Comparing Themes in Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five

Comparing Themes in Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five Throughout his career, Kurt Vonnegut has used writing as a tool to convey penetrating messages and ominous warnings about our society. He skillfully combines vivid imagery with a distinctly satirical and anecdotal style to explore complex issues such as religion and war. Two of his most well known, and most gripping, novels that embody this subtle talent are Cats Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five. Both books represent Vonnegut’s genius for manipulating fiction to reveal glaring, disturbing and occasionally redemptive truths about human nature. On the surface, Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five are dramatically different novels, each with its own characters, symbols,†¦show more content†¦However, Vonnegut asserts that although God may not exist, free will may not exist either. In Slaughterhouse-Five, he summarizes his opinions with the comment; among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future (SF 60). According to the Tra lfamadorians, time is constant, and not dynamic. To them, all moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist„.they can see how permanent all the moments are (SF 27). Because of this, the decisions we make are not due to free will; instead, they occur because everybody has to do exactly what he does (SF 198). In Cat’s Cradle, Jonah, the main character, does not travel through time as Billy Pilgrim does, yet he is able to come to the same realization that time is more like a static stretch of mountains than a flowing river. However, unlike Billy, Jonah must discover this without the help of the Tralfamadorians. When Jonah experiences a Bokononist vision of the unity in every second of all time and all wandering mankind (CC 67), he is finally able to understand how all of time is connected. Billy and Jonah both have unique insights into the nature of time, consequently, they have resigned themselves to fate; neither of them cares about death or life because they know that they are helpless to change the future. Whenever Jonah recounts a story,

Bribery - 2208 Words

Research Methodology †¢ Title A study of the effect of bribery and corruption with lack of censorship in the governmental institution There are various reasons why corruption takes place and takes hold. Sometimes it is due to the fact that officials are simply not paid very much and so they need to supplement their salaries with money from bribes. Sometimes the bureaucratic system is set up in such a way that officials simply refuse to carry out their duties unless they are ‘encouraged’ by being offered bribes. In other cases it is actually part of the tradition and culture of a country to give and receive ‘gifts’ in order to get anything done. In some cases companies from less corrupt countries allegedly engage in bribery in order†¦show more content†¦Mostly, corruption occurs in environments where it is tolerated and where the temptation is too strong to resist. In the following paragraph there are some examples of how bribes take place in each and every one of them. The enormous scale of grand corruption in Peru was revealed in 2000 by discoveries leading to the resignation and self–exile of the president, Alberto Fujimori. Video–taped evidence showed that Vladimir Montesano’s, Fujimori’s spy chief, had repeatedly bribed congressmen to defect to Fujimori’s party to ensure its majority in congress. In addition, large bribes had enabled Montesano’s to control most of the media and influence the judiciary. However, Fujimori is credited with having reduced petty corruption. His administration pursued policies reducing the role of government, which he justified not only on efficiency grounds, but on the grounds that reducing the role of government would reduce opportunities for corruption. He attempted to reduce corruption in the police and municipal governments, in the latter case by establishing a supervisory agency to field citizen complaints. However, his reforms of the judiciary are thought to have made it more corrupt. Despite some progress, however, several institutions with which ordinary people have much conta ct were judged to be corrupt by Transparency International in a November 2001 report. ast week did not begin well for Siemens CEO Klaus Kleinfeld, 49, and supervisory boardShow MoreRelatedBribery3420 Words   |  14 PagesBryan Jaeger Business and Ethics UI400-01 April 20, 2015 International Business and Bribery Have you ever bribed someone to let you do something that you weren’t allowed to do? As much as I hate to admit to it, I have done it my fair share of times. Bribery can be a good or bad thing depending on the situation and how the bribe is used. No matter what I believe that bribery can usually lead to bad consequences. Though it can happen for just small things such as slipping someone a 20 dollarRead MoreBribery – the Dilemma1696 Words   |  7 PagesMexico where bribery is commonplace while at the same time trying to ensure that they do not violate their companies code of conduct or worse the government’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). It is a fine line they walk. This paper will help those managers by explaining what bribery is, why it is thought to be an issue, show recently where companies have bribed and been caught as well as offer suggestions that will enable the U.S. manager in Mexico to accomplish what bribery accomplishes butRead MoreInter national Bribery Regulation And The Bribery Act 20101545 Words   |  7 Pages2.4 International Bribery Regulation and the Bribery Act 2010 2.4.1 Development of National and Transnational Ethics Regulations The development of national and international bribery legislation and regulation has been a slow process spanning many centuries, stemming from the recognition of Piracy as the first and true international crime (Duhaime’s Law Dictionary, 2015). Although wide agreement exists on the detrimental impacts of bribery and corrupt practices, many individual countries and transnationalRead MoreCorruption and Bribery1795 Words   |  8 PagesCorruption and Bribery April 29, 2015 Abstract In this paper, I will be writing about corruption and bribery. I will define the terms and go on to explain the regulations that have been put in place to stop corruption and bribery. I will then go on to give examples of major corruption and bribery scandals that companies have recently been in and what has been done to punish said companies for their crime. Intro Corruption is defined in the Merriam-Webster DictionaryRead MoreBribery Corruption2102 Words   |  9 PagesBribery and Corruption: Is Signing the OECD Convention Enough? Darina Tomayeva 500127919 LAW724 Professor Lan Word Count: 1645 Bribery and Corruption: Is Signing the OECD Convention Enough? Before the 1990’s, the conventional belief was that corruption in developing countries was practically inevitable and in some cases even desirable. However, a more in-depth investigation into this issue suggests that bribery and corruption can cause significant problems for all parties involved. ForRead MoreBribery And Corruption Of India716 Words   |  3 Pagesemotionally and intellectually and the presentation of the case that gives a voice. The topic of bribery in India or any other countries for that matter, it is utmost important that we understand the points raised correctly and precisely. For this article, the viewpoint by the author was clear, coherent, and elaborated accordingly to the challenges faced by international firms in the form of bribery and corruption in doing business in the national or state level in India. For every argument, relevantRead MoreSiemens Ag Bribery1261 Words   |  6 PagesSiemens AG Bribery Scandal This paper will focus on the analysis of the well-known and popular bribery scandal in the world, such as Siemens AG Bribery Scandal which occurred in November, 2006. Siemens AG is one of the largest and most popular electrical engineering companies operated in the world. The present company was founded in 1847 in Berlin and is now headquartered in Munich, Germany. The discussion and the proper analysis of this bribery scandal will help to learn many effective lessonsRead MoreBribery And Ethics Of The United States2208 Words   |  9 Pages Bribery and Ethics Sarah A. Rowe Campbellsville University â€Æ' Abstract Bribery has become a common term in the corporate world, specifically when international business deals are discussed. Until 1977, it was legal in the United States to bribe foreign officials in order to receive preference or a better business deal. But, the passing of the Foreign Corruption Practices Act of 1977 and its subsequent amendments made it a criminal act for any organization within the U.S. or foreign organizationRead MoreThe Bribery Scandal at Siemens Ag1661 Words   |  7 Pages1. †¢ In your opinion, is â€Å"bribing† unethical illegal or just a cost of doing business? Discuss this in light of Siemens’ bribery scandal. We believe that bribing is unethical because it takes away the fairness of a business transaction between bidders of a contract. Bribing also has a negative impact on competition because it allows for oligopolies and monopolies to emerge in an industry due to smaller competitors being unable to financially compete with the amount of the bribes. This inRead MoreWalmart de Mexicos Bribery Issue668 Words   |  3 PagesIt’s seemingly that Walmart de Mexico bribery scandal is far from over. Many investigations has been carried out to fully answer what acctually happened in the past, what system failed, and who was responsible for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which bars bribery of foreign officials, but questions of accountability recently remain unanswered. It also means that Walmart leaders have succeeded in hiding all the important clues to avoid sanctions. The whole thing

