Category: Character

Essay on ‘Wuthering Heights’: Heathcliff Character Analysis

In literature madness is a commonly used characterization, in the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, it is one of the most prevalent and important pieces of the novel. The way madness is woven into her novel has helped it into its long-standing praise and recognition in the world of literature. In this essay, I am going to argue that in Wuthering Heights, race and class are very influential factors in Heathcliff’s discrimination and thus his descent into madness and revenge. Class is greatly represented in the novel through the dialect and importance of education, and race is seen through descriptions of Heathcliff and the period of Bronte’s life and the time the novel was written and takes place. The effect on Heathcliff is what creates his madness adding to the work as a whole.

Class is one of the most prevailing themes in Wuthering Heights, it is very clearly shown through the dialogue between characters. The dialogue is often used to draw contrast between the differences in class between characters,

“The association of social class and mannerism of dialect is so prominent in Emily Bronte’s narrative. One of the notable highlights of this is the incident where Lockwood questions Mrs. Dean’s absence of manners that are reflective of her social class considering that Mrs. Dean herself does not speak with a dialect that is reflective of her native origins” (Mohammed “Speech”, 490).

Bronte acknowledges her use of different language in the novel with Lockwood questioning Mrs. Dean’s manners and dialect. While Mrs. Dean is from a place that is typical of high-standing people Lockwood can tell that she is not of a higher class due to the way she speaks. This shows how important a role speech plays in Wuthering Heights.

The housekeeper Joseph is the most visible example of the way Bronte uses language to display class and roles in the novel “Emily Brontë chooses non-standard spelling to elucidate Joseph‘s lack of education. Some words are merely misspelled” (Mohammed “Class”, 337). Joseph is a very elderly servant who works at Wuthering Heights, his speech is the most unique as it often involves broken up and cut-off words, Bronte uses his distinct language to portray his lower class standing as a servant.

Heathcliff also has a poor dialect at the beginning of the novel. “‘I shall be as dirty as I please: and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty’” (Bronte, 41). While his speech is not as drastic as Joseph’s it is more expressive and crude than the high-class people he is in the presence of. This gives away Heathcliff’s low social class and factors into his rough treatment from Linton and Hindley “shoved him back with a sudden thrust and angrily bade Joseph ‘keep the fellow out of the room” (Bronte, 43). Heathcliff experiences direct oppression from the upper class due to his social standing which is revealed in many different ways including dialect.

Education is also an important factor in determining the standing of someone in the novel. A notable reference to education is when Hindley deprives Heathcliff of his education after their father’s death, “Thirsting for revenge over his father’s pet child, Heathcliff, the first thing Hindley does after Mr. Earnshaw’s death is to “depriv[e] [Heathcliff] of the instructions of the curate, and insist that he should labor out of doors instead; compelling him to do so as hard as any other lad on the farm” (Brontë 52)” (Ivaniš, 29). Hindley’s form of revenge against Heathcliff is to deprive him of his education and subject him to manual labor, which is typical of the lower class. He aims to strip Heathcliff of his status as a form of punishment against him. Education was vital to the upper class as it was typically only available to them. It also influenced the speech and conduct of people, so the upper class was able to read more acclaimed literature and similarly display themselves.

In a similar manner, when Heathcliff returns to Wuthering Heights he enacts his revenge by stripping Hidley’s son, Hareton, of his education: “ As Kettle discuses Heathcliff ‘systematically degrades Hareton Earnshaw to servility and illiteracy’ (38). Hindley Earnshaw dies, and the gradual process of degrading his son Hareton in class and education begins” (Ivaniš, 31). The importance of an education in regards to being a gentleman and of high stature is something that Heathcliff knows the importance of. Due to his depravity of education in his childhood, he takes away Hareton’s as well to strip him of his status and bring him to the level of servitude.

Classism in Wuthering Heights may be very straightforward, but the racial undertones of Heathcliff are easy to pass by. Heathcliff is described throughout the novel by different characters as “dark-skinned” and when he is first introduced to his adoptive family he is not welcomed at all, “I was frightened, and Mrs. Earnshaw was ready to fling it out of doors: she did fly up, asking how he could bring that gypsy brat into the house when they had their brains to feed and fend for” (Bronte, 29). He seems to leave the family frightened and with the use of the word “gypsy,” it is easily suspected that his darker skin is because he is of a different race. Also, the way they describe him can be connected back to the Victorian era “ The description Nelly gives of Heathcliff being “a sullen, patient child; hardened, perhaps, to ill-treatment” (Brontë 52) is according to von Sneidern a description of a child growing up as a slave and a description often used by Victorians to describe Africans (von Sneidern 176)” (Larsson, 11). While Heathcliff may not be African it is important to note that his skin tone being darker plays a large role in his treatment throughout the novel.

About racial inequality in the novel, the life of Emily Bronte is an important factor. When Bronte was writing Wuthering Heights, slavery had only recently ended in Britain and was still being continued in many other countries making it a controversial and prominent talk of the period:

“Susan Meyer, in her Imperialism at Home, is struck by both Charlotte and Emily Brontë’s repeated allusions to bondage and slavery in their novels, and wonders, why would the Brontës write novels ‘permeated with the imagery of slavery, suggesting the possibility of a slave uprising in 1846 after the emancipation of the British slaves had already taken place?’ (Meyer 71)” (Althubaiti, 2).

However, Bronte may have been trying to make a serious critique of slavery and how the now-freed slaves were being treated where she lived, “Emily Brontë is making a serious and implicit critique of British slavery and British imperialism not only at home but abroad and throughout the colonies, including their presence in America” (Althubati, 2).” Just because slavery had ended in Britain does not mean that racial discrimination had ended, or that slavery was ended worldwide. With race being such a prominent political and social factor in Bronte’s life the descriptions of Heathcliff coupled with his treatment, becomes a much deeper topic.

