Summary Of The Kite Runner - 1036 Words

Zachary Koons Locklear Advanced English II 30 September 2015 Shi’a Vs. Sunni Culture Imagine yourself in a world where the place you grew up in, was turned to dust, rubble, and heaps of it’s former self. Imagine yourself in that world for a second. The Kite Runner is a novel about two friends, inseparable by friendship and blood but divided by religion class. In the novel, â€Å"The Kite Runner† there is a young man named Amir, a Sunni Muslim, and Hassan, his servant and friend, a Shi’a Muslim. The two shouldn’t be friends by the standards, but all they know is friendship. Everything says that Shiite’s and Sunnis shouldn’t be friends. But the two boys find happiness in their relationship. This is all about the two divisions and how they are the same and how they’re different. The Sunni consider themselves the more orthodox and traditional group of the two divisions. The word Sunni comes from Ahl al-Sunna, the people of the tradition. The tradition in this case refers to practices based on precedent or reports of the a ctions of the Prophet Muhammad and those close to him (BBC News). The Sunni division makes up roughly 80% of the Muslim population. The Sunni maintain that the Muslim community was to select the Prophet s successor (caliph) to lead (Patheos.com). Sunni life is guided by four schools of legal thought—Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii, and Hanbali—each of which strives to develop practical applications of revelation and the Prophet s example (BBC News). The Sunni haveShow MoreRelatedSummary Of The Kite Runner 1196 Words   |  5 PagesNick St. Sauveur World Literature II 20 November 2015 Mrs. Hogan Kite Runner Essay Amir: Lost In Fear Over the duration of history, it has been shown that guilt not brought to light can do little in the name of personal redemption. Moreover, this is clearly connected with and related to Khaled Hosseini s fantastic novel The Kite Runner, one of which describes as well as shows the thoughts and actions of teens through the story s main character, Amir, and his many adventures as anRead MoreSummary Of The Kite Runner Essay997 Words   |  4 Pages The Kite Runner Theme Paper In the song â€Å"hello† by Adele she talks about how she wants meet to talk about everything in the past the makes her feel this guilt because the time away just didn t do enough she hasn t got over this feeling. Also in The Kite Runner, the character Baba experiences guilt so he does acts of kindness to redeem himself. No one knows why Baba did those acts of kindness till the end of the book because he thought no one would think of him the same way. In The Kite RunnerRead MoreSummary Of The Kite Runner 1388 Words   |  6 PagesPeace at Last: An Analysis of Forgiveness in The Kite Runner The human body is built to attack infections, cuts, bruises, or bacterial cells as a way to repair the damages caused. The human mind will not repair the damages by itself; it usually needs an outside source to heal. One outside source that could heal a mind is the act of forgiveness. It can put a guilty conscience at peace. In the novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Amir’s body could fix itself after the physical injuries AssefRead MoreSummary Of The Kite Runner 1269 Words   |  6 PagesThe Kite Runner is a very powerful book that deals with many complex political and personal problems. This book has changed and challenged many of my views on life. I also found this book very inspiring and I have gained a greater appreciation for the life I have in Canada. Firstly, the text communicated with me through emotions. For example, I felt sadness for Hassan because of the way society treats him as an unequal. In addition, I have learned many things from this novel such as the importanceRead MoreSummary Of The Kite Runner 957 Words   |  4 PagesI believe there were many instances of conflict in The Kite Runner revolving around Amir, the main character and narrator. He dealt with the struggle with himself for years after making Hassan and his father leave Amir’s home, He dealt with the struggle to win his father’s approval until his father died, and he struggled with God by the end of the book. In Khaled Hossenini’s novel, The Kite Runner, Amir struggles with conflict from a mistake and a hardship from his childhood which effects him theRead MoreSummary Of The Kite Runner 1423 Words   |  6 PagesThe Kite Runner starts off in 2001, with Amir thinking back to his childhood. He specifically remembers the year 1975, and the story begins. Amir was only a boy in 1975, living in Kabul, Afghanistan with his father, Baba. Baba had two servants who lived on the property, Ali and Hassan. Baba and Ali have known each other for a long t ime and are very close. Hassan and Amir are around the same age so they play together, but Amir doesn’t always like Hassan. Rahim Khan, a friend of Baba, is also aroundRead MoreSummary Of The Kite Runner 955 Words   |  4 Pagesboth from Afghanistan, Hassan is looked at as a mutt because he is Hazara. Through out the story the two boys are threatened by a group of older boys who constantly bully them both, but mostly towards Hassan for being a Hazara. The racism in the Kite Runner is serious and in a gruesome