The Count of Monte Cristo Essay Example for Free

The Count of Monte Cristo Essay I. The Count of Monte Cristo II. Characters Edmond Dantà ¨s The protagonist of the novel. Dantà ¨s is an intelligent, honest, and loving man who turns bitter and vengeful after he is framed for a crime he does not commit. When Dantà ¨s finds himself free and enormously wealthy, he takes it upon himself to act as the agent of Providence, rewarding those who have helped him in his plight and punishing those responsible for his years of agony. The Count of Monte Cristo The identity Dantà ¨s assumes when he emerges from prison and inherits his vast fortune. As a result, the Count of Monte Cristo is usually associated with a coldness and bitterness that comes from an existence based solely on vengeance. Lord Wilmore The identity of an eccentric English nobleman that Dantà ¨s assumes when committing acts of random generosity. Lord Wilmore contrasts sharply with Monte Cristo, who is associated with Dantà ¨s’s acts of bitterness and cruelty. Appropriately, Monte Cristo cites Lord Wilmore as one of his enemies. Abbà © Busoni Another of Dantà ¨s’s false personas. The disguise of Abbà © Busoni, an Italian priest, helps Dantà ¨s gain the trust of the people whom the count wants to manipulate because the name connotes religious authority. Sinbad the Sailor The name Dantà ¨s uses as the signature for his anonymous gift to Morrel. Sinbad the Sailor is also the persona Dantà ¨s adopts during his time in Italy. Mercà ©dà ¨s Dantà ¨s’s beautiful and good fiancà ©e. Though Mercà ©dà ¨s marries another man, Fernand Mondego, while Dantà ¨s is in prison, she never stops loving Dantà ¨s. Mercà ©dà ¨s is one of the few whom Dantà ¨s both punishes (for her disloyalty) and rewards (for her enduring love and underlying goodness). Abbà © Faria A priest and brilliant thinker whom Dantà ¨s meets in prison. Abbà © Faria becomes Dantà ¨s’s intellectual father: during their many years as prisoners, he teaches Dantà ¨s history, science, art, and many languages. He then bequeaths to Dantà ¨s his vast hidden fortune. Abbà © Faria is the most important catalyst in Dantà ¨s’s transformation into the vengeful Count of Monte Cristo. Fernand Mondego Dantà ¨s’s rival for Mercà ©dà ¨s’s affections. Mondego helps in framing Dantà ¨s for treason and then marries Mercà ©dà ¨s himself when Dantà ¨s is imprisoned. Through acts of treachery Mondego becomes a wealthy and powerful man and takes on the name of the Count de Morcerf. He is the first victim of Dantà ¨s’s vengeance. Albert de Morcerf The son of Fernand Mondego and Mercà ©dà ¨s. Unlike his father, Albert is brave, honest, and kind. Mercà ©dà ¨s’s devotion to both Albert and Dantà ¨s allows Monte Cristo to realize her unchanging love for him and causes him to think more deeply about his sole desire for revenge. Signor Bertuccio Dantà ¨s’s steward. Though Bertuccio is loyal and adept, Dantà ¨s chooses him as his steward not for his personal qualities but because of his vendetta against Villefort. III. Settings The movie takes place in a number of settings, but most of the plot occurs in Marseilles Chateau dIf, and Paris (France), Rome, the island of Monte Cristo, and Greece. IV. Summary Edmond is sailing in French waters along with his best friend, Fernand, when their captain falls ill. They stop for help at a nearby island, which happens to be where Napolean Bonaparte is in hiding. Bonaparte pulls aside Edmond and asks him to deliver an innocent letter to an old friend in Marseille, France. Edmond agrees, as that is the price for the use of Napoleans physician. The captain unfortunately dies, so the crew returns home to Marseille. Edmond is made captain for his bravery in seeking a physician, and the first mate comes to despise him for it. Fernand finds out about the letter, and reads it while Edmond is sleeping, and is angry that Edmond did not tell him about it. Edmond, not knowing that Fernand knows about the letter, rushes to greet his fiance, Mercedes, and tell her that