Thursday, October 31, 2019

Health profile assignment - Tonbridge Area Essay

Health profile assignment - Tonbridge Area - Essay Example Health promotions currently available throughout the United Kingdom and the world that address the health need will be identifies and discussed. Linking back to the health need, this health profile will make recommendations on the potential health promotion strategies that could possibly be implemented, which will discuss how this will be evaluated? The conclusion will briefly summarise the main point of the health profile and reflect on the process of health profiling. District: Tonbridge and Malling Locale, County: Kent, Region: South East England, Nation: England, Country United Kingdom. Tonbridge is a historic market town in Kent County located on the River Medway. It is four miles north of Tunbridge Wells, twelve miles from southwest of Maidstone and twenty miles from London. In 2003, eighty one were reported killed or severely injured in road accidents. The Indices of Deprivation 2004 (ID2004), which are measures of deprivation for every Super Output Area (lower layer) and local authority area in England, indicates that Tonbridge and Malling ranked at 304 out of 354 local authorities in England, where one was the most deprived area and 354 the least deprived. This rank was derived from the average deprivation score of the Lower Layer Super Out Areas in the local authority. Between 1982 and 2002, the population of Tonbridge and Malling grew by 10%, compared with an increase of 11% for the South East region as a whole. The population density of Tonbridge and Malling in 2002 averaged 453 people per square kilometre, compared with an average of 421 for the region and 380 people per square kilometre for England overall. The demographics of the population in Tonbridge reveal that the male population is, proportionally, larger than the female population in the under 65 age group. Normally, the numbers of males and females in this age group to be very similar;

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Term paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Term paper - Essay Example ein and Victor, for Victor knowledge was the surge beyond the acceptance of human limits and the access to the secret of life while for Frankenstein knowledge was viewed in a manner that would make humans accept him as he was. The monster due to his grotesque appearance is rejected by society and therefore becomes an integral part of the action. Why grotesque? Victor creates this monster from his unnatural manner of his creation which entails the mystifying animation which is a combination of embezzled parts of a body with bizarre chemicals. Therefore one can state that the monster is a combination of scientific work which enfolds the dark and the supernatural. Does not this description fit Victor too? Victor the creator also exhibits monster qualities. His aspiration, mystery and egocentricity kind of estrange him from society and his family. His creation of the monster also creates a monster within himself for eventually Victor is consumed by hatred for his creation. Abortion an ever prevalent occurrence wherein the innocent is mercilessly killed is still found in today’s world. This abortion can also be witnessed in Victor as well as the monster who express the monster’s gruesomeness. Victor looks at his creation he states â€Å"When I thought of him, I gnashed my teeth, my eyes became inflamed, and I ardently wished to extinguish that life which I had so thoughtlessly made†. The monster who hates himself cries out â€Å"I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.† This idea of abortion can also be traced to Victor’s destruction of the female monster wherein Victor aborts the act of creating the female counterpart of the monster. An explanation can be found in Victor’s description of philosophy â€Å"I at once gave up my former occupations; set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation; and entertained the greates t disdain for a would-be science, which could never even

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Literature Review 2.0 Spending Behavior

Literature Review 2.0 Spending Behavior Nowadays, the marketers are facing great competition among themselves to market the products and services to the consumers. The study of consumer spending behavior enables the marketers to understand how consumer thinks, feels and react to the subtle environment when purchase a product(Wassana Suwanvijit, 2009). Hence, the marketer can predict the consumer spending behaviors and develop a proper marketing plan to address the products to the consumers. According to businessdictionary.com, consumer spending could be defined as goods and services bought by households in the satisfaction of their needs and wants. In addition, Spending is defined as the act of expending and behavior is defined as response of an individual to an action, environment, person, or stimulus. While Kotler (2000) stated that consumer behavior studies how individuals, groups and organizations select, buy, use and dispose of goods, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires. In our research context, spending behavior is defined as the act of disbursing money in response to an action, environment, or person in the satisfaction of needs and wants. 