Aphrodite :: essays research papers

APHRODITE (a-fro-DYE-tee; Roman name Venus) was the goddess of love, beauty and fertility. She was also a protectress of sailors. The poet Hesiod said that Aphrodite was born from sea-foam. Homer, on the other hand, said that she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione. When the Trojan prince Paris was asked to judge which of three Olympian goddesses was the most beautiful, he chose Aphrodite over Hera and Athena. The latter two had hoped to bribe him with power and victory in battle, but Aphrodite offered the love of the most beautiful woman in the world. This was Helen of Sparta, who became infamous as Helen of Troy when Paris subsequently eloped with her. In the ensuing Trojan War, Hera and Athena were implacable enemies of Troy while Aphrodite was loyal to Paris and the Trojans. IN HOMER In his epic of the Trojan War, Homer tells how Aphrodite intervened in battle to save her son Aeneas, a Trojan ally. The Greek hero Diomedes, who had been on the verge of killing Aeneas, attacked the goddess herself, wounding her on the wrist with his spear and causing the ichor to flow. (Ichor is what immortals have in the place of blood.) Aphrodite promptly dropped Aeneas, who was rescued by Apollo, another Olympian sponsor of the Trojans. In pain she sought out her brother Ares, the god of war who stood nearby admiring the carnage, and borrowed his chariot so that she might fly up to Olympus. There she goes crying to her mother Dione, who soothes her and cures her wound. Her father Zeus tells her to leave war to the likes of Ares and Athena, while devoting herself to the business of marriage. Elsewhere in Homer's Iliad , Aphrodite saves Paris when he is about to be killed in single combat by Menelaus. The goddess wraps him in a mist and spirits him away, setting him down in his own bedroom in Troy. She then appears to Helen in the guise of an elderly handmaiden and tells her that Paris is waiting for her. Helen recognizes the goddess in disguise and asks if she is being led once more to ruin. For Aphrodite had bewitched her into leaving her husband Menelaus to run off with Paris. She dares to suggest that Aphrodite go to Paris herself. Suddenly furious, the goddess warns Helen not to go too far, lest she be abandoned to the hatred of Greeks and Trojans alike.

Literature Reflects Life in The Gilded Age :: Literature Essays Literary Criticism

Literature Reflects Life in The Gilded Age As immigrants began to flood into America in the late 1800's and early 1900's, they had hopes of a miraculous new life in the Land of the Free. They may have thought that they would not have to live in cramped and unsanitary conditions as they had in their old homes. They may have had hopes of finding a great new career that would skyrocket them to fame and fortune and allow them to live like the Carnegies, Rockefellers, and Morgans did. It could be possible that all their hopes were assured once they caught sight of the New York City skyline, expanding as far as the eye could see and stretching like arms spread welcoming home a loved one. The sun may have been shining bright and golden, bathing the not-so-distant city in a fantastic light. At a distance it was quite possibly one of the most exquisite sights that their eyes had ever come upon. However, the land that looked so beautiful and grand from the distance was actually filled with greed, corruption, and opportunists. That is h ow America can be described during the Gilded Age. The wrapping was pretty, but the present was awful. Such wealthy entrepreneurs as the Rockefellers and Carnegies helped to make America the beauty that she was on the outside, but to an extent they also contributed to the rotten inside. America's new European residents lived in cramped apartments and worked in unsafe factories. The factories housed the latest technology of the Gilded Age, the assembly line. The mass production that the assembly line brought about made the rich richer, but did nothing to help the poor. They were working long hours in sometimes extremely dangerous conditions. Injuries and even deaths would occur due to faulty machinery or exhausted employees, but these occurrences were often ignored or covered up to avoid any bad publicity. As the immigrants flooded the big cities seeking jobs, other Americans headed west with the expansion of the railroad. However, nobody seemed to take into consideration that they would be intruding on the American Indian's territory. It also seemed that no one cared. America was gree dy for land that lay to the west and would be quite deceitful in getting the land that they wanted. The American Indians were pushed further and further west, and their tribes began to dwindle.

