Unraveling of Myths in Porter’s Old Mortality :: Porter’s Old Mortality

Unraveling of Myths in Porter’s Old Mortality â€Å"There was a kind of faded merriment in the background, with its vase of flowers and its draped velvet curtains, the kind of case and the kind of curtains that no one would have any more. The clothes were not even romantic-looking, bur merely most terribly out of fashion, and the whole affair was associated, in the minds of the little girls, with dead things: the smell of Grandmother’s medicated cigarettes and her furniture that smelled of beeswax, and her old-fashioned perfume, Orange Flower. The woman in the picture had been Aunt Amy, but she was only a ghost in a frame, and a sad, pretty story from old times. She had been beautiful, much loved, unhappy, and she had died young.† (173) Porter uses this second paragraph from Old Mortality to suggest themes and foreshadow future happenings in this story. This passage, which focuses exclusively on the background of Aunt Amy’s picture, is full of language suggesting the outdated feeling of the photograph. Phrases like â€Å"faded merriment,† â€Å"the kind of [things] no one would have any more,† â€Å"most terribly out of fashion,† â€Å"associated†¦ with dead things,† and â€Å"old-fashioned† lend the picture a sense of falseness that only time has exposed. This falseness seems to hint to the reader to be wary of accepting things as they are given. The way that the girls seem to find everything in the photograph to be dated and out of fashion also foreshadows Miranda’s inability to identify with the myth of Amy. It may also point to a larger theme of the crumbling ideal of the Southern Belle and the slowly collapsing walls of the rigid confines of the role of uppe r class, white women. The narrative can be seen as a continual unraveling by Miranda of the many myths generated by the family. The myth of who Aunt Amy was is a part of the larger myth of what constitutes a southern belle to the families of the Old South. Porter’s repeated use of flowers, beautiful, yet easily perishable, can be seen as imagery for the mythical Amy, suggesting her fragility. But just as the smells that the girls associate with the picture –medicated cigarettes, beeswax, and perfume –exist to cover up the real smells of the grandmother’s things and person, so does the created myth of frailty cover up Amy’s real independence, strength, and finally her death.

Baring Bank Case Essay

The Fall of sanngs sank The story of Barings Bank shows how overconfidence, coupled with poor internal control, can even bring down an historic financial institution. Below we provide a few teaching points. Nick Leeson seemed to have all the characteristics of an overconfident trader. As described in the chapter, excessive trading, lack of diversification, and too much risk were obviously present. Self-attribution bias seemed to play a major role. One commentator notes that Leeson â€Å"got overconfident after initial trades were successful and] when he started to lose money, got way too aggressive trying to make it up. When Leeson was asked about his actions, he explained that â€Å"l was determined to win back the losses [†¦ ] I was well down, but increasingly sure that my doubling up and doubling up would pay off†¦ â€Å", thereby overestimating his abilities by thinking he could outperform the market even after severe losses. A case study into the affair concluded th at it was overconfidence that led Nick Leeson to bet his reputation. But, as Saul Hansell of The New York Times stated, â€Å"It isn’t Just rogue traders loose annons stretching internal rules on trading desks who have destroyed their investors’ wealth. Money managers who play by the rules can get caught up short, too, when they fall to overconfidence about their mastery of the markets. † He further wrote that, â€Å"It is no secret that traders, as a class, are a young, independent and cocky bunch. The sheer size of the money they are Juggling can lead toa master-of-the- universe attitude. The Fall of Barings sank Barings Bank was founded in 1762 as the â€Å"John and Francis Baring Company’ by Sir Francis Baring. This bank was the oldest merchant bank in London, financed the Napoleonic Wars, and was the Queen of England’s own bank. In 1996, one man, Nick Leeson, managed to bring down Barings Bank, one of the oldest and most conservative financial institutions in the world, through his illicit trading activity. In 1989, Leeson Joined Barings Bank. After being transferred to Jakarta, Indonesia to sort through a back-office mess involving EIOO million of share certificates, Leeson solidified his reputation within Barings when he successfully rectified the situation in 0 months. Lesson also knew how to account for derivatives, even if he did not fully understand the complexities of their pricing. Therefore, in 1992, when Barings opened a new office in Singapore to trade on the expanding Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SIMEX), Leeson became an obvious candidate to manage it. Senior management at Barings Bank assumed that Leeson would turn the Singapore office into a highly profitable endeavor and therefore gave him extensive responsibility. As eliminated the necessary checks and balances usually found within trading rganizations. Soon he was Barings Banks star Singapore trader, bringing in substantial profits from trading on the Singapore exchange. By 1993, Leeson had made more than Elo million, about 10% of Barings’s total profit for that year. In 1994, he delivered over half of the E52. 9 million in revenue for his division on his own, making many proclaim him as the â€Å"miracle worker. † In his autobiography Rogue Trader, Leeson said the culture at Barings was simple: â€Å"We were all driven to make profits, profits, and more profits I was the rising star. Aided by his lack of upervision, the 28-year-old Nick Lesson promptly started unauthorized speculation in futures on the Nikkei 225 stock index and Japanese government bonds. SIMEX regulators were aware of Leeson’s cross-trading activities, and his breach of their exchange regulations, but did not act decisively to stop him. Leeson’s large trading volumes were quickly becoming important for the exchange, and being a lightl y regulated market was central to SIMEX’s strategy to woo trade from neighboring Osaka. Using futures contracts, Leeson speculated that the Nikkei would rise.

Modern Day Mass Shooter - 1419 Words

Seeing stories about mass shootings on the news is an everyday occurrence. Mass shootings occur when people intentionally and indiscriminately shoot multiple people at one venue or at one time. In the United States, there have been 62 mass shootings in the last thirty years. There have been 24 in the last seven years, alone. If he lived in the twenty first century the monster in Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly and the movie by the same title, directed by James Whale, would be a modern day mass shooter. The monster and serial shooters share some comparably important traits, such as being bullied by humans, wanting revenge, and having psychological problems. To some, being bullied is not a big deal; but to others (such as the monster and many mass shooters) being bullied affects their outlook on the world. To bully, according to Miriam Webster Dictionary, is â€Å"to frighten, hurt, or threaten (a smaller or weaker person): to act like a bully toward (someone): to cause (someone) to do something by making threats or insults or by using force† both the monster and many mass shooters have experienced high levels of bullying, which possibly led to the massacres. In particular, a well-known duo of boys became mass shooters after being continuously bullied by their classmates. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed twelve people and injured 24 at Columbine High School. According to the New York Times, in an article comparing the different factors in mass suicidal shooters to terrorist â€Å"TheShow MoreRelatedVideo Games And Its Effects824 Words   |  4 Pages Main Idea/ Claim: Violent video games are causally linked to untreated mental illness, as identified in recent mass murderers. Introduction: Adam Lanza. Eric Harris. Dylan Klebold. Jared Lee Loughner. Anders Behring. James Holmes. 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