2.1 Factors Wilson, et.al, 2005 stated that consumer spending behavior is strongly influenced by four factors: Cultural factor (culture, sub-culture, social class), Social factor (groups, family, roles and status), Personal factor (Age and life cycle stage, life-styles, occupation, economic situation, personality and self concept) and Psychological factor (motivation, perception, learning, beliefs and attitude). Understand these four factors could help to address customers needs and wants and finally increase sales. In addition, there is another factor so-called economic factor which would affect consumers spending as well. 2.1.1 Personal Factor Wassana Suwanvijit, (2009) conducted a study to examine factors affecting consumer life-styles and purchasing behaviors. He found that consumer life-styles are derived from and personalized through social and cultural learning and consumer demographics will influence consumers behavior. In this study, Wassana Suwanvijit,(2009), administered a questionnaires to 300 consumers at Songkla province. The result indicated that demographic and socio-economic factors affecting the consumer life-styles and purchasing behaviors. In Songkla, average spending rate was approximately 550 baht per time and the factor affecting the spending per time was consumer income. The author also found that consumer promotion will affect consumers spending behavior and sales. Chetsada Noknoi, Sutee Ngowsiri, and Wannaporn Boripunt, (2009) also conducted a study to test the relationship between demographic characteristics and the consumer behavior. The study found that consumer behavior is dependent on the demographic characteristics such as income, age, marital status, occupations, etc. Besides, based on the research paper done by Juma K. Salim, the researcher proved that various life cycle stages and socio-demographic factors such as region of residence, race of the reference person, and sex of the reference person were found to be substantial factors of the pattern of expenditures within each occupational group. The researchers results are consistent with the results found by Abdel-Ghany and Sharpe (1997), Cage (1989), and Jacobs, Shipp, and Brown (1989). The researcher also proved that the occupation influence expenditure between teachers and non-teachers. Teachers spend a lot in only two categories of expenditure, education and miscellaneous, compared to professionals and administrators or managers.Besides occupation, level of education also influences spending behavior. Income, education, and occupation are some of the factors that influence ones position in society. Vanessa G. Perry and Marlene D. Morris (2005) examined the relationship between consumer financial knowledge, income and locus of control on financial behavior. In this research, it suggested that consumers propensity to budget, save and spending depends partly on their level of perceived control over outcomes as well as knowledge and financial resources. Apart from that, race and ethnicity can also affect the consumer financial behavior. According to Rotter (1966), locus of control was being defined as a general, relatively stable propensity to see the world in a particular way, capturing general beliefs about the causes of rewards and punishments. The research showed that individual self-concept influenced both financial and non-financial preference and behaviors. Consumer spending behavior is also affected by a persons personality and attitude. Cordell et. all (1996) and Cadha (2007) explained that the consumers are drawn to purchase counterfeits of luxury brands due to the desire of owning the prestige and status symbol that the trademarks brand shows. T. Min, P. Ian and Curtain had viewed the attitudes towards counterfeiting of luxury brands can be influenced by a person personality variable (e.g. value consciousness, integrity, personal satisfaction, trend tracking and the status consideration). They reviewed the theories established and examined their understanding that the desirability of purchasing the counterfeit products was affected by the good value of the brand name (which labeled on the counterfeit product and add value to the product). Below are the explanations of the personality variables which could reveal a person spending behavior. i. Value consciousness Human have the curiosity to seek variety and difference of a certain products/services and they try to spend on the news fashion products in order to satisfy their curiosity. For those who can afford the branded