Essay Question Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Question - Essay Example In addition, Creon is to take care of Oedipus children, that is, Antigone and Ismene, and Oedipus sons, Polyneices, and Eteocles. When the two sons of Oedipus become of age, they start to fight over who is to rule Thebes. Polyneices being the older brother believed to be the rightful heir to the throne Thebes since he had the birthright. However, Eteocles causes an uprising against Polyneices and ousts him out of power. Polyneices retaliates with an army in a battle where the two brothers kill each other. Creon ascends to the throne once again. Conflict arises in Thebes when the new king Creon makes a decree that it is only Eteocles that will be honored with a befitting burial since Eteocles fought for Thebes. On the other hand, the body of Polyneices was to be left in the field to rot and be eaten by animals for leading a violent uprising against Thebes using a foreign army. The decree of Creon, which prohibited anyone against burying Polyneices was to serve as an example to Polyneices followers (Sophocles & Johnston, 2007). Creon declared that Polyneices did not deserve a honorable burial since Polyneices waged war against Thebes and, therefore, a traitor of Thebes. The declaration does not go well with Antigone, who asserts that her brother Polyneices deserves to be buried even though he was a traitor of Thebes (Sophocles & Johnston, 2007). A conflict arises between Antigone and Creon since Antigone believes that they have a divine duty to the gods to bury the dead. In addition, antigone is determined to bring honor to her family by burying her brother. Antigone saw it as immoral and dishonorable for the body of their brother to be left in the fields unburied like someone who had no family. Antigone makes an emotional appeal with Ismene for them to bury their brother since even though Polyneices is guilty of betraying the state, they should show him sisterly love and

Nike Research Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Nike Research Plan - Essay Example However, the USA population that purchases apparels at Target stores might be too big to be recruited to the research study. Therefore, a sample population that is largely representative of the entire USA population purchasing apparels at Targets will be adopted. Nike suffered a great deal in sales and popularity decline, after the Tiger Woods personal scandal that saw the whole of the golf industry lose in sales and profits. There is no doubt therefore, that a need to improve both the image and financial performance of Nikes golf apparel exist. Thus, the research project has defined the research question as; â€Å"Could Nike’s diminished popularity within the golf community increase by introducing an exclusive line of low-cost apparel to be sold at Targets all over the United States?† The sampling method to be applied in this research study is the cluster sampling technique. Cluster sampling technique is the most appropriate for this research study. This is because; the study seeks to establish the population of customers who purchase apparels at Target stores in the USA, Thus making the group of customers at each Target store an already clustered population. The choice of cluster sampling as the method sampling technique is informed by the fact that the entire population that purchases apparels at Targets is unknown, while its characteristics of are also unclear. Further, the suitability of cluster sampling technique for this study is also informed by the fact that the sample clusters targeted by this study are geographically convenient (Ahmed, 2009). This research study targets to collect data from the population that purchases apparels at Targets, which then means that such clusters are conveniently clustered at the different geographical Target store location s.

Political Science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 7

Political Science - Essay Example Illegal immigrants areundocumented immigrantsor aliens in the United States who enter the borders of United States without government permission or those who stay beyond the termination date of a visa. There are different causes of illegal migration ranging from economic incentives of a better life, chain immigration to join relatives, American government inefficiency, and globalization to trade agreements. Illegal migration however has such benefits as availability of cheap labor and payment of taxes by the immigrants. Racial profiling refers to government activity directed at a suspect or group of suspects because of their race, whether intentional or because of the disproportionate numbers of contacts based upon other pre-textual reasons. This is common in America especially when it comes to people from the Middle East but it should be in tandem with the Fourth Amendment. Rawls would have condemned Middle East profiling and the outlawing of illegal migration based on his write-ups.In his ‘A Theory of Justice’ (1971) he made contributions to liberal political philosophy namely: justice as fairness; reflective equilibrium; overlapping consensus; public reason; veil of ignorance; and original position. Rawlsianism provides for the most reasonable principles of justice as those which everyone would accept and agree to from a fair position. Justice as fairness comprises two main principles of Liberty and Equality with the second divided into Fair Equality of Opportunities and the Difference Principle in the order of priority. The Liberty Principle provides for entitlement of everyone to basic liberties while the Equality Principle establishes distributive justice. Fair Equality of Opportunity provides for access to positions to everyone regardless of their social background, ethnicity or sex. The Difference Principle regulates inequalities by permitting them to the advantage of the worst-off (Cohen and Fermon

Nike Research Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Nike Research Plan - Essay Example However, the USA population that purchases apparels at Target stores might be too big to be recruited to the research study. Therefore, a sample population that is largely representative of the entire USA population purchasing apparels at Targets will be adopted. Nike suffered a great deal in sales and popularity decline, after the Tiger Woods personal scandal that saw the whole of the golf industry lose in sales and profits. There is no doubt therefore, that a need to improve both the image and financial performance of Nikes golf apparel exist. Thus, the research project has defined the research question as; â€Å"Could Nike’s diminished popularity within the golf community increase by introducing an exclusive line of low-cost apparel to be sold at Targets all over the United States?† The sampling method to be applied in this research study is the cluster sampling technique. Cluster sampling technique is the most appropriate for this research study. This is because; the study seeks to establish the population of customers who purchase apparels at Target stores in the USA, Thus making the group of customers at each Target store an already clustered population. The choice of cluster sampling as the method sampling technique is informed by the fact that the entire population that purchases apparels at Targets is unknown, while its characteristics of are also unclear. Further, the suitability of cluster sampling technique for this study is also informed by the fact that the sample clusters targeted by this study are geographically convenient (Ahmed, 2009). This research study targets to collect data from the population that purchases apparels at Targets, which then means that such clusters are conveniently clustered at the different geographical Target store location s.