scene, one of the older boys Assef rapes Hassan to teach him a lesson. This scene not only sticks with the reader the rest of the story, but also with Amir who can’t shake off the fact that he ran away instead of helpingRead MoreKite Runner Essay899 Words   |  4 PagesGena Narcisco Mrs. Sharpe Honors English 10 10/11/12 The Kite Runner Do you know that Afghanis play a game where they fight with kites? The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini describes kite fights between local Afghani kids, regardless of their social status. The main characters in this story that come from a higher socioeconomic level are Baba, a lawyer from the Pashtun tribe, and his son Amir. The main characters in this story that come from the lower socioeconomic level are Ali, a servant fromRead MoreThe Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini1574 Words   |  7 PagesHosseini’s, The Kite Runner, is love. The Kite Runner follows Amir, the main character, finding redemption from a series of traumatic childhood events. Throughout the novel, the author uses many powerful symbols to represent the complexity of love that many experience in relationships. The use of the kite, the pomegranate tree, the slingshot, and the cleft lip all tie together to underscore a universal theme of love. To begin, the most explicit symbol present in the book is the kite. The kite representsRead MoreThe Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini977 Words   |  4 PagesFacts about the author Khaled Hosseini was born in March 4th, 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan and he is an Afghan-American novelist. He debuted in the year 2003 and released his book called â€Å"The Kite Runner†. The book opened to widespread critical acclaim and strong commercial success worldwide. And for this kind of novel he received Alex Award, Boeke Prize, ALA Notable Book and a lot of other prestigious awards. He has then authored several other books in his career. There was no turning back for Khaled

Essay on Short stories - 1134 Words

Essay nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The short stories â€Å"The Snows of Kilimanjaro† and â€Å"The Short Happy Life of Francis Mocomber† were both written by world renowned author Ernest Hemingway. The two stories are written completely unrelated to each other; however, both stories have vast similarities in the time and place in which they take place. Hemingway is a writer that is very methodical in his word choices. When reading these two stories a second time the reader finds considerable differences in the writing style the author uses in each story. To demonstrate, three sentences from each story will be compared and contrasted to show the differences in word usage, word connotation, and to find which story is written better. The initial pair†¦show more content†¦The word â€Å"plummeted† as defined in the American Heritage Dictionary â€Å"is to fall straight down; plunge†. The two words are close in meaning; however, â€Å"plummeted† is a better word for the sheer reason that the reader can directly visualize the vultures dive toward earth. When the word â€Å"plummeted† is heard a person thinks of plunging to death or fall at in incredible rate. â€Å"Plummeted† is much more dramatic and defining then the word â€Å"planed.† The word â€Å"Planned† could have various images connected with it. â€Å"Planed† leaves the reader too many options when visualizing the vultures decent to the ground. For example the reader might visualize the vulture gliding down to the ground or zigzagging to the ground. The word ‘Plummeted† is a better defined and more dramatic word. Making the sentence, â€Å"On the far bank of the stream Macomber could see, above the trees, vultures circling and plummeting down,† the better sentence of the two. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The next two sentences, â€Å"’You Bitch,’ he said,† from the â€Å"Snows of Kilimanjaro† and â€Å"’Why not let up on the bitchery just a little, Margot,’ Macomber said, cutting the eland steak and putting some mashed potato, gravy and carrot on the down-turned fork that tined through the piece of meat,† again have similarities. For example, in each sentence the husband is calling his wife a bitch of sorts; however, it is the use of this word that makes these sentencesShow MoreRelatedshort story1018 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Short Stories:  Ã‚  Characteristics †¢Short  - Can usually be read in one sitting. †¢Concise:  Ã‚  Information offered in the story is relevant to the tale being told.  Ã‚  This is unlike a novel, where the story can diverge from the main plot †¢Usually tries to leave behind a  single impression  or effect.  