they can now be married as he was just promoted to captain. This is also the point in the movie when you realize that Fernand is in love wiht Mercedes, but she loves Edmond. Fernand, still angry, decides to work together with the furious first mate, and get Edmond arrested for treason, which he didnt commit. Fernand works also with a very important magistrate, Villefort, whos father is the man Edmond was to deliver the letter to. (Villefort does not know of this). Thus, Edmond is arrested, and thrown into a remote island prison by the name of Chateau Dif. There, he meets Priest, who teaches him many valuable lessons about life, how to sword fight, and give Edmond a proper education. All this is in turn for Edmond helping to dig, in order to escape the prison. For 13 years, Edmond is held captive in the Chateau Dif, and unknown to Edmond, a letter was sent to his family and Mercedes saying that he was executed on grounds of treason. Finally, Edmond escapes when the priest dies, and becomes part of a crew on a merchant vessel, along with his good riend Jaccapo. After 3 months, Edmond is released along with Jaccapo, and they go in search of finding out what has happened to Edmonds loved ones. They find out that Edmonds father commited suicide, and the Mercedes wed Fernand a month after learning of Edmonds execution. Edmond has by this time (with the help of the priest while in prison) figured out that he was framed by Fernand and the others. Thus, he and Jaccapo sail to a remote island that the Priest told Edmond about, and there they find a treasure, making Edmond extremely wealthy. Edmond decides to become a count in order to get revenge on those who betrayed him, so he becomes The COunt of Monte Cristo, being the treasure he found The Treasure of Monte Cristo. Soon after, he saves Fernand and Mercedes son Alber from captivity, and thus enters the lives of those he is trying to hurt like they hurt him. Mercedes begins to suspect that The Count is really Edmond, and when she confronts him privately, he denies it but slips and she realizes that he really is Edmond. Then, they kiss, and realize that they are still in love, so Mercedes goes back ot her Chateau to inform Fernand that she is leaving him, when Fernand tells her that he has gone bankrupt (which is really Edmonds doing, but he doesnt know this) and is leaving the country. (By this time, Villefort has been convicted of murdering his father and sent to jail, also doings of Edmonds). Mercedes preceds to inform Fernand that Alber is not his son, but Edmonds. Fernand becomes angry and goes out to his old, abandoned villa to collect the gold he had supposedly stolen from The Count of Monte Cristo, only to find that it is not there (Edmonds doings, again). Then, Edmond shows up, and tells Fernand where he has been all these years, and they begin a duel, only to be stopped by Mercedes and Alber. Mercedes then tells Edmond that Alber is really his son, not Fernands. Fernand then shoots Mercedes in the shoulder (she lives) and runs off. Edmond follows him and they begin sword fighting again. Fibally, Edmond kills Fernand, and goes back to Mercedes and Alber and Jaccapo. At the very end, Edmond buys the Chateau Dif thanks the Priest for his wisdom and help. V. Value Implication The â€Å"Count of Monte Cristo† is the greatest tale of betrayal, adventure, and revenge the world has ever known. One of the morals in that story is what goes around comes around. The people who betrayed the count ended up by paying with their lives as he cleverly took his revenge on each one. Plus, the fact that the count actually really did find treasure and good friends (in the form of pirates) meant that he was a good person who attracted good people. Regardless of the fact that the pirates could have treated him badly and even shot him when he found the treasure, they didnt, they became his friends and they benefitted from his success. The main moral is that the bad deeds we do in life do not go unpunished and the good ones get rewarded.

