The Developing Relationship in Tender is the Night - Literature Essay Samples

They are American, young, wealthy and in love. Nicole and Dick are the souls of an age, a world of opulence, blurred boundaries and equally commanding desires, and their relationship reflects the ambiguities of its core values. Judged within an American popular culture, their success together may be measured romantically, professionally and economically. Even as they fulfil the best marital stereotype, making a pretty pair and their union for the most part a benefit to the society orbiting around them, theirs is not a typical love affair. Nicole’s mental sickness means it is doomed from the start, not only challenging their roles in relation to one another, but also reflecting the illusory nature and transience of appearances. Schizophrenia is the leitmotif of their partnership; split responsibilities, a tenuous hold on reality, or at least the self-control maintaining an image of sanity and happiness, and a double standard in their morality, social customs and financial attit udes. They are not entire, not ‘like everybody else’, and rather than distinguish them from the mass, their difference leaves them incomplete: under so many pressures, their marriage is too strained and themselves too separate for it to be anything but a delusion. At the very beginning of the relationship, this pattern of dream, illusion and futility is obvious; the love that should be satisfying, vigorous and uncomplicated is actually the reverse. Each of the two bring with them their own ideals and emotional needs, baggage that both binds and divides them. Under the spell of a romantic promise, yet ultimately wishing for divergent things, this is not the meeting of minds and souls popularized in the general consciousness, and which Rosemary had with all the sentimentality of her age and generation worshiped in Section 1 as ‘Dicole’ (an impression engendered principally by the couple themselves and a pretense stoutly maintained until Dick’s break-down), two halves of a rose-tinted whole. The name, playfully crafted in their earliest months together, reveals the longing for closeness and excitement, and even the faultless exterior they show to the world. Above all, though, it suggests a melting and welding of identities; in the ‘idealization of togetherness (‘twoness’)’, the discovery of a kind of fulfilment.[1] For Nicole, this is the security of self, reconstructing the woman afte r the madness of the girl, and finding equally in Dick ‘an untarnished male-authority’, the good father to replace the sinister spectre of her own, and a lover to return her to the world of romance, hope and joy: ‘she thanked him for everything, rather as if he had taken her to some party . . .’[2] She sees in him at once her youth and her maturity; either as father or beau could he have taken her to a dance, a return to the sheltering care of a doting parent and the girlhood she had brutally lost, or a thrilling confirmation of the power of her beauty over men. Still, there is something strange about the transference of affections to Dick: he is more a stage in the recovery process, ‘all soft like a big cat’ (in the words of her pathology), gentle enough to be non-threatening, but masculine nonetheless to interest a budding sexuality, than a man in his own right. Indeed, he is ‘a sort of stuffed figure in her life’, a dream of fun, youth and passion she attaches herself and her emergent reason to. To an extent, he fills the void, the yearning for a partner simply to complete her and remind her that, like the golden days before the trauma of the rape, there is something exhilarating still to live and get better for. Nevertheless, in order to merge with the upright gentleman she must repress her own nature, overlaying her grandfather’s ‘[confused] . . . values’ with another sexual paternal figure. It is a disturbing and ultimately frustrating development, not particularly because it prevents her f rom achieving independence or closure (it could be argued, of course, that Dick and his morals are necessary for her final flowering at the end), but because it associates the modern era with the fantasies of romantic love and its inevitable curtailing of the individual. The songs they sing and hear with one another symbolise the patina of the American dream in the boom of the Roaring Twenties and, either as a contrast or complement to, the long stretch of its history. ‘The thin tunes, holding lost times and future hopes in liaison, twisted upon the Swiss night’; their promise is the expectation of America, their disappointment the failure of its ‘fraudulent’ ideals.[3] For Dick, his relationship with Nicole is the seductive pull of a continent. Made up of the ‘illusions of a nation’, he wants so much ‘to be kind, . . . to be brave and wise’ and, at the moment the umbilical cord of beliefs tying him to the motherland starts to wear, he is enthralled once more by America. Now in its most modern incarnation (a natural progression from the ‘generations of frontier mothers’ to the wounded girl of the dissolute and topsy-turvy Jazz Era), via the popular love airs of the day, the New Rhodes scholar, the dreamer from the States’ ivory towers, fulfils his people’s desire for hope, youth and gaiety, and his own yearning ‘to be loved’. Such vanity is America’s also and Dick is drawn to the same things the audience of the period would have appreciated: beauty, the bloom of the girl-woman, sweetness and the potential for greatness, a ‘true growing’. However, reality imposes it self on both: he ‘wished she had no background, that she was just a girl lost . . .’ The vision may not continue, she possesses too much history; the problems that Dick must cure. Nicole is all the dreams that bring him back and all the issues that keep him tied to the ugly actualities of this life. As Stern argues, Dick, ‘naively attached to a false view of the past as incorruptibly good and of the future as transcendent’, is the ‘ideal America’; Nicole, ‘confused, fractured, damaged’, is an ‘America scarred by the harsh contest for money and power characterising the post-World War I era, the real America’.[4] The two interact, the former bolstering the latter through dark times, but you cannot live in a world where both roads are pursued equally; the idea shatters before reality and ending only in a bitter dissatisfaction. This is what Dick and the professors realise when they discuss his developing relationship with a patient. Can he combine the two roles, the ideal husband and matter-of-fact doctor? ‘What! And devote half your life to being doctor and nurse and all – never!’: Franz, with the hard-won knowledge of centuries of European experience at his back, answers with the truth. As soon as Dick accepts the double burden, the partitioning of dream and actuality, lover and professional, he is stuck until she is finally weaned. In her second childhood, he tries so hard to protect her from the brutalities of the universe, but learns too late that it is the idealist, not the survivor with her grandfather’s eyes, that will fail in a society where money, drink and excess corrupt all the good men. Initially, he may seem to meet all his principles, but his potential to become ‘the greatest [psychologist] that ever lived’ (as superlative and absolute as the American d ream itself) is wasted through his resolve to satisfy his heart, in addition to his grand ambitions. Ultimately, the growing relationship between Dick and Nicole is doomed. It is the tragedy of a Hamlet, torn between two conflicting desires and two possible courses of action, either to let go or to commit himself wholly to its execution, who went after his Ophelia, already mad, and failed. ‘Necessarily he must absence himself from felicity a while’; happiness supposedly lies in Nicole, yet therein, as Hamlet warned his Horatio, is death and the decline of his tale. He chose not to; and so his promise remains unfulfilled, their relationship is destined for disaster and the dreams of America are forever tainted. [1] ‘Tender is the Night: Ordered Disorder in the Broken Universe’, E. W. Pitcher, ‘Modern Language Studies, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Autumn, 1981), pp. 72 – 89, Modern Language Studies, p. 75 [2] Ibid., p. 85 [3] Ibid., p.75 [4] ‘Tender is the Night: The Broken Universe’, Milton R. Stern, Twayne Publishers, 1994, p. 135

Knowledge Management And The Efficiency Of The Organization - 3025 Words

Knowledge Management And The Efficiency Of The Organization (Essay Sample) Content: Knowledge ManagementNameDateCourseIntroductionThe roll out of the National Broadband Network sites has stopped as a result of poor workmanship and flouting of the safety rules. Telstra is the company that is responsible for the project and it had contracted the work to small contractors. However, the contractor do not have adequate skills to carry out the works hence leading to the poor handling of asbestos which has negative impacts on human health. The contractor does not have knowledge on how to identify the asbestos and treat it. The workers as well as the members of the public may have been affected due to the poor handling of asbestos. The exposure to asbestos dust may lead to cancer as it is one of the carcinogenic materials. Telstra owns the pits and pipe infrastructure and it is also responsible for ensuring that the infrastructures and the pits are in good condition. NBN Co on the other hand leases the pits and infrastructure from Telstra where its cables ar e fitted. The problem facing the project has been brought about by the inability of Telstra to be fully involved in the implementation of the works being carried out by the contractors. Although Telstra knows how to identify the pits and treat them it does not know where the pits are as it has contracted the work. This was brought about after the company got rid of the technical staff that had adequate knowledge to carry out such activities. The concepts of knowledge management are important in dealing with problems affecting an organization (McDonald, 2005). The problem is therefore related to knowledge management since a gap exists at the technical department of the company. The paper is therefore an intervention system that is aimed at addressing the problem through the use of knowledge management concepts.ObjectiveTo improve on the efficiency of the organization in terms of its technical ability to ensure that every single pit meets the required health and safety standards so a s to avoid the negative effects of asbestos.Existing knowledge