Their Eyes Were Watching God - Finding The Woman In Janie Essays

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Finding the Woman in Janie People grow and develop at different rates. The factors that heavily influence a person's development seem like heredity and environment. Genetics can play a key role in what kind of person one becomes. Environment seems like the factor that most often and influentially affects a person's development. The people one meets and the experiences one has seem very important in what makes a person who he or she is. Janie develops as a woman with the three marriages she has. In each marriage she learns valuable lessons, has progressively better relationships, and realizes how a person is to live his or her life. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie's marriages to Logan Killicks, Jody Starks, and Tea Cake seem like the most crucial elements in her development as a woman. Throughout the story Hurston uses different men to portray the continuum that men fall into in their society. Janie's marriage to Logan Killicks seems like the first stage in her development as a woman. She hopes that her forced marriage with Logan would end her loneliness and desire for love. Right from the beginning, the loneliness in the marriage shows up when Janie sees that his house feels like a "lonesome place like a stump in the middle of the woods where nobody had ever been" (Hurston 20). This description of Logan's house seems symbolic of the relationship they have. Janie eventually admits to Nanny that she still does not love Logan and cannot find anything to love about him. "She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman" (Hurston 24). Janie's prayer seems like her final plea for a change in her life. She says, "Lawd, you know mah heart. Ah done de best Ah could do. De rest is left to you" (Hurston 23). Janie's prayer gets answered with her next husband, Jody Starks. He seems like the man who fills the voids of loneliness and love, and continues her development as a woman. When they first meet, Jody bestows compliments on Janie, convincing her of her special qualities. For two weeks, before they married, they talked and Janie believed that Jody "spoke for change and chance" (Hurston 28). The problem Janie found with Jody dealt with him not treating her as an equal. He would not let her speak in front of people, teach her to play checkers, or participate in other events. Like Janie, Hurston's voice seems dismissed- as not bitter enough, not depicting the harsher side of black southern life. Janie notices the problem early in the relationship and confronts Jody about it when she says "it jus' looks lak it keeps us in some way we ain't natural wid one 'nother. You'se always off talkin' and fixin' things, and Ah feels lak Ah'm jus' markin time. Hope it soon gits over" (Hurston 43). J anie realizes that she cannot be open with Jody and that he does not seem like the same man she ran off with to marry. Jody has many of his own interests, and none of them are concerned with Janie. "She found out that she had a host of thoughts she had never expressed to him ... She was saving up feelings for some man that she had never seen" (Hurston 68). Jody only gave material goods to Janie. His lack of love and his faults make her realize the next man she meets seems perfect for her. Her development as a woman feels complete after living and learning with Vergible "Tea Cake" Woods. Tea Cake seems like the catalyst for the final stage of development of Janie as a woman. From Tea Cake, Janie learns to love and what it feels like to be loved. Through Janie, Hurston gives an example of a women in society who follows her dreams and takes control of her soul. Tea Cake not only makes Janie feel special with his words, but proves it as well by taking her fishing, hunting, to the movies, dancing, gardening with her, and other "signs of possession" (Hurston 105). For a while, Janie and

Harrison Bergeron Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Essay Example

Harrison Bergeron Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Essay Example Harrison Bergeron Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Essay Harrison Bergeron Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Essay The year is 2081, and people’s individualities are being taken away for the sake of being equal. Is this really equality? In this uniform culture they cannot allow competition to occur, so they eliminate any chance of this destructive force from happening through the use of handicaps that take away factors such as advanced intelligence and beauty. Is doing this truly beneficial for society? In â€Å"Harrison Bergeron† by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the reader needs to recognize that achieving equality through dehumanization is not true equality and thatcompromising one’s abilities by placing limitations on them results in the elimination of one’s identity and potential. Most aspects of life has an element of competition, and these competitions can be seen in everyday life. The world is an increasingly unequal and unfair place. Every year, it becomes a little harder to picture what equal opportunity and egalitarianism even look like. As the rich attract capital like Jupiter attracts space debris and the poor fail to make any substantial gains, the gap between them comes to seem to us less surmountable, more of a force of nature than something for which we can even imagine a reasonable counterfactual. In Harrison Bergeron, society has â€Å"solved† inequality by eradicating competition and coercing them to wear handicaps. However, competition encourages society to become stronger and develop further. There is a real danger that inequality is not just related to competition, but to equality of opportunity. This might include things like what kind of education your family can afford to give you, but also could be as simple as what you see in fro nt of you everyday and the way that it either expands or limits your opportunities, and the very knowledge of what you can reasonably aspire. Although the idea of everyone being equal seems perfect and is an idea we as a world strive for, a world with perfect equality does not drive people to try and a :