Summary of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Essay Example for Free

Summary of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Essay lIn â€Å"The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,† Stephen Covey helps people become more effective when dealing with the significant challenges of life. In details, Stephen Covey provides guidelines for managing time and balancing studies, social life, job, and other priorities. The first three habits are focused on personal victories. They teach how to develop self-mastery and dependence. Those three habits are: Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, and Put First Things First. Habits four, five, and six address interdependence, the success in working with others. Habit four: Think Win-Win, habit five: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood, and habit six: Synergize. The seventh habit: Sharpen the Saw, talks about building one’s personal production capability through self-renewal and continual improvement. After reading this book, I was encouraged to think about what I can do to develop myself and become the best of me. Therefore, I have decided to take the following steps to improve myself: improve my communication and teamwork skills; keep myself focused on what matters the most; be being proactive; and take the time to renew myself and nurture my body, mind, heart, and spirit. My first recommendation to myself is to improve my communication and teamwork skills. Habit four: Think Win-Win and habit six: Synergize, made me realize the importance of teamwork. Habit four taught me that teamwork and long-term relationships require cooperation by seeking mutual benefit. For every problem, there exists a solution that allows everyone to succeed. According to the book, most people learn to base their self-esteem on comparisons and competition with others. They regard their success as the failure of someone else. If they win, others lose. Other people are the opposite. They think if they lose, others win. They accept loss just to make other people happy. People with such mentalities, find it hard to share the recognition and power of others. They cannot be happy for the successes of others even those closest to them. However, a person with win-win mentality is respectful and assertive at the same time. â€Å"It’s not you or me. It’s both of us. It’s not a matter of who gets the biggest piece of the pie. There’s more than enough for everyone. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet. The other habit that encouraged me to improve my communication and teamwork skills is habit six. It showed me how people produce more together than the sum of what they could produce separately. This habit mainly says teamwork and trust should be built by creatively cooperating with other people and identifying the contributions of them which is synergizing. There are several examples of the synergetic situations . Stephen Covey gives a couple of them. One example is about two politicians being able to get 1 million votes each, but when working together they are able to get 2. 5 million votes. This example represents the classic 1+1 = 2. 5 equation. Another example is about two people who are too short to pick apples from a tree. But when working as a team with one on the shoulders of the other, they can pick many apples. Stephen Covey also illustrates how to create a synergetic model. To produce a synergetic climate one needs to assess three specific habits: have a win-win attitude (habit 4), seek to understand before to be understood (habit 5), and believe you can achieve more together than alone (habit 6). Moreover, valuing the differences is the essence of synergy. To synergize, one needs to acknowledge and appreciate the differences between people. To believe that those differences are not annoying, but they are precious and there is much to gain from accepting them. After realizing how important teamwork is, habit 5 teaches how to develop a powerful communication skill: listening. Habit 5: Seek to Understand, Then to Be Understood, helped me to understand the concept of listening. Seeking first to understand requires getting inside the talking person’s frame and see the situation the way she/he sees it. You need to understand his/her point of view but not necessarily agree with them. When listening to other people, you should not be thinking about what you are going to say next when the other person stops talking. Instead, you should really listen to what they are saying without interrupting them. You need to try to understand them which will build a bridge between your paradigms and the paradigms of them. This way you will more likely have a stronger influence. My second recommendation to myself is to stay focused on what matters the most to me. This recommendation came in to my mind after reading the second habit: Begin With the End in Mind. This habit taught me how to live with a purpose. It is based on the principle that things need to be created mentally before they are physically created. For example, a plane is first created in someone’s mind before it is actually built. Effective people determine their own futures. First, they mentally plan it according to their values and principles. Second, they physically create it through their positive actions and behaviors. During my college life, I have always had busy weeks in which I had to deal with lots of exams, home woks, quizzes, and projects. In such weeks, I tend to spend all my time only doing my school responsibilities. However, as Stephen Covey says in the second habit, â€Å"most people on their death beds don’t wish they had spent more time at the office! † By the end of each semester, I see myself getting good grades but still not satisfied because deep in my heart school is not my only priority. In order to stay focused on what matters most, I will first determine what matters