products, they will obviously spend a lot of money in order to obtain the value of that product. Nevertheless, people will try to attain the value of the luxury brand things by choosing the counterfeit product with lower prices. ii. Integrity If the consumers view the integrity as an important value, there will be less people to purchase the counterfeiting of luxury brands and this indirectly change their spending behavior to buy non-branded things with possess a cheaper prices-low consumption. iii) Personal Satisfaction Accomplishment, social recognition and desire to enjoy the valuable things are the personal satisfaction variables in their spending behavior where consumer will be more conscious of the appearance and visibility by purchasing the fashion products. By spending on the new arrival of products which is more expensive, they diluted their income and incurred more expenditure in their own saving-spending portfolio. iv) Status consideration Status consideration is refers to consumer who are both seeking self-satisfaction and recognition as well as for showing to surrounding people. Because of this status recognition, people tend to spend more to purchase the luxury brand which indirectly changed their buying behavior. 2.1.2 Cultural Factor M. Pierre, (1958) claimed that individual spending pattern shows a person class position despite from the persons income. He classified that a person spending structure was affected by the influences from family, their colleague, voluntary association, age and gender. These influences variables on affecting a person spending behavior integrated together in order to classify the persons class position in his/her social unity. Pierre also mentioned that the ranked status system involved all the members of a society in term of hierarchy (from super-ordinate to sub-ordinate). Whereby, whether a person will or will not attempt to buy a thing are strongly related to his/her class membership, and depend on whether the person is mobile or stable. He specified that the consumption patterns included a several factors such as class replacement, choice of store, communications skills, save versus spend, and psychological differences. In his studies, he realized that there are six-class system which is Upper-Upper Class (old families), Lower-Upper Class (newly arrived), Upper-Middle Class (professionals successful business men), Lower-Middle Class (white collar salaries), Upper-Lower Class (wage earner skill labor groups), and Lower-Lower Class (Unskilled labor groups). i) Class Placement M. Pierre explained that the class placement can be determined in three categories which included the occupation, source of income and housing type (e.g. luxury apartment, banglo). In his research in metropolitan area (Chicago), he discovered that the Upper-Lower class people possess expensive house and the home was equipped by the solid heavy appliance. While, the Lower-Lower class people have less property minded (lack of intention to buy or maintain a home) and they intended to spend their income on their clothes or automobile. ii) Choice of store M. Pierres studies revealed the relation between choice of store, pattern of spending and class membership. He described the people are very realistic in the way of spending in order to match their values and expectations refer on which type of store they choose (e.g. high status branded shop-Nike, Addidas). He verified that the social status of the department store becomes the primarily basis to identify the consumer class position. He mentioned that people are not going to take action by entering to a store where he/she might not affordable. iii) Communications Skills The kind of super-sophisticated and clever advertising is almost meaningless to Lower status people. M. Pierre stated that the lower class people may not comprehend the subtle humor in the advertisement(s) and they are difficult in extracting the art of the advertisement(s) information. They also have a different approach in determining the information given. In other word, they lack of intelligence and have different understanding in their communication skill. These indirectly defined the spending behavior between class positions of a person. (iv) Saves versus Spends M. Pierre clarified that the Middle-Class people usually have the financial knowledge place in their thinking for the forms of saving whereby they tend to choose the investment saving. While Lower-Status people intended to save in an almost low-risk funds (non-investment saving) which can quickly converted to spend-able cash. This clearly showed that the lower status people have more spending habit. Pierre mentioned that the Lower-status people will spend on artifact-centered products (cheaper items) and the Middle-Class people will spend on experience-centered products (planned spending).But, Pierre stated that the spending behavior of a person still governed by class membership in