A And P By Updike Essays - AP, , Term Papers

A And P By Updike In the story "A&P," by John Updike, the main character Sammy makes the leap from an adolescent, knowing little more about life than what he has learned working at the local grocery store, into a man prepared for the rough road that lies ahead. As the story begins, Sammy is nineteen and has no real grasp for the fact that he is about to be living on his own working to support himself. Throughout the course of the story, he changes with a definite step into, first, a young man realizing that he must get out of the hole he is in and further into a man, who has a grasp on reality looking forward to starting his own family. In the beginning, Sammy is but a youth growing up learning what he knows about life in small town grocery store. His role models include, Stokesie, the twenty-two year-old, supporting a family doing the same job Sammy does yet aspiring to one day have the manager's position, and Lengel, the store manager who most certainly started out in the same place that Stokesie and he were already in. Stoksie, the great role model, continues to be as adolescent as Sammy, with his "Oh, Daddy, I feel so faint," and even Sammy sees this noting that "as far as I can tell that's the only difference (between he and I)." Sammy whittles away his days looking at pretty girls and thinking about the ways of people. He hardly realizes that this is how he will spend his entire existence if he doesn't soon get out of this job. During this day that will prove to change his life, he makes the step towards his realization. He decides that he doesn't want to spend the rest of his life working at an A&P competing for the store manager's position. Sammy thinks to himself about his parent's current social class and what they serve at cocktail parties. And, in turn, he thinks about what he will be serving, if he stays at the A&P, "When my parents have somebody over they get lemonade and if it's a real racy affair Schlitz in tall glasses with ?They'll Do It Every Time' cartoons stenciled on." He must get out and the sooner the better. He is still just an adolescent who hasn't completely thought through his decision and yet his mind is made up. He quits his job using the girls merely as an excuse to get out. His final journey to manhood is a short one. He looks around for his girls and notices that they have already left, but he knew that was a futile cause to begin with. And he steps outside to see the world and its opportunities as well as its responsibilities in front of him. Although, Sammy could see "how hard the world would be hereafter," he knew that what was done had to be done. In hindsight, Sammy still knew he had done the right thing as shown by "Now here comes the sad part of the story...but I don't think it's so sad myself."

Discover the Code-Breaking History of the Rosetta Stone

Discover the Code-Breaking History of the Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone, which is housed in the British Museum, is a black, possibly basalt slab with three languages on it (Greek, demotic and hieroglyphs) each saying the same thing. Because the words are translated into the other languages, it provided Jean-Francois Champollion the key to the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Discovery of the Rosetta Stone Discovered at Rosetta (Raschid) in 1799, by Napoleons army, the Rosetta Stone proved the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. The person who found it was Pierre Francois-Xavier Bouchards, a French officer of engineers. It was sent to the Institut dEgypte in Cairo and then taken to London in 1802. Rosetta Stone Content The British Museum describes the Rosetta Stone as a priestly decree affirming the cult of 13-year-old Ptolemy V. The Rosetta Stone tells of an agreement between Egyptian priests and the pharaoh on March 27, 196 B.C. It names honors bestowed on Macedonian Pharaoh Ptolemy V Epiphanes. After praising the pharaoh for his generosity, it describes the siege of Lycopolis and the kings good deeds for the temple. The text continues with its main purpose: establishing a cult for the king. Related Meaning for the Term Rosetta Stone The name Rosetta Stone is now applied to just about any type of key used to unlock a mystery. Even more familiar may be a popular series of computer-based language-learning programs using the term Rosetta Stone as a registered trademark. Among its growing list of languages is Arabic, but, alas, no hieroglyphs. Physical Description of the Rosetta Stone From the Ptolemaic Period, 196 B.C.Height: 114.400 cm (max.)Width: 72.300 cmThickness: 27.900 cmWeight: about 760 kilograms (1,676 lb.). Location of the Rosetta Stone Napoleons army found the Rosetta Stone, but they surrendered it to the British who, led by Admiral Nelson, had defeated the French at the Battle of the Nile. The French capitulated to the British at Alexandria in 1801 and as terms of their surrender, handed over the artifacts they had unearthed, chiefly the Rosetta Stone and a sarcophagus traditionally (but subject to dispute) attributed to Alexander the Great. The British Museum has housed the Rosetta Stone since 1802, except for the years 1917-1919 when it was temporarily moved underground to prevent possible bomb damage. Prior to its discovery in 1799, it had been in the town of el-Rashid (Rosetta), in Egypt. Languages of the Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is inscribed in 3 languages: Demotic (the everyday script, used to write documents),Greek (the language of Ionian Greeks, an administrative script), andHieroglyphs (for priestly business). Deciphering the Rosetta Stone No one could read hieroglyphs at the time of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, but scholars soon pieced out a few phonetic characters in the demotic section, which, by comparison with the Greek, were identified as proper names. Soon proper names in the hieroglyphic section were identified because they were circled. These circled names are called cartouches. Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832) was said to have learned enough Greek and Latin by the time he was 9-years-old to read Homer and Vergil (Virgil). He studied Persian, Ethiopic, Sanskrit, Zend, Pahlevi, and Arabic, and worked on a Coptic dictionary by the time he was 19. Champollion finally found the key to translating the Rosetta Stone in 1822, published in Lettre M. Dacier.