Analysis of Anaesthetic Nursing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Analysis of Anaesthetic Nursing - Research Paper Example Since nurses have to play a significant role in the patients’ care, tactfulness, knowledge, experience in handling an emergency situation, discretion, judgment, alertness, and empathy on their part are very important for overall efficiency in treatment to the patients. Evidence-based anesthesia nursing practice calls for placing more emphasis on literature evidence than scientific studies for enhancing the expertise in the field of anesthesia. For use of current evidence in providing care to the patients, it is essential to analyze the existing evidence in terms of definition of the problem, applications used to overcome the problems, methods adopted, reliability of the evidences used for the study, clinical trials, surveys, expert opinions or case reports and applicability of the evidences to the present case for formulating strategies and implementation by establishing standards. Evolution of Anaesthetic nursing Though Nightingale’s ideology is considered as the start ing point for modern nursing, the theoretical basis for nursing has evolved later in history. Frederic Hewitt’s textbook on Anaesthetics and their Administration in 1893 was an important milestone in training in the field of anesthesia (Scurr, 1971, p. 275). Ether and chloroform had been used as anesthetic agents for a long time as they were effective and fast. A patient â€Å"under ether, sinks into a calm and dreamless sleep† and surgery is performed successfully without suffering pain, but â€Å"the danger in breathing ether is chiefly from impeded or failing respiration† (Cheever, 1884, p. 509). However, after the advent of advanced and safer inhalation anesthetic agents, the use of ether and chloroform has been gradually stopped. Chloroform was widely used as an anesthetic agent. However, it was later found that it caused cardiac problems to the patients and abandoned also due to its toxic properties. Brandy, opium, and cocaine were used as anesthetics thro ughout the world in various countries. There is a number of derivatives such as amylocaine and procaine that are cocaine based. Regulations and standardization in different countries brought control over their manufacturing and use. Opioid compounds have been used in the treatment of pain for a long time in medical history due to its analgesic effects. Opiate-based drugs like Codeine and Hydrocodone have been used as pain killers. These drugs have addictive properties which lead to dependence on these drugs. Morphine is a widely used opiate analgesic drug and regarded as a standard analgesic. The advent of morphine which could be injected hypodermically changed the course of anaesthesiology completely. Diamorphine called a heroine used to treat severe pain can also be administered intravenously. Nitrous oxide is commonly used in dentistry as inhalation analgesia. It is considered effective and safe to provide moderate sedation. It is effective as a general anesthesia for suppressing all sensations. It should be cautiously used in some cases like schizophrenia or pregnancy. â€Å"Nitrous oxide (N2O) has been used for about 150 years in clinical anesthesia.  Ã‚  

Market Orientation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Market Orientation - Essay Example Several fundamentals of modern business and marketing practices date back to the ancient Greeks, the Phoenicians, and the Venetian traders. The term "marketing concept" was presented first in the1700s by Adam Smith, the Father of Modern Economics. He said that the customer should be made the focus of a business. According to Kohli and Jaworski (1990), the marketing concept is a business philosophy, whereas the term market orientation refers to the actual implementation of the marketing concept. Market orientation involves the production of goods vigilantly researched and designed to appeal to customers. Product orientation, on the other hand refers to the culture where the product is designed and produced without any market research and thus it is unclear whether the product would appeal and satisfy the customer or not. Proponents of Market orientation believe that the customer is the king and so it is important to continually assess and satisfy the changing needs and wants of the customer (Slater and Narver 1994). What does he prefer What product size is most beneficial to him From where does he make his purchases Does he buy in bulk To answer these questions organizations need timely marketing information systems, market research, decision support systems and diffusion of such market intelligence at all levels in the organization (Kohli and Jaworski 1990) Based on extensive interviews with managers and execut... Market Orientation Matrix2 Market orientation is a concept with two major components: (1) customer-focus and (2) competitor-focus. This conceptualization leads to four distinct strategic types. In an ideal world, firms should seek to understand both customers and competitors but resource constraints may lead to trade offs. However, much before a business starts to gather competitive intelligence it must conduct a SWOT analysis for itself. It must know where exactly does it stand in the market. Customer Preoccupied: are firms that stress on gathering customer focused intelligence at the expense of competitor information. According to Von Hippel (1986) a customer oriented approach is important, but focusing on competitors is more important when markets are growing as they serve as 'reference points for later adopters'. Marketing Warriors are firms that focus their attention to who their competitors are, what they are doing, and what do they plan to do. Such firms try to identify their own strengths and weaknesses in order to stay ahead of competition. This may be suitable when demand is predictable and there are few powerful customers. Strategically Integrated: are those firms that assign equal importance to customer and competitor intelligence. According to Day & Wensley a focus largely on either customer or competitors can lead to 'a partial and biased picture of reality.' Therefore a balance between these two is the most appropriate option. Strategically inept: are firms that fail to adapt to the changing market environment and focus only on internal operations, technological advances etc. Since external analysis is an imperative part of strategic planning, failure to do so can be