his/her society. (v) Psychological differences M. Pierre explained that the spending-saving analysis has a very obvious effect in psychological implications to differentiate the classes. Middle Class Lower Status Pointed the future Pointed present and pass More urban identification More rural identification Stress on rationality Non rational essential Greater sense of choice maker Limited sense of choice maker See themselves tied to national happening Concern their own and family members 2.1.3 Psychological Factor D. Ap S.K.Pamela, (2005) argued that consumer behavior is often strongly influenced by the subtle environment and traditional perspective on consumer choices. They explained that people always occasionally purchase the things on the spot where they choose the products at the moment of awareness and occupied with things rather than thinking on selecting an affordable groceries to purchase. This resulted in troubling the consumers spending habit. Bargh(2002) described the consumer behavior are cast items of the cognitive psychology. While, Chaiken(1980) and Petty, Cacioppo and Schuman(1983) explained that, before people buy(or choose or decide), they are less initiative to collect the products information. Attitudes can be based on cognitive beliefs such as when a person finds a product which is very useful or more benefit effect, or the product show and possess symbolic meanings (Venkatraman Mac-Innes, 1985). Karen M. Stilley, J. Jeffrey Inman and Kirk L.Wakefield (2010) conducted two studies to investigate the effects of promotional saving on both planned and unplanned spending, and how does it varies according to income level. In order to test the hypotheses, Karen M. Stilley et al. interviewed 400 customers who entered two grocery stores located in a southwestern U.S. city. Every tenth shopper or one every five minutes was selected, whichever came first. In addition, respondents were first asked what items they planned to purchase and how much were they planned to spend in total. Then, In-store slack (ISS) was calculated by subtracting the itemized portion from the total respondents planned to spend. Besides, respondents were required to indicate their household income before they exit the grocery shops. For the purpose of increase the response to such sensitive question, respondents were given seven choices of range rather than gave a specific figure of household income. The results o f the research showed that the promotional on unplanned grocery items would attract customers to spend more and this is increased with the higher income level. Apart from that, Ajay Kalra and Mengze Shi (2010) also examined sweepstakes reward structures that maximize consumers valuation. They claimed that consumers value maximizing sweepstakes should effectively motivate consumers participation and thus increase sales. From the other perspective, sweepstakes and contests would increase consumers spending on a certain products. Ajay Kalra et al. defined sweepstakes and contests as the promotional tools used by organizations to attract more customers, which in turn gaining additional sales. By having sweepstakes, consumers are tend to spend more in order to increase the probability of winning grand prize. In addition, the introduction and increased usage of electronic transfer systems has led to the likelihoods of a cashless society (Humphrey et al., 1996; Humphrey and Berger, 1990; Olney, 1999). In the research paper done by Mohamad bin Ali (2004), the variables been developed are hedonic motivation, credit cards used, unplanned purchase, peer influence, TV viewing and shopping frequency. The results exhibited the positive correlation of hedonic motivation, credit card use and unplanned purchases with compulsive buying tendency. Many people spending to release stress and treat it as retail therapy. Shoham and Brencic (2003) stated that people go to shopping as retail therapy are expect that shopping could reduce their stress. Credit card is encourages compulsive buying because credit card eliminate immediate need for money to buy thing. Furthermore, Fusaro (2006) argues that debit card users make more frequent and smaller withdrawals to control their spending behaviour. A cashless transaction takes off the pain of transferring cash and may encourage consumers to spend more. From a hedonic perspective, a cashless transaction does not recap the thought of the amount of money spent at the time of purchase as compared to cash payment which recaps thoughts about costs or benefits of purchase at the time of purchase (Prelec and Loewenstein 1998, p.25). D. Ap S.K.Pamela, (2005) made a several statement on the factors of unconscious spending behavior of the consumers: i. The choices of buying the product are influenced by automatically response or one persons attitudes ii) Attitudes were not really guide the behavior of the persons spending and people tend to buy things on impulse and the impulse choices are strongly affected by the subtle environment. From the above statements, they reviewed and discussed about their studies on consumer behavior. They pointed out two important results on their understanding which: Perception-behavior link is a mere perception of a social environment which leads people to face in direct effect behavior. This mean that the behavior of a person is often imitative (follow others action) and thus this behavior is contagious (spread and affect others-ripple effect) Automatic goal pursuit related to the goal-directed-behavior where the consumer purchasing behavior is often unconsciously guided by the environment. 