most to me. In his book, Stephen Covey lists various questions that I will explore when I try to discover myself. After I find out my sense of purpose and meaning in life, I will begin to write my personal mission statement. It will act as a leading constitution by which I will evaluate my daily decisions. Moreover, when trying to keep my focus on the task at hand, I will use Stephen Covey’s life-management quadrants. In the third habit: Put First Things First, he uses a chart with four quadrants that are the result of two axes: urgent and important. Urgent activities call for immediate attention. Important activities are valuable and add to the personal mission, values, and high priority goals. To put first things first is to organize and manage time and events according to the values and vision the person defined in his/her personal mission statement. I always get caught up in day to day crisis, which represent the urgent and important things, and I get distracted from what it is important to me. What I need to do is to spend more time in the important but not urgent quadarant. I will also use a planner to schedule my tasks and activities each week. I will always re-valuate my plans based on my personal mission statement. Those two habits also reminded me that I need to start planning my career path. I will go to my advisor to discuss my career opportunities. I will also take an aptitude test to help me evaluate my talents, abilities, and interests so I can use that information when choosing my career path. I will also write down a list of the most important skills I need to be successful in college and work to improve each one of them. Another thing I want to develop in myself is to increase my proactivity. A lot of times it happened that I receive a grade that I think is unfair and I get upset, which gets me nowhere. Habit one: Be Proactive taught me that whenever I get a grade that I think I do not deserve, I should make an appointment with my professor to discuss it and see what I can learn. To be proactive is to have a choice and control over the situations. A company can be proactive rather than to be under the mercy of the industry. For example, if an industry is facing a downturn, a company can be proactive by developing a plan to cut down the costs and use the industry downturn to its benefit by increasing the market share. Proactive people do not blame other people or circumstances for their own mistakes. They understand whatever they do is what they have chosen to do. They accept responsibility for their choices. When facing a stimulus, they stop and allow themselves to choose a response based on their personal values. In contrast, reactive people do not choose how to respond to stimuli; instead they react immediately without thinking and based on their feelings at that moment. â€Å"There is a gap between stimulus and response, and the key to both our growth and happiness is how we use that space. In the book, Stephen Covey advises his readers to divide events and circumstances into two categories: circumstances they can influence through choices and circumstances they cannot influence at all. Proactive people focus their effort on the things they can control which Stephen Covey calls the Circle of Influence. They do not worry about the things they do not have influence on which he calls the Circle of Concern. By doing so, they increase their control on more and more of those things that are in their Circle of Concern. Reactive people focus on their Circle of Concern. They blame other people or circumstances which both are beyond their influence, for their failures. To be more proactive, I plan to do the following things. I will write down a list of the things in my Circle of Concern that I am always worrying about then I will work on letting go of them one by one. I will pay more attention to my behavior and language and identify the reactive ones. For example, whenever I say â€Å"I can’t do it† I will change that to â€Å"I will try. † Also, from now on I will not let other people’s bad mood rub off on me and ruin my day. This is my choice† will be the attitude I will always adopt. My last recommendation to myself is to take care of my body, mind, heart, and soul. The seventh habit says to be effective one should balance between the production and the production capacity. I will not be able to effectively do the previous recommendations without renewing myself and nurturing my body, mind, heart, and soul. Steph en Covey clarifies this point with the example of the goose and the golden eggs. A poor farmer had a goose. The goose suddenly started to lay a solid golden egg every day and the farmer soon became very rich. The farmer also became very greedy and began to think the goose must have all the golden eggs within it. In order to get all the golden eggs immediately, he killed the goose. As soon as he did that, he discovered there were not golden eggs within it. The moral of the story is that the need of the balance between production and production capability is critical. If one tries to increase the immediate output without considering the production capacity, this capability will be lost. The need for balance between production and production capability applies in physical, financial, and human asset. For example, a person in charge in a factory can increase the output of a machine by stopping the scheduled maintenance and using that time operating the machine and maximizing the production. However, in the future, more maintenance will need to be performed on the machine and the future production will be greatly minimized. That person may be blamed for causing such a mess. The production and production capability applies to customer loyalty as well. A restaurant may have a good reputation for serving great food. If the owner decides to cut down the costs and lower the quality of the served food, the profits will rise