Women Should Be Equal To Men Essay Example for Free

Women Should Be Equal To Men Essay Are women of less importance than men? In this paper, I will attempt to explore the difference in pay scales, which exist between men and women. It appears that women face discrimination on the economic front as they receive lesser pay scales, both nationally and internationally. Whether a woman is in the business world, or in the skilled labor profession, her salary does not equal that of the male counterpart. It is because of the ancient world view that men are the bread-winners of the family, and hence, in a male dominated society, women may continue to experience a gender disparity in the pay scales. I believe that the primary goal of the business world should be to create an atmosphere where men and women gain equal benefits. In my social work class, we learned that employee is dissatisfied with the feeling of being undervalued, and thus, it can take a toll on the productivity of the entire workforce. Therefore, companies should give equal opportunities to both men and women. For example, in education sector, the educated women with a Bachelor’s degree are only a small percentage of the total number of employees, and the percentage of educated women with a Master’s degree is much lower. Besides, their income is also lesser than men. In my field of social work, there are a high percentage of women who still earn lesser than men, and represent only a small number in the management positions. There are three tiers of occupations, which are grouped according to education: Managers and professionals, job supervisors including non-professional as well as self-employed workers, technicians, police, fire-fighters, clerks, etc. Read more:Â  Equality Between Man and Woman Essay , and less skilled workers like sales clerks, food and related service workers, unskilled blue collar workers, etc. In ancient American society, it was noted that the white women worked at home for rearing her children, irrespective of financial status, or social class of the family. At present, the employment market is operating on wage basis to meet the growing demands for production of goods. Considering the current gender bias situation in employment, men still have greater chances of being promoted than women in the upper management positions. Both white women and minority women placed at middle management positions face obstacles for getting promotion to upper management positions because most of the upper executives and operating officers are men, who tend to exclude hiring as well as promotion of women to higher management positions. Further promotions are often given to men who are already at the top of the ladder. It is a pity that women face problems of competition with men in the same profession upon graduation from college, even in the age of technological advancement. The solution of the problem is to give the same pretest to both men and women for judging their eligibility to qualify for equal pay scales for doing equal work. Moreover, it should be highlighted in the media that women should also have equal rights as men. Finally, I believe that this was a great subject to study, but I could not find the existence of gender bias in administrative and low pay scale clerical positions, where women are employed in comparatively larger numbers than women at either management positions, or in upper class professional positions such as engineers, doctors and lawyers. However, it is interesting to note that there are more women who own their business corporations worth billions of dollars. Although the gender bias gap may not be disappearing in terms of the fewer number of women at higher positions and grant of lesser pay scales to women, the appearance of independent women in charge of corporations, has yielded some fame and social status to the women population as a whole, which can be considered to reduce the gender gap to some extent.

Solitude/Isolation in “The Minister’s Black Veil” and Hawthorne’s Life :: Ministers Black Veil Essays

Solitude/Isolation in â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† and Hawthorne’s Life  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   In the Nathaniel Hawthorne tale, â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil,† we see and feel the solitude/isolation of the minister, Reverend Mr. Hooper. Is this solitude not a reflection of the very life of the author?    According to A.N. Kaul in his Introduction to   Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, the themes of isolation and alienation were ones which Hawthorne was â€Å"deeply preoccupied with† in his writings (2).    At the outset of the tale, â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil,† the sexton is tolling the church bell and simultaneously watching Mr. Hooper’s door, when suddenly he says, ``But what has good Parson Hooper got upon his face?'' The surprise which the sexton displayed is repeated in the astonishment of the onlookers: â€Å"With one accord they started, expressing more wonder. . .† The reason is this: â€Å"Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath† is a black veil. The 30 year old, unmarried parson receives a variety of reactions from his congregation:    ``I can't really feel as if good Mr. Hooper's face was behind that piece of crape'' ``He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face''   ``Our parson has gone mad!'' Few could refrain from twisting their heads towards the door. . . . . . . more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house.    Hawthorne, after exposing the surprised people to the sable veil, develops the protagonist through a description of some of his less exotic and curious characteristics:    Mr. Hooper had the reputation of a good preacher, but not an energetic one: he strove to win his people heavenward by mild, persuasive influences, rather than to drive them thither by the thunders of the Word. The sermon which he now delivered was marked by the same characteristics of style and manner as the general series of his pulpit oratory.    However, on this first day of wearing his black veil there is some peculiar difference in Hooper’s sermon:    But there was something, either in the sentiment of the discourse itself, or in the imagination of the auditors, which made it greatly the most powerful effort that they had ever heard from their pastor's lips. It was tinged, rather more darkly than usual, with the gentle gloom of Mr.