While Britain’s enslaved peoples had just been freed, it is also important to note how the Industrial Revolution had taken place just before the novel was written. An important part of the 1800s and a very influential figure in the social and economic lives of people at the time, the Industrial Revolution was a key influence in Bronte’s work and ideas,

“While Wuthering Heights was written in the 1840s, its fictional events take place in the very early 1800s amid the Industrial Revolution. Normative societal structures in England were being overturned. As historian Harold Perkin describes, England transitioned from a vertically integrated society in which upper and lower classes felt bound to each other, to a horizontally stratified society in which individuals felt more allied to their class than to others (Perkin)” (Caywood, 3).

Social class is also a popular political point during Emily Bronte’s life, showing how the themes of race and class tie into the social and political environment of the period.

Bronte’s Personal life also greatly influenced her way of thinking, she was ahead of her time but was not able to outwardly express her thoughts due to her being a woman in the 1800s.

However, her life of travel allowed her to gain new ideas in the political world,

“During her life, Emily traveled to many places and witnessed socio-political upheavals from a very close distance which had a great effect on her mind. Living in a patriarchal society, she didn’t have an avenue for the unaffected expression of her rebellious thoughts, which were the direct outcome of her observation of a society infested with many ills and diseases” (Uddin, 81).

She might have buried these themes in her novel as an expression of her ideologies that she could not outwardly express. Also due to her father’s position and where she lived, she may have been witness to many of the rebellions taking place, “The Brontë family saw strikes and lock-outs in Haworth too, in which the Reverend Patrick Brontë, Emily’s father and the local clergyman, was inevitably involved” (Uddin, 81). Also, Bronte was not a shut-in as many people think she was, she was thoroughly exposed to many different places and was able to get a steady grasp on the world around her:

“It is also not completely true that Emily was confined within the boundary walls of her parsonage, rather she visited Leeds, Bradford, Keighley, and Halifax and even spent a short time in Brussels, Belgium. Thus, the turbulent world of the 19th century was candidly exposed to her eyes” (Uddin, 81).

Bronte was exposed to the world around her and was able to see the social and cultural inequalities experienced by those around her and chose to weave it into her works of literature with great subtlety.

In addition to the role of race and class, the narration is also a key point in how Heathcliff is portrayed, the novel is dual narrated “Brontë uses the literary technique of a dual narrative – a form of narrative that incorporates two different perspectives from two different individuals at varying points in time” (Bensoussan, 1). Both Mr. Lockwood and Nelly Dean, the housekeeper, narrate the story, in the form of first-person narration. They are each the same type of narrators: “Both narrators are dramatized narrator (in Wayne Booth’s term), and a homodiegetic narrator (in Genette’s term) … both narrators and characters as opposed consecutively to an undramatized or a heterodiegetic narrator” (Ezzaoua, 42). However, Nelly Dean is present in the story herself more so than Lockwood. However, it is important to know that Nelly is not an omniscient narrator; there are events she is not present for and certain things she could not know and could only infer in her narration “However, Nelly does narrate the story in a third person point of view. The opinions and thoughts of all the characters are in the story, but they are simply what Nelly thinks they felt in that very moment” (Exxaoua, 48). Also, Nelly is considered an unreliable narrator, due to her involvement in the story which would cause personal bias. So, the treatment Heathcliff receives could have been worse than what is written due to Nelly’s possible own personal bias against him and her position as a non-omniscient narrator,

The factors of Heathcliff’s mistreatment of both his race and his status as a low-class person at the beginning of the novel help lead to his fall into madness. His discrimination due to race can have emotional damage to his mind, racial discrimination has proven to have negative effects on the victim’s psychology,

“As a consequence, racial discrimination affects mental health. In The Role of Racial Identity in Perceived Racial Discrimination, researchers state that social psychological research has shown that negative treatment and experiences can have adverse consequences for mental health. (Sellers and Shelton 1081), the quotation means racial discrimination is something bad because it causes mental health … If individual’s mental health is injured so that it affects mental psychology” (Sastra, 25).

Heathcliff’s discrimination can injure his mental health and therefore lead to a maddened state. In addition, the physical abuse he sustained as a child “Hindley threw it, hitting him on the breast and down he fell” (Bronte, 31). Hindley often physically abused Heathcliff or ordered someone to do so when Heathcliff displeased him in any way. Physical abuse is now known to have negative side effects especially when someone is on the receiving end of it as a child,

“Adolescents who are victims of physical abuse have high rates of depression, conduct disorder, drug abuse, and cigarette smoking … Victims of physical abuse in childhood are at risk for developing a variety of behavioral problems including conduct disorders, physically aggressive behaviors, depression, poor academic performance, and decreased cognitive functioning” (Christian, 3).

Heathcliff could be described as having “aggressive behavior” when he is older and “mad.” The madness could just be a side effect of the copious amounts of abuse he experienced as a child, presenting itself in the form of his strange psychosis.

The childhood abuse endured by Heathcliff is not the only factor in his mental illness, losing Cathrine also played a large role. After Catherine’s death, Heathcliff begins spiraling down a darker path and acts on more revenge plots,

“Catherine’s death is a turning point for Heathcliff, solidifying not only his plan for revenge but also his mental downward spiral” (Mehltretter, 48). Heathcliff truly dissolves into his madness and poor mental state “The anti-hero Heathcliff, like the depressed and self-destructive Branwell, oscillates between desiring and spurning such madness, craving the restlessness of lunacy when generated by his dead lover’s haunting spirit and later spurning such mental disorder when triggered by the irritating presence of young Cathy” (Marchbanks, 62).

