Thursday, December 26, 2019

Comparing Carnap And Popper Propose Two Different Criteria

Carnap and Popper propose two different criteria of demarcation. Carnap proposes that theories be declared scientific based on whether they can be tested, at least in principle, and labels this his verification criteria. Popper’s method is based on whether a theory has empirical content which is the set of all possible excluded events proposed by a theory. The question is, is it possible to agree with both of these criteria? I would say no. The above criteria, by themselves, are not enough to govern demarcation. Both of these, while necessary, are not sufficient enough to conclude that a certain theory is scientific. Examining logical examples as well as historical events revels how these theories disagree with each other and are limited†¦show more content†¦The sun could not rise and be replaced with another celestial body and the theory would still be scientific according to Carnap’s criteria. Let us consider an example from history. Consider the Phlogiston t heory. This is a rather ancient, now disproven, theory arising in the 17th century that is the predecessor to the theory of combustion. The theory states that all combustible bodies contain Phlogiston. Upon burning, these bodies release Phlogiston to the air. The air can hold a finite amount of Phlogiston after which it is completely phlogisticated and no longer supports burning of a material. Carnap would consider this theory unscientific as it cannot be tested. At the time, there was no way to quantify or measure Phlogiston. No instruments existed at that time period that could have been used to measure Phlogiston which makes the theory unscientific. Who was to say what substances possess and do not possess Phlogiston since it could not be measured? On the other hand, Popper would argue that the theory is scientific as it has empirical content, it excludes non-combustible bodies from having Phlogiston. Let us consider a case where both Carnap and Popper would agree. Compare the Phlogiston theory to modern chemistry and combustion. Both Carnap and Popper would agree that combustion is scientific. Calorimeters exist that can measure heat released from chemical reactions quite easily. Combustion also lays out what happens upon a

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

The Killer Angels By Michael Shaara - 1117 Words

Michael Shaara’s 1974 historical novel, The Killer Angels, covers the story of the four days of the Battle of Gettysburg that also features maps for visualization. The format of the story is well organized. It begins with a Foreword, which describes in great detail the armies and soldiers involved in the battle. It follows up with four sections and within each section there are chapters that are written in chronological order, covering the events between Monday, June 29, 1863 and Friday, July 3, 1863 in different perspectives. The first to reveal their thoughts is Harrison, the Confederate spy. Harrison reports his findings about the Union to James Longstreet. As a result, Robert E. Lee decides to move his troops to Gettysburg. Meanwhile, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain proceeds to move his soldiers north. When John Buford, commander of the Union Cavalry, enters Gettysburg, he notices the Confederate infantry. Eventually, the armies clash. That was the mark of the beginning of the battle between the Union and the Confederates. Soon the rest of the Union army heard of the confrontation, so they prepared for battle. The Union and the Confederate army continued to plot plans against each other and fight for the next few days. Nonetheless, they both had their ups and downs. The characters are drawn from the words of the men themselves. In fact, Shaara states that he used letters and documents as sources. However, it is Shaara’s own interpretation of the characters. Shaara’sShow MoreRelatedThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1634 Words   |  7 PagesPulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Shaara, the author of The Killer Angels, was born on June 23, 1928 in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was an author of science fiction, sports fiction, and historical fiction. Although writing was his passion, Shaara was very athletically successful in high school, winning more awards than any other student in the history of the school for sports such as basketball, tra ck and baseball. He acquired a skill in boxing, and of the 18 matches Shaara fought as a young man, heRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1290 Words   |  6 Pages The Killer Angels Essay â€Å"There is no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.