Main Causes of the US Automobile Industry Crisis Essay

Recent happenings in the US automobile industry point to an industry that is steeped in a crisis of monumental proportions, one that it has never had the misfortune of staring at since the advent of the automobile as we know it today. Sales at the Big Three motor companies (Ford, GM, and Chrysler) have touched historic lows, not only pushing industry profitability levels down with them, but also triggering off a rare spectacle characterised by all the largest American carmakers bleeding in red ink. Writing for one of the premier automotive media, Krebbs and Visnic (2009) adduce data fresh from the oven that point to as much. According to Krebbs and Visnic (2009), the American industry posted the lowest levels of sales in sixteen years in the year just past. While GM witnessed a drop in sales of 23%, Ford saw its sales revenues shrink by a massive 20%, and Chrysler posted sales that were 30% lower than the previous year. Other automakers in the country such as Hyundai, Toyota, and Nissan did not fare any better. On average, the industry shed off some 3 million units in lost sales, which translates into a contraction of 18%. With such massive declines in sales, the Big Three have become deeply steeped in debt, and are staring bankruptcy right in the face in spite of the massive bailout packages tailored for the industry by the Obama administration. As a matter of fact, GM (which is the largest of the Big Three) and Chrysler have already filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As the Wall Street Journal (2009, p.A1) points out, GM went under in June under a massive debt of $172 billion (against assets of only $82 billion) in what has been described as the second largest industrial bankruptcy filing in the US. After 84 years, the icon of American industry had its name struck off the Dow Jones, hot in the heels of Chrysler which had filed for bankruptcy just months earlier. It is not just dwindling sales and profitability that have afflicted the three largest American carmakers, they have also been steadily losing market shares and particularly to their more fleet-footed Asian rivals who include Toyota, Nissan Honda, and Hyundai. For example, GM, Chrysler and Ford had market shares of 23.8%, 12.9% and 15.5% respectively in 2007, which fell to 22.6%, 11% and 15.1% respectively in 2008. In contrast, the market shares of Honda, Nissan and Toyota increased from 9.7%, 6.6% and 16.3% respectively to 10.8%, 7.2% and 16.8% respectively over the same period. This is an indication that the US carmakers are losing out to other foreign carmakers (Krebbs and Visnic, 2009). Various factors have been cited as being behind the poor performance of the US automobile industry, but there are three main reasons that stand out. These include the meltdown in the US economy that was largely triggered off by the sub prime mortgage crisis, the failure by American carmakers to respond adaptively to the dictates of the external environment, and a poor business model characterized by factors such as huge legacy costs. Economic meltdown: One of the major causes of the declining fortunes of the US auto industry is the meltdown of the US economy which is mainly attributed to the sub prime mortgage crisis. The sub prime mortgage crisis occurred when banks and other financial institutions made out loans for the purchase of homes to a segment of the market that is considered risky due to its poor credit history and low ability to repay given their low income levels (this segment of the market is what is referred to as the sub prime segment). These loans were made out at the height of the boom in the real estate industry with expectations being that the boom in the industry would continue and that the buyers of the homes given the mortgages would be able to refinance their homes and pay back the loans. With the unexpected and sudden burst of the real estate bubble however, the sub prime borrowers were unable to refinance their homes due to plummeting values of real estate, leading to huge defaults that triggered off massive foreclosures never before witnessed in US history (Zeese, 2008; Rasmus, 2008). This caused banks and financial institutions to write off billions of dollars in bad debts, leading to a huge liquidity crisis and credit crunch that hit the economy and caused the current recessionary conditions being witnessed in the US and in much of the world. It also brought about a sharp and dramatic spike in unemployment rates which have affected demand for cars. The economic crisis has had the effect of drying up credit, which has made many potential car buyers unable to access car loans, a factor that has in turn triggered a massive decline in the demand for cars. Additionally, car makers have been unable to access debt finance for investment and working capital requirements, which has also impacted them negatively (Zeese, 2008; Rasmus, 2008; Borade, 2009). Failure to adapt to the external environment: Firms operate in an external environment in which its operations are affected either positively or negatively by political-legal, economic, socio-cultural, and technological forces. The role of the company therefore is to scan the external environment for opportunities or threats which these forces may present, and to implement strategies that will help the organization to either capitalize on the opportunities or avoid the threats (Saloner, Shepard, and Podolny, 2008). The troubles afflicting the US automobile stem in part on the failure of the US carmakers to assess changes in their external environment and to respond adaptively. Over much of 2008, oil prices soared at one tine time touching all-time highs of $147 per barrel. The rise in oil prices triggered a corresponding rise in gasoline prices (to a high of $4 a gallon), which pushed the commodity out of reach for many Americans, and especially those with large fuel guzzling vehicles such as trucks (e.g. GM’s hugely popular Hummer) (Krebbs and Visnic, 2009; Zeese, 2008). Concomitant with the rise in the price of oil and gasoline has been an increasing consciousness towards the need for environmental protection, which has caused the rising popularity of cars that have higher fuel efficiency. These two factors contributed a great deal in shifting consumers’ tastes and preferences away from large fuel-guzzling cars such as trucks towards smaller more fuel efficient models. Unlike Asian car makers which recognized these trends and moved towards the manufacture of small models and green vehicles, all the Big Three firms continues producing large fuel guzzling cars such as SUV’s (Zeese, 2008). The result of this is that SUV and truck sales plummeted, hitting hard the revenues and bottom lines of the American firms, as consumers shifted their purchases to the smaller models manufactured by the Asian carmakers. Krebbs and Visnic (2009) write that as a result of these trends, car sales surpassed those of trucks in 2008, the first time that has ever happened since 2000. An example of   how hard SUV and large vehicle sales were affected as a result of these trends is given by the case of GM and its Hummer brand, which Hummer, which â€Å"suffered the biggest decline of all GM’s brands with sales plummeting 51 percent — its lowest sales level since 2002† (Krebbs and Visnic, 2009, p.2). Poor business model: The third factor that has contributed to the dramatic decline of the US auto industry’s fortunes is the fact that the industry has a poor business model. The US automobile industry is unique among all car industries worldwide due to the fact that it is saddled with huge and unbearable healthcare costs which produces one of the highest cost structures that makes American made cars uncompetitive against Asian made cars, for example (Zeese, 2008). According to Zeese (2008), failure by successive US administrations to reform the country’s healthcare system has resulted in car manufacturers paying healthcare costs for their employees to the tune of billions of dollars. Zeese (2008, p.1) writes that â€Å"It would not be unfair to describe General Motors as a health insurance provider who happens to make cars. GM spends $5 billion annually on health care for 1.2 million people – only 150,000 of whom work for the company. GM, Ford and Chrysler have a combined unfunded retiree health care obligation of more than $90 billion. Health care adds $1,500 to the cost of each vehicle.† With the American carmakers saddled by such huge costs, it is little wonder that their products are uncompetitive when compared to cars made by foreign manufacturers such as Toyota (which has one of the most admired lean manufacturing systems that keeps costs very low). Conclusion: The US automobile industry is in a big crisis. Other than declining sales and profitability, the industry is losing out to foreign car makers and particularly Asian rivals such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan. This has been brought about by three main reasons, which include the meltdown in the US economy triggered off by the sub prime mortgage crisis, a poor business model adopted by the industry, and failure by the US car industry to respond adaptively to changing environmental conditions. References: Borade, G. 2009. US economic crisis: impact on automobile industry. Retrieved on 11 July 2009 from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/us-economic-crisis-impact-on-automobile-industry.html King, N and Terlep, S. 2009, June 2. â€Å"GM Collapses into Government’s Arms.† Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 11 July 2009 from   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124385428627671889.html