Heathcliff is extremely mentally ill and he takes it out on others along with himself, he drives himself deeper into madness and begins to reach a state which he cannot be recovered from and in his final days becomes the complete victim of his mental illness. In his last days alive it is not completely clear what happens but Heathcliff seems to be haunted by Cathrine’s ghost.

“During the final days of his life, Heathcliff grows even more mentally unstable. Restless, he wanders about the grounds in an unnaturally merry state, though still lashing out in bad temper at anyone who attempts to speak to him. Although not explicitly stated, the text strongly implies that he is haunted by visions of Catherine’s ghost, … These visions drive him mad and render him unable to sleep or eat, eventually leading to his death” (Mehltretter, 49).

Heathcliff’s madness prevents him from eating or sleeping anymore, and he soon dies. While some speculate that he committed suicide the text makes it seem as if he was truly under some sort of illness or haunting;

“As Heathcliff tells Nelly, “It is not my fault that I cannot eat or rest… I assure you it is through no settled designs. I’ll do both, as soon as I possibly can. But you might as well bid a man struggling in the water rest within arms’ length of the shore! I must reach it first, and then I’ll rest” (321-22) … Nelly avoids telling him about his refusal to eat or Mehltretter 50 drink, for she is convinced that “he did not abstain on purpose: it was the consequence of his strange illness, not the cause” (324). In other words, she does not believe he brought his fate upon himself and does not want him to be judged as having committed suicide” (Mehltretter, 50).

Heathcliff and Nelly are both under the impression that he did not choose to go without food or rest and that it was involuntary, which seems to be the case. However, this is still the result of Heathcliff’s poor mental state and his overall maddened state with the revival of his memories of Cathrine.

The way Heathcliff is treated in the novel Wuthering Heights, due to his social status and racial background affects his mental state as a whole. The way he talks, coupled with his childhood education rendered him lower class. In addition, the color of his skin was dark and he was not ethnically from Victorian Britain. The period in which Wuthering Heights was written makes all these factors to young Heathcliff much more drastic, Bronte had recently witnessed the freeing of enslaved people in Britain as well as the industrial revolution. This inspired an act of social justice in her, the way Heathcliff is treated for his lower class and race is Bronte’s social commentary on the world around her. The treatment endured as a child by Heathcliff eventually leads to mental illness within him. As his mental illness continues to grow, the love of his life, Cathline, dies plummeting him fully into madness. Eventually, he is seemingly haunted by Cathy’s ghost and is unable to eat or rest and dies. The sequence of events in Wuthering Heights shows how the roles of class and race in the setting of the novel are what drive Heathcliff into his madness and thus his death.

Persuasive Essay on Cholly Breedlove form ‘The Bluest Eye’

Insanity is at once a social stigma and a tool used toward exclusion, marginalization, and domination of characters rebellious in nature otherwise ‘difficult to control’; in many cases, it is a reaction toward the external world, and in a limited number of cases it is what is called- ‘mental imbalance’ or insanity which may or may not have been triggered by the external world/circumstances. If we go with Michel Foucault’s observations in Madness and Civilization before the social and physical exclusion of the ‘mad’ in society, it was the lepers who were treated so. Once leprosy as a malady was abated, the place was taken over by madness. The practice of sending away mad people in ships, ‘The Ship of fools’ is an instance of this kind of discrimination. During the Renaissance such an attitude did not exist, madness was not seen as an illness but a condition of grace rather where the mad were seen as those who had come close to God’s reason, this was the reason why rather than being marginalized they were accepted. Around the seventeenth century, the view toward this section of society changed and those who could not conform to the accepted ways of society were put away in mental institutions or were segregated and confined; only in the eighteenth century, madness came to be seen as obverse to reason.1

In the essay, I intend to deal with three fictional characters who either through their actions, their stand on issues, or through their very position in society bear the brunt of societal prejudice and for the want of a better term are considered ‘mad’. The point that I am trying to make here is: one- those who are considered mad are not necessarily so; two- many a time they are those people whom society finds as ‘inconvenient’; three- often they are reduced to this pathetic position as a result of the atrocities wreaked on them for either following their reason which may not coincide with the given or the accepted societal rules, or sometimes because they are the weakest links in the chain in terms of rights and value as attributed to them again by society. The three characters under scrutiny are Veronika, Sharda, and Pecola. Veronika belongs to Ljubljana, which is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city; Sharda belongs to the small Indian town of Jullundar, (Punjab, India) and Pecola belongs to the North American society of Lorain. (Ohio). The geographical location becomes important considering that biological and resource circumstances determine the behavior of the dependants, a person’s behavior is influenced by the perception of the environment; types of behavior prevailing in a sub-environment also become an important factor influencing individual and group behavior.

It is important to analyze Pecola’s (of The Bluest Eye) situation in life and her eventual schizophrenic predicament through her parents’ individual lives as the impact of their experiences leaves an indelible mark on hers, reducing it to what it eventually becomes. Pecola has to bear the brunt of not only her mother’s lack of adjustment in the new industrial society they have relocated to but that of her father also. She has to bear the burden of their humiliation, exploitation, rejection, and refusal of hope. As a little girl still wide-eyed and simple in her acceptance of the world Pecola comes to trust even Soaphead Church, the charlatan in the novel. It is only natural to feel sympathetic towards her and her situation, had she not been so isolated, so unloved, so rejected by her own family she would have been spared the fate she met with.

Eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove is the daughter of Cholly and Pauline Breedlove. The black family finds itself at odds with the society it is placed in. It is a situation made worse by the physical deformity of Pauline. But this problem remains dormant till she is with her parents, comfortable in a society that does not give undue relevance to physical beauty. The life that she led among people of her kind did not make her feel unaccepted, she was content doing the daily household chores, but slowly she reached an age where her heart desired companionship and love, it was at this time that Cholly appeared in her life. They got married and decided to move to Ohio where there would be more job opportunities for Cholly. The change that came about was in terms of lifestyle and values. Pauline who was content looking after her little brother and sisters at home became lonely in the new place and Cholly became too busy to fill her loneliness. A feeling of rejection appeared as Pauline felt out of place amongst the people around her. An unpretentious, simple black woman with ordinary features Pauline had no complex regarding her looks. This was the reason why she did not feel any need to straighten her hair or go to the beauty parlor for any other reason. But in the new set up great stress was laid on outer appearance, it was a society where being beautiful meant being less black, having straight hair, uniform teeth, slender body, etc. Even the pronunciation differed, suddenly Pauline felt very out of place and Cholly was not there to help. The situation worsened when Pauline’s first tooth fell for she had already started making attempts to look outwardly pleasing and sometime later when the second tooth fell, she gave up on her attempts at outward beauty, felt defeated and her life was filled with bitterness. The notable point here is that for Pauline situation was made worse by societal attitudes and its artificial norms of beauty this was the reason why it was able to strike such a terrible blow to her personality. At one point in the novel Morrison writes:

Pauline felt uncomfortable with the few black women she met. They were amused by her because she did not straighten her hair. When she tried to make up her face as they did, it came off rather badly. Their goading glances and private snickers at her way of talking (saying children) and dressing developed in her a desire for new clothes. When Cholly began to quarrel about the money she wanted, she decided to go to work. Taking a job as a day worker helped with the clothes and even a few things for the apartment, but it did not help with Cholly. He was not pleased with her purchases and began to tell her so. Their marriage was shredded by quarrels….Money became the focus of all their discussions, hers for clothes, his for drink. The sad thing was that Pauline did not care for clothes and makeup. She merely wanted other women to cast favorable glances her way. (The Bluest Eye, 92)

Ultimately, a prey of the new mindset dictated by the capitalistic society, Pauline found her peace as a maid in a white family, a family she adored.

Cholly abandoned as a baby by his young, unwedded mother, rescued and brought up by his aunt had on the whole what can be called a “fairly happy childhood”. However, in his life somewhere the absence of his parents lurked. A notable feature of his teenage life was an incident that can be said to have a sufficient impact on his life and character; which in turn can be read to a large extent as irresponsible.

After the death of his aunt, on the day of the funeral, Cholly was lured into going to the forest with a girl he liked where he was humiliated by two white men. However, he did not lay the blame for his humiliation on the two men but the girl who was with him. He started hating her. Later alone in the world, he went looking for his father and on meeting him did not find any solace or warmth that he was looking for. He was as isolated as any human could be. When he came to terms with his life he came across Pauline, liked her, and married her. But when things did not turn out as convenient as he expected them to be Cholly along with Pauline shifted to the Northern part of Texas. Cholly himself had not seen a normal childhood so it was a little difficult for him to behave as a responsible, caring father. The total of his frustrations in a new society on all fronts skewed his psyche and he ended up molesting his daughter.

Even her molestation by her father would not have pushed the little girl to be schizophrenic but her ill-placed faith in Soaphead Church and the idea of beauty, that if she had a pair of blue eyes all would love her and there would be order in her world. What made Cholly Breedlove rape his daughter? What made Pauline Breedlove so antagonistic towards her own family and so kind to the white family where she worked? What made the son of the family, Sammy, attempt to flee from the family more than twenty-four times? What made Pauline so “lonesome” in the city as compared to the life in Kentucky town that she had spent? Why did the falling of the second tooth have such an impact on her, when her disfigured leg had not affected her so much? Why at all did Cholly make the black girl he had been found and humiliated with and not the two white men, his tormentors, his object of hatred? And why did Pecola want a pair of blue eyes to ameliorate her condition in life- because she thought if it could earn love for the black cat with the blue eyes it would do for her? Or was it because of the Mary Jane candies with the picture of Mary Jane with a smiling white face, blonde hair and blue eyes that made her feel were the requirements for being loved? These are some of the questions that arise out of a beautifully told tale of a little black girl who desired blue eyes. And how in the quest for the same she was cheated by Soaphead Church and made to believe that the colors of her life had changed when they had not?

Pecola’s madness cannot be separated from the dynamics of power, aggression, exploitation, hatred, and marginalization. She bears the frustration of her mother’s ugliness, rejection loneliness, and poverty that she encounters in the town of Ohio. Both societal forces and intellectual trends give rise to wide acceptance of behavior-environment-ecology links within the domain of sociology and psychology. Marx says, ‘life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life’. The globalization of the capitalist free market economy demonstrates how social and personal choices are governed by autonomous processes driven by debt, profit, and control of consumer desire, rather than ordered by humane values and substantive rationality. The production of thought is not driven by the representation of ideals and goals, or libertarian choice, but by the pre-personal process of desire. There is, however exterior limit to capital: the conjunction of decoded and deterritorialized flows may produce their desiring machines, external to capitalist production. The process of desire termed by Deleuze and Guattari as ‘schizophrenia’ is a potent method to map the social unconscious according to its movements and intensities of desire tracing the dominant strata of the capitalist system for the construction of ‘experimentation or becoming’ through a reassembling of the abstract machines that lie between the strata and produce them. 

Analysis of Leadership Style of Coach Carter from the Movie ‘Coach Carter’

This paper is based on the 2005 American biographical sports drama film ‘Coach Carter’, directed by Thomas Carter. This review is centered on Coach Carter’s leadership style; the primary motivation for watching this film is to learn about solid leadership tactics for reaching goals confidently and the ideas and ethics that the coach employs.

Coach Carter began his coaching career as a basketball coach at Richmond High School in Richmond, California. Carter noticed how harsh and disrespectful the athletes were. As the leader, he highlighted the necessity of courteous behavior by addressing them as ‘sir’ and encouraging them to treat others with the same respect.