Microsoft Corp.’s Pricing Policies Essay

Executive Summary This case study focused on the Microsoft Corporation and charges made by their competitors, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Justice of antitrust violations and a monopoly of the computer operating systems and applications software, software development tools (e.g., programming language software), and hardware peripherals (e.g., Microsoft Mouse) that Microsoft specializes in. It focused on numerous issues that would lead one to believe that Microsoft was in fact monopolizing the entire industry they were in. . In order to adequately discuss and analyze the issues of this case, I have broken this paper up into four separate sections. Section 1 – Key Terms & Concepts: Description of the key terms & concepts that pertain to this case Section 2 – The Case Against Microsoft: Identify the facts and information that support my case against Microsoft Section 3 – The Defense of Microsoft: Identify certain facts and information that support a defense of Microsoft Section 4 – Discussion: What I have learned from the case After reading this case study, I went back to the email that I received from you and went over the questions that you suggested we consider. The first question was: If you were the DOJ how would you build a case against Microsoft or a dominant leader? I will attempt to do this in Section 2 – The Case Against Microsoft. The second question was: If you were Microsoft how might you defend yourself against DOJ claims? I will cover this in Section 3 – The Defense of Microsoft. I will attempt to show why it was very necessary for the DOJ to bring a case of monopoly and antitrust violations against Microsoft. In doing this, I will attempt to put myself into Microsoft’s shoes and defend their claims that they have not created a monopoly. Section 1 1. Key Terms & Concepts The reason I decided to include these terms and concepts was to make it easier for me to write this paper and use certain terms without describing them each time I used them in my paper. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division: The Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, a presidential appointee, ran the Antitrust Division of the DoJ. When the Division thought the evidence was sufficiently persuasive, it brought criminal charges. The Division also entered into negotiations with businesses to end litigation in exchange for consent decrees in civil cases, or nolo contendere (no contest) please in criminal cases DOJ: Department of Justice: The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is a Cabinet department in the United States government designed to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans (http://en.wikipedia. Org /wiki / United_States_Department_of_Justice) DOS: Disc Operating System FTC – Federal Trade Commission: The FTC enforces federal antitrust and consumer protection laws by investigating complaints against individual companies initiated by consumers, businesses, congressional inquiries, or reports in the media (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Trade_Commission) ISVs: Independent Software Vendors MS-DOS: Microsoft Operating Systems NDAs: Non-disclosure agreements OEMs: Original Equipment Manufacturers OS: Operating Systems PC: Personal Computer Sherman Anti-Trust Act: it made illegal any form of contract or combination between entities in regards to trade and commerce that would have the effect of restraining trade. And it also put responsibility on government attorneys and district courts to pursue and investigate trusts http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Sherman _ Antitrust_Act) The Clayton Act of 1914: The Clayton Act was designed to prevent monopoly in the beginning rather than to remedy its effects. To accomplish this goal, Congress authorized antitrust prosecutions whenever business practices â€Å"may†¦substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly in any line of commerce, in any section of the country.† Section Two of the act forbade sellers from discriminating in price – selling goods of like grade and quality to different buyers at different prices – when such differences were neither cost justified nor necessary to â€Å"meet competition.† Section Three limited the use of tying and â€Å"exclusive dealing† contracts. Tying contracts required purchasers or leases to acquire a second, separate product in order to obtain the desired product. Exclusive dealing contracts obliged a purchaser or lessee not to deal in products of competitors Vaporware: is software or hardware which is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge, either with or without a protracted development cycle. The term implies deception, or at least a negligent degree of optimism; that is, it implies that the announcer knows that product development is in too early a stage to support responsible statements about its completion date, feature set, or even feasibility (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware) Section 2 2. The Case Against Microsoft In order to make my case against Microsoft and prove that they are most assuredly in violation of monopoly and anti-trust regulations, I will answer the following questions: 1. Is this a case of monopoly? 