Hoover Dam Essay -- Civil Engineering Construction Essays

Hoover Dam   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Hoover Dam is one of America ¡Ã‚ ¦s greatest civil engineering marvels (Hernan 22) and  ¡Ã‚ §has become a magnet to those fascinated by human ingenuity at its best ¡Ã‚ ¨ (Haussler 30). With its enormous size and construction during the Great Depression, it was an interesting topic to me. I would like to major in civil engineering and, at first, I was researching this topic. I was looking for salary and job descriptions. Then, I discovered the name John L. Savage, the engineer who supervised the design of the Hoover Dam and many other dams in the United States. Savage worked on the Minidoka irrigation project in Idaho after joining the United States Reclamation Service in 1903. His future of building dams first began "When I first went out to the Snake River Valley, ¡Ã‚ ¨ he said,  ¡Ã‚ §I saw only a river and a lot of wasteland. After the dam was up the land changed. It got water. Farmers moved in to work the soil. Crops grew. Then came villages and t owns. That's why I think this is the happiest, most thrilling work in the world ¡Ã‚ ¨ (qtd. in McCann). The characteristics he describes are evident to me, as well as other people in this field. All of the great buildings and projects of the World were overseen by civil engineers. These water resources projects, such as the Hoover Dam, not only disturbed the flow of rivers but created towns, industries, and even developed a desert region. Unfortunately, the dams can also cause adverse effects.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Colorado River may have been  ¡Ã‚ §too thick to drink [and] too wet to plow ¡Ã‚ ¨ (Boris 4) but, it was not too strong to dam. The Boulder Canyon Project was first conceived in 1928 (Wassner 98) and was approved for flood control, storage of the Colorado River water, and the production of hydroelectric power (Hoover Dam - FAQs). John R. Hall explains that the Hoover dam was built  ¡Ã‚ §to harness the awesome power of the Colorado River ¡Ã‚ ¨ (22). The Department of Reclamation had a huge task on their hands when supervising the construction of the Hoover Dam (Hall 22), previously known as Boulder Dam and changed to Hoover Dam for President Herbert Hoovers strong support of a Dam on the Colorado River (Wassner 97). First, before even breaking ground, there had to be away to easily access the dam site and house the six-thousand workers who will build the great dam. Boulder City was created to house the Government and contractor ... ... ¡Ã‚ §Dam One Of ¡Ã‚ ¨).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  With Hoover ¡Ã‚ ¦s seventeen generators and extremely large water supply, cities were able to grow very rapidly. The hydroelectric turbines produce four billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year. According to the American Society of Engineers, the dam has had a huge part in the development of the southwestern United States (American Society). It has stopped flooding, provided water for human consumption and agriculture, and supplied electricity to three states, according to Wassner: Arizona, Nevada, and California (99). Amazingly, power hungry Las Vegas only receives one percent of the power from Hoover Dam. For having such a great impact on the lives of Americans the American Society of Civil Engineers honored the Hoover dam as the Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium. Written on September 27, 2001 the article states  ¡Ã‚ §The new millennium reminds us of the tremendous impact civil engineering has had on the development of our society [. . .] It is fitting that the Hoover Dam would be chosen by ASCE for this special honor. [The dam] ushered in a new era of confidence in the design and building of great water resource projects ¡Ã‚ ¨ (American Society).