Throughout the film, Carter instills in his players the importance of self-respect, creativity, discipline, unity, trust, and loyalty among teammates. Coach Carter was an excellent leader with good traits such as a clear vision, motivation, leadership style and effectiveness, and confidence. He related with his team, was inspired, motivated, and communicated well. Coach Carter demonstrated to his teammates that the most significant barrier is their fear of doing more than they have. He assumed responsibility for making sure they acted and played like winners.

Ethics and Integrity

Coach Carter always highlighted time management, discipline, moral principles, care, respect, compassion, trust, and kindness because of his ethical character.

While viewing this film, I was also struck by his benevolence, as he was severe about his rules and regulations. On the one hand, he showed sympathy when he learned of Jason Lyle’s father’s imprisonment. On the other, he was conscious of his situation and felt compassion because his life was not yet finished since he thought that nothing in life is challenging to overcome with a good attitude. This type of behavior instilled trust and confidence in the team.

Coach Carter was in a conundrum since he encouraged his players to study to concentrate on improving their grades. Because the society and their parents were unhappy, the board determined that he should resign. Coach Carter gained the respect and trust of the players; they were all motivated and emotionally bonded to him, so they decided to study during their basketball practice time. Carter exemplified what makes a good leader.

Vision

Coach Carter had a clear vision, which was crucial in the students’ overall growth as an exceptional leader. There’s no denying that his vision encompassed several other aspects of life, including attaining mission values and goals and helping his players improve their personal lives so that they could stand on their own in life and make the best decisions possible. Coach Carter was dependable, empathetic, and devoted. His inspired personality left a practical and beneficial influence by serving as a role model. He valued teamwork over individual achievement because he thought that collaboration could help players overcome their bad attitudes and achieve success in life.

Conclusion

This film taught me valuable things to become a good leader, which I will implement in my everyday life. Respect, knowledge, camaraderie, and team spirit were all highlighted in this inspirational movie.

Coach Carter’s Effective Leadership Style in the Movie ‘Coach Carter’

The movie ‘Coach Carter’ is a veritable story reliant on Coach Ken Carter who was a basketball mentor at a Richmond’s optional school. ‘Coach Carter’ is extraordinarily moving and charming motion picture which was facilitated by Thomas Carter, and this motion picture was released by Central Pictures in 2005. It is certified story of a man who pushed his understudies to do well in their lives following the right ways.

Ken Carter indicates distinctive administration hypotheses and styles in this film through his character. At the absolute first starting period of this motion picture, Coach Carter got low measure of cash to prepared a ball crew at his old secondary school. The b-ball crew of that school is impolite, discourteous and wayward, so Carter immediately sets out to change the behavior and mannerisms of his group as indicated by the frame of mind and spirit of a genuine player, in this stage Carter demonstrates vital hypothesis of authority that is situational administration.

As per the situational initiative the pioneer ought not restrain themselves to one style, pioneer needs to change their authority style as indicated by the circumstance and condition. The initiative style is additionally ordered into four sections: telling, selling, participating, and delegating. Coach Carter can be speaking to as a ‘selling’ situational pioneer. In this administration style, the pioneer gives data about the assignment and give individual help to the supporters. Additionally, the pioneer gives legitimate clarification of the choice and give rise to opportunity to everyone to make inquiry unreservedly. Selling is the second initiative style and Coach Carter can be express as the offering situational authority because of numerous reasons. The absolute first reason is that Coach Carter give learning, valuable data and bearing to his ball crew so the basketball crew give their best in the b-ball game and in their investigations. Coach Carter did this by communicating with his group and provide guidance about the things and moves that makes them to the stepping stool of the achievement. Coach Carter speaks with their group as well as propels their group so they could get prizes, impetuses and grant from the school. Thus, in this stage the group of Coach Carter demonstrated the development level 3 by appearing at play ball so as to win grant and win the basketball matches. Besides, to speak to their school at an abnormal state.

Leadership Style of Coach Carter

1. Authoritarian leadership. Coach Carter was an authoritarian leader because he made all of his decisions himself and he never let anyone else interfere in his decisions, even he decided to leave his position as a coach than giving up his decision. He said he will not open the gym no matter what. He made it very clear that he will be letting players play only if they good score in the academic reports and having good attendance in the school. He made all he decision and was very strict that reflects his authoritarian leadership style.
2. Contingency theory. He was flexible in his approach as he was very flexible in supporting the players and teaching them in very different ways like he was able to understand the different situations different environment and different circumstances and he acted according to the different situations. Because of all these different leadership traits he was able to get the respect from all the players.
3. Transformational leadership theory. He also used transformational leadership style as he was able to accept the fact that players need help and he started helping them in not only basketball but in their personal life as well. he got players respect and they learned many things from him finally he was able to transform them into good human beings and added values to their life.

Motivation and Vision

The Movie ‘Coach Carter’ is the unique and genuine story on Ken Carter who was a basketball coach at Richmond High School. It is genuine story of a man who influence his students in positive orientation to do well in their lives. Coach Carter portrays towards more of an intrinsic motivator through his genuine interest and passion to inspire and motivate the team to achieve the goals. Couch Carter motivates the team intrinsically to win by not applying any kind of pressure. He is quite assertive and disciplined person that has been shown in the movie with his leadership style and behavior. He is a man of value and because of his action. As it was shown in the movie it was a very difficult task for the coach to make a team out of the people who are totally demotivated and having no clear vision and they do not want to achieve anything in their life. The players were like young children who have no clear understanding of their future and they have no clear vision of their life. Then comes Coach Carter and he was having a very clear vision of what he wants to make out the young players. He made it very clear that he wants good academic results he will have good attendance from all of the players not just from one or two. He did that make sure that everyone will have same goals and they work hard in the same direction to achieve collective goals. Vision and motivation from Coach Carter helped them to realize their potential and motivated them to achieve a common goal which earlier they never realized. Coach Crater motivated them and others as well and he established some ground rules to make sure that everyone follow the same goal. He realized that players want to play basketball, but they don’t want to study or do anything in their life, so he used their energy and focus to his advantage, he made rules like it is compulsory to get good marks in the exams and good attendance in class to play basketball, and everyone rejected first, but finally they agreed, because the coach was not going to give up on his rules.