Tasks in Market Segmentation

Tasks in Market Segmentation 1. Analyze consumer product relationship 2. Investigate segmentation bases 3. Develop product positioning 4. Select segmentation strategy 5. Design marketing mix strategy The first task in segmenting the market is Analyze consumer product relationships—this entail the analysis of the affect and cognition, behaviour, and environments involved in the purchase/consumption process. 3 general approaches to this task— 1. Marketing managers may brainstorm the product concept and consider what types of consumers are likely to purchase and use the product and how they differ from those less likely to buy. . Focus groups and other types of primary research can be used for identifying differences in attributes, benefits, and values of various potential markets 3. Secondary research may further investigate differences in potential target markets, determine the relative sizes of those markets, and develop a better understanding of consumers of this or si milar products Investigate segmentation bases. There are no simple way to determine the best bases for segmenting markets. Benefit segmentation. The benefits people seek in consuming a given product are the basic reasons for the existence of true market segments.Psychographic segmentation. Differences on consumer lifestyles. Activities(work, hobbies, vacations), interests (family, job community), opinions9social issues, policitcs, business) Person/situation. Market can be divided on the basis of usage situation. Example: clothes and footwear—market are divided on the basis of sex, size, usage situation or social events Geodemographic segmentation. Identifies specific households in market focusing on local neighbourhood geography (such as zip codes) to create classifications of actual addressable, mappable neighbourhood where consumers live and shop.Develop product positioning. Positioning the product relative to competing products in the minds of consumers. Objective: to form a particular brand image in consumers’ minds 5 approaches to positioning strategy: 1. Positioning by attribute. Most common positioning strategy associating a product with an attribute, a product feature, or a customer feature. Example: toothpaste –fights cavity, whitens teeth 2. By use or application. Represents a 2nd or 3rd position designed to expand the market. Example: Cellphone—texting, 2nd videocam, 3rd–email 3. By product user or class user.Associating with a specific lifestyle profile. Example: alcohol—pampamilya na pangsports pa 4. By product class. Example: camay—beauty soap, safeguard—family soap, ivory-mild soap for sensitive skin 5. By competitors. To convince consumers that a brand is better than the market leader or another well-accepted brand on important attributes. Commonly done in advertisement where competitor is compared. Example: tide compared with brand x and brand y Positioning Map. A visual depiction of cons umers perceptions of competitive products, brands, or models.It is done by surveying consumers about various product attributes and developing dimensions and graph indicating the relative positions of competitors. Select Segmentation Strategy Four Basic Alternatives 1. The firm may decide not to enter the market. This may mean there are no viable market niche for the product or brand or model. 2. The firm may decide not to segment but to mass marketer. This may be appropriate in three situations— a. When the market is so small that marketing to portion of it is not profitable b.When heavy users make up such a large proportion of the sales volume that they are the only relevant target. c. When the brand is dominant in the market and targeting to a few segments would not benefit sales and profits. 3. The firm may decide to market to only one segment 4. The firm may decide to market to more than one segment and design a separate marketing strategy each. Three Important Criteria to Base Segmentation Strategy Decisions: 1. Measurable. Be able to measure size and characteristics. Example: income 2.Meaningful. Segment is large enough to have sufficient sales and growth potential to offer long-run profits. 3. Marketable. Can be reached and serve profitably. Consumer Behavior and Product Strategy Product affect and cognition: Satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Consumer satisfaction is critical in marketing thought and consumer research. Satisfied more likely to purchase the product; dissatisfied more likely to switch products or brand. Expectancy disconfirmation with performance approach is a current approach in studying satisfaction.This approach views consumer satisfaction as the degree to which a product or service provides a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfilment. It is a degree to which a product performance exceeds the consumers expectations. Prepurchase expectations are consumers beliefs about anticipated performance of the product. Postpurcha se perceptions are consumer’s thoughts about how well the product performed. Disconfirmation refers to difference between the two perceptions. 3 types of disconfirmation: 1. Positive disconfirmation occurs when product performance is better than expected.This lead to satisfaction or a pleasurable level of fulfilment. 2. Negative disconfirmation occurs when product performance is lower than expected. This thought lead to dissatisfaction. 3. Neutral disconfirmation occurs when performance perceptions just meet expectations. Product Behavior Major objective of marketing is to increase the probability and frequency of consumers coming into contact with products, purchasing and using them and repurchasing them. Two classes of consumer behavior: 1. Product Contact. Involves behavior such as locating the product in the store, examining it, and taking it to the check out counter.A consumer may receive free sample in the mail, or on the doorstep on be given sample in the store, borrow product from a friend and use it, receive a product as a gift, or simply see someone else sue the product and experience it vicariously. 