How Art Relates to Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray Essay

How Art Relates to Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel about a young, handsome, and vain man who has his portrait painted, and impulsively wishes that he could forever remain just as handsome as he is in the painting -- that the painting would age instead of him. He gets his wish in a most eerie way; as, with passing years, he becomes increasingly dissolute and evil, while the changes that one would expect to appear on his face are reflected in the portrait instead. What this book is about, clearly, is feelings and appearances becoming real. This motif is echoed and re-echoed throughout the book. Early in the novel, Sir Henry Wotten -- a cynical hedonist -- gives Dorian a book about people who tried to experience everything, both good and evil, and Dorian decides to try it; in other words, he models his life after a work of art. The fact that Dorian's one female love is an actress -- a person who wears masks and pretends to be someone she is not -- reinforces this motif. When she reveals herself to be real, his repugnance for her is so overwhelming that it reaches out like an evil spirit and kills her; Dorian therefore murdered Sybil as surely as he would murder Basil later on. We tell small children that their feelings are not actions and therefore have no repercussions of their own, but deep in our psyches we know this is not so. The reason tribal...

Pleading and Michael Dell

Dell Computer Case Questions Please provide a detailed answer to each of the following six questions for the Dell Computer case. 1. What has made Dell Succeed to date? 2. What is Dell’s position in the industry to date? 3. An August 12, 2002 Business Week article, indicated that by 2007 Dell intended to double revenues to $60 billion. How should Dell go about building the nearly $6 billion annual sales growth needed to achieve that target? 4. What are the implications of your recommendation?How will it affect Dell as a company? 5. If you disagree with Michael Dell’s growth target from Question #3 above, what would your alternative recommendation be? Why? 6. Dell has the following Code of Conduct ? â€Å"How We Win,† Dell's Code of Conduct, provides general guidance to all team members on how to behave legally and ethically, and in compliance with the letter and spirit of applicable legal requirements, Dell policies and our ethical principles. It serves as a guide book for living our value of winning with integrity. Our Code of Conduct,  a fundamental component of our culture of integrity here at Dell, has been extensively revised and updated to bring it into alignment with our purpose and values, as well as with our business, brand and people strategies. ? Our reputation as an ethical company and trustworthy business partner is one of our most valuable assets and critical to our success. To safeguard our reputation and our brand, we hold ourselves to standards of ethical behavior that go well beyond legal minimums. Our ethical principles are: ? We are honest.What we say is true and forthcoming — not just technically correct. We are open and transparent in our communications with each other and about our business performance. ? We are trustworthy. Our word is good. We keep our commitments to each other and to our stakeholders. We do the right thing without compromise. We avoid even the appearance of impropriety. ? We treat others wit h respect. We value their contributions and listen to their point of view. We maintain fairness in all relationships. ? We are courageous. We speak up for what is right. We report wrongdoing when we see it. We use good judgment. We think before we act. We use our purpose, values and ethical principles as decision filters to guide our behavior. ? We are responsible. We accept the consequences of our actions. We admit our mistakes and quickly correct them. We don’t retaliate against those who try to do the right thing by asking questions or raising concerns. However, the reality of Dell's business conduct does not match up with its rhetoric. As happens all too often, Dell, a large corporation allegedly provided unfair or misleading contractual agreements.Despite this code of conduct the company has faced the following during the time of the case: A California law firm has slapped Dell with a class action lawsuit charging the computer giant with â€Å"systematically deceivingâ €  its customers. The New York Attorney General also filed a suit for the same issues. ? The case centers on the allegation that Dell advertises low prices for its computers, but people who try to purchase a machine at the advertised price find it's no longer available for that price. Often those customers wind up with another computer, the suit said.One plaintiff is a San Francisco nurse who said she bought a Dell notebook computer listed at $599 along with an $89 printer, but was billed $1,352 for her order. ? Another plaintiff said Dell shipped him products of lower quality than the ones he had ordered from the company's Web site. The Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker then resisted his efforts to resolve the problem, he said. ? The suit also said that Dell and its lending partner CIT Bank change without notice financing packages promoted as â€Å"easy† and â€Å"preferred,† to include much higher interest rates and hidden charges.The class action challenged the fi nancing practices of Dell, Inc. , Dell Financial Services, L. P. , and CIT Bank for imposing excess finance charges and late fees on consumers. ? The suit alleges that Dell has violated numerous California laws and codes of conduct, including the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, the California Business and Professions Code and the Unruh Act. ? The New York complaint alleges Dell repeatedly failed to provide timely on-site repair as promised in service contracts and discouraged customers from seeking technical support.The lawsuit claims Dell's New York customers calling the company's toll free support number were subjected to long wait times, frequent transfers and disconnections. Question 6. Dell has settled both cases with the two states. If you were Michael Dell, how would you resolve the differences between the Code of Conduct and the actions of Dell? Should Dell stop advertising low priced computers and then try to step up customers to pricier models or additional feature s dramatically increasing price to the consumer?

Essay on Fairness of Our Taxation System

Is Our Taxation System Fair? Every government collects taxes from its citizens in order to be able to fulfill its responsibility of providing proper roads, water, sanitation facilities, health care and education to the public. The government would need billions of dollars to carry out all its duties and it is due to the tax payers’ money that all this work is done. So, citizens are expected and mandated by law to pay the appropriate taxes. They have to pay taxes to their local state or county governments as well as to the federal government in certain instances. Many people do not like the idea of paying taxes, of course. They hope that they could keep all their earnings to themselves. They feel that it is not fair for the government to grab a large percentage of their hard-earned money. They sometimes compare the tax percentages in other countries and feel that the amount of money they pay is too high when compared to the other nations. But all said and done, taxes are extremely essential for the smooth running of a nation. Without taxes, the government would not be able to fulfill its obligations. It is necessary for us to get a proper perspective of why taxes are inevitable. Although we do not like the fact that we have to part with our earnings to support the government, we still have to see this as a benefit. In fact, we are paying the government to provide all the infrastructural facilities that we enjoy in our day to day life. If we can see taxes as a fee that we spend on ourselves for our own benefit, much like the money we pay at a restaurant to have a nice meal, we would find it easier to pay our taxes without feeling the pinch.