The Emerging Issues in Healthcare Finance Essay Example for Free

The Emerging Issues in Healthcare Finance Essay A few decades back, healthcare financiers believed that managed care with capitation was the best policy tool that would help control the ever-increasing health care costs. Instead of focusing on healthcare quality, the administrators focused on the cost per month or per member and the provider organizations which competed for the market share. However, this has changed in the new century as new payment tools have emerged due to innovations in the healthcare marketplace. Currently, healthcare is considered in terms of quality and efficiency as far as purchase and delivery of healthcare are concerned. Capturing these key features of the current healthcare provision, the main objectives of ensuring quality and efficiency has led to the new concept dubbed pay-for-performance. In other literatures, P4P is known as value-based purchasing. P4P is a healthcare payment system that rewards physicians, hospitals and various healthcare providers for their efficiency in healthcare provision. Efficiency in this case is defined in terms of higher quality of healthcare at a relatively low cost (Wu, Nishimi, Kizer, 2005). However, defining quality can be very hard and challenging to most players in healthcare provision and financing. And as various players in healthcare – patients, providers and financiers, seek more direct and timely measures for quality and value, the government has quickly moved in to help set the standards. Through the CMS, the United States federal government has been able to come up with quality indicators (QIs), which are continuously being developed and refined (Rosenthal Richard, 2006). These measures for quality and value are currently available in various Web-based portals which the government hopes will increase consumer awareness. Patients are encouraged to compare facilities used by healthcare providers with those available in the Quality Indicator Web portals. Moreover, services and treatment by providers can also be evaluated against those available in the web showing standard quality measures. As the oversight body, the CMS as mandated by the federal government has established a provider quality reporting system for healthcare. Empowered by the 2006 Tax Relief and Health Care Act, the CMS has put in place the provider quality reporting initiative which rewards physicians and other providers who successfully report their set of quality measures. As a reward the government may recommend bonus payment which is subject to a cap equaling 1. 5 percent of the total amount of Medicare costs within the six months period of reporting (Wu, Nishimi, Kizer, 2005).. The public and private payers have welcomed the value-based performance as an answer to soaring healthcare costs and also a means of ensure quality service to patients. By 2005, about 75 percent of all United States companies had connected at least some of their employee’s pay to work performance and also in healthcare. Currently, over 100 pilot programs undertaken by private and public payers are underway. The current healthcare payment system may reward less-safe services because most insurance companies refuse to compensate for new services and practices intended to reduce errors. Again, the system may also encourage poor workmanship, as hospitals and physicians are allowed to charge additional services required when a patient is infected or injured in the hospital. Pay-for-performance however, tries to avert such loses and has received a lot of support from both public and private payers. American insurance companies hope to save a lot from this program (Rosenthal Richard, 2006).. The healthcare financiers would not only be allowed to pay for quality services by physicians and hospitals but would not be required pay for additional services for unintended consequences of treatment and care like injury in hospital, negligence during surgery and many others as defined by National Quality Forum (Leape Berwick, 2005). The current payers like the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Leapfrog Group have learnt from the pilot programs that pay-for-performance greatly affects the outcome and quality of any work and increases performance. These companies are very much optimistic that they would not only reduce cost of healthcare but also ensure that their members receive the best healthcare services. This initiative is expected to attract more private insurance companies to invest in healthcare with hope of increasing the profits and capital base. Many insurance companies may be to offer more comprehensive healthcare coverage to various people as they have would a large capital base due to reduced healthcare costs and therefore a lot to re-invest (Wu, Nishimi, Kizer, 2005). The primary goal of pay-for-performance according to policymakers is to increase quality in healthcare while at the same time reduced financial burden of care (Dudley, 2005). These positives are all pointing to the patients and insurance companies all agree that pay-for-performance would benefit the patients. However, as physicians argue, the P4P system may not be in the best interest of the patient. Insurance companies and other healthcare financiers would be the greatest winners if the pay-for-performance is fully implemented. With the CMS initiative that calls for elimination of payments for negative effects of any medical practices that lead to injuries, other illnesses or even death, other insurance companies that are also willing to undertake such initiative, stand to gain a lot from the P4P system. Considering that doctors may not be perfect all the times and some patients are known to develop new infections even when the best known practices are applied, the healthcare payers would be positively affected by this new payment system (Grossbart, 2006). Lessons from the Research Despite the good intentions of the value-based performance program, the government still faces one of the biggest challenges in its implementation. Implementation of P4P faces challenges of having everyone agree on the quality standards. The quality measures as defined earlier are objective indicators used to evaluate whether physicians are providing high quality healthcare. For example, a doctor may be required to test the A1C levels in diabetic patients four times annually as a quality standard measure. In a pay-for-performance system, physicians who reach this threshold would be compensated appropriately. However, many health providers challenge such indicators by arguing that medical practice is not only an art but also a science and therefore setting up checklists as well as treatment algorithms would be a great disservice to the patients. Again, it is quite common to hear about physicians disagreeing with one another on the appropriate course of medication and treatment that should be adopted by the patients with similar diagnosis and the same medical histories. Therefore if the pay-for-performance system is to be successfully implemented, such disagreements would have to be ironed out first (Grossbart, 2006). It would be quite hard to say the specific impacts of the P4P system in the future as it is still undergoing pilot implementation. Nevertheless, because pay-for-performance is basically focusing on how doctors, hospitals and other various healthcare providers are compensated for their work, an individual patient may not be affected greatly in terms of costs. In the long run if the pay-for-performance is fully and successfully implemented, the greatest beneficiary would be the patient who would receive healthcare at a reduced cost. However, whether the quality of health care would improve quality or not is matter still debated.