† Stated by Abraham Lincoln, this quote embodies the essence of war, its tragic character and unfortunate occasional necessity. Accordingly, the outcome of war and its battles is often determined by the attitudes of the leaders of the opposing sides, including their causes for the willingness to fight and to be fought. Such was the case with the Battle of GettysburgRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1521 Words   |  7 PagesThe book The Killer Angels was published in 1975 by the Ballatine Booksand was written by Michael Shaara. The Killer Angels is a historic novel about the time of the American Civil War, more specifically The Battle of Gettysburg. Shaara wrote this historical masterpiece with the sole purpose of letting the reader know exactly how the war was for the men actually putting their lives on the line to get this great country of America to the stature it is today. In order to accomplish his goal of creatingRead MoreThe Killer Angel By Michael Shaara1248 Words   |  5 Pages The Killer Angel is a book elaborating on the history of the American civil war authored by Michael Shaara. The book has gained popularity among American citizens as it covers one of the deadliest battles in American history that took place at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, hence the title of the battle of Gettysburg (Shaara 5). The crash involved two major groups, the Confederacy, and the Union. The Confederacy constituted of seven secessionist states from the South who advocated forRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1947 Words   |  8 Pagesthe dueling North and South together to the small town of Gettysburg and on the threshold of splitting the Union. Gettysburg was as close as the United States got to Armageddon and The Killer Angels gives this full day-to-day account of the battle that shaped America’s future. Michael Shaara author of â€Å"The Killer Angels,† tells the story of the Battle of Gettysburg through the eyes of generals Robert E. Lee, Joshua Chamberlain, James Longstreet, and John Buford, and the other men involved in the actionRead MoreKiller Angels By Michael Shaara850 Words   |  4 Pages In the Pulitzer Prize winning civil war novel Killer Angels, Michael Shaara covers five days of the historic battle between the Northern and Southern United States at Gettysburg. Both the North and the South fought for freedom, although they did not have equivalent definitions of freedom. The North and the South were unwavering in their beliefs and their hope for a better United States, but what the two butted heads the most on was slavery. The South was a primarily agrarian region which reliedRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara Essay1255 Words   |  6 Pages In the novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, the story is told from the perspective of the men that fough t in the war of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania on July 1863. We are able to see both sides of the combatants, their struggles they faced, friendships acquired, losses, personal stories and their views. In history we only learn the superficial information of how it occurred in the battle and the outcome of it, but we do not know how it happened and how much effort it took to fight in thatRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1123 Words   |  5 PagesThe Killer Angels Novel written by Michael Shaara describes the Gettysburg battle from the perspective of Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, various soldiers from both sides, and other men who fought in the battle. This author makes the reader go back in time and actually makes the reader depict the circumstances, and situations that soldiers and generals faced. This Novel makes the reader know that both sides were eager to win, and bring this bloodshed to an end. This amazing Novel shows how neighborRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Micha el Shaara852 Words   |  4 PagesThe Killer Angels by Michael Shaara was not just a fiction novel, it was a story of a man who actually saw the battlefield of Gettysburg and learned about the battle and its importance. When he returned from the battle sight he decided to write a novel based on his experience there. Instead of creating fictional characters he used the names and experiences he had directly with the main characters of the novel. Not only did Shaara study and review letters, documents and journal enteries of the menRead MoreThe Killer Angels By Michael Shaara1206 Words   |  5 PagesShawn Gacy American Lit. Mrs. Moyer September 11, 2015 Summer Reading The book I chose to read over the summer was the book The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. The Killer Angels tells the story of the Battle of Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863, the Confederate army, and the Union army, fought the largest battle of the American Civil War. When the battle ended, fifty one thousand men were KIA (Killed In Action), wounded, or MIA (Missing in Action). All the characters in this book are based

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Management Theory and Practice Apple Inc