Ethics

Coach Carter was a man of great value and ethics. Ethics played a very vital role in Coach Carter’s case because of his ethics and discipline in his role as a basketball coach helped him in having a very clear vision and having a very clear understanding of what he should be doing with the basketball team. His good character was reflected in all decision he made as a coach of basketball team. He was able to show the team that they need to make decision and should not be getting diverted from their objective. He helped some of his students to get rid of their bad habits of drugs and making money by doing wrong activities like crime and spoiling their life by getting arrested and going to jail. In his small carrier as a basketball coach, he motivated many people and inspired many lives. He was able to create value for his players as well. Inspired by the coach many of them were able to make a good life for themselves. As he said I took this job to make sure I wanted to make change in a special group of people in this team. Coach Carter’s ethics are reflected in the fact that he did not give up even in the adverse conditions and he stayed on his path of honesty and he never gave up on his conditions that reflect his character very well. He made sure all the players become good students and make a good carrier as it was shown in the end of the movie that many of the students made good life because they.

Personal Leadership and Development

Coach Carter can show us numerous things that anybody can apply in his life. From his authority style I have learned numerous things that I can apply. The thing I learned is that you have be in a correct position to make requests; it implies an individual need some ability or expertise to be a decent pioneer that he/she can use for his/her leeway to ensure he/she has something to offer, something that has some an incentive for individuals he/she needs to make adherents.

Second thing I learned is that a pioneer needs an exceptionally clear vision; nonappearance of that vision may prompt awful choices and awful choice prompts awful results. As a mentor and a man of extraordinary esteem he was clear of the way that he needs his players to be a decent group and more than that great people. So, his preparation and training were focused towards making a solid group and encouraging qualities to his players to improve them people. In the wake of having a reasonable vision, the following thing comes is devotion and diligent work. It is never simple to settle on individuals trust that the choice you are making is beneficial for them, you need to reveal to them they are doing the correct things and they are going the correct way and where they have to improve to perform better and show signs of improvement results.

In my own life I might want to get a thought of what aptitudes and ability I have and dependent on appraisal. I might want to make my objectives and make an unmistakable vision about what I truly need in my life. I might want to be an individual of incredible esteem since I individual of extraordinary esteem can rouse others to be a superior individual in his/her life. A pioneer makes case of his own conduct for others to pursue and move them to use sound judgment in their life. I might likewise want to be a persevering individual to accomplish objectives it is imperative to buckle down and make models for others to pursue. As an undertaking chief I can utilize his techniques for structure solid group and helping individuals when they need me to, building a solid group will guarantee that they trust one another and they have the cooperation to do the errand allotted.

Leadership Effectiveness

Leadership style in the movie ‘Coach Carter’ is very effective and assertive, because Coach Carter shows various leadership styles. In the triarchic theory of intelligence, analytical intelligence has been shown of high level for the analysis, evaluation, contract, judgement and conclusion of the consequences of the problems for the better implements and outcomes. Coach Carter is the person who has all the leadership qualities as well as his students have all the qualities which make them fit for every role this could be their physical attributes or their values, norms and ethics. He always inspired his team to do his best in a right way. His effective style of leadership inspired the basketball team to do hard work so that they can win the matches and get good score in the exam. This represents with the attempt showed by Coach Carter in the film, as he brings a characteristic position into his part in expert. In spite of the fact that regard for Coach Carter did not come promptly bravery and his steadiness, in his conviction requested the regard of players and the group.

Miranda Priestly from the Movie ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ and Her Leadership Style

Miranda Priestly is a leading actress in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ which she practices different kind of leadership theories of management such as Blake and Mouton’s theories of leadership, leadership styles and behavioral approaches to leadership. Miranda Priestley’s personality is highly sophisticated, and work driven to the point she demands excellence. She tends to be a task-oriented leader, which she prioritizes the work on her personal life. This resulted on her success and leadership. However, there is a down side where all of this affect her personal life as well as her professional. It also reflected on her difficulties to establish a relationship in both worlds, at work and outside of her work. The right approach is where to balance between personal life and the best suited leadership styles. This film depicts an image that is maximum popular in organizations. Miranda’s leadership style in interesting to apprehend and analyze.

Regarding leadership styles, there are specific behavioral approaches to leadership styles. On the basis of rewards and penalties, leadership styles are classified into:

1. Wonderful leaders: people who place emphasis on rewards (economic or otherwise), higher worker training, extra demands for independence, etc.
2. Terrible leaders: they are folks who area emphasis on threats, fear, harshness, penalties, the overall performance can be a quick time period in this example with excessive human prices, to get work completed. They preserve directly to personal penalties as lack of process, reprimand within the presence of others, punishment with loss of pay, etc. They’re more of ‘bosses’ than ‘leaders’ (W., 2007).

Based totally on patterns and the usage of power, leadership styles are labeled into three: autocratic, consultative and participative leaders. Autocratic leaders centralize energy, make decisions on their personal and workout complete authority and full duty in their own decisions. It’s far a terrible style and is based totally on threats and punishment. It is positive whilst benevolent autocracy is followed. The advantages of this style are that it is regularly pleasurable for the leader, permits short choices, lets in using less able subordinates, offers security and structure for personnel, and many others. The disadvantages of this style encompass the truth that maximum personnel dislikes it, there are less organizational commitment and excessive turnover and absenteeism prices. Consultative leaders’ method one or more personnel and ask them for inputs previous to you make a decision. Inputs would be used or rejected, if used, personnel are in all likelihood to experience as though they’d a high-quality impact and if inputs are continually rejected, employees are probable to experience that their time has been wasted. Participative leaders decentralize authority and take no unilateral selections. They use inputs from followers and participation via them. The leader and group act as a social unit. The subordinates are endorsed to specific ideas, make tips and take a movement.