2. Is this case a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act? Is this a case of monopoly? When I began considering my approach to this paper, I first thought about situations where I was absolutely sure I had been the â€Å"victim† of a monopoly. In order to do this, I first had to make sure that I fully understood exactly what a monopoly was. The American Heritage ® Dictionary defines a monopoly as â€Å"Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service†. In simpler terms, I have always thought of a monopoly as a big corporation doing its best to â€Å"screw-over† the little guy (A.K.A the customer) by doing its best to make as much money as possible. The first situation that came to mind when I thought of a monopoly was how the Comcast cable company had a virtual strangle-hold on the cable service in my home’s area. Since they had â€Å"exclusive control †¦of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service†, in this case they were the only cable provider in our area, you were forced to settle for Comcast’s service unless you had satellite television or you were willing to settle for the wonderfully fuzzy reception from the antiquated â€Å"rabbit ear† antennas of years past. As a result, we unfortunately had to deal with Comcast’s horrible service and always rising rates. Luckily for us, another competitor came in to the picture when WOW! (Wide Open West Internet-Cable-Phone) set up service in our area. We switched cable providers almost immediately and we couldn’t have been happier. They have provided excellent customer service and their rates are consistently lower  than Comcast’s. As a consumer, we definitely benefited from the increased competition and eventual abolishment of the cable company monopoly in our area. With that out of the way, I was forced to look at whether or not Microsoft had a monopoly in their particular industry. Based on the information in this case, I cannot say that Microsoft has a monopoly on any single entire industry. Do they dominate the majority of endeavors that they choose to participate in? Of course they do. Just look at some of these numbers: As you can see from Table 1, Microsoft dominates the market shares of suite software in the United States. The only problem with these numbers is the fact that they are limited in their time range. In my experience, three years is a long enough time to make an approximate forecast for future happenings, from a financial standpoint. However, that is from a transportation and supply-chain perspective where the main variable happens to be the customer’s shipping fluctuations. In a volatile and constantly evolving market such as software development, these numbers could sway tremendously with the introduction of a new and sought after product or changes in consumer wants and desires. Table 2 shows the financial numbers of Microsoft and three of their competitors: This also tells a lot about Microsoft’s market dominance, but this time from a financial standpoint. Two things that stand out to me in this table are the fact that Microsoft has almost twice as much net revenue than their nearest competitor (Microsoft has 4,649 and Novell has 1,998). The second thing that jumped out to me is the fact that all of the competitors show an increase in net revenue from 1984 to 1994. Based on the growth of Microsoft’s competitors (which there are more than one), I feel confident in saying that Microsoft does not have a monopoly in their industry. They do not meet the standard set forth by the simple definition in the dictionary of â€Å"Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service†. As you can clearly see from the tables, Microsoft  does not have exclusive control of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service. However, Microsoft does in fact hold a monopoly on many other counts, one of which is that Microsoft Windows, the Microsoft OS, is installed on most personal computers that can be purchased from Dell, Hewlett Packard, Compaq, and the like. Because this OS comes pre-installed, we as the consumers do not have much of a choice and there is not much of an alternative for us to go with unless we want to switch to an Apple Macintosh OS. Although Microsoft isn’t a natural monopoly in the classically defined or economic sense that I’ve identified above, it is a natural monopoly in the land of cyberspace. Microsoft is the path of least resistance for government, consumers, and programmers alike. Microsoft may have many faults, but they make a lot of things easier too. Most of us are willing to accept a monopoly such as Microsoft has for increased convenience and usability. Microsoft is a one-product company, no matter how it may sometimes appear. Their success is fundamentally due to the success of Windows. It rose to power with one product, and it resides there because of the success of that product. Unfortunately for us, this is not only the best product on the market, it is the only true alternative for us to use. In my book, regardless of the textbook definition, this constitutes a monopoly by Microsoft. Is this a case a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act? As I stated in Section 1, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act makes â€Å"illegal any form of contract or combination between entities in regards to trade and commerce that would have the effect of restraining trade†. Based on this case and the readings from week #7, there is proof that Microsoft did violate the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, particularly Sections 1 and 2 of the Act. Section One prohibited contracts, combinations and conspiracies â€Å"in restraint of trade† while Section Two outlawed monopolies and attempts to monopolize. Microsoft violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by illegally using its market power to restrain trade in the high tech industry. A filing from the DOJ on December 19, 1999 stated that â€Å"Microsoft engaged in illegal conduct in five separate ways: * by tying browser sales to sales of the operating system; * by using its market power to illegally maintain a monopoly; * by attempting to monopolize the browser market; * by imposing exclusive dealing arrangements between itself and Internet service providers and/or developers; and * by imposing first boot-up and screen restrictions on computer makers.