Accounting Rules and Joint Ventures in Europe

Accounting Rules and Joint Ventures in Europe Bridging the GAAP The International Accounting Standards (IAS) was supposed to be a unifying conceptual framework which would bring accounting practices of various firms and industries under a single umbrella of standards. No matter if it is a Greek shipping magnate or an Italian fish processing plant, the EU envisioned that they would work within a single standard to better facilitate trade amongst various nations. Indeed, the EU attempted to achieve this through the means of directives, which were soon abandoned. Directives, aimed at forcing compliance with EU accounting standards and practices were discarded because of complaints such as those voiced by the 2003 Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes with regards to the Czech Republic that â€Å"The wording of primary and secondary legislation suggests that the Czech Republic’s real priority is compliance with EU directives, rather than adoption of IAS.† Indeed, these two seemed to be not only different goals, but mutually ex clusive ones- companies could either sate the directives issued or the requirements of the IAS, but rarely both, especially in Eastern Block nations where both concepts were fairly new. Now, however, a new complication is on the horizon in the form of bilateral trade with the U.S. and U.S.-E.U. joint ventures. Obviously the directives, which have been scrapped in any case, would have no force of law in U.S. courts. But nevertheless, there has been considerable movement on this issue as of late. In 2006, the IASB issued a paper called â€Å"A Roadmap for Convergence between IFRSs and US GAAP- 2006-2008 Memorandum of Understanding between the FASB and the IASB†. The memorandum, based upon work done during a 2002 meeting between the FASB (U.S.) and the IASB, as well as subsequent meetings in 2005, stated that â€Å"the FASB and the IASB reaffirmed their commitment to the convergence of US generally accepted accounting principles (US GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs).† Nevertheless, this is bound to be a complicated venture because it can not be resolved by boards or government agencies. As the memorandum itself recognized, â₠¬Å"the ability to meet the objective set out by the roadmap depends upon the efforts and actions of many parties—including companies, auditors, investors, standard-setters and regulators.† In other words, bridging the gaap is not merely a matter of ironing out a combined framework of accounting practices. It is a matter of a company in Los Angeles following the same accounting standards and practices that a company in London would. It is also a question of training assessors and auditors in this new standard so that they can ensure compliance with it. For these reasons, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently put forth a proposal which would allow U.S. listed companies to choose between IFRS and the U.S. GAAP. While some in Europe and the U.S. fear that allowing companies to make this choice would hinder the process of converging the two systems (Johnson, 2007) it is nevertheless a practical solution which should be given serious thought and consideration. The European Union, an offspring of NATO, was fifty years in the making. The idea that uniform standards can be achieved on both sides of the pond between thousands of individual companies is fanciful. As a pragmatic matter as well, people are often leery of change- especially change that is being forced upon them, which was another reason the Directives approach previously discussed failed. While the ultimate goal of uniformly adopting the IFRS may well be desirable, it is certainly not something that can or will happen overnight. Allowing a choice between GAAP and IFRS for U.S. companies should not be viewed as an effort to â€Å"halt or slow the convergence process† (Johnson, 2007) but rather as an acknowledgement of the real world difficulties inherent to any large-scale transitions. To understand the scope of the proposed transition, it would be helpful to recall why and how the EU adopted the IAS. As mentioned before, the IAS replaced Brussels-originated Directives which were spottily enforced and which were perceived to unduly burden companies and nations less equipped to handle said requirements. Thus, it can fairly be said that the success of the IAS was born of the failure of the Directives-based approach. However, as with all births, it was hounded by complications and proved to be not an easy task. A 2004 ROSC/World Bank report mentioned that not only were there problems with having individual companies follow the requirements of International Auditing Standards, but even government enterprises and governments themselves were struggling. In reporting this, the Board noted another issue- the fact that IAS standards are not appropriate under all circumstances and that regulators ought to specify when IAS should be implemented and when it is not appropriate or expected. If even individual governments do not know or can not discern which events merit IAS use and which do not and how to properly use IAS in order to meet the goal of financial transparency, it may well be too much to ask of individual businesses, especially smaller ones or those in less-fully developed countries. None of this is meant to say that the IAS is a bad idea- after all, it is based on sound accounting practices and principles and has proven easier to follow than Directives, due to its more cohesive and simplified nature. Nevertheless, it is an idea which has taken time to implement. It is the recognition of this transitional time that drove the SEC proposal to allow GAAP filings alongside IFRS ones- and on those grounds, the proposal should be accepted. The IAS sprung from the 1957 Treaty of Rome and the 1970 EU Common Industrial Policy initiative, both of which had harmonization of accounting practices as the goal. The implementation of IFRS continues this trend with the goal of having all companies within the EU report under the IFRS standards by 2007.To be sure, the foregoing is a quest for the harmonization of details. The essential accounting methods are the same, whether they concern a potato farm in Boise or a windmill operator in Rotterdam. For instance, the most basic and fundamental accounting rule- that Assets-Liabilities=Capital, is unchanged by new rules. The same can be said for the calculation of net assets or the definitions of income and capital and the distinctions between the two including the fundamental relationship that capital is an asset which generates income. In a sense, these competing views of filing