On the idea of worker and assignment orientations, leadership styles are categorized into worker orientation and undertaking orientation. Thoughtful leaders are worried approximately human wishes of personnel, build group paintings, provide a psychological guide, help employees with personal issues. Dependent assignment-orientated leaders consider that they get tasks carried out by using keeping humans busy, ignoring private problems and feelings and urging them to provide. A manager may have both orientations in varying stages. But the most successful managers are folks who integrate particularly excessive consideration and structure, giving particularly more emphasis to attention.

An evaluation of Miranda Priestley’s leadership style on the idea of the extraordinary types of management suggests that she is a terrible, consultative in addition to a dependent-assignment orientated leader. It’s believed that she makes decisions on her own at maximum times, asking reviews from few of her colleagues, like Nigel, who’s been shown as consulted by way of Miranda at certain instances. But she does not fee all her colleagues and subordinates. She ridicules her subordinates Andy and Emily in the front of others, which virtually suggests her inclination toward being a poor leader. Miranda is shown to be extremely undertaking orientated at different times, which includes when she pesters Andy to get her flight tickets to journey to her daughter’s level performance notwithstanding understanding that a natural calamity has afflicted and flights could be canceled. She does now not show any traces of being a thoughtful chief, as she is hardly aware of the non-public lives of any of her co-people. She does not even trouble to recognize. While Andy is a chunk past due in bringing something for Miranda, she says: “Has she died or something?”.

Leadership behavior is a factor that has been theorized via Professor Robert Katz. He said that leadership behavior accommodates three varieties of abilities: technical, human skills and conceptual. Technical ability is the capability to carry out the given activity. Technical competencies help the managers to apply one-of-a-kind machines and gear. It additionally allows them to use diverse procedures and strategies. Low-stage managers require greater technical skills. That is because they are in charge of the operations. Human relation skills also called interpersonal capabilities. It enables the managers to understand, communicate and work with others. Additionally, it enables the managers to guide and inspire crew spirit. Human relation skills are required by through all the stages of the management. Conceptual skill is the ability to visualize the enterprise as an entire. It includes analytical, creative and initiative capabilities. It helps the supervisor to discover the reasons for the problems as well as the symptoms, which makes him/her solve the problems effectively. According to Professor Robert Katz, conceptual abilities are required by the top management since they make plans for the business. The top-level managers require extra conceptual abilities and much less technical abilities. The middle level managers require more technical skills and less conceptual capabilities. Human skills are required equally by all levels of management.

Within the case of Miranda Priestley, who is a top-level manager, it is obvious that she has conceptual and technical skills, making use of conceptual capabilities are seen most of the times as she makes the final choices regarding the magazine. Her intensive technical expertise is seen in a scene where Andy smirks during a meeting about matching different items together. When a co-worker gave Miranda two different belts, Andy smirks as she feels the two belts look similar to each other. This reply completely infuriates Miranda as she starts explaining the differences about the colors of the belts. Refereeing to one of the belts, it is not blue nor turquoise, but it is cerulean, and she elaborates on how the cerulean collections got here into fashion inside the style enterprise and whilst it has become popular. This scene demonstrates the level of knowledge that Miranda has in her field, which form her access. Even though, Marinda has a decent amount of theoretical and management skills, her lack of communication skills is obvious. This is a weakness in her personality that she has to work on as it is a necessity skill for anyone to be at the top management level.

There are different types of leadership, one of which is the Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid, created by the management theorists Robert Blake and Jane Mouton. It is well known framework for thinning regarding leader’s task versus person orientation. There are two different behavioral dimensions of the Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid: concern for people (this is how much the leader holds member’s needs, interests and territories of self-awareness when choosing how best to achieve an assignment) and concern for results (this is how much the leader highlights goals, organizational performance and high profitability when choosing how best to achieve an assignment). The Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid forms five different leadership styles, which are: impoverished management, produce-or-perish management, country club management, team management and middle-of-the-road management.

• Impoverished management: low results/ low people. The impoverished manager is the worst among the five styles. With a low respect for making frameworks that take care of business, and with little care for making a comforting or motivating group environment, his outcomes are unavoidably complication and disappointment.
• Produce-or-perish management: high results/ low people. Also known as ‘authoritarian’ managers, individuals in this class trust that their team are basically a way of achieving something. The group’s needs are constantly optional to its profitability. This kind of manager is autocratic, has severe work guidelines, methods and systems, and can see discipline as a viable method for inspiring team. This methodology can drive great creation results at first, yet low team and inspiration will eventually influence individuals’ execution, and this kind of leader will fight to hold better workers.
• Middle-of-the-road management: medium results/ medium people. A middle-of-the-road or ‘status quo’ manager attempts to support results and people, yet this methodology is not as successful as it might sound. Through constant trade-off, he disappoints to encourage high production and furthermore ignores people’s needs. The outcome is that his group will probably produce just standard performance.
• Country club management: high people/ low results. The country club or ‘accommodating’ style of manager is most worried about her team’s needs and emotions. He/she accept that, as long as they are comfortable and secure, they will work hard. What will, in general, be the outcome is a workplace that is exceptionally relaxed and enjoyable, yet where output suffers because there is an absence of bearing and control.
• Team management: high result/ high people. According to The Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid, team management is the best leadership style. It mirrors a leader who is enthusiastic about his work and who does as well as can be expected for the team he works with. Team managers focus on their corporate’s goals and purpose, motivate the team who report to them, and endeavor to get people to extend themselves to achieve excellent outcomes. In any case, in the meantime, they’re motivating figures who take care of their groups. Somebody driven by a team manager feels regarded and engaged and is focused on accomplishing her objectives.