immediately. However, as soon as the customers sense the change in the food quality, their trust will be lost. The profits will definitely decline. The need for this kind of balance also applies to the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual assets. One should take the time for self-renewal; to preserve and enhance the four human assets. Renewal increases the person’s capacity to undertake the challenges of daily living. It creates growth and change in that person’s life. Without this renewal, the body becomes feeble, the mind mechanical, the emotions dead, and the spirit insensitive. Therefore, I plan on doing the following activities. To preserve my body, I will start an exercise program and I will choose something I really enjoy like badminton. I will also make sure to get at least seven hours of sleep every day. Lastly, I will continue to eat my balanced diet. To nurture my mind, I will start to read more books and solve at least one puzzle every day. To take care of my heart, I will try to build new friendships and have meaningful connections with others.

Appropriateness Of Tesco Enterprises Information Systems Information Technology Essay

Appropriateness Of Tesco Enterprises Information Systems Information Technology Essay The world is fast becoming a global village. The systems used to collect informations yesterday are different from those used today. More advanced and competitive information system are being produce everyday. Every business no matter how small, like a small retailer store, depends on high technology to store data. To them now it is a living tool and the still keep their doors open to welcome new form of change in information systems. Information system has now become the bread of life in every organizational operation. This paper is going to expatiate more on how information system operates to enhance business in our world today. Tesco enterprise will be use as the yard stick to better understand the development of Information systems. Findings 2.1 Information Systems. Definition. According to Kenneth and Jane Laudon, Information systems can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect to retrieve process, stores, distributes information to support decision making and control on an organization. Information systems are the systems of persons, data records and activities that process the data of information in a given organization, either through manual processes or automated processes. This system is consist of people, procedures, softwares, hardwares and data that helps in effective decision making. Philip Kotler says A marketing information system consist of people, equipments and procedures to gather, sort and analyze, evaluate and distribute needed, timely and accurate information to marketing decision makers. According to Erik BOHLIN, Stranford L. LEVIN, Nakil SUNG, Chang-HO YOON (2004), the effect of information technology systems on globalization, innovation, growth and productivity are immense. Information technology system has contributed immensely to the globalization of production and capital markets by reducing cost of information and communication. They stated that technology has made it easier for multinationals and other companies to spread production facilities all over the world, to coordinate international marketing campaigns and to ease collaboration in projects taking place in different continents. There are various types of information systems such as Office Information system, database management system, Decision supporting system and transaction processing system. Information systems are normally created to perform task for which the human brain can not handle well enough some of these task are controlling many business processes simultaneously, performing complex calculations and storing large amount of information. Many businesses invest huge amounts of money in information systems for the following reasons; For rapid production of goods and services To develop excellent and effective communication skills. Improve decision making Have operational excellence For competitives advantages For survival Customer and supplier intimacy. It saves time and money and makes life easy and comfortable. Levels of management. There are three hierarchical levels of management on an organization; the senior level management, the middle level management and the operational level of management. Senior Level Management. This is the highest level of management. They are concern with making good and effective decisions for the development of the enterprise. They supply answers to questions about the long term plans of the company such as what kind of products will the company be producing in the next five years or what method will they apply to improve their business. There are many kinds of information systems that managers at this level can use in order to ease the work and quickly too, some of the systems are seen as follows: Executive Support System. (ESS) It is a reporting software which helps senior managers transform data into useful summarize reports. It allows them quick assess to reports coming from different levels and different departments in the company such as staffing, billing, cost allocation, scheduling and many others. ESS is most useful to senior managers like Chief Executive Officers in order to enable the make decision easily. ESS forecast the future. ESS relies highly on information MIS and DSS database for decision making. It can not work in isolation less the company becomes dysfunctional. Middle Management. The main duty of the managers at this level is to monitor the activities of the subordinates, collect information from junior management and reassemble them and give the feedbacks or report to those at the senior management team. Their reports help in strategic planning thus leading to effective decision making to achieve their objectives. They