Beloved by Morrison OR Gilead by Robinson OR Fugitive Pieces by Essay

Beloved by Morrison OR Gilead by Robinson OR Fugitive Pieces by Michaels OR Mornings in Jenin by Abulhawa - Essay Example The story centers upon the fictional character Sethe, who lives in a small â€Å"gray and white house on Bluestone Road† (Morrison 1) with her surviving daughter Denver. As the story opens, it is made clear that Sethe's two sons, Howard and Bugler, both ran away at some point prior to the story opening because they couldn't deal with strange, ghostly activities happening at the house. Baby Suggs, Sethe’s mother-in-law and the woman who taught Sethe how to live again after escaping slavery, also once lived with them but died. Soon after the reader is introduced to these characters, a new character comes in. Paul D was one of the slaves Sethe had worked with on Sweet Home, a Kentucky plantation where she, her husband and several others had been cruelly treated. Upon her escape, an event that happened many years earlier, Sethe murdered her youngest child, a girl, desperately attempting to keep her baby from experiencing the type of degradation and abuse Sethe experienced a t the hands of Schoolteacher when she thought she was about to fall back into slavery. It is this spirit who returns to haunt her family in later years, finally manifesting itself in the bodily form of Beloved. Morrison’s deliberate use of the ambiguous in her statement of the story that â€Å"was not a story to pass on† as well as the ambiguous nature of her narrative style allows her to say a great deal without saying much. This ability of authors to express the incomprehensible is behind Catherine Belsey’s theory of a ‘crisis in subjectivity’ or ‘split subject.’ â€Å"Entry into language inevitably creates a division between the subject of the enunciation and the subject of the enonce, the ‘I’ who speaks and the ‘I’ who is the subject of discourse. The Subject is held in place in the discourse by the use of ‘I,’ but the ‘I’ of this discourse is always a stand in, a substitute, for the ‘I’ who speaks.† Another theory by Julia Kristeva introduces the idea of a â€Å"divided subject, even a pluralized subject, that occupies not a place of enunciation, but permutable, multiple, and mobile places.† Morrison’s approach in Beloved is an experimental narrative approach that allows a variety of reading levels while still telling a difficult story. In this sense, narrative is both a primary technical resource and serves as a theme that illustrates how adjustment to a life free of slavery was perhaps as difficult as conforming to life as a slave. Regardless of how the story is interpreted, although Sethe had escaped to freedom with her children and her life, her husband was missing and fear remained permanently rooted in her heart. The merest thought that she and her children might be taken back into slavery was worse than death so she attempted to kill the children rather than allow them to live the same sort of life she'd experienced a s a slave. Despite the fact that she is free and safe, Sethe cannot escape the haunting memories of her past. The scene of possible recapture takes place just after she has had a chance to understand what it means to be free. She had followed Baby Suggs out to the clearing in the woods where Baby Suggs gave the children permission to run and the mothers permission to hear them laugh and the men permission to dance and

Service Quality for Retail Banking in the UK - Barclays, PLC Dissertation

Service Quality for Retail Banking in the UK - Barclays, PLC - Dissertation Example Responsiveness is a measure of the willingness to help customers and provide them with prompt service. Assurance measures the competence, courtesy, credibility and security of the service provided, while the empathy is about the caring and individualised service that the bank provides to its customers. This would help the bank in realising whether its customers are satisfied on all grounds and whether there are any gaps in their satisfaction level. We would follow the same standard set by the previously referred authors. A questionnaire survey method will be adopted to measure the service quality of the bank. The study is based on primary data from customers of Barclays and secondary data based on previous studies and shows the different dimensions of retail banking and issues related to service quality and customer satisfaction in case of UK banks. Although Barclays retail bank is considered as an example here, the thesis is to draw a general conclusion on retail banking and the service quality that would be appropriate for customer satisfaction. Several studies and published papers on banking and customer satisfaction and the associated service quality attributes are discussed here. Any research study should not only trace the existing parameters for the variables involved but also provide some future perspective of reference. Within this context, the levels of customer satisfaction could be found out from primary data in which customers are directly required to complete surveys and provide responses on what changes they expect in the future and what kind of services they have encountered in the banks. Their suggestions and recommendations from questionnaires form the basis for... This study is an assessment of how much this change has been implemented or is successful within the branches. The corporate strategy of Barclays has also been analyzed and showed how the bank strategy could or should change from an emphasis on sales to an emphasis on customer service. The attitudes and behaviors of customer service officials have also changed towards customers suggesting that changing of corporate strategy tend to have a direct impact on employee behavior and company functions and performance as well. In conclusion, there are several issues that have been highlighted through this study and shows that after an appraisal and interview and survey of customer attitudes and expectations. Some individuals, however, expressed their problems as seen in the qualitative dimension or analysis of the study and suggested that the bank should be more concerned with individualized attention and improve its services by being prompt and efficient. Improving certain online banking features and international banking features were also considered important for overall improvement of the bank’s functions. This study has shown that although Barclays has been largely known for poor customer services and focuses more on sales rather than customer services, it’s recent change of approach with greater emphasis on improving customer services than improving sales figures seem to have worked for positive results as customers seem to be more satisfied with the services offered by the banks.