2. Brand Loyalty/Variety Seeking. For consumers to be brand loyal, they must not only purchase the same brand repeatedly but also has cognitive commitment to do so. Brand must have sufficient meaning for them that they purchase it not because of convenience or deals but because the brand represents important benefits or values to them.Brand loyalty is an intrinsic commitment to repeatedly purchase a particular brand. It is differentiated from repeat purchase behaviour because it focuses only on the behavioural action without concern for the reasons for the habitual response. Variety seeking is a cognitive commitment to purchase different brands because of factors such as the stimulation involved in trying different brands, curiosity, novelty, or overcoming boredom with the same old thing. Useful strategies for loyal customers: 1. If the only profi table segment is the brand loyal heavy user, focus on switching consumer loyalty to the firm’s brands 2.If there is sufficient number of brand loyal light users, focus on increasing their usage of the firm’s brand 3. If there is a sufficient number of variety-seeking heavy users, attempt to make the firm’s brand name a salient attribute and/or develop a new relative advantage. 4. If there is a sufficient number of variety-seeking light users, attempt to make the firm’s brand name a salient attribute and increase usage of the brand among consumers, perhaps by finding sustainable relative advantage. Product Environment Refers to product-related stimuli that consumers attend and comprehend.Majority of this stimuli are received through the sense of sight. Example: How a cloth feels so smooth influences consumer affect, cognition, and behavior. Two types of environmental stimuli: 1. Product attributes. Major stimuli that influence consumer affect, cognition, a nd behavior. Consumers may evaluate these attributes in terms of their own values, beliefs, and past experiences. 2. Packaging. Element of the product environment on which marketers spend billions annually. Packaging objectives: 1. Should protect the product as it moves through the channel to the consumer. 2.Should be economical and not add undue cost to the product 3. Should allow convenient storage and use of the product by consumer 4. Can be used effectively to promote the product to the consumer. Package sizes can influence not only which brands consumers choose but also how much of a product they use on particular occasions. Package colors are thought to have an important impact on consumers affect, cognition, and behavior. Colors can connote meaning and can be used strategically. Brand identification and Label Information on the package provide additional stimuli for consideration by the consumer.It simplifies purchase and for the consumer and make the loyalty development proc ess possible. Label information includes instructions, contents, lists of ingredients or raw materials, warnings for use and care of the product. Product Strategy. Designed to influence consumers in both the short and long run. In the short-run, new product strategies aim to influence consumers to try the product; in the long run, product strategies are designed to develop brand loyalty and obtain large market shares. A critical aspect of designing product strategies involves analyzing consumer-product relationships.This means consumer product-related affect, cognition, behavior, and environments should be carefully considered in new-product life cycle. Characteristics of Consumers; 1. Innovators 2. Early adopters 3. Early majority 4. Late majority 5. Laggards Characteristics of Products 1. Compatibility. How will does this product fit consumers’ current affect and cognitions, and behaviours? –degree to which product is consistent with consistent with consumers current affect, cognition and behavior. 2. Trialability. Can consumers try the product on a limited basis with little risk? -degree of which product can be tried on a limited basis or divided into small quantities for an inexpensive trial. 3. Observability. Do consumers see or otherwise sense this product? –degree to which products or their effects can be sensed by other consumers.4. Speed. How soon do consumers experience the benefits of the product? –refers to how rapid consumers experience the benefits of the product. 5. Simplicity. How easy it is for consumers to understand and use the product? –the degree to which a product is easy for a consumer to understand and use. 6. Competitive advantage. What makes this product better than competitive offerings? -the degree to which an item has sustainable competitive advantage over other product classes, product forms, and brands. 7. Product symbolism. What does this product mean to consumers? –refers to what the pr oduct or brand means to the consumer and what the consumer experiences in purchasing and using it. Consumer researchers recognize that some products possess symbolic features and that consumption of them may depend more on their social and psychological meaning than on their functional utility. 8. Marketing strategy. What is the role of other marketing mix elements in creating a functional or image-related relative advantage?Favorable image is created through the other elements of the marketing mix. Promotion in the form of advertising is commonly used to create a favorable image for the brand by pairing it with positively evaluated stimuli such as attractive model. Price. Create brand images as well as provide functional competitive advantage. Consumers perceived a relationship between price and quality. Price can position a brand as a good value for their money. Distribution. Good site locations and a large number of outlets are important advantage esp in the food markets