Question: Discuss about the Management Theory and Practice for Apple Inc. Answer: Introduction: This essay highlights the ethical dilemma faced by an eminent organisation. This case study has been chosen for this essay is Apple Inc. In the organisational development approach, this organisation has been suffering from different challenges as well as several ethical problems. These ethical problems will be discussed in this study. As per the statement of Azim et al., (2016), business ethics is a process of applied and professional ethics, which determines the ethical principles as well as morale that arise within the organisational environment. During the operation, Apple Inc. were accused that they treat their employees inhumanly and treat them as machines. In addition, in order to increase the profitability statement and also to reduce the cost structure, Apple Inc. has hired 500000 workers. As a result, the productivity has started to increase in these two factories, which are located in Southern China(Ciulla, 2014). However, after the investigation, it can be observed that th e actual situation of the organisation was worsened than the prediction. There are several cases of unethical behaviour, which have faced by Apple Inc. and the dreadful things, which they put on the workers. This study described two theories about these organisational ethical issues to examine the dilemma. Ethical dilemma makes an effect on the organisational decision making procedure. On the other hand, ethical leadership as well as decision making is the important section of corporate social responsibility of a global company such as Apple Inc. In this essay of managerial ethical theory, multiple theories describes regarding the ethical issues. In this context, this study will describe Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mills Rule based ethical theory during eighteenth century (Conway Gawronski, 2013). Other theory is Virtue based ethical theory, which is older, compared to the Rule based ethical theory. Plato and Aristotle developed this ethical theory. Ethical behaviour of an organisation is affected by different organisational factors. As per the statement of De Wet (2015), the factors are such as business policies of the organisation, behaviour with the employees, organisational culture influence the ethical behaviour of the organisations. The senior decision makers of a company can highlight the organisational ethics. Doyle, Frecknall-Hughes Summers (2014) opined that ethical decision-making is needed to understand the impact of an action plan on the stakeholders. Therefore, it can be inferred that an ethical leader is essential to implement the cost benefit analysis before execute the project especially during the organisational development. Finally, Goetsch Davis (2014) mentioned that during the time of ethical decision making process, organisational ethical leader requires to have courage to implement the ethical action. On the contrary, it can be stated that sometimes organisations suffer from ethical dilemma, as a decisio n can be benefitted for the company, however, conflicts the willingness of the workers. In the opinion of Hair (2015), ethical theory can be differentiated into three categories. These theories are agent centred theory, consequentialist theory and non-consequentialist theory. Consequentialist theory concerns with the ethical outcome of a definite action. On the other hand, non-consequentialist theory highlights the purpose of person making ethical decision compared to the effect of the actions. Lastly, agent centred theory deals with the entire ethical status of the individual employee. Apple Inc. is one of the renowned technology companies in the world. The basic moral principle, which is followed by Apple, is honesty. In this context, Hoffman, Frederick Schwartz (2014) cited that Apple Inc. speculates honesty and also performs ethical behaviour during making business dealings. Apple expects that its workers require to avoid the situations if any confliction or difficulties occur. On the other hand, Apple expects that all of the partners, workers to respect the confidentiality of the organisational information not only to the staffs of the organisation, but also the consumers. According to Hsieh Kramer (2012), Apple also expects that its workers, including the parties whom the company can maintain the greatest standards of business conduct in the global market. Therefore, this organisation is concerned in making of partnership regardless to social disparity in different countries. The above figure depicted that social responsibility of an organisation is depending upon some definite factors such as economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities. It is known that social responsibility of Apple Inc. is developing around the world. Recent surveys show that Apple Inc. has been following the above-mentioned four responsibilities. As per the statement of Johnson (2013), Apple is the first company in its class in this field. The growth sales of Iphone have increased by 143% from the last year and revenue earning by this organisation has reached to double from the previous year (from 15.70 billion to 28.57 billion).This proves that Apple is an ideal example, which fulfil its economic responsibility. On the other hand, Apple Inc. has taken step against the unethical conduct. Therefore, Apple has stopped to recruit underage labour in their organisation. Jordan et al., (2013) opined that Apple does not consider dangerous working circumstance in two facilitie s as well as bribery in one facility. Lastly, Apple has done a higher job related with the environmental issues, which range from the removal of toxic material from the manufacturing goods to recycling and also the use of greenhouse gas