2.1.4 Social Factor A persons spending may be affected by his social group of people, which normally being called virtual communities. It is defined as self-selecting groups of individuals engaged in sustained computer-mediated interactions around common interests or goals, governed by shared norms and values, and serving individual and shared needs (Bagozzi and Dholakia 2002; Dholakia, Bagozzi and Pearo 2004). Such characteristics of virtual groups as open, non-discriminatory participation, possibility of anonymity, and low visibility of product usage suggest that virtual communities potentially employ mechanisms of influencing shopping decisions that are different from those of other reference groups. Some virtual communities apply informational influence on shopping decisions by aiding the transfer of information among reference group members regarding product opinions (Deutsch and Gerard 1955). In virtual communities information can be spread through what other members post about their product and brand use, or shown through picture sharing and in occasional face-to-face meetings. 2.1.5 Economic Factor Rex Y. Du and Wagner A. Kamakura (2008) examined how consumers allocate their discretionary income to meet different consumption needs and how the resultant consumption pattern will change in response to changes in prices and budgets. For instance, how does escalating gas price affect consumers spending on food and apparel. Rex Y. Du et al. had used the CEX family extracts made available by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) for the 1982-2003 period. The CEX was collected from different samples each year and 66,368 households were being examined in this research. Besides, Rex Y. Du et al. had conducted three policy simulations to test consumers reaction to environmental shock. Those three policy simulations were reactions to shift in energy costs, reaction to a tax rebate and welfare losses due to spiraling costs of prescription drugs. The result for the first simulation showed that consumers reduce their spending when the energy costs increase, especially the poorer qui ntile. For the second simulation, the result showed that tax rebate would increase consumers spending even though for those nonessential items, such as airline fare and charity. For the last simulation, the result showed that consumers could have reduced their prescription drug expenditure by an average of 37% while maintaining the same level of treatment. Indeed, economic condition would affect consumers spending behavior. Conclusion Indeed, consumer spending behavior is strongly influenced by the factors such as personal, cultural, psychological, social and economic condition. Demographic characteristics such as income, age, marital status, occupations, etc. would have direct relationship to consumer behavior (Chetsada Noknoi et al. 2009). In the research done by Wassana Suwanvijit (2009), 300 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents in Songkhla. For a city with a population more than seventy thousands of people, it would be better if the number of respondents could be at least 500 in order to draw a more convincing conclusion about the results. Next, the influences from family, colleague, friends, etc. would affect a person spending behavior. Besides, it has to depend on several factors such as class replacement, choice of store, communications skills, save versus spend and psychological differences as well (M.Pierre, 1958). In addition, the promotional savings, sweepstake contests, ease of payments, etc would motivate consumers to spend more, which directly affect their spending behavior. In the research done by Karen M. Stilley, J. Jeffrey Inman and Kirk L. Wakefield (2010), they collected respondents household income through provided choices of range to the respondents instead of asking a specific figure from them. This action was more effective in getting information from the respondents due to confidential problem. Apart from that, virtual communities may affect a person spending behavior through the information given among reference group members (Deutsch and Gerard, 1995). Lastly, the economic factors such as changing in gas price, tax rebate, etc. would affect consumers to change their spending as well.