are responsible for implementing the senior managers policies and plans to the workers. They also need to ensure that employees are well motivated and should act responsibly in maintaining company values. Management Information System (MIS) This system is meant to serve mostly middle managers. It helps them regulate the various operations in an organization. It helps in the internal control procedures. MIS are distinct from regular information systems in that they are used to analyze other information systems applied in operation activities in the organization. OBrien, J (1999). MIS as a system : It is a system that makes available the right information to the right person (senior managers) at the right time, place, form and at the right cost. It monitors daily sales, profit and lost accounts. It gathers feedbacks and current reports. It also answers all day to day questions about the company. Inputs of MIS: Customer Relationship Management (CRM), this a process created to handle the companys relationship or contact with its customers. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). This is a system that helps managers coordinate all the resources information and functions of a business. Transaction Process Management (TPS). It records all daily routines in a company. Recommended softwares for MIS: Database retrieve application Service control manager- a component of Microsoft Windows operating System. Software Configuration Management (SCM) used to track down and control changes in softwares. Decision Support System (DSS). It a group of information systems that support businesses and organizations in decision making activities. It helps most the middle class managers to make quick and effective decisions. It helps middle managers compile important information from a combination of business models, raw data, personal knowledge or documents to solve problems and then take decisions. Functions of DSS. It helps to solve unpredicted problems such as non-routine issues. Deducts external information like price change, government change in tax. It gathers and inventory of current information assets including legacy, dataware house and data marts. It produces comparative sales figures different periods. Finally it presents revenue figures base on new products sales assumptions. Fundamental Components. Knowledge base User interface The model ( decision content and user criteria). Holsapple and Whinston (1996) classify DSS in to six frame works Text-oriented DSS Database-oriented DSS Spreadsheet-oriented DSS Solver-oriented DSS Rule-oriented DSS Compound-oriented DSS DSS support base system can be divided into three categories; Personal support Group support Organization support First line managers as operational managers. They control the day to day services in an organization. They focus on manageing the processes to produce and distribute products and services to customers. Transaction Process System. This system serves the operational level managers. It helps them trace the daily routine in the company for example sales entry and delivery. It also helps the managers to monitor status of operations in relation to external environment. 3. Appropriateness of TESCO Enterprise Information Systems. TESCO plc is Britains largest retailer enterprise. Tesco provides grocery homeshopping services, consumer goods, telecommunication and financial services online. Online shopping is a highly use information system in Tesco. This information system is the direct buying of goods and services over the internet or other computer networks. Through this system, many businesses have developed due to online competition services. There are other websites besides Tesco that offer hosting services for online stores and small retailers these are Yahoo, Amazon.com and eBay. A collection of online stores are known as Virtual Shopping Malls. Become.com helps online shoppers make the ideal decision on shopping online. That is their mission. Security Measures Definition These are steps taken to protect information and information systems from unauthorized users, access, disclosure disruption, modification and destruction. Security measures are meant to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. Tesco has securing tags on its products. This is due to the rise of shoplifting caused by the economic crisis in the country. This was decided by the management team. Many UK businesses whether big or small, depend greatly on American District Telegraph (ADT) or simply ADT, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) and Digital Video Recorders (DVR) as a source of integrated electronic security system. Tesco is one of those convenience supermarkets that depend highly on the services provided by the above security systems. These security systems provide fast alarm responses to burglary, fire attacks, violence and unnecessary disturbances in Tesco. These security systems reduce a safe and convenient environment for Tesco customers. They help reduce crime wave, protect people and property. Tesco also applies the use of security codes in their online services. This is to ensure that the online customer placing the order is actually in possession of a credit/ Debit card and that the amount of money in the card is legitimate. All these procedures is to prevent Credit/ Debit card fraud Also to trace and track down thieves who are in possessions of other peoples cards through well advance information technology. BMT Micro security software makes sures no database after online transaction is stored during online payment so hackers will not find their way easily into peoples accounts. That is why codes are needed so is will be hard for them to trace. Card Security Code (CSC) or Card Verification Value is another security feature for credit/debit transaction online providing online security against fraudulent cards. Recommended information security. Unified