standards are really about the rules which govern that most fundamental of all business necessities- an ac curate and honest appraisal of a company’s worth- in other words, their asset valuation. This is not a simple task- not merely a question of adding up the profit and loss sides of the ledger- rather, it involves considerations of what to designate as capital maintenance, which amounts can be heralded as operating profits- and why all this is so. In that sense, asset valuation is really a series of judgment calls. If I own a shoe store and I purchase shoe leather, could that be an operational expense? Can it be justified? Is it a personal expense instead? What will I use it for? How will I account for its use? All of these are questions which need to be answered for an asset valuation to be prepared. At times, the answer is obvious- if I own a bookshop and decide to splurge on a Bentley, I can hardly claim that the Bentley is a business-related expense. After all, what use would my bookshop have for it? But many times, indeed most times, it is a more complicated line of enquir y, such as the one regarding the shoe leather. It could be for my personal use but could also be used on the inventory. Perhaps I have overstock that is merely collecting dust and need to be cleaned. As mentioned, the FASB and the IASB are working on a conceptual framework for uniting these two accounting standards. In closing of this paper, it would be prudent to discuss some of the sticking points at this juncture, having just reviewed and emphasized that the nature of asset valuation- indeed of accounting itself- is the use of independent, though guided judgment calls. One example of the conflict is one of expectations- should the entity in question report what the entity expects to occur or what the contract requires? As a pragmatic example, let’s return to our shoe store. Imagine that the shoe store enters a contract with a supplier and as part of the contract, the shoe store must prepare a table showing how many shoes it purchased each month and how many it expects to sell. The goal would be to show that the store is a viable enterprise. And yet, what if the store has purchased 100 pairs of shoes and is required to report the sales for the quarter in the middle of th e third month? The store knows how many shoes it has sold in month one and month two- but does not have the complete figure for month three even though a deadline looms. Should the store estimate the number of sales through the use of current figures? Or should the store be prudent and delay reporting, even though the contract is violated through the stores’ untimeliness? Consider the below sales figures: Week One: 23 pairs    Week Two: 23 pairs    Week Three: 23 pairs    Week Four: 27 pairs Week Five: 23 pairs    Week Six: 23 pairs    Week Seven: 21 pairs    Week Eight: 23 pairs Week Nine: 19 pairs    Week Ten: 18 pairs The store can reasonably expect to sell twenty-three pairs of shoes in week eleven and twenty-three in week twelve, since six of the ten weeks show twenty-three shoes sold. On the other hand, weeks nine and ten have seen a slump and that slump may well continue. Thus, estimating the sales figures for weeks eleven and twelve are tricky at best. Perhaps weeks nine and ten are the start of the summer season and sales will be sluggish throughout. But perhaps weeks nine and ten are anomalies. This is one of the real world difficulties presented by the attempt to reconcile standards and expectations. Another of the many issues on which FASB and IASB differ is whether conservatism conflicts with neutrality in financial reports. The goal of all financial reporting is to be neutral. An asset valuation is not an advertisement- it is an honest statement of your inventory. It may make your company look good or look bad, but it can not be altered in content for the sake of appearances. At the same time, auditors and governments encourage companies to practice conservatism in their estimations. The reasoning for this is that it is always better to err on the side of safety. How do these two goals- conservatism and neutrality- mesh in the real world? Lets return to our shoe store, whose sales figures are above. Weeks nine and ten show declines with fewer shoes sold in week nine than in week eight and fewer shoes sold in week ten than in week nine. These figures hardly lend an air of optimism to the auditing process. If we combine that with conservative accounting principles, we would be well advised to project that sales in week eleven will decline. After all, they have been declining for two straight weeks, something that is unique to this quarter. Additionally, there has been a decline that is steeper than anything encountered this quarter. As such, if we were conservative, we would surely predict further, possibly steep declines. However, notice that there was a strong decline from week four to week five as well, yet figures stabilized. Based on that limited history, is conservatism really pessimism? Thus, does conservatism in this instance deviate from neutrality? The goal of achieving uniformity in accounting practices is a worthy one. In an integrated world where economies and businesses have come to depend on one another, it makes sense that expectations be harmonized. Moreover, it is not as difficult a task as it may seem, given that the basics of sound business and accounting practices are fairly uniform throughout the world. The principles governing accounting also have a high degree of uniformity. However, this is still a matter of aligning different businesses, cultures and even continents along a single fiscal path. The goal is a worthy one and may well be achieved. But, like Rome, it wont be done in a day. Or even a year. Bibliography: Hegarty, J. and Gielen F. and Barros A.C.H. (2004) â€Å"Implementation of International Accounting and Auditing Standards: Lessons Learned from the World Bank’s Accounting and Auditing ROSC Program,† September 2004, accessed via http://www.worldbank.org/ifa/LessonsLearned_ROSC_AA.pdf on 16 November 2007. IASB (2006) â€Å"A Roadmap for Convergence Between IFRSs and U.S. GAAP 2006-2008 Memorandum of Understanding Between the FASB and the IASB† 27 February 2006, accessed via http://www.iasb.org/NR/rdonlyres/874B63FB-56DB-4B78-B7AF-49BBA18C98D9/0/MoU.pdf on 16 November 2007. IFA (2003) â€Å"Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC): Czech Republic,† accessed via http://www.worldbank.org/ifa/czerosc_aa.pdf on 16 November 2007. Johnson S. (2007) â€Å"What if IFRS Replaced GAAP?† CFO.com, accessed via http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/9634508?f=rsspage on 16 November 2007.