Friday, October 25, 2019

The Role of Polyglutamine Expansions in Huntington’s Disease Essay

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative dominant disorder caused by the expansions of polyglutamine in the gene encoding for Huntington’s protein. It is a developmental autosomal brain disorder that affects muscle coordination, emotional and personality problems. As well as subcortical dementia, further leading to cognitive decline this is all related with selective neuronal cell death mainly associated in the striatum and cortex (Scherzinger et al., 1997). HD causes emotional problems, uncontrolled movements and the loss of thinking ability. It can lead to disability and death from the illness. There are two forms of this disease: adult-onset and early-onset (juvenile). Adult onset is by the far most common for HD; symptoms develop between the ages of mid 30s/40s, an individual will live an average of 20 years after symptoms and signs begin. Premature signs and symptoms are depression, involuntary movements, trouble learning new information, poor coordination; this can all progress very severely. The development of pre-disease symptoms into twitching or jerking is referred as Chorea. HD can be referred to Huntington Chorea. Although adult onset is more common disorder, juvenile form, defined by the onset of signs and symptoms before the age of 21 years, this occurs in about 7% of HD cases. (Nance, 2001) Juvenile onset has similar symptoms however the disease progresses more quickly compared to the adult onset form. Gente (1985) results showed findings by others, that the most juvenile-onset patients inherit the gene from their fathers and that the late-onset form is more frequently inherited from affected mothers. HD occurs due to CAG/polyglutamine(polyQ) expansions, in the first exon of a gene encoding a la... ..., C. and Bates, G, P. (2004). Huntingtin and the molecular pathogenesis of Huntington’s disease. EMBO reports 5. 958-963 Nance, M, A. and Myers, R, H. (2001) Panov, A, V., Gutekunst, C., Leavitt, B, R., Hayden, M, R., Burke, J, R., Strittmatter, W, J. And Greenamyre, J, T. (2002) Early mitochondrial calcium defects in Huntington’s Disease are a direct effect of Polyglutamines. Nature neuroscience. Volume 5 no 8 Ross, C, A. (2002). Polyglutamine Pathogenesis: Emergence of Unifying Mechanism for Huntington’s Disease and Related Disorders. Neuron, Vol. 35,819-822. Scherzinger, E., Lurz, R., Turmaine, M., Mangiarini, L., Hollenbach, Birgit., Hasenbank, R., Bates, G, P., Davies, S, W., Lehrach, H and Wanker, E, E. (1997). Huntington-Encoded Polyglutamine Expansions Form Amyloid-like Protein Aggregates In Vitro and In Vivo. Cell, Vol.90, 549-558. Zhang,

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Describe how Arthur Miller creates an exciting climax Essay

â€Å"Describe how Arthur Miller creates an exciting climax for both acts of ‘A View from the Bridge'†Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬ËœA View from the Bridge’ by Arthur Miller, is a play about obsession and betrayal. The main character, Eddie Carbone, becomes overprotective over his niece, Catherine, to the degree of infatuation. This obsession helps to cause the break down of Eddie’s marriage, as his wife, Beatrice realises the alarming nature of Eddie’s fixation. Eddie’s feelings for Catherine existed before Beatrice’s cousins, Marco and Rodolfo came, but their arrival intensifies the situation, as Eddie becomes more and more jealous of Rodolfo, and of Catherine’s love for him. This play is a tragedy and, like most tragedies, it is serious and ends with the death of the main character, Eddie. Eddie dies after betraying his wife’s cousins to the immigration bureau. As a result, Marco, who is filled with hatred and in need of justice, stabs him. Arthur Miller was a New Yorker who worked on the Brooklyn docks, for a time. His experience of the docks and of the people around them, led him to write this play, which is set there. During this coursework, my aim is to study the ends of the two acts in depth to see what techniques Miller uses to make them dramatically effective. 