According to the Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid, Miranda falls clearly in the produce-or-perish management grid due to her amazingly high performance and extremely low interest in people. Considering her management style, she completes things as productive as she could. However, her employees are not comfortable working with her. Even hearing her name is just enough to bring in a negative feeling. The long-time period pitfalls of this style of leadership are turnover, and this is proven on this movie whilst Miranda’s most efficient assistant Andy leaves in the end. Although Miranda noticed how talented Andy is compared to her past assistants, she is never change herself to impress anyone. In view that Andy becomes quite success orientated, she labored towards all odds that confronted her at the start of joining Runway, like being blind to the fashion industry and being informed that she has no knowledge of fashion. She worked tough to prove her well worth and Miranda give her credit after all. Little did Miranda recognize that everyone has distinctive priorities and whilst Andy found out the load of work she has being doing, to the point she is losing her values and ethics, she realized that it is time to quit. Had Miranda put the effort to understand Andy’s priorities and make certain that Andy is being happy at her workplace by way of incorporating the team management style, Andy might have stayed longer.

As expressed in various speculations and styles of leadership, in a wide sense, a mix of individuals and assignment introduction would dependably work best. In the expressions of Daniel Goleman, “The best leader doesn’t know just one style of leadership they are skilled at several and have the flexibility to switch between styles as the circumstances”. Every pioneer should know about this just as work towards rehearsing the equivalent so they are comprehensively fruitful pioneers.

References

1. Blake, M. (1964). The Managerial Grid Model.
2. Goleman, D. (2011). Leadership That Gets Results.
3. Katz, R. L. (2009). Skills of an Effective Administrator. Harvard Business Press.
4. W., J. (2007). Organizational Behaviour-Human Behaviour.

Essay on ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ Conflict

It was about 1812 in Italy. There were these two kids named Montresor and Fortunato, about the age of 16 and 17 years old. Montresor was 16 years old, his family was a well-known, respected, and wealthy family. He had been born into a family that had a lot of knowledge of wine. Montresor would soon be the main one in his family known as the ‘Wine Connoisseur’, but not the only one in town. Fortunato was 17 years old and was born into a middle-class wealthy family, who would soon become the main one in his family, and another in town, to be known as the ‘Wine Connoisseur’. These boys were known as nothing more than friendly acquaintances. Years passed and their friendship didn’t grow nor fade, but stayed the same. But as society grew and wealth became more a part of their lives it may have wedged something between them, at least one of them.

Montresor and Fortunato are about in their mid-twenties now. They are both wealthy and well-respected men who are also known for their abundant amount of knowledge on wine, and selling wine. They are not necessarily friends or enemies either. Yet there isn’t a ‘bond’ between them either, especially since they became into the working society. Fortunato would have certain remarks and opinions towards and of Montresor. One day I saw the two of them in town speaking to one another. I had overheard their conversation Fortunato was saying to Montresor ‘I have way more customers, who are also wealthier than yours.’ Montresor did not have a response for him he just continued to walk and converse with him. Although Montresor didn’t respond to Fortunato’s somewhat rude comment he continued to say more what seemed unpleasing statements. ‘You may be a ‘Wine Connoisseur’ but your knowledge will never reach the knowledge that I have for wine.’ Montresor did not respond again, verbally, yet he gave a visual response. His stance changed to an uneasy manner, almost as if he was surprised to hear of such rudeness from a former ‘friend’. I have seen many of these incidents throughout the years of adulthood, between the two, yet they remained ‘friends’.

Fortunato was a good man, everyone respected him, as well as Montresor. And even though Fortunato had sometimes rude remarks or conversations with Montresor he still considered him as a friend, and maybe even said these remarks as a joking matter. And even though some may say these aren’t things you say to a friend, it didn’t seem to bother Montresor at all. They would still socialize friendly when seen, plan to catch up and have coffee with one another, etc. The two were just friends who had to be somewhat competitive due to their jobs. And even though they were not ‘friends’ nor ‘enemies’ they were some of the closest guys in town despite some remarks said by Fortunato.

From competition to friendly parties, these two were it. They were the town’s finest. They both had the finest wines, the finest customers (wealthy ones too), some of the most money, and the most respect from the people of our town. Now, even though the two weren’t the best of friends, there was a side only Montresor knew about Fortunato. The reason I know this was a conversation I, yet again, overheard. One day the two of them were walking out of our local coffee brewery. I could tell there was some sort of tension or conflict between the two. I heard Montresor say ‘This is the second time this week you’ve shown up like this.’ Fortunato didn’t respond with anything but a smile. Montresor continued to say ‘Just because we are in the wine business doesn’t mean we become addicted!’ Montresor then looked around worried then managed to get Fortunato home. I don’t know completely but maybe Fortunato is addicted to wine, but how so? Drinking it, selling it, buying it? And from the look on Montresor’s face of complete worry, there is no way anyone else knows about this situation so I guess it’ll remain unsolved.

Although there were good and bad times throughout the years of Montresor and Fortunato they managed to keep a good relationship. From childhood friendship due to growing up together in the wine industry, to competing against each other daily that somehow looked as if it was bonding a friendship. Even the rude remarks that Fortunato said to Montresor from time to time didn’t seem to bother either of them, they just continued. I mean after all, what would the town do if these two weren’t “these two”, even with the competitiveness they are our town’s best. If anything were to happen to either of them what would the town do? Especially with the town’s favorite big Carnival Celebration coming up, especially Fortunato’s.