Point of View in Amy Tan’s Short Story, Two Kinds Essay -- Two Kinds, A

Point of View in Amy Tan’s Short Story, Two Kinds In her short story "Two Kinds," Amy Tan utilizes the daughter's point of view to share a mother's attempts to control her daughter's hopes and dreams, providing a further understanding of how their relationship sours. The daughter has grown into a young woman and is telling the story of her coming of age in a family that had emigrated from China. In particular, she tells that her mother's attempted parental guidance was dominated by foolish hopes and dreams. This double perspective allows both the naivety of a young girl trying to identify herself and the hindsight and judgment of a mature woman. "Two Kinds" is a powerful example of differing personalities causing struggles between parent and child. In every parent-child relationship, there are occurrences in which the parent places expectations on the child. Some children fall victim to a parent trying too hard or placing expectations too high, or, in the case of "Two Kinds," a parent trying to live her life through that of her child. However, the mother is also a victim in that she succumbs to her own foolish dream that "you could be anything you wanted to be in America." Knowing that her own time has passed, she wants her daughter to succeed by any means necessary, but she never stops to think of what her daughter might want. She strictly adheres to her plan, and her overbearing parenting only leaves the daughter with feelings of disapproval and questions of self-worth. The mother does not realize the controversy that she creates, and she cannot understand that her actions could be wrong. She also does not realize tha t she is hurting not only her daughter, but also the relationship that should bind the two of them ... ...by the wrong person. Only after the death of her mother can she let her guilt override her pride. Only after the death of her mother, when she can act on her own accord and not please her mother, does she truly play the piano. Their conflict has gone unsolved, and the mother has died believing that she was a failure as a parent. Throughout the daughter's childhood, both are trapped in their own selfish illusions. Their personalities clash, and neither is willing to compromise. It is unfortunate that neither can realize the extent to which they have damaged themselves individually and jointly. They are fundamentally the same, but, blinded by tenacity, neither realizes that "they are two halves of the same song." Works Cited Tan, Amy. "Two Kinds". Literature, Reading Reacting,Writing. 5th ed. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Heinle, 2004.