emission. However, Jussila, Goel Tuominen (2012) argued that Apple Inc. has been suffering from the practice of unethical behaviour in their business. After the employees get hired, they had to work excessive amount of overtime, almost three times as much. In addition, the workers can only take one day week off in each of the two weeks. However, they also do not receive the eligible remuneration, they receive only $17 to $22 as the per day wage rate. This is lower as per their eligibility. With the passage of time, the demand for the products of Apple has been increasing. In order to meet the demand of the consumers, the organisation requires to increase the level of production and hence, the employees are working overtime. As a result, life of the employees is getting miserable. The events in Southern China are disturbing and also upsetting. In this point, Ke Wang (2014) opined that Utilitarianism or rule based theory can maximise the happiness for the employees. On the other hand, the management of Apple Inc. disrespect their employees and also made hard their life. Kennedy, Herring Pieplow (2015) criticised that Apple run their organisations only for their personal gain and therefore, are not concern about the profitability of the individual labour. With the help of Virtue theory, Apple Inc. will be able to gain four virtues such as courage, honesty, justice and temperance. Apple did not have any courage to stop the abuse, as it was wrong and unethical. In addition, they were also not honest to the stakeholders. Temperance was also violated due to the expectation of each of the worker was unreasonable. Lastly, it can be stated that Apple Inc. was not justice for the workers as they did not apologise or reimburse their labours for their terrible treatment. In the words of Reamer (2013), business ethics in an organisation can be regulated by an individual or also by a set of individual. However, it reflects the overall business culture. Ethics highlights the actual course of business action. On the other hand, ethical behaviour is able to boost the sales of an organisation, product development and can also expand the organisational operation. In this present study, the rule based ethical issues and virtue based ethical issues are explained. The rule based ethical issue or utilitarian ethical theory describes the interest of all of the stakeholders of an organisation, who are reflected by the external and internal actions. Therefore, this theory mainly highlights the trade-off between the different decisions of the management and stakeholders. On the other hand, virtue based ethical theory illustrates some definite qualities, which define the ideal behaviour and determine the right action to take. Utilitarian ethical approach is a form of consequentialist theory. As mentioned by Ciulla (2014), if the consequences are moral, then the actions will be good and vice versa. This ethical based theory has developed by Jeremy Bentham. From the above study, it can be observed that business actions in Apple Inc. are not moral. In this point, Bentham mentioned that an act will consider as a moral act if the act has the capacity to produce greatest result for the greatest mass. The mission of Apple is to earn highest profitability as much as possible. Apple universalises technology and information. Hence, the largest number of people worldwide facilitates large unit of information. Chinese government in terms of imposing invisible trade barrier limited the ethics followed by Apple Inc. The decision of the government of Chine restricted the utilitarian ethics trailed by Apple Inc. Now the ethical dilemma in this stage can be discussed if Apple would agree the Chinese government, the organisation would violate the rule-based norm. Moreover, if the organisation would follow its own business ethics, it would violate the code of conduct not to violate the political laws. As a result, Apple Inc. has been suffering from ethical dilemma in case of decision-making procedure. On the contrary, Shin (2012) argued that utilitarian ethics has some limitations in the production of greatest outcomes. However, this ethical approach is great as long as it does not damage anybody. The outcome of Utilitarian approach is restricted if any company reduces the utility of the other stakeholders in case of increasing the companys own utility. In addition, Strom, Sears Kelly (2014) added that utilitarian ethical theory would provide that this approach needs to highlight all the possible courses of action as well as their consequences. Execution of this procedure needs greater interpersonal skills of the organisations managers as well as the leaders. According to the critics of utilitarian theory, it is not possible to measure the happiness of the other employees and also their satisfaction level(Hair, 2015). As a result, it is hard to measure the greatest benefit. Nevertheless, it can be stated from the example of Apple Inc. that the political and complexity makes it di fficult to formulate utilitarian theory based ethics in the purpose of maximising the benefits of the community. Virtue based ethical theory has focused to the internal characteristics of the individual. This theory also describes that within an