Ã‚  Usually, though not always built around one character, place, idea, or act. †¢Because they are concise, writers depend on the reader bringing  personal experiences  and  prior knowledge  to the story. Four MajorRead MoreThe Short Stories Ideas For Writing A Short Story Essay1097 Words   |  5 Pageswriting a short story. Many a time, writers run out of these short story ideas upon exhausting their sources of short story ideas. If you are one of these writers, who have run out of short story ideas, and the deadline you have for coming up with a short story is running out, the short story writing prompts below will surely help you. Additionally, if you are being tormented by the blank Microsoft Word document staring at you because you are not able to come up with the best short story idea, youRead MoreShort Story1804 Words   |  8 PagesShort story: Definition and History. A  short story  like any other term does not have only one definition, it has many definitions, but all of them are similar in a general idea. According to The World Book Encyclopedia (1994, Vol. 12, L-354), â€Å"the short story is a short work of fiction that usually centers around a single incident. Because of its shorter length, the characters and situations are fewer and less complicated than those of a novel.† In the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s DictionaryRead MoreShort Stories648 Words   |  3 Pageswhat the title to the short story is. The short story theme I am going conduct on is â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ by James Thurber (1973). In this short story the literary elements being used is plot and symbols and the theme being full of distractions and disruption. The narrator is giving a third person point of view in sharing the thoughts of the characters. Walter Mitty the daydreamer is very humorous in the different plots of his dr ifting off. In the start of the story the plot, symbols,Read MoreShort Stories1125 Words   |  5 PagesThe themes of short stories are often relevant to real life? To what extent do you agree with this view? In the short stories â€Å"Miss Brill† and â€Å"Frau Brechenmacher attends a wedding† written by Katherine Mansfield, the themes which are relevant to real life in Miss Brill are isolation and appearance versus reality. Likewise Frau Brechenmacher suffers through isolation throughout the story and also male dominance is one of the major themes that are highlighted in the story. These themes areRead MoreShort Story and People1473 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿Title: Story Of An Hour Author: Kate Chopin I. On The Elements / Literary Concepts The short story Story Of An Hour is all about the series of emotions that the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard showed to the readers. With the kind of plot of this short story, it actually refers to the moments that Mrs. Mallard knew that all this time, her husband was alive. For the symbol, I like the title of this short story because it actually symbolizes the time where Mrs. Mallard died with joy. And with thatRead MoreShort Story Essay1294 Words   |  6 PagesA short story concentrates on creating a single dynamic effect and is limited in character and situation. It is a language of maximum yet economical effect. Every word must do a job, sometimes several jobs. Short stories are filled with numerous language and sound devices. These language and sound devices create a stronger image of the scenario or the characters within the text, which contribute to the overall pre-designed effect.As it is shown in the metaphor lipstick bleeding gently in CinnamonRead MoreRacism in the Short Stor ies1837 Words   |  7 PagesOften we read stories that tell stories of mixing the grouping may not always be what is legal or what people consider moral at the time. The things that you can learn from someone who is not like you is amazing if people took the time to consider this before judging someone the world as we know it would be a completely different place. The notion to overlook someone because they are not the same race, gender, creed, religion seems to be the way of the world for a long time. Racism is so prevalentRead MoreThe Idol Short Story1728 Words   |  7 PagesThe short stories â€Å"The Idol† by Adolfo Bioy Casares and â€Å"Axolotl† by Julio Cortà ¡zar address the notion of obsession, and the resulting harm that can come from it. Like all addictions, obsession makes one feel overwhelmed, as a single thought comes to continuously intruding our mind, causing the individual to not be able to ignore these thoughts. In â€Å"Axolotl†, the narr ator is drawn upon the axolotls at the Jardin des Plantes aquarium and his fascination towards the axolotls becomes an obsession. InRead MoreGothic Short Story1447 Words   |  6 Pages The End. In the short story, â€Å"Emma Barrett,† the reader follows a search party group searching for a missing girl named Emma deep in a forest in Oregon. The story follows through first person narration by a group member named Holden. This story would be considered a gothic short story because of its use of setting, theme, symbolism, and literary devices used to portray the horror of a missing six-year-old girl. Plot is the literal chronological development of the story, the sequence of events

Csr Assignment †Starbucks Free Essays