UK Coffee Industry Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

UK Coffee Industry - Case Study Example Dominance of instant coffee is attributed to a combination of aggressive marketing and branding campaigns by brand manufacturers, as well as the price consciousness and brand loyalty characteristic of coffee drinkers. However, instant coffee growth rates lag behind ground and roast, increasing only by 11.1% from 2003-2005, compared to 13.6% for the latter, which can be attributed to the development of new pod technologies and the decreasing prices of coffee machines, which allows consumers greater convenience in home brewing; and the prevalence of repertoire drinkers2, indicating an increase in consumers drinking both instant and ground coffee. The market is also highly segmented with distinct divisions in terms of age groups, geography, and consumer behaviour. Demographically, consumption increases with age as majority of heavy coffee drinkers in both sectors found among the 35-64 groups, with 76% drinking instant coffee and about 43% drinking instant exclusively. With respect to ground coffee, consumption is concentrated in more affluent regions of the country, indicating price consciousness among drinkers. Only a few manufacturers do... Base: adults aged 15+ All users % Heavy users % Medium users % Light users % Non-users % All 76.1 37.1 25.1 13.2 23.9 Men 75.6 38.0 24.4 12.6 24.4 Women 76.6 36.3 25.8 13.7 23.4 15-24 52.2 20.2 20.0 11.5 47.8 25-34 73.1 35.1 22.7 14.8 26.9 35-44 78.3 42.8 21.1 14.0 21.7 45-54 81.7 43.9 23.7 13.4 18.3 55-64 85.1 44.9 25.7 13.7 14.9 65+ 84.4 35.8 35.8 11.9 15.6 Taken from the TGI survey of around 25,000 adults (Source: Mintel 2006) table 3: Usage of fresh ground coffee, by demographic sub-group, 2005 Base: adults aged 15+ All users % Heavy users % Medium users % Light users % Non-users % All 36.4 8.2 11.2 16.1 63.6 Men 36.5 9.5 10.9 15.3 63.5 Women 36.3 7.0 11.6 16.9 63.7 15-24 23.8 3.6 7.6 11.1 76.2 25-34 34.5 7.2 10.8 16.0 65.5 35-44 40.0 8.9 12.4 18.0 60.0 45-54 42.7 10.1 13.1 19.2 57.3 55-64 41.5 10.6 13.0 17.4 58.5 65+ 35.6 8.8 10.5 15.1 64.4 Taken from the TGI survey of around 25,000 adults (Source: Mintel 2006) Only a few manufacturers dominate the coffee market. For instant coffee, the market is dominated by Nestl (56%) through its Nescaf Original Blend (33%) and Gold Blend (15%) - the two highest-selling brands - followed by Kraft (22%), and Own-label products (11%), while other manufacturers made up the remaining 11% in 2005. There are no dominant suppliers for ground and roast. However one company, Douwe Egberts, had the highest market share at 12%, followed by Cafdirect, Taylors, and Lavazza, with 8% market shares each. Own-label manufacturers for ground and roast coffee, however, possess 40% of the total market. table 4: Market share of instant coffee, by producer, by value, 2003 and 2005 2003 2005 (est) %