1. During the last scene of act one (from page 39 when Catherine puts ‘paper doll’ on the phonograph) we find out about the relationships of characters in more depth. The scene  2. Our understanding of this plays characters changes considerably in this final part of act 1. Marco who seemed, prior to this scene, to be quiet and shy shows what he actually feels by demonstrating his feelings about Eddie  3. There are many surprises in this scene, we as an audience do not expect Marco who has previously been shy and quiet to make such a blatant challenge as he does in this scene 4. This last scene in act one is used very effectively by Arthur miller to sow the seeds of events which are going to happen in the 2nd act of the play  5. The action in this scene Marcos action of holding up a chair triumphantly in front of Eddie is an interesting and significant action because the chair seems to be a symbolic weapon. Marco is threatening Eddie with it but, in contrast, he actually uses a weapon to kill Eddie in the final scene of the play.  6. although there seems to only be one conflict between characters in this (the one between Marco and Eddie; with the chair) there are actually many 7. This final scene leaves many questions unanswered. The conflicts between the characters in this scene could lead the audience to speculate as to how things will develop in the next act but although this scene gives the audience, some idea of how things turn out it does not tell them everything. They may ask themselves what is going to happen to Catherine and Rodolfo’s relationship since it seems plain that Eddie dislikes Rodolfo and disapproves of his relationship with his niece.  8. Particularly interesting characters within this scene are Marco, who has changed so much and is so different in this final scene of act one to the previous part of the play. 9. The Characters in this scene are very interesting to observe on their own but it is also interesting to see how Arthur Miller has contrasted the actions of his characters in this scene. One such contrast is that between Marco and Eddie. Eddie uses Aggressive action, such as boxing to make his point whereas Marco’s subtle challenge with the chair is non aggressive but yet still makes the intended point. These contrasts between the two men’s actions are very interesting and are very effective in demonstrating the diffe 10. Emotions of the audience towards characters are mixed. They may feel happy for Catherine and Rodolfo in that they’ve found each other and seem so happy. Some may speculate, however about that this relationship’s days are numbered due to Eddie’s obviously hostile feelings towards rodolfo. 1. The situations that develop in this play would be difficult for anyone to deal with. Eddie finds the situation that he is in especially difficult and consequently he is seriously affected by it. In this play Eddie goes from being a popular man, respected in the community to being a man willing to betray his own family and, in the final scene one prepared to kill. Eddie started by just being over protective of Catherine, which developed into jealousy of Rodolfo because Catherine loved him and this, in turn developed into passionate hatred of both Marco and Rodolfo. Eddie hardly understands what he himself is feeling at the end of the play. These emotional changes are central to Arthur miller’s play since they help to cause the chain of events leading up to the final tragic end and are very important in creating interest and drama in the play.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

A Kiss Before Dying- Summary and Analysis

A Kiss before Dying A Kiss before Dying  is a novel written in 1953 by  Ira Levin. It won the Edgar Award in 1954, for Best First Novel. The book was adapted twice for the cinema: first in  1956  and later in  1991. This novel summary is: Bud and Dorothy is a couple who in love happily with each other. They study at Stoddard College in Blue River. They belong together and one day Dorothy is pregnant. That is really bad time for them to have a baby this time, especially for Bud; the Bud’s future plan or dream will be uncompleted. Dorothy wants to get married: Bud doesn’t want.That means he must to leave the college and to struggle in real life and earn to family. Bud tries to persuade Dorothy to take some pills to eliminate the baby, and tells Dorothy if the pills don’t work, he will marry her. Dorothy tries the pills: they don’t work at all. Bud feel really worry because of Dorothy’s pregnancy; he may not get the good education he wants, t he proper jobs he wants or he will get a poorer paid jobs. He decides he needs to kill her, Dorothy! Bud plans to kill Dorothy really carefully, and prepared what need to be prepared.But his plans fails, and he starts to get more and more desperate, since the wedding day approaches in a hurry. He tries to set everything like the Dorothy’s ‘suicide. ’ On the wedding day, on the top of the building where the Marriage Bureau is, He pushes Dorothy off the edge, and it all looks like her suicide. After murder, Bud moves to Caldwell College. Bud and Ellen becomes lover and Ellen is Dorothy’s elder sister. Ellen goes to Blue River because of Dorothy’s suicide; she really wonders about her younger sister’s suicide.She wants to know obviously what really happened. She writes Bud a letter to explain the case. In Blue River, she narrows it down to two doubts which she will know later is innocent. Ellen gets to know one of