string(64) " maker and providing customers with more than what they expect\." | November 5, 2012| | Management 3031Y | [Ethics and Social REsponsibilities ]| Starbucks| Introduction Starbucks is one of the places to find the world’s best coffees. The first Starbucks opened over forty years ago, in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle, Washington. The owners’ main philosophy was to provide customers with the world’s finest and richest coffee. We will write a custom essay sample on Csr Assignment – Starbucks or any similar topic only for you Order Now Over time, and endeavoring this ultimate philosophy, Starbucks expanded internationally and has more than 19000 stores around the world. The management of Starbucks has managed to improve their managerial process through location of their business, higher quality and better prices of their products. Although it is an expensive coffee store, the price of their product is based on the quality they supply. However, Starbucks is fully engaged in providing everything in an ethical manner. In this article, Howard (2011) explains that the most important thing to Starbucks is â€Å"the key to that culture is the belief that people are more important than profits† (Howard, 2011). This paper will discuss the procedures put in place to ensure ethical behavior, their ethic of business and their corporate social responsibility and will focus on assessing the company’s contribution to the community. Ethical issues As stated in Alec, Gonca Efe’s (2011) journal, â€Å"the evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the concept of Corporate Sustainability (CS) have converged resulting in a similar objective of achieving the balance between economic prosperity, social integrity and environmental responsibility† (Alec,et al. , 2011). CSR is the concept coined to describe how organizations now consider the welfare of the people by being responsible for the impact of their activities on all groups of people involved and affected by their business, (ie. their employees, customers, stakeholders). Many businesses have taken CSR very seriously that they have gone beyond â€Å"following laws†, and do more than being â€Å"responsible†. Starbucks is one of those corporations that fully engages in providing its stakeholders, its employees, the community more than necessary, and go beyond its responsibilities. One issue that Starbucks addressed and which stakeholders were being targeted was for the latter to have access and know how the company’s commitment and passion to improve the world and the ways which are demonstrating it. For example, Starbucks is committed to the environment, whether it’s regarding recycling, reducing water usage, thinking green or lowering its energy consumption (Starbucks, 2012). However, one of the main topics of Starbucks’s corporate ethics revolves around the climate change. Addressing climate change is a priority for Starbucks† (Starbucks, 2012). Since most of Starbucks coffee crops are outside of North America, mostly in the Third-world countries, Starbucks has implemented a climate change since 2004, which focuses on renewable energy, energy conservation, advocacy (Starbucks, 2012). One biggest step taken by Starbucks is reducing its gas emission. They conducted an inventory of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in 2011, using t he World Resources Institute/WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol to find out where their energy is mostly consumed. More than 80 percent of their GHG emissions are attributable to energy used in stores, office, and roasting plants, they are now focused on energy conservation and purchase of renewable energy (Starbucks, 2012). Reducing emissions of tons of carbon dioxide makes a huge impact on the climate. By reusing energy in their coffee-roasting plants, or offices, Starbucks was able to reduce its GHG emissions by 2. 7% compared to their 2012 GHG emissions (Starbucks, 2012). Moreover, another issue that is important for stakeholders is to have access to all the reports, codes, ethics, social responsibilities actions endeavored by the corporation. Starbucks has also addressed that issue, and rather than attempt to address every issue in their annual report, they simply just conducted a materiality assessment to determine what topics are of most significance to their stakeholders and to Starbucks itself and publish everything online. In a letter addressed to the stakeholders, Howard Schultz (2011) explains the reasons of creating a report with the summary of all the positive aspects to the company, as well as how the company is doing with regards to their CSR. This focus on materiality helps not only the stakeholders, but also the hareholders with regards to how effectively the company is doing. And for example, letting stakeholders have access to the their progress regarding their environmental by publishing their Global Responsibilities Goal Progress report online, Starbucks is showing how effectively its doing. Codes of conduct Starbucks codes â€Å"Business Ethics and Compliance† and CSR are stated on their website, and is available to the public. They have also made the â€Å"Standards of Business Conduc†t book available, which facilitates legal compliance and ethical issues such as potential conflicts of interest (Starbucks, 2012). The main idea is that every person in the employ of Starbucks is to act ethically and report any unethical or questionable behavior by any person under the employ of Starbucks. Because everyone is equal at Starbucks, any unethical actions should be reported. They have provided the partners with communication channels, which allow them to report all