organisation, it s necessary to develop the connection of trust. The final goal of virtue theory is to take right decision at the right time in the right way. Virtue is a positive behavioural trait, which is helpful to make its possessor a good human being. In addition, Weiss (2014) opined that virtue is differentiated from the single actions as well as the feelings. As per the concept of this theory, a virtue is related with the honesty and it is not just a tendency to do what is honest. Moreover, it can be said that a virtue is not helpfully specified as the desirable or as the morally valuable character trait. According to Zuber Asheim (2012), a virtue is concerned with several actions such as emotions, emotional reactions, choices, desires, attitudes, interests, expectations of the individuals of an organisation. In the words of Nicomachean, it can be mentioned that he highlighted that moral virtues of an organisation is connected with 11 moral virtues. These virtues are such as courage, temperance, liberty, magnificence, magnanimity, appropriate ambition, truthfulness, wittiness, friendliness, modesty, righteous indignation. Among these 11 moral virtues, Apple Inc. did not follow four major virtues and they are courage, honesty, temperance and justice. In the opinion of Conway Gawronski (2013), Apple Inc. were not honest towards the consum ers as well as towards the other stakeholders of the organisation. As per the concept of temperance, it can be noticed that Apple Inc. did not fulfil the expectation of each of the employees. The employees expect that they would receive higher wage rate as they usually got one week off in each of the two weeks. In addition, they had huge work pressure in order to increase the organisational productivity. Therefore, they were suffering from depression. Lastly, the employees did not get justice (Hsieh Kramer, 2012). The organisation did not apologise for this type of organisational practice towards the employees. The employees also did not get the compensation against this type of inhuman practice. Human rights employees work for documenting the human rights violation within a nation. Hence, this activity in Southern China would hit the willingness of some people as well as government (De Wet, 2015). As a result, the virtue activists aim to the social, economic as well as on the cult ural factors. Business ethics is the moral value of a company, which is necessary for the success of an organisation. Business ethics is appropriate for each of the business unit and also for the society. Business ethics are related to the all of the stakeholders of the organisation. The major stakeholders of Apple Inc. are such as consumers, suppliers and also the subordinates. Goetsch Davis (2014) opined that organisation ethics not only reflect the code of conduct within the organisation, but also includes the willingness of the associates and the employees. Moreover, it can be mentioned that each of the strategic decision has ethical values. The objective of a business is to provide the stakeholders an approach, so that they can deal with the moral complications. On the other hand, Hoffman, Frederick Schwartz (2014) cited that some of the ethical values could make a business successful. The first argument is related with the protection of the employees. The company requires to focus to the h ealth, safety as well as the environmental standards of the business. Another ethics can increase the product and service line in order to enhance the resource utilisation. Courage of accumulating new ideas within an organisation and receive the review from the consumers is the ethical practice, which are followed by the organisations in the competitive type market structure. Ethical behaviour requires to highlight the business practices towards the organisational leaders. Ethical behaviour of people will be benefitted to influence the workers as well as to the other stakeholders of the organisation. Ethics shapes the quality of the strategic management of an organisation. Ethics highlights the sustainability in case of decision making procedure. On the other hand, ethical leaders include the positive and the negative values simultaneously ((Doyle, Frecknall-Hughes, Summers, 2014). The leaders also require to consider the rights of the other staffs during the decision making procedure. Therefore, it proves that ethical culture of an organisation considers the other staffs accountable. It raises the collaboration between the co-staffs. Therefore, it can be inferred that the decision-making procedure would be easier. Ethics is related with the communication skill of the managers. In this connection, it can be mentioned that appropriate communication of the managers with the other staffs is needed to follow in the decision making approach. The leaders also require motivating and encouraging the performance of the employees. However, Jordan et al., (2013) argued that ethics and strategy cannot be taken together. Strategy is considered as the rational approach for the company to achieve the success and also face the challenges during the organisational operation. Therefore, critics concludes that strategy conflict the business ethics. Ethics only considers the moral