With an interaction among the departments, Wal-Mart can get advantage in each element of the marketing mix by using resources widely and efficiently. Conclusion By analyzing the concentration of Wal-Mart upon the marketing mix, it not only treated the paradigm as a guide, but also applies it upon the strategy and management of the company. It is not unfair to say that with a proper application upon the business and a great interaction in the marketing mix, Wal-Mart gets benefit from the classic theory. The application of the marketing mix could be seen as a key positive factor of the success of Wal-Mart. However, to improve the business performance of the giant retailer according to the paradigm, some soft factors such as the flexibility of distribution, PR and consumers emotion can be concerned by Wal-Mart.