type of issues or concerns (Starbucks, 2012). The communication channel is basically a webline with contact information of the Business Ethics and Compliance department (Starbucks, 2012. Starbucks Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz stated (2012) â€Å"Each of us is personally responsible for supporting our core values, which require compliance with the law as well as ethical conduct. We have issued the Standards of Business Conduct to restate our long standing commitment to uphold that responsibility and to provide guidance to our partners. † (2012). Starbucks mission statement and guiding principles are also stated on their website. Starbucks mission is â€Å"to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time†. What this means is that Starbucks is dedicated in delivering each person a unique experience with their coffee purchase. It’s a one-on-one experience that should not only make the customers day but also the barista’s day. Being a barista or a partner at Starbucks not only means making beverages and giving them to the customers, but it also means going beyond being a simple coffee maker and providing customers with more than what they expect. You read "Csr Assignment – Starbucks" in category "Essay examples" For example, during my time at Starbucks, I remember that each and every customers that came left with a smile, because all of us were trained to always put the customer on a pedestal and make them happy. If one customer comes back unsatisfied with the drink, without any questions asked, we take the drink back and remake a new one with no charge. I also remember one day, during my shift, an elderly lady came to buy a coffee and a mix of granola and yogurt. She stayed at the location to drink her coffee, then to finish her yogurt. Few minutes later, she came back to us and complained about how the granola tasted different and she wasn’t satisfied/happy with it. Even though she had half of it finished, we gave her another one, free of cost and let her go with a smile on her face. As the mission states, it is about one person, one cup at a time. This also describes Starbucks principles related to customers. â€Å"When we are fully engaged, we connect with, laugh with, and uplift the lives of our customers – even if just for a few moments. Sure, it starts with the promise of a perfectly made beverage, but our work goes far beyond that. It’s really about human connection†. (2012) Starbucks also have other principles, either about their products, their shareholders, or their partners. Either way, they are dedicated in being an ethical corporation. As mentioned earlier, they have a report stating all their corporate social responsibilities and how they are doing. Here is a table of what Starbucks Mission Statement and Guiding principles are: STARBUCKS MISSION STATEMENT AND| GUIDING PRINCIPLES| To establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest| coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising| principles as we grow. | The following six Guiding Principles will help us measure the| appropriateness of our decisions:| †¢ Provide a great work environment and treat each| other with respect and dignity. | †¢ Embrace diversity as an essential component in the| way we do business. | †¢ Apply the highest standards of excellence to the| purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of our coffee. †¢ Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of| the time. | †¢ Contribute positively to our communities and our| environment. | †¢ Recognize that profitability is essential to our| future success. | | Starbucks, by generally being omnipresent in the communities (whether doing communities work, making changes to how the business and centers operate†¦), aims to follow its principles, and encourage its partners and customers to do the same. Ethics in practice The corporation accounts for its ethical and social responsibilities, by either being involved in communities through different ways, or helping the society in general. As stated on their website, they make a difference in the society, in the environment, at the workplace, in the products†¦ â€Å"A good example of a corporate culture which focuses on quality and ethics is Starbucks. Starbucks has won a number of ethics awards and has been recognized as a role model of social responsibility. †(Academic journal 2010). This sentence summarizes what stakeholders and public think about Starbucks. Indeed, the corporation has made huge differences in the community by doing small gestures, but gestures that matter. As stated in their website, they â€Å"support farmers and their communities†. For example, they have established Farmer Support Centers in Costa Rica and Rwanda to provide local farmers with the resources and expertise that help lower the cost of production, reduce fungus infections, improve coffee quality and increase the yield of premium coffees (Starbucks, 2012). They have also set up something called the Starbucks Farmer Loan program. It aims to provide financial resources to cooperatives to fulfill their cash flow needs during harvest time, and to make infrastructure investments that result in better competitiveness (Starbucks, 2012). Their goal is to dispurse U. S $20 million to this program by 2015. Another example in respective to their ethical practice is regarding their kids cups. They recalled over 250,000 children’s plastic cups in the U. S. and Canada. â€Å"According to the report, once the cup is dropped, the colorful face on the cup can break off and leave small parts or sharp edges that can pose a choking or laceration hazard to young children† (2008). Also, by coming to the new communities, such as in the U,S where its experiencing a job crisis, Starbucks provides employment, as the only thing you need is a smile and willingness to provide excellent customer experience. The company first priority is taking care of the employees in its retail stores who communicate with and serve customers. Starbucks executives believe that by taking care of these employees, the company can provide long-term value to shareholders (Schultz ; Yang 1997). Trust is vital to all organizations and it expected that ethical leaders demonstra te behavioral consistency between words and actions; treat all employees fairly without violating human rights. † (2011). Starbucks has teamed up with the Opportunity Finance Network (OPN) to create new jobs for Americans. Transparency At Starbucks, transparency is important thus they have published their CSR report as part of their broader communications efforts to provide transparency on their activities and performance. This initiative not only makes their stakeholders happy but also provides everyone else, either its customers or employees, with what Starbucks is doing to be a socially and environmentally responsible company. This transparency should be the priority in all successful organizations has us customers need to know what is the company, that is technically part of our daily routine, doing for us. A clear apercu of their goals, mission statement and principles is necessary, because communities need to support only corporations that care and value ethics and social responsibility. But as mentioned, Starbucks is in all ways clear about their ethics, and as nothing is a mystery, they have published everything online. Overall assessment Starbucks is focused on being a fully ethical and a very philanthropic corporation. All their ethics, values, match Carrol’s definition of a Corporate Social Responsible corporation. As per Carrol, the social responsibility of business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical and discretionary expectations that a society has of organizations at a given point in time (Michael Hopkins, p. 2. 2011). Although, like all other corporations, making profit is the most important, Starbucks doesn’t forget that it started as a small business that eventually and slowly expanded. Starbucks participates in many environmental and social programs around the world. The corporation is focused in providing communities with all types of benefits, such as jobs, good quality of coffee, good working conditions, improving its energy consumption. In general, the company is progressing towards better system and practices. For example, according to the published metrics on the environmental responsibility, the company has been able to reduce its energy consumption by 7. 5% in 2008-2011, purchased the equivalent of more than 50% of electricity used in their global company-owned stores worldwide in 2011, and decreased its water consumption by more than 17% since 2008. Starbucks’ goal by 2015 is to decrease water consumption by 25%, purchase renewable energy equivalent to 100% of the electricity used in their company-owned stores and reduce energy consumption by 25%. Conclusion We have studied about corporate responsibility, companies’ omnipresence in communities, in society and in our day-to-day routine. We have also studied how a company’s values and ethical decisions can make a significant difference in the way we perceive it. Applying what we learnt from class, Starbucks is implicitly ethical and follows all the norms and values of a social ethical company. Thought, a company is made of employees, it is very important to provide those employees with the company’s core values and explain them what it really means to work at that company. In Starbucks’s case, partners are all participating in making the company an ethical and socially responsible corporation. References Katrinli, A. , Gunay, G. , Mehmet E. (2011). The Convergence of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Sustainability: Starbucks Corporation’s Practices. Cambridge: The Business Review. Moronke, S. (2012). Impact of Ethical Leadership on Employee Job Performance. Journal of Business and Social Science. Schultz, H. (2010). It’s Not About the Coffee: Leadership Principles From a Life at Starbucks. Journal for Quality ; Participation;Vol. 33 Issue 1, p20, 1/3p. Academic journal. Starbucks. Retrieved from http://assets. starbucks. com/assets/4dd6216d0fd0400f8689eceba0497e04. pdf http://www. starbucks. com/about-us Starbucks Recall Mugs. Injury Prevention; Feb2008, Vol. 14 Issue 1, p70-70, 1/9p. article Ethics and Compliance Webline. Retrieved from https://businessconduct. eawebline. com/ Hopkins, M. (2011). Definition of Corporate Social Responsibility. MHC International. P. 2. article. Retrieved from http://mhcinternational. com/articles/definition-of-csr How to cite Csr Assignment – Starbucks, Essay examples