Threat Management (UTM), this is to prevent intruders and softwares from affecting Tesco delicate networks less the loose their data informations. Antivirus is also needed to check Tesco computers for the presence of virus that may crash the computers and loss database information that have not yet been processed. These antivirus needs constant updates. . Cloud Computing Cloud computing is the latest internet base computer system whereby shared resources such as softwares and information are provided to computers. It describes a new suppliement, consumption and delivery Information Technology model services based on the internet. It helps provides easy access to remote computing site provide by the internet. It is a less expensive form of computing. It avoids capital expenditures on hardwares, softwares and services because the pay only provider for they use. Consumption is billed on subscription basis with no upfront cost. Benefits: Low barrier to entry. Share infrastructure and cost Low management overheads Immediate access to a broad range of applications. The contract can be terminated at any time. According to Nicholas Carr, the strategic importance of information technology is diminishing as it has become standardized and less expensive. Issues against Cloud Computing. Although cloud computing is a less expensive system of computing, enterprises may pay more on operating expenses. Cloud computing has been highly criticized for its lack of privacy between users and their hosting companies. They hosting companies may monitor at will the communication and data stored in their systems. For example the National Security Agency (NSA) that works with American Telephone and Telgraph (AT T) and Verizon Communications, monitors all their phones which make people insecure for lack of privacy. There is no security in cloud computing but the Cloud Computing Alliance has been form to promote security assurances. Tesco is not using cloud computing services. But they can subscribe for it so as to spend less on information technology system. Conclusion. From the above information, we have seen how important information systems are in the development of an organization as it is being applied at every managerial level in a business. So it is recommended that business owners should continue searching for more advance information systems that will help ease their supply and distribution chain. Recommendations. Information system is the only way for businesses to survive the pressure and competition that they are facing. If there is a any business that has not yet be highly connected to advance information systems, then that business should make a strategic plan about implementing cloud computing for a start because it is less expensive and will help the business save for future unforeseen circumstances. References OBrien, J (1999) Management Information Systems- Manageing Information Systems in the Internet work Enterprise. Boston. Irwin MC Graw-Hill. ISBN 0071123733. Kenneth and Jane Laudon, Managing the Digital Firm, 8th Ed. Kotler, Philip, Keller, Kevin Lane (2006), Marketing Management, 12th edition. Pearson Education. Erik BOHLIN, Stranford L. Levin, Nakil SUNG, Chang-HO YOON (2004) Global Economy and Digital Society. Elsevier , Amsterdam. Nichlas Carr, (2008) Clouds and Storms.

Coming Full Circle in Anna Karenina Essay -- Literary Analysis

What happens when you cut yourself off from society, or are cut off by it? This is the main question that Leo Tolstoy explores in Anna Karenina. Isolated from society, Anna is destroyed by a conflict of wills. The desire of the individual is forced to give way to society’s restrictions and requirements, represented in the image of the railroad. Those who do not conform to society will ultimately face death, a fate, that both Anna and Vronsky will not be able to outrun as a consequence of their illegitimate relationship. Besides personifying the necessity of living within society’s realm of expectations, the railroad serves a central role in the organizational plan of the novel. The major railway scenes can be interpreted as pillars supporting the structure of the novel by connecting the Anna/Vronsky storyline. It is at a railway station where Anna is introduced to Vronsky, where he admits his love to her and where Anna makes her first and last appearance. The recurrence of motifs and the final return to initial associations within Anna Karenina serve to create the symmetrical architecture of the work. The first mention of the railroad is in context of children and their games, which serves as a premonition of the events to come. The children who are aware of the current distraught household are playing with a box, representing a train. Stiva’s eldest girl is heard telling off her younger sibling, telling him that â€Å"[she] told [him] not to put the passengers on the roof†, instructing him to â€Å"[pick them up !† (Anna Karenina p.7). The children’s games foreshadow not only the accident at the station but Anna’s suicide at the conclusion of the novel. ... ... As a result of Anna’s willingness to abandon her home and husband to build her happiness on other human being’s suffering. Anna’s action causes Kitty to suffer heartbreak as she loses Vronsky, the man she loved, to Anna. In addition, Anna and Vronsky’s relationship breaks up Anna and Karenin’s marriage and causes Serezha to grow up without his mother’s presence. The wrath of society punishes Anna for her sin by crushing her, metaphorically as well as literally. Bibliography Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina. Translated by Yuri Corrigan. London: Genius Translators Press, 1999. Bayley, John. Tolstoy and the Novel. London, 1966. Gustafson, Richard. Leo Tolstoy: Resident and Stranger. Princeton, 1986. Jahn, Gary. The Image of the Railroad in Anna Karenina. The Slavic and East European Journal Vol. 25, No. 2 (Summer, 1981), pp. 1-10