and solution at the companyTelstra which is involved in the project currently has knowledge in terms of identifying and treating asbestos although its technical capacity is limited. The company had qualified personnel at the technical department who could handle the project effectively. However, the personnel working at the technical department were retrenched by the company as part of the measures to reduce costs. The contractors who are directly involved in the implementation process lacks the knowledge to identify and treat asbestos. The company therefore lacks the knowledgeable personnel and technology which may make it difficult to meet the safety standards required by Comcare. Some of the personnel at the company do not even understand English and this makes it difficult for them to follow the safety guidelines. The lack of knowledge at the company is therefore the major factor that contributed to poor workmanship . The contactors also lack technology that can be used for the purposes of identifying and treating the asbestos pit. A safety management system is however in place at Telstra. . Knowledge needsThe knowledge needs is with regards to the effects of the asbestos in the pits and pipes on the health and safety of the employees.The technical experience and expertise with regards to handling asbestos to avoid health effects.Impacts of organizational change after the dismissal of the employees in the technical department at Telstra.Lack of knowledge, skill and expertise by the contractor directly responsible for the implementation of the project.Supervision gap created by the dismissal of employees by Telstra.Conflicts between Telstra and NBC Co.ActorsDifferent actors have to be involved in the development and implementation of the knowledge management system (Dalkir, 2013). The Contactor is the key actor that will be involved in the knowledge creation and training of the technical staff members. This is considering that contractor is responsible for the implementation of the project. The contractor is therefore directly responsible for the safety of the employees and community members. Telstra is also an actor as it owns the pits and the infrastructure. NBN Co leases the pits from Telstra and it can also be considered as the clients of the knowledge management system alongside Telstra. A huge responsibility is on the managers of Telstra as they own the pits as well as the infrastructure. The technical members of staff who will be employed by the contractor will be the enablers. The enablers are directly involved in the operations of the system on a daily basis. The contractors are also involved in the implementation of the project. Telstra will facilitate the implementation process as it owns the pits as well as the pipe infrastructure. The company will therefore act as the facilitator as well as the custodian of the project. Different actors have to work toget her for the purposes of ensuring that the objectives of the knowledge management system are achieved. The CEO of the company will act as an advocate of the knowledge management system in order for the project to gain support from all the actors.Candidate techniques for interventionThere are different types of knowledge management systems that can be used for the purposes of solving problems within an organization. Some of the knowledge management systems can be use for the purposes of solving the problems that is facing the company. Knowledge mapping is one of the intervention techniques that may be used for the purposes of identifying and solving the problem. Knowledge creation is also one of the important types of knowledge management system. This involves putting in place measures to ensure that the required knowledge is generated within the organization (Williams, 2014). Connecting people is also one of the important knowledge management systems that can be used for the inter vention process. Connecting people involves putting in place measures to ensure that teamwork is enhanced within the organization. This has a potential of ensuring that the members of the staff are able to coordinate different activities or projects being carried out by the organization. A decision support knowledge management system is also a candidate for the intervention. This is considering that some of the decisions that were made by the organization contributed to the problem. The intervention techniques are mainly aimed at addressing the knowledge management gap at the company that is responsible for the problems that led to the breach of health and safety. Proposed Knowledge Management System: Knowledge mappingThe contractor currently lacks technical members of staff who can supervise the process and ensure that health and safety is enhanced. The most appropriate system is the use of knowledge mapping in order to ensure that they have the capacity to identify and treat the pits with asbestos. Knowledge mapping mainly involves the acquisition of data, manipulation, storage, processing and manipulation. The knowledge map for Telstra will be for the purposes of determining the responsibilities of each stakeholder and the areas that the knowledge is likely to grow. This is for the purposes of ensuring that the required standards are attained through the use of technology. However, k...