All the Light We Cannot See and Human Nature - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2249 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/08/15 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: All The Light We Cannot See Essay Did you like this example? In daily life, people tend to make a mix of selfish and selfless decisions. In times of conflict, decisions are more important and can be the difference between life and death. Anthony Doerr tells us that during times of conflict, it is human nature to pick a side of either selfish or selfless decisions. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "All the Light We Cannot See and Human Nature" essay for you Create order Doerr shows us that people tend to pick a side based off of love or fear. Love, in this case, is showed in devotion to a person or an organization. Fear is the fear of the consequences of war or conflict, like imprisonment, torture, and death. Not only does fear or love motivate someone to pick a side, it also causes people to change sides. In All the Light We Cannot See, Doerr shows that in times of conflict, it is human nature for people to gravitate towards selfishness or selflessness. Doerr uses his characters to show that love and fear determine peoples inclination to selfishness or selflessness, and their ability to change between the two. All the Light We Cannot See follows the story of two different characters, Werner Pfennig and Marie-Laure LeBlanc. Werners story takes place in Germany, and Marie-Laures story takes place in France, but the stories happen at the same time. Marie-Laure lives with her father Daniel LeBlanc, who works at the Museum of Natural History. Marie-Laur e hears about the legend of the Sea of Flames, a diamond that is said to make the holder immortal but kill the holders family. Von Rumpel, a Geman official, is searching for the diamond, and Marie-Laure and her father flee with the diamond to live with her great-uncle Etienne. Marie-Laure and Etienne later in the story help the resistance by broadcasting codes they receive in loaves of bread. As this happens, Werner is sent to the National Institute, a boarding school for raising young boys to become German soldiers. His skills at building radios earn his spot there, and after he graduates, he works with teammates Volkheimer and Neumann One and Two, known as the Neumanns, to hunt foreign radios. Werner hears Marie-Laures broadcasts that she does with her great-uncle Etienne and is motivated to save her from von Rumpel, who is in her house trying to find the diamond. Werner kills von Rumpel and saves Marie-Laure. After being saved, she hides the diamond in a hidden grotto she uses, where she was previously held up by von Rumpel, and gives the key to the grotto to Werner. The characters separate and never see each other again. Doerr uses his character, Werner, to show how fear can cause someone to make selfish decisions. Werner is also used as an example of someone who changes and begins to act selflessly because of love. Werners selfish decisions in the novel are motivated by fear. Werner demonstrates his selfishness by looking out for himself. He doesnt speak up against things he feels are wrong. When Werner was a teenager at the National Institute, he watched his peers be mistreated by authority figures. He then proceeded to obey those authority figures he disagreed with and followed orders he knew were wrong. Later in the book, when Werner is working with Volkheimer and the Neumanns, he acts the same way. Werner complies with his duties, reports the locations of foreign radios, and enables the killings of the people using those radios. Despite disagreeing with this and having the power to prevent it, Werner simply watches it happen. In both these scenarios, Werner remains silent because he believes he has no choice but to follow orders. When Frederick is whipped by Bastian, an instructor at the National Institute, Werner is unsure whether he should speak up for his friend. every part of him wants to scream: is this not wrong? But here it is rightWerner opens his mouth but closes it again. (Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See) This quote on page 194 shows that Werner sees no other choice but to remain silent. Werners fear causes him to act selfishly by not standing up for Frederick. The other choice he refuses to acknowledge is the acceptance of the consequences of speaking up. He also remains silent because of his fear of the consequences of speaking up. His fear of these consequences is rational. The cruel and grotesque beating of Frederick that resulted in Frederick being sent home is terrifying to Werner and deters him from speaking up as Frederick did. Frederick speaking up resulted in his beating, and the fear of this and the other consequences motivates Werner to comply with orders he disagrees with. Despite fear influencing Werners decisions, he is able to make an important, selfless decision that changes him. When Werner hears Marie-Laures broadcast, he makes the decision to not tell his team about its existence. The broadcast brings back memories of him and his sister Jutta listening to that same broadcast and music, and Werner is deeply moved by this. He confronts his years of moral cowardice and sees that he does have another choice; the choice he has refused to acknowledge until now. He sees that he can risk and accept the consequences to make a decision he knows is right. Werners decision is affected by his memory of Fredericks refusal. This recollection is shown on page 407, ..it was Werner who pretended there were no choices, Werner who watched Frederick dump the pail of water at his feet-I will not- Werner who stood by as the consequences came raining down. (Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See) This memory helps Werner realize he has multiple options, and that accepting the consequences is part of doing what he knows is right. This memory helps Werner change and make a self less decision. Werner, inspired by Fredericks defiance, accepts the dangers of his decision and risks himself for Marie-Laure. This decision to act for others instead of himself is an act of selflessness that changes him. Werners love for Jutta, the broadcasts, and the broadcaster he doesnt even know cause him to act selflessly. Etienne is used to show how fear can prevent someone from acting selflessly, even if they want to act selflessly. He is also used to show that love can be stronger than fear, and can enable people to act selflessly. Etienne is a character similar to Werner because he makes decisions for himself. What is different between the two, however, is that Etienne wants to act for others, but cannot. Etienne has PTSD from fighting in World War 1 and has a phobia of leaving his house. When Etienne is introduced to Marie-Laure, she finds out that he has not been outside for decades. He has episodes of anxiety and panic that leave him vulnerable and weak. His fear and PTSD prohibit him from acting selflessly, and he can only act selfishly and for himself. They prevent him from helping in the resistance the way he wishes he could. Etienne is forced to let Marie-Laure pick up the bread with the codes, for he cannot leave the house. In this situation, his fear is more of a disability than her blindness. His inability to act for Marie-Laure and others causes him to make selfish decisions, whether he wants to or not. When Marie-Laure is held up in the grotto by Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel, Etienne is alarm ed by her lateness. His love enables him to make the decision to go looking for her. He is tormented while making the decision, shown on page 418, Now Etienne hyperventilatesStands in the foyer summoning all his resolveHis heart beats icily in a faraway cage.(Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See) Etienne had to overcome his crippling fear of the outside to go looking for Marie-Laure, and this selfless act changes him. Etiennes love for Marie-Laure overpowers his debilitating fear of the outside, and he is finally able to act for her and act selflessly as he has been wanting to do for years. After this event of him breaking through his fear, he discovers a new strength in himself. He feels young, strong, and glad to have a job for the resistance before he is arrested. Love overpowered Etiennes fear and enabled him to act selflessly. Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel is an example of someone whose fear overtakes their loyalty and causes them to change and act selfishly. Von Rumpel, before his fear changes him, acts selflessly. He is tasked with finding the Sea of Flames for Hitler and the good of the Reich. Von Rumpel intends to carry out this task no matter what. He believes in his superiors, their orders, and goes to extreme measures to track down the Sea of Flames. One extreme measure shown is his tactics used at the Museum of Natural History. He tests the patience of Professor Hublin, the museum director, in a tense battle of waiting. After von Rumpel threatens Professor Hublins children, Professor Hublin gives in and shows von Rumpel the safe and a decoy of the Sea of Flames. He goes through all this for the Reich and is motivated by his devotion for it. However, von Rumpel and his motivations change after he finds out he has four months left to live due to a tumor in his body. This changes the reasons behind von Rumpels search. Von Rumpel considers the legend of the Sea of Flames, and the supposed immortality it brings to the holder. He subconsciously makes the decision to look for the diamond for his own benefit, rather than for the Reich. This changes his search and his decisions to a selfish nature. Von Rumpel becomes more desperate and frantic in his search as his time runs out. His fear of death motivates him to act selfishly. He is also fearful of lack of control. Von Rumpel has always had control, and when he is confronted by the things he cannot control, he becomes fearful. These things he is confronted by are the tumor and his death. Von Rumpel doesnt realize his search has become selfish until his last days in Marie-Laures house when he stresses over the location of the diamond. Von Rumpels last days are clouded and affected by his illness and medications, and in his delirium, he acknowledges that he is going to use the stone for himself and for selfish purposes. Von Rumpel is so desperate he attempts to murder Werner, a member of the Reich, the organization von Rumpel used to serve so selflessly. Von Rumpels fear of lack of control and death changes his motivations and decisions to a selfish nature. The character of Claude Levitte shows that people gravitate to selfishness or selflessness and often dont change. Claudes fear determines his selfishness and his decisions to remain selfish. Claude, in times of conflict, acts selfishly. He hurts other people for his own gain. Claude is seen with more material goods than the other people in town. Claude works with the Nazis by giving them information and selling out his neighbors. Claude is motivated by greed, for his information results in more material goods, but he is also motivated by fear. Claude is afraid of the Nazis, and he gives them information to secure his position and their trust. Self-preservation, paranoia, greed, and ultimately fear motivates Claude to help the Nazis. His actions affect the other characters. Claude is responsible for Daniel LeBlancs arrest and helps von Rumpel locate Etiennes house. Greed motivating his selfish decisions is shown on page 410, The perfumer squints.hiseyes trumpet one message: I want. Give me. (Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See) Von Rumpel, in his interrogation of Claude, sees Claudes motives for helping the Nazis. He sees how greed was a determining factor in Claude making selfish decisions. Claude is different from Werner, Etienne, and von Rumpel because conflict does not change him. Instead, it heightens his selfishness, which was known, but less apparent before the conflict or war. Even I can see his family getsmore meat, more electricity, more butter. I know how such prizes are won. (Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See) This quote on page 269 shows that Claudes selfishness was known by his neighbors. It shows that the townspeople know that conflict hasnt changed Claude, its simply worsened his selfishness. Conflict caused Claudes fear and greed to affect his decisions, and his selfishness and willingness to exploit people for his own gain are revealed. Werner and Etienne overcome their fear, change, and start to act selflessly because of love. Von Rumpels loyalty, strength, and selflessness are broken down by his fear, which causes him to act selfishly. All three characters are used by Doerr to show how love and fear change someones selfishness or selflessness. Claude is used by Doerr to show peoples tendencies to gravitate towards selfishness or selflessness. Doerr uses Claude to demonstrate that a lack of change in relation to fear or love will result in a lack of change between selfishness or selflessness. Conflict influences peoples decisions and why they make them. During times of conflict, it is human nature to lean towards selfishness or selflessness. Peoples fear or love determines whether they will act selfishly or selflessly. In All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr show s that in times of conflict, human nature is to act selfish or selfless. Doerr uses his characters to provide examples of love and fear, and how they determine peoples selflessness and selfishness.