values. Therefore, strategy is highly aggressive in character than the other ethical principle. In addition, Hsieh Kramer (2012) cited that strategy is assumed to be flexible and it can be changed based on the organisational circumstances. Therefore, on case of organisational dilemma, leaders require to have greater interpersonal traits , which can reduce the scope of the development of business risks. Ethical behaviour in a company is influenced by the different organisational determinants. They are policies, regulations of a company. The course of action of a leader affects the stakeholders. An ethical leader requires to perform the cost benefit analysis before formulate a project in case of the organisational development procedure. Apple Inc. has faced ethical dilemma more than one time. This essay has highlighted two ethical concepts, they are rule based ethical theory and virtue based ethical theory. Business operation in Southern China is attractive to the organisation like Apple Inc. However, the company treated with the employees as a machine. Thus, Apple has faced ethical dilemma in the decision making process. Utilitarian theory follows appropriate action in order to produce most feasible goods. Therefore, the morality of this organisation will be developed and also agree to compromise the repressive policies and regulations of the Chinese government. This above mentioned example violates the utilitarian ethical approach regarding the business ethics of Apple Inc. The, morality of this organisation did not sustain during the decision making procedure. As a result, this has a negative impact on the organisational behaviour and thus, the employees of the organisation have been suffering from depression. On the other hand, after analyse the virtue based ethical theory, it can be observed that Apple Inc. did not follow four virtues such as courage, honesty, justice and virtuous in their business. Therefore, it can be inferred that these two examples have restricted the ethical cultural practice of Apple Inc. Lastly, this essay has also described the relationship between the leadership, ethics and the decision making process within a company. Bibliography Azim, M., Sadiq, M. W. (2016). Servicescape under consideration of Hedonic and Utilitarian approach, a Conceptual debate related to customer satisfaction in context of female clothing brand in Pakistan. . European Online Journal of Natural and social sciences , 494. Ciulla, J. B. (2014). Ethics, the heart of leadership. . ABC-CLIO. Conway, P., Gawronski, B. (2013). Deontological and utilitarian inclinations in moral decision making: a process dissociation approach. Journal of personality and social psychology , 104(2), 216. De Wet, C. (2015). Spatial-and Complexity-based Perspectives on the Ethics of Development-induced Displacement and Resettlement. . Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement. , 85-96. Doyle, E., Frecknall-Hughes, J., Summers, B. (2014). Ethics in tax practice: A study of the effect of practitioner firm size. Journal of business ethics. , 122(4), 623-641. Goetsch, D. L., Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. pearson. Hair, J. F. (2015). Essentials of business research methods. Hoffman, W. M., Frederick, R. E., Schwartz, M. S. (2014). Business ethics: Readings and cases in corporate morality. . John Wiley Sons. Hsieh, E., Kramer, E. M. (2012). Medical interpreters as tools: dangers and challenges in the utilitarian approach to interpreters roles and functions.Patient education and counseling. 89(1), 158-162. Ife, J. (2012). Human rights and social work: Towards rights-based practice. . Cambridge University Press. Johnson, C. E. (2013). Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow. . Sage Publications. Jordan, J., Brown, M. E., Trevio, L. K., Finkelstein, S. (2013). Someone to look up to executivefollower ethical reasoning and perceptions of ethical leadership. . Journal of Management. , 39(3), 660-683. Jussila, I., Goel, S., Tuominen, H. (2012). Member commitment in co-operatives: The utilitarian approach. . Business and Management Research. , 1(3), p9. Ke, J., Wang, G. G. (2014). China's Ethical Dilemmas Under Globalization and Uncertainty: Implications for HRD. Advances in Developing Human Resources. Kennedy, R. B., Herring, S. D., Pieplow, T. (2015). The General Manager's dilemma: a perfect storm of ethics violations: a case study. . Journal of the Alabama Academy of Science. , 86(2), 127-128. Reamer, F. G. (2013). Social work values and ethics. . Columbia University Press. Shin, Y. (2012). CEO ethical leadership, ethical climate, climate strength, and collective organizational citizenship behavior. . Journal of Business Ethics. , 108(3), 299-312. Strom, D. L., Sears, K. L., Kelly, K. M. (2014). Work engagement the roles of organizational justice and leadership style in predicting engagement among employees. . Journal of Leadership Organizational Studies. , 21(1), 71-82. Weiss, J. W. (2014). Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. . Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Zuber, S., Asheim, G. B. (2012). Justifying social discounting: the rank-discounted utilitarian approach. . Journal of Economic Theory. , 147(4), 1572-1601.