the suspects that is Dwight Pow ell. He and Dorothy go out together, and one time she follows him home. He goes upstairs to get something and Bud is waiting for him upstairs. Bud kills Powell by shooting him with cold blood. Ellen leaps up the stairs and Bud tells Dorothy Powell tried to kill her. In Dorothy’s understanding that time, Bud is the hero.Later the same night she is dead. In the same year, he goes back home. He thinks about to kill the third daughter of Leo Kingship, Marion. In the other hand, he will gain the great benefits if he has Leo Kingship as a father-in-law. He moves to New York to know Marion. In a short time, she falls in love with him, because he knew everything about her surprisingly, and he wrote down a list of things about her. Suddenly, Gordon Gant appears in New York. Bud tells about his plans to Leo Kingship, but Gant doesn’t want to listen to Bud.But Bud changes his mind about hearing when Gant finds the list of things Bud wrote. One day, Bud went with Lei and Marion an d Gant to Leo Kingships Copperworks. They take a tour around the company. After that, Gant try to encounter Bud with the murder on Dorothy and Ellen: Bud rejects every accusing. They are threatening him by trying to push him near the copper smelter. At the final, he admits all and he falls into the smelter carelessly. The tragedy is here at the Leo Kingships Copperworks. The theme analysis A Kiss before DyingThe theme of the story is about betrayal and detective. The murderer, who is Bud, tries to love each other with the ladies who are the Leo Kingship’s daughters. He wants to gain benefits from their father because they are rich. When they fall in love, he betrays the ladies; he kills Dorothy because she got pregnancy all at once. He is afraid if he doesn’t kill her, his future life will fall apart: he needs to leave the college, to find the job, or to work hard to treat her and the baby. He also betrays Ellen by to kill her because she saw he shot Powell in the buil ding.Ellen knows the secret, so she deserves death. Bud is good at investigating; he knows everything about his ladies by finding out the personal data. In the story, he tries to think how to do the trick on writing message by other person. In addition, Marion is better at investigating. She firstly wonders about her younger sister’s death and she try to find out. At last, she knows everything about the death that is not a suicide: it is the murder. The kingships try to investigate and they get it at last. The Style analysis A Kiss before DyingThis novel, A kiss before Dying, is written by using easy and modern language style with dialogue, which makes the readers busy and interested. The readers can understand easily the story and the language can capture the readers’ mind because it is modern. The novel is divided into three parts called  Dorothy,  Ellen  and  Marion, which are divided into chapters from 1 to 15 in each part. The author uses personal narratio n to narrate the whole story. The perspective is alternated between different characters. The author sets some interested detective scenes in the novel, also thriller scenes in each part.And there is none of the gratuitous violence and gory detail that readers expect from thrillers novel. Personal Response A Kiss before Dying Firstly, I need to read this novel in the class and I start to read it with the lukewarmness because it is pretty thick book. When I read it for four to five pages of book, I feel it is a bit fun. So, I continue read it all. In the story, I really sympathize Dorothy and the baby because they are killed pitifully. They didn’t do anything wrong, especially the baby; the baby does nothing.In my understanding, Marion is really clever; she investigates and tries to find the truth and she got it at the final. Bud is heartless, he kills the innocent. I strongly like this writing style of this novel: it is divided in many parts many chapters. The can read only o ne or two chapters and pause and do other thing and I can back to read again. The thrillers make me fun and scared sometimes. I feel pity for the Kingships. The Kingships daughters were killed. And Bud deserves falling into the smelter because he did many really bad things to other. Glossy Word dapted – changed in order to improve or made more fit for a particular purpose couple –   a pair who associate with one another pregnant – carrying developing offspring within the body or being about to produce new life struggle – an energetic attempt to achieve something persuade – cause somebody to adopt a certain position, belief, or course of action twist somebody's arm eliminate – terminate, end, or take out suicide – a person who kills himself intentionally smelter – an industrial plant for smelting tragedy – an event resulting in great loss and misfortune