Sex, Lies, And Consent By Tom Dougherty - 1613 Words

In â€Å"Sex, Lies, and Consent,† Tom Dougherty argues the Lenient Thesis from the substantive account of consent. In this essay, I will discuss and explain Dougherty’s argument. Then, I will present Neil Manson s objection that Dougherty account of consent mistakenly centralizes the role of scope in determining one’s range of restrictions for consent. Finally, I will present a case that disputes Manson’s opposition to Dougherty and how Dougherty could address Manson’s charge against him. To understand how Dougherty argues his position, we first need to understand the context of the Lenient Thesis. The Lenient Thesis states that â€Å"it is only a minor wrong to deceive another person into sex by misleading her or him about certain personal†¦show more content†¦In the event where the salesmen sold her a rabid puppy, her consent would have been violated (Dougherty, 2013, p.735). When we apply this view of consent to the realm of sexual decision making, we see that many cases of deception for sex are non-consensual. Since the substantive account of consent emphasizes the importance of one determining one’s restrictions, it conflicts with the Lenient Thesis that objectively assumes that certain types of features such as religion are more critical to sexual decision making. Dougherty (2013) supports her argument with an example where Chloe deceives Victoria into having sex by lying that she shares the same love of nature, peace, and animals even though she was in the military and enjoys hunting and eating animals. The Lenient Thesis would argue that Victoria validly consented since lying about a peripheral feature would only be a minor wrong. However, the substantive view of consent would disagree because personal preferences are still considered core features that constitute when consent is violated (Dougherty, 2013, p.728). Thus, it brings a more subjective view to the table where everyone’s deal-breaker should be valued. According to Dougherty (2013), deal-breakers are strong qualities that would disqualify someone as a sexual partner. Deal-breakers vary for every individual, and it is entirely up to the individuals to decide what their deal-breakers are. To relate this concept back to theShow MoreRelatedDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 PagesBennis, a colleague of ours, half-jokingly predicted that the factory of the future would have only two employees, a person and a dog. The person would be there to feed the dog. The dog would be there to keep the person from touching the equipment! Tom Peters counseled managers that, due to the chaotic pace of change, â€Å"If you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention.† And the late Peter Drucker characterized the current environment this way: â€Å"We are in one of those great historical periods that

Thinking as a Hobby. free essay sample

After reading Thinking as a Hobby, it was apparent that the three statuettes were all very symbolic in their own unique way. The pure, effortless beauty that is portrayed by the nearly naked woman in a bath towel shows that beauty is so insanely important to the world in which we live. The second statuette talked about in this document is the leopard, which symbolizes nature. The way the leopard is positioned in the beginning of this piece of work symbolizes the way humans are always under the authority of nature, whether we want to admit it or not. Finally, we each the thinker.This is a very well known statue showing a man, chin to fist, elbow to knee, clearly symbolizing an image of pure thought. The Thinker also represents mans incessant quest for knowledge. In the beginning of this work, all three statuettes do basically in and of themselves, not really have to do with each other. We will write a custom essay sample on Thinking as a Hobby. or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page However, after they are rearranged, they all seem to take on a new symbol. Placing the woman in front of the A-AH does not make her seem to represent beauty; rather she seems to take on a sense of excessive vulnerability, not really knowing hat to do.Placing the thinker in front of the leopard absolutely changes every aspect of the symbols, which they represented. The thinker seems to turn to fear rather than thought. The leopard takes on the role of danger and threat, which are both ignoramus parts of human lives. It seems that simply placing these statuettes In different positions, allows them to take on an entirely new meaning, thus playing along with the whole theme of different levels of thought that was apparent throughout the work.