Folk Custom free essay sample

Chapter OneA General Introduction to Folk Customs 1. Folk customs: a definition Folk customs, or folk ways, comprise the part of cultural life that people of a country or nation have created, practiced and transmitted in their endeavors to satisfy their needs at various stages of their history and society. Deep-rooted in the cultural life of a community, folk customs are passed down from generation to generation in a temporal dimension and spread from one place to another in a spatial dimension. In the history of human society, folk customs have evolved from naught to existence, from simple to complex. In primitive society, a common folk custom was to eat animal flesh raw and drink its blood and to live in caves or hollows. With the development of society, the material life, the related organizational forms of social life, wedding ceremonies, funerals, and etiquettes came into being, and by and by they are established as folkways, or folk customs. We will write a custom essay sample on Folk Custom or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In China, for instance, chopsticks are used at meals, which is a Chinese folk custom. Northerners eating jiaozi and southerners eating rice cakes in Chinese New Year Festival, all people eating moon-cakes on Mid-Autumn Day and greeting each other with â€Å"Have you eaten? are all Chinese folk customs. Folk customs are shared and practiced by members of a nation in their daily life. There are folk customs governing the daily life of people, traditional festivals, various stages of life, as well as ideological aspects of social life. The various taboos in life are highly ideological. For example, the taboo against sweeping the floor from December 30 to January 2 on the Chinese lunar calendar resulted from the folk belief that this would affect the luck of wealth in the coming year. Some folk customs, as they originated from religious beliefs, carry a strong religious flavor by laying down rules for marriages, wedding funerals, and diet of believers. Every nation has some folk customs, ways of life or national styles that distinguish itself from other nations. People of that nation have a strong affection for these distinctive ways and recognize them as national symbols. Prevalent in a society with people hardly knowing them, folk customs apply to such matters as clothing, eating, living, transportation, decorum and etiquette, and manners of getting along with others. In this sense, folk customs are basic forms of national culture that may directly reflect and influence the material and spiritual life of a country or nation. 2. Characteristics of folk customs 1. 2. 1 Collectiveness The birth and transmission of folk customs is both social and collective. From the very beginning, their creation and development involve the participation of a group and reflect the mentality, linguistic and behavioral patterns of that group. For instance, the wedding ceremony is an activity attended by members of a particular group, as the would-be couple need win social recognition through this ceremony. . 2. 2 Regionality Geographical surroundings exert a strong influence over human life, thus the regionality of folk customs. Take for example the Mongolians in northern China. They used to be a nomadic people, and now animal husbandry is still their major concern, for the reason that the chief regions they inhabit are more suitable for animal husbandry in terms of na tural resources. The Hezhen people use dog-sledges and go for hunting and fishing, and the Oroqen people go hunting on horseback, all for the sake of their geographical surroundings. 1. 2. Transmissiveness and disseminativeness Folk customs are established through passing down from one generation to the next; they exist and disseminate in a certain area. The earlier they were created and the stronger functions they perform, the more areas the folk customs are disseminated to. The practice of giving New Year money to the young generation, for example, has been observed in all places year after year. 1. 2. 4 Relative stability and variability Once established, folk customs will become a stable part of life. The more stable a society, the more stable its folk customs. However, folk customs are liable to change with the development of society. Take for example the Chinese wedding ceremony. In the past, the Han people used jiaozi (old-fashioned sedan chair) to take the bride from her childhood home to the bridegroom’s house, but now they use cars. Stability contributes to the preservation of folk customs, and variability to their development. 3. Classification of Folk Customs Folk customs are numerous and complicated, and are developing day by day. It is universally acknowledged among researchers that folk customs fall into the following eight categories. . 3. 1 Folk customs of production Folk customs of production grow out of various production activities, including agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, handicraft industry, service industry, etc. In the history of human beings, these customs have played a role in ensuring production efficiency.