George III of Britain: Popular with the People, but not with Parliament

George III of Britain: Popular with the People, but not with Parliament Although history has labeled King George III of Britain primarily as the â€Å"mad† king responsible for the loss of America, a closer look at the 1780s, the heart of his reign, proves George III to be a particularly effective monarch rather than the bungling idiot some scholars have dubbed him. George III’s effectiveness, during the 1780s, stemmed from his immense popularity with the common people, which lay in direct contrast to his lack of popularity with Parliament. The popularity that George III enjoyed with the masses was largely due to his personal integrity and moral character, and his lack of popularity with Parliament was a result of his desire to reclaim the monarchial power lost in the reigns of George I and II. The popularity George III held with the masses ought to first be considered in light of his Hanoverian predecessors. Neither George I nor George II held the British throne in high esteem. In fact George I, the first of the Hanoverian monarchs, viewed his ascension to the British throne as little more than an opportunity to â€Å"enhance his prestige amongst the other Electors of the Holy Roman Empire† (Clark and Ridley 13). He also saw England as a means, with considerable resources, to ensure the safety of his beloved Hanover. This attitude of ambivalence resulted in George Is leaving the duties of running Great Britain to Parliament while the king acted as little more than a figure-head. George II acted likewise leaving the main governing of Britain to Parliament and failing to be a truly active monarch, instead indulging his attentions in wine and women rather than the politics of the day. Needless to say George III's desire to... ...t for a private funeral. And â€Å"shops throughout England, Scotland and Wales shut for the occasion which spawned a vast array of sermons and homilies on the ‘sainted remains of our dear king† (Colley 94). King George III died a beloved and well-respected monarch whose popularity was unequaled in his time. Works Cited Bloy, Marjie. â€Å"The Age of George III.† A Web of English History. Jul. 2003. 10 Nov. 2003 . Brooke, John. King George III. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972. Clarke, John, and Jasper Ridley. The Houses of Hanover & Saxe-Coburg Gotha. Los Angeles: Cassell & Co, 2000. Colley, Linda. â€Å"The Apotheosis of George III: Loyalty, Royalty and the British Nation 1760-1820.† Past and Present No. (Feb., 1984), 94-129. White, R. J. The Age of George III. New York: Walker and Company, 1968.

The Magic Barrel :: Magic Barrel Essays

Who else from any Jewish - American authors can translate Yeddish for the American readers so colorfully and honestly?   Who else can represent the reality of Jewish life with love and light irony? This is Bernard Malamud, who was born in family of Russian - Jewish immigrants.   He found his characters in real Jewish community.   That is why the tone and style of   "The Magic Barrel" are so unmistakable and truthful.     Through two main characters author involves us in a specific business going on between Leo Finkle, a lonely rabbinical student, and Pinye Salzman, a matchmaker.   In order to get a good congregation Leo supposed to be married.   How a man, who was studying for six years and who never was in a company of woman, easily can find a wife?   The same way as his parents did.   He went to the matchmaker.  Ã‚   It was not so easy for Leo to appeal to Salzman, because he hoped to find the wife by himself.   He wanted to be in love before he gets married.   But he resorted to help.   It was a firs time when he turned his mind over. Pine Salzman, the marriage broker, represented the old generation, and respected the old Jewish tradition.   Marriage is a very important part of a Jew's life, and the family is more important than the girl herself is.   He does not think about love.   It is possible to imagine how Leo was disappointed when Salzmen introduced the girls to hi m.   "Sophie P. Widow. Father promises eight thousand dollars.   Has wonderful wholesale business.   Also realestate." "Lily H. Regular. Father is successful dentist thirty-five years.   Interested in professional man.   Wonderful opportunity." Moreover, "She is a partikiler. She wants the best." Leo's interest to Lily was aroused, and he began seriously to consider calling on her.   Finally they met.   She provoked him to say the strange, but a very capacious and valuable phrase: "I think, that I came to God not because I loved Him, but because I did not." But Lily didn't dream about him, she dreamed about an invented hero.   After this date he turned his mind over again. He felt that he could not love a girl.   Although Leo returned to his regular routine, he was in panic and depression from one thought: nobody loves him and he does not love anybody either.   There was no bride for him.