Benefits of Organic Food on Children Essay

It is believed that the most noteworthy of choices we can make based on enhancement of our own health and environmental health is the consumption of organic food. Organic food or otherwise you bet that a number of individuals would prefer organic food to the conventionally produced one. This is so because of a number of discoveries made crediting organic food to be better. For instance, a major European Union study concluded in 2007 found out that organic foods were 40% more rich in antioxidants than their conventional equivalents with a similar percentage for organic milk going as high as 60%. Earlier, in 2001, Washington State University researchers had established that organic apples were sweeter and firmer as compared to their conventional equivalents. Other separate studies elsewhere have since established that generally, organic fruits and vegetables contain higher nutrient levels. Regardless of who is conducting the study or where and when the study is conducted, the bottom line remains that organic food is of superior quality than their conventional equivalents and this explains why they are expensive besides their high demand. This paper seeks to investigate the benefits of organic food on children. Introduction Organic farming has been embraced recently especially by developed 1st and 2nd world countries. Organic food is that kind of food obtained in their very natural environment without contamination of any kind i. e. if it is plants they are produced without the conventional use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides etc. These artificial substances are avoided as a way of maintaining the natural composition of plant cells. It should be noted that if these substances are used they are incorporated into the plant tissues and cells thus causing contamination. If any fertilizer has to be used then it has to be from livestock and poultry which in turn have never been fed on artificial substances such as antibiotics, growth hormones etc. The food generated by this kind of farming is termed as organic food. It should be noted that organic produce may not necessarily be genetically modified. With the increased embrace of this kind of farming, some countries have moved to make sure that the farmers are certified in order to produce and market their produce as organic. Such countries include US, Canada, EU, Japan and many more. Historically the practice of organic farming was limited to a private family affair making organic food scarce and available only in farmer’s markets and small stores. Nevertheless, since the 90’s the demand for organic food has appreciably grown forcing the production of the food also to grow averagely at the rate of 20% pa. The growth proceeded right into the 21st century and as of April 2008 the organic food had claimed almost 2% of the total world food sales. At the moment it is projected that the growth rate may supersede the historical 20% pa to stand at 40-50% pa based on the country (Davis & Winter, 2006). The best processed organic food is the one that contains almost 100% natural ingredients. However if the non organic ingredients happen to be present, then their percentages must be very minimal and allow the animal and plant ingredients command more than 95% in Canada, US and Australia. How do you ascertain the percentage printed on the packages of these organic foods? Initially, people eating organic food insisted on knowing the organic farmer and visiting that farmer so as to trust the food produced. However with the growth of the organic food production industry, food production is not easily ascertainable and labeling of products as organic is easily trusted. The responsibility of ascertaining and ensuring that the food labeled as organic is indeed organic and it is produced as per the dictates of organic farming and processing regulations set out in the given country has been left to the government and other third party inspectors. The government legislation and the role of the third party inspectors have been relied on for assurance (Government of Canada, 2006). In Canada for instance, the organic food production is highly regulated and the government regulations governing organic food (farming and processing) need to be followed to the letter. There are no genetic modification, no food additives and there are no artificial processing methods such as chemical ripening and food irradiation. If organic food is being imported to Canada, then it has to come with an attestation from the source country. All these regulations are maintained and implemented basically on consumer protection grounds. Some food producers are likely to falsify information such as to reap high profit margins associated with organic food. The high profit margins in organic food is due to the 10 to 40% extra cost on organic food as compared to the food that is conventionally produced. Benefits of Organic Food on Children Based on the method of production of organic food, they are the best and safe for consumption especially for children whose body systems are more sensitive than the adults’. It is common knowledge that the choice of nutrition and food plays a major role in either triggering or preventing conditions such as obesity, asthma and diabetes. It has been established that healthy foods such as organic foods help prevent the onset of conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, hearty diseases and even cancer. Therefore, organic foods are quite beneficial to mankind especially to children (Finnamore, 2008). Since there are no artificial fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides used in the production of organic food, then it means that the food lacks the residue levels of pesticides and herbicides witnessed in the conventionally produced food. Such residue herbicides and pesticides have been known to trigger cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Children are more susceptible to toxins such as the residual pesticides because of a combination of factors such as immature and developing organs and brains thus reduced detoxification and immune system. Therefore, feeding children on the conventionally produced food which has residual pesticide levels far above the recommended safety levels exposes them to the pesticides and herbicides which may cause cancer, cardiovascular diseases and nervous system defects. Feeding children on organic food protects them from the toxic pesticides guarantying their health as they develop. The hyperactivity in children has been blamed on the residual pesticides and herbicides in the conventionally produced foods. Therefore if children are fed on organic food, hyperactivity in school going children is likely to be reduced. Conventionally produced food has some food additives such as sweeteners, preservatives flavorings colorings hydrogenated fat, and phosphoric acid added during processing. These substances may pose toxic threat to the child’s immature brain and organs hence having adverse effects on the children. Such additives are prohibited in organic food production and this protects children from possible toxic effects of the food additives the additives. According, to doctors, the least the artificial additives and sweeteners in children’s’ food, the better.

Why Culture Matters Within International Business

Why culture matters in International Business The purpose of this memo is to explain why culture matters in International Business and to give you some background information on culture and how this can improve the business once it is expanded abroad. According to Cavusgil, knight, Riesenberger(2014), â€Å"Culture is the learned, shared and lasting orientation patterns in a society. People demonstrate their culture through values, ideas, attitudes, behaviors, and symbolsâ€Å"(p.82). The culture that a person may live in or grow up in can make us who we are today. Culture affects every aspect of our daily lives, whether it be from the decisions that are made and carried out in the work place to the way one may dress. Culture is a crystal ball through which the way the world is viewed. It is the common ground to what is sought, how one makes sense of it and how it is expressed In international business, we must step into the different culture environments and craft our role during this process. Understanding The Cultural Factors In International Business According to Cavusgil, Knight, Riesenberger (2014), â€Å"Cross- cultural risk is a situation or event in which a cultural misunderstanding puts some human value at stake. Misunderstanding and miscommunication arise because people have differing values and expectations†(p.83). Cross culture misunderstandings can destroy a business image, hurt sales, and business deals. Culture is mostly the rootShow MoreRelatedEssay on International Expansion1026 Words   |  5 PagesMGMT415 Unit 1 Assignment International Expansion Many companies today want to expand their business to the international business, which can bring cost down and profits up. 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