International Relations And Foreign Policy - 2376 Words

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Organizational and Collective Intelligence

Question: Discuss about the Organizational and Collective Intelligence. Answer: Introduction: As per the article by Nrreklit and Mitchell (2014), balance scorecard is a management system that is utilized extensively by the government, business and non-profit organizations to align all the activities of the businesses to the strategy, vision and mission of the organization. Thus, it will provide assistance to the Prime systems to supervise all the performance level in an effective way. From the study, it can be assessed that Prime Systems is focusing on to provide effective services to the Mercedes, Workhorse and Traveller for establishing the business in an effective way. The objective of the organization is to penetrate in the large geographical market to gain competitive advantage in the market. Now, for the effective fulfilment of the performance objective, Prime systems have focused on the specific areas including Chicago, Shanghai, Sao Paulo and Paris. As per the article by Ratnasingam (2014), balance scorecard has focused on the financial performance assessment that can have impact on the business perspective. Now, the study has highlighted setup cost in Paris is comparatively high $380,000 than Chicago, Shanghai and Sao Paulo that eventually will create massive impact on the financial performance level of the organization. Prime Systems have also tried to evaluate needs of the customers regarding the Mercedes, Traveller and Workhorse brand so that it can actually create maximum impact on the financial condition of the organization. As per the article by Boscia and McAfee (2014), balance scorecard is a key tool for the effective evaluation of the organizational capacity in an appropriate way. It also provides knowledge to the organizations regarding the satisfaction level of the stakeholders or customers. For that reason, Prime Systems have identified top eight customer needs and wants regarding all three products so that it can create positive impact on the business perspectives. It has also tried to segment the products based on the applications so that all the needs of the customers can be fulfilled in an effective manner. It has highlighted applications like word processing, data management, engineering design, budgeting and bookkeeping that can have impact on the overall effectiveness of the businesses. Prime Systems also have tried to assess the amount of price consumers are willing to pay for availing the services. It has been assessed that as the customers are willing to pay more for Mercedes, its demand is higher than other two models. In order to fulfil the business objectives, Prime Systems have also tried to evaluate the potential 12 months demand for all the products in the selected geographical regions. The study has highlighted the fact that demand for Workhorse is expected to be higher than other two products in the next 12 months, as all most all the region have expressed higher desire for the product. Conversely, Mercedes and Traveller are not expected to create same kind of desire in the market. Still, Prime Systems have prioritized Mercedes at the first place so that it can influence the overall demand of the product. Thus, Prime Systems has able to work according to its mission statement that states, Provide best computers to high tech users. Reflection of the decisions: From the above discussion, I believe Prime Systems have tried to cover all possible aspects that can create difficulties regarding the effective fulfilment of business objectives. I feel the effective utilization of balance scorecard technique has helped Prime Systems to direct all the business related decisions towards a particular goals and objectives. It has also helped to evaluate several financial metrics for the Prime Systems in an effective way. For instance, I believe it has helped Prime Systems analyze the cost associated with start-ups in different geographical conditions. I have identified that Prime Systems also have tried to evaluate expected quarterly lease cost and costs associated with sales offices in such a way so that it can able to create strategies for the effective fulfilment of business objectives. Prime Systems also have tried to increase fixed capacity of the organizations in order to fulfil the demand of the potential customers in an effective manner. On the other hand, I have identified the fact that Prime Systems have made a conscious effort regarding its appearance to its potential customers. For that reason, I think that Prime Systems have segregated the need of the customers in two different way including general customer needs and web customer needs. In case of general customer needs, I have identified that 10 attributes have been selected by the organization that can have impact on the overall performance level. On the other hand, 7 attributes have selected regarding the web customers nee and wants. I have identified the fact that customer needs varies from one product to another which organization have to keep in mind for fulfilling the business objectives. Now, the utilization of balance scorecard has helped to evaluate the initiatives taken by Prime Systems regarding the needs of customer can actually have created desired level of impact or not. I believe the geographical area wise segregation is extremely crucial for th e Prime Systems, as it can play a major role regarding the overall performance level. Now, balance