Lord of the Flies, Quote Analysis

Chapter four of Lord of the Flies is an important chapter of the book. It contains some key turning points of the plot and shows various major developments of the characters. It this essay, three quotes concerning theme, symbolism and irony in chapter four will be analysed. In chapter four Golding visualises the theme of savagery in pages 79 and 80 by describing Jack’s ‘new face’. â€Å"He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw.†Golding deliberately describes Jack’s face again, even though he had already described the changes concerning his face. By re-describing Jack’s savage like face, the author wants to emphasise the continuously more important getting theme of savagery at this point in the book. As the memory of an adult controlled civilisation fades away, the savage like behaviour increases. Jack’s unnaturally coloured face also resembles his will to hunt, to kill, to destruct.Jack’s character and his look are unifying as his face and character slowly transform into an uncontrollable, savage like monster. Moreover, his new face’s authority is immediately shown in the lines following the description of his face, in which the other are obeying his order to get him a coco-nut. Society as an illusion is nicely demonstrated on page 75 which states â€Å"They had built castles at the bar of the little river. These castles were about one foot high and were decorated with shells, withered flowers, and interesting stones.†This quote is explicitly clarifying the reader that society on the island is dead or an ancient memory at least. The withered flowers on the castle symbolise drained life, when one would see the castle as society, which was originally flourishing as it was beautifully decorated with flowers. However, at this point, the flowers more seem to resemble an overgr own layer of dead weeds, which indicate the lack of care and respect that has been shown to the maintenance of the castle and in this comparison, society.Not only does the castle look abandoned and not-taken-care-of, it is just a few lines away from total destruction as it is destroyed by Roger and Maurice on the next page. From that point onwards, society based on structure and rational thinking has completely crumbled down, burying the principals of their former world. The quote of Ralph on page 85 â€Å"They let the bloody fire out. † can be taken in by the reader in a very ironical way. This is due to various reasons. Firstly, one must ask himself the question: ‘Who is they?’After all, Ralph had quite a leading character in the book. If anyone should be held responsible for the dozing of the fire, one of the most likely would have been Ralph himself. Secondly, he was the first one to reach the top, indicating that if anyone could have been held responsible fo r letting the fire out it is, again, Ralph. The irony continues as Ralph went intensely red after the event had happened. The actual fire might have been let out but the fire like anger awoke inside Ralph because of the dozing of the fire.Ironically, even though at the start of the book the children cherished their fire, as if it was their only way of surviving, yet it is the fire that is neglected causing them to miss out on a potential rescue. Conclusionally, the quotes â€Å"He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw. † (pages 79 and 80), â€Å"They had built castles at the bar of the little river.These castles were about one foot high and were decorated with shells, withered flowers, and interesting stones. † (page 75) and â€Å"They let the bloody fire out. † (page 85) depict the author’s intentions to express the omnipresence of the theme savagery and the way, which is regularly clarified by the use of symbolism and irony. The author has chosen to clarify this through symbolism and irony, to slowly make the reader more aware of the deeper thought of the book, war.

Compare and contrast your way of life with that of your parents. Essay

Compare and contrast your way of life with that of your parents. Which way life do you think would be more satisfying to future generation? Nowadays, people have been changed the way they live. To compare between my age and my parent, there are differences ideas in the job preferences and the success of life. Both of People who born in generation X and Y prefer to work with a reputation company than a small company, however, generation X people are likely to hop to many companies than generation Y. Obviously, people in my parents age are more loyal to the company than we are. This is because our parents are lacking of new information while, in our generation, there are the invention of communication technology. For example, we can assess new information across the world easily. Therefore, we are up to new ideas every day. Moreover, the advance of new technology makes people think that everything is possible. Thus, new generation tends to quit a job and prefer to be own boss more than old generation. Another different perspective between new and old generation is the pursuit of life. In our parent age, people tend to get married and built the family at young age, whereas nowadays people are more likely postpone their marriage life. New generation think that they suppose to be success in financial aspect before getting married. This information is supported by the statistics that show the proportion of children population declines while the proportions of elderly are higher. In conclusion, I think there are advantage and disadvantage in both the way our parents and our way of life. To illustrate, the old generation are more patience and going to on their path, while the new generation looks like getting bored with everything easily. If the next generation brings the pros from previous generations to utilize, they would be pass through the obstacle and doing what they love.