Custom Molds, Inc Essay

Case is about family business (father and son : Tom and Mason Miller), which began producing molds and later added production of plastic parts to main business. Although production is traditionally being focused on quality and design of both molds and plastic parts (mass production/ customization accordingly), total number of order is remained the same, but client’s desires have been shifted. 1). Custom Molds Inc. has faced the following major issues: Although the number of parts orders remained virtually constant, the volume per order for parts has increased significantly during last 3 years. These, has created bottlenecks and has led to late deliveries of parts. Two different processes (fabricating molds/producing plastic parts) take place in a single facility. Above-mentioned processes serve different customer needs. Fabricating molds requires more skill-oriented stuff, more flexible and qualitative process. Competitive advantage for finished molds (fabricating molds process) is based on delivery and low cost, and moreover this process has much more higher margin that for producing plastic parts. Sales mix changing has created excess capacity in mold fabrication. Changing electronics manufactures (Custom Molds`s major clients) strategies has influenced order needs in unexpected way. Difficult to predict â€Å"when?† and â€Å"where?†. 2). The competitive priorities for each of the individual processes are the quality, cost effectiveness and customer responsiveness. The changing nature of the industry was in the tendency of manufacturers to develop strategic partnerships with suppliers. Hence, more and more demand for responsiveness was laid upon suppliers to sustain the competition. In the Custom Molds’ case, as order for multiple molds began declining, the responsiveness of the  individual processes began suffering due to the capacity constrains (bottlenecks) at different stages of operations. This naturally entailed the lost sales to customers. (All the individual processes that are carried out at Custom Molds are shown on the flow diagram in exhibit t# 1). 3). Our team suggestions are: Mold fabrication- to focus on small capacity/ specialized machines, and include more workers in supervising process. Producing of plastic parts- to focus on little number, but large capacity machines with insufficient input (workers). Testing and inspection – to move this area in the centre of facility (to make movement of goods more efficient and to make easier communications between inspecting/testing workers and managers). Office- a) to make order placement more truthful (matching ability of order fulfillment with time promised); b) to identify customers` needs more precisely; c) compare changes and it’s influence on company’s finance (taking into consideration return on income); d) due to the market demand company should make strategic decision and conclude if it is better to concentrate on molds or plastic parts (this is the most appropriate alternative).