scorecard has highlighted the fact that internal business process or stakeholder management is significant for achieving sustainable growth in the market. Therefore, I believe that it is important for Prime Systems to focus on all the internal and external stakeholders in an effective manner. However, the study has highlighted the fact that Prime Systems have only provide prime focus on the customers while other stakeholders like investors and suppliers are not taken into consideration. Therefore, I believe that it can actually create challenges for the effective fulfilment of business objectives. Specifically, as the analysis financial factors highlighted the fact that costs associated with the operation is expected to increase in next few months, I believe investors will have to play a significant role for fulfilling all the business objectives in an efficient way. Thus, I believe that Prime Systems will have to learn several strategies continuously for achieving all t he business objectives in an appropriate manner. As per the statement of Singh and Sohani (2014), it can be assessed that the prime objective of balance scorecard is to enhance the present level of internal business process. Now, financial position plays a critical role in assessing the internal processes of a business organization. The balance scorecard has highlighted the fact that proper evaluation of financial perspectives can actually help Prime Systems to implement effective strategies, which eventually will create positive impact on the satisfaction level of the customers. Furthermore, balance scorecard also can play a crucial role in evaluating whether Prime Systems have able to fulfil its business objectives or not. Figure 1: Balance scorecard (Source: Garengo and Biazzo 2012) As per the article by Grigoroudis, Orfanoudaki and Zopounidis (2012) effective evaluation of expected costs for setting up and running a business is crucial for estimating the expected level of revenue. Therefore, Prime Systems have made an in-depth analysis regarding the fixed cost and variable costs of setting up businesses in different geographical regions. Therefore, it has helped Prime Systems to have an idea regarding the amount of profit level organization will able to achieve in next few months. As a result, it eventually will help to develop effective business strategies for fulfilling all the business objectives in an appropriate manner. On the other hand, internal process management of balance scorecard can help organizations to identify the prime areas where changes need to be done for creating desired impact on the market. Thus, it actually helps organizations to invest more on the innovative activities in order to grab the attention of the customers in an appropriate ma nner. Furthermore, internal business process management will also help Prime Systems to handle all its resources in such a way so that it can able to create maximum impact on the business processes. On the other hand, Hoque (2014) have mentioned that learning and growth factor of balance scorecard can help to achieve the vision of organizational entity to conduct effective change in the operational procedure. It will also provide better alternatives for Prime Systems for fulfilling all the mission or objectives in an appropriate manner. Moreover, balance scorecard has also highlighted the fact that customers play a significant role in fulfilling the desired objectives of the organizations. Therefore, it is necessary for the organizations to evaluate the needs and wants of the customers so that all the objectives related to business processes can be fulfilled in an appropriate way (Keyes 2016). Furthermore, the study has also highlighted the fact that organizations need to evaluate the needs and wants of the customers both product and geographical area wise for assessing the clear picture of the market. In addition, the assessment of Prime Systems related to balance scorecard has highlighted the fact that organizations need to prioritize all the needs and wants of the customers in an effective way. Otherwise, the overall performance level of the organization might not able to create desired impact on the business processes. References: Boscia, M.W. and McAfee, R.B., 2014. Using the balance scorecard approach: A group exercise.Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning,35. Garengo, P. and Biazzo, S., 2012. Unveiling strategy in SMEs through balanced scorecard implementation: A circular methodology. Total Quality Management Business Excellence, 23(1), pp.79-102. Grigoroudis, E., Orfanoudaki, E. and Zopounidis, C., 2012. Strategic performance measurement in a healthcare organisation: A multiple criteria approach based on balanced scorecard. Omega, 40(1), pp.104-119. Hoque, Z., 2014. 20 years of studies on the balanced scorecard: Trends, accomplishments, gaps and opportunities for future research. The British accounting review, 46(1), pp.33-59. Keyes, J., 2016. Implementing the IT balanced scorecard: Aligning IT with corporate strategy. CRC Press. Nrreklit, H. and Mitchell, F., 2014. Contemporary issues on the balance scorecard.Journal of Accounting Organizational Change. Ratnasingam, P., 2014. The Evolution of Balance Scorecard and its Impact on Web Services Quality.International Journal of Organizational and Collective Intelligence (IJOCI),4(1), pp.45-56. Singh, R.J. and Sohani, N., 2014. Enhancing Organizational Performance through Balance Scorecard with Strategic Management Activities.International Journal of Core Engineering Management (IJCEM),1(1), pp.19-23.