Monday, December 2, 2019

Willa Cathers free essay sample

Paul’s Case by Willa Cather â€Å"Paul entered the faculty room suave and smiling. His clothes were a trifle outgrown and the tan velvet on the collar of his open overcoat was frayed and worn; but for all that there was something of the dandy about him, and he wore an opal pin in his neatly knotted black four-in-hand, and a red carnation in his buttonhole† (P. 160). Even in a situation as serious as getting expelled from school, Paul shows very little empathy for his mistakes. He gives his superiors a bad attitude, snide remarks, and does not seem to have a clear picture of the reality that he may not be let back into school. The only thing that matters to Paul is his life at the theatre. Paul uses many defense mechanisms to dissociate his real life from the fantasy world he has created at Carnegie Hall. Paul is separating his naturally occurring feelings from events or thoughts that are really happening. We will write a custom essay sample on Willa Cathers or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Although Paul is actually rude and cocky, he still manages to keep a smile on his face which keeps everyone guessing as to what his true nature is. Paul spends most of his time daydreaming and he ends up being late to his job at the theater; even though his job is very important to him and high on his priority list. Paul spends most of his time living in his fantasy world. Paul is described as a bit odd, flamboyant, and very eccentric. He dreams of being famous, but feels like no one will ever understand him. He lies to get his way. When faced with conflict he withdraws from real life, escapes to the theatre, and becomes everything he has ever wanted to be. He is greatly offended by the sight of one of his teachers coming to the theatre to see a show. Carnegie Hall is â€Å"Paul’s World†, and she is not welcome. He is beside himself, does not know what to do, and is very dramatic over the whole situation. In reality Paul is gay and is looking for someone to blame for his homosexuality. Does Paul blame God for making him this way? Is this also a form of his passive aggression? Passive aggression is defined as: Aggression towards others expressed indirectly or passively. Paul is very passive at home. He is being raised by his father, whom Paul speaks politely to, and even seems to be a bit fearful of. When asking for car fare to go see his tutor, Paul is reluctant, shy, and speaks very softly to his father. I believe Paul takes his fear of his father out on everyone else around him, so he does not have any conflict with him. â€Å" He felt no necessity to do any of these things; what he wanted was to see, to be in the atmosphere, float on the wave of it, to be carried out, blue league after blue league, away from everything† (P. 170). Paul defiantly feels more comfortable when he is â€Å"behind the scene†. His actions show that he is not in control of his emotions, and does not know his place in life. With stolen money in hand, Paul runs away, buys a new and expensive wardrobe, and checks into the Waldorf Hotel. â€Å"When he reached the dining-room he sat down at a table near a window. The flowers, the white linen, the many-coloured wine glasses, the gay toilettes of women, the low popping of corks, the undulating repetitions of the Blue Danube from the orchestra, all flooded Paul’s dream with bewildering radiance†(P. 175). Paul feels like â€Å"this†, is what life is all about, the feeling he gets inside when living the life of rich people. Drama is such a huge part of who Paul is on the inside, even if no one else sees him. â€Å"The mere release from the necessity of petty lying, lying every day and every day, restored his self- respect† (P. 177). Even though Paul is in a lot of trouble for stealing money from a law firm, he finally feels at ease for the first time. Knowing that he cannot return home, Paul, with the greatest of drama, decides to take his own life rather than face who he is and what he has done. It was the dead of winter in Newark, where Paul manages to take a short nap, despite the cold, and leaps in front of an oncoming train. â€Å"Then, because the picture making mechanism was crushed, the disturbing visions flashed into black, and Paul dropped into the immense design of things† (P. 180). Who or what is to blame for Paul’s suicide? If this story were written today, with society being more accepting of people who are gay, could there have been a different outcome? Paul needed some psychiatric help and a little understanding, not to take the easy way out.