How Errors in Care Affect Healthcare Organizations Research Paper

How Errors in Care Affect Healthcare Organizations - Research Paper Example Healthcare organizations spend much money in defending themselves against the accusation placed on them by clients. It has a profound effect on the quality of care given to patients since they have to concentrate on the cases and to defend themselves from the accusations. Hence, it lowers the productivity of healthcare organizations. Errors may lead to the introduction of draconian laws that affect the provision of healthcare services to the public. For instance, the case of Darling v. Charleston Community Memorial Hospital led to the abolition of charitable immunity for hospitals in Illinois (Wiet, 2005). It also resulted in the elimination of "Hotel Defense" for hospitals to imply that hospitals treated patients, and they take liability for their medical staffs and nurses (Wiet, 2005). Moreover, the case created a personal liability exposure by defining the duties of directors, managers, and medical personnel (Wiet, 2005). Through this, the healthcare organizations may be afraid to conduct some treatments due to liability. This has adverse impacts on the provision of healthcare since the number of providers will reduce because of fear. Many studies conducted estimate that medical errors cost health care providers as well as nations with large sums amounting to over $ trillion (Andel, Davidow, Hollander & Moreno, 2012). Similarly, some of the preventable errors have an enormous impact and amount to over $ 17 billion yearly (Andel, Davidow, Hollander & Moreno, 2012). High economic losses are because of the errors that physicians make, and some of them are preventable. Because of all these, it is hard for healthcare organizations to progress since some of the cases taken to court prolong leading to loss of labor hours. In conclusion, the errors committed by health agencies have affected the institutions primarily. The case of Darling v. Charleston Community Memorial Hospital has transformed health institutions in terms of liability jurisprudence, and the trend will continue. Besides the adverse impacts associated with these cases, they also offer improvement in the delivery of healthcare services in the Republic, hence helping healthcare consumers. Â   Â   Â  

Compare and contrast Alcott's and Stevenson's depictions of 'growing Essay

Compare and contrast Alcott's and Stevenson's depictions of 'growing up' - Essay Example As Massachusetts is part of the New England, Alcott and her writings were obviously influenced by the political and social developments during her time such as the beginnings of Industrial Revolution (this revolution originated in old England and took first roots in the New England region) that transformed society and business, movement to abolish slavery (the author herself was an abolitionist who gave refuge to a fugitive slave), the introduction of free public education and feminism. It was during this period that the first stirrings for womens rights took hold in the form of the universal suffrage (which meant allowing the women to vote for the first time). Alcott with other female writers took the lead in these movements. It was a time of ferment and excitement, when social barriers were being challenged or being torn down. It was also in New England that the first pieces of truly American literature were published. This region produced so many prominent writers and poets like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Emily Dickinson. Some of them were her contemporaries, family friends or personal acquaintances and influenced her works. The other novel, â€Å"Treasure Island† by Robert Louis Stevenson, is one of the famous male adolescent novels of all time. It is a coming-of-age story that has acquired a life of its own in the annals of children literature. Although written entirely as fiction, its descriptions of sea voyages, pirates, maps, buried treasures and tropical islands are so authentic it had been a source of entertainment and inspiration for generations who longed for adventure, risk taking and excitement. The author used the knowledge and experiences he gained in travelling with his father and grandfather, who were both lighthouse engineers, on their maritime expeditions to check on lighthouses as the primary source of much of his exacting