† http://news.com.com/2100-1001-233992.html The DOJ filing in December of 1999 shows exactly why Microsoft was in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Some of the things that Microsoft has done that clearly violate the act include, but are certainly not limited to: Microsoft customers upgrading their copies of Microsoft Office at the Microsoft website, but using the competition’s web browser, are greeted with a message insisting on the use of MSIE for the â€Å"full edition† of the update. On November 18, 1998 the digital greeting card company Blue Mountain Arts discovered that beta versions of Microsoft’s Outlook Express (which comes free with Internet Explorer) were automatically filing Blue Mountain’s e-mail greeting cards into the â€Å"junk† folder rather than the â€Å"inbox.† Shortly afterwards, Blue Mountain Arts discovered that Microsoft’s WebTV service was blocking their e-mail greeting cards as well. When the courts ordered Microsoft to ship Windows without an integrated Internet Explorer, the company â€Å"complied† by offering a non-functional version of the OS, claiming that the browser was now so completely  integrated into Windows to remove it was tantamount to â€Å"breaking† the operating system. -All three of these examples were taken from the following website: http://www.vcnet. com /bms/departments/dirtytricks.shtml To summarize, I’ve identified the following facts: Microsoft does have a monopoly in their industry Microsoft did violate Acts 1 and 2 of the Sherman Anti-trust Act It is convenient for Microsoft to say that their success is solely based on them being able to produce good products. Although they do devote extraordinary resources to improving their technologies, they also work diligently to stifle growth and in-roads from their competition. Section 3 3. The Defense of Microsoft – I am not going to spend a great deal of time attempting to defend Microsoft. They have spent millions and millions of dollars working tirelessly to do it themselves. Furthermore, I firmly believe that they have established a monopoly and that this monopoly serves to futher one parties interests: Microsoft’s. However, I did some research online and came up with the following paragraph from an article titled â€Å"The Microsoft Antitrust Suit† written by Peter Tracey. In it, he wrote â€Å"The persecution of Microsoft is an assault on the free market, and on the intelligence of the American people. It is the result of long-held envy by Microsoft’s competitors, including Netscape and Oracle. It is in violation of the constitution, being both ex post facto and vague (Getman). The governments persecution of Microsoft should be stopped, moreover, the antitrust legislation that has exposed business to unfair and unreasonable practices should be repealed.† (http://www.levelthreesolutions.com/ peter/msantitrust.html) In Microsoft’s opinion, the government should not get involved in determining what means a company uses to produce their products. They feel that they have been able to succeed through hard work, tenancity, and superior products. Although it may be â€Å"unfortunate† for their competitiors, Microsoft feels that â€Å"if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.† In essence, Microsoft makes the most money doing what they do by taking solid ideas from other people, such as the Disc Operating System, and making them better. Microsoft doesn’t monopolize the industry. They simply work harder, take risks, and capitalize where other companies have floundered. Section 4 4. Discussion – Before I discuss this particular case study, I must tell you that I have always been a big fan of Microsoft and Bill Gates. I have enjoyed the relatively cheap cost of Microsoft’s software such as Microsoft Excel and Word. I have also felt that with each successive upgrade of these products I have only been able to improve my performance both at work and school. I also thought it was impressive that Bill Gates could take his ideas, push forward with his undefeatable will, and become one of the richest people in the entire world. However, this case study and the analysis that I’ve done with it has really opened my eyes to the â€Å"seamy† side of Microsoft and Bill Gates. I was so moved by this case that I even went and downloaded one of Microsoft’s few internet browser competitors, Netscape, to compare it’s product with Internet Explorer. When my wife asked me what my paper was I about I told her it was about Microsoft and whether or not they were a monopoly in the industry. Her very quick and wry response said it so perfectly: â€Å"Duh, of course they are. Even I know that.† I think this says it all so succinctly. Do I think Microsoft needs to be disbanded or separated in to two different operating companies? Not really. Like I said before, I enjoy Microsoft’s products and I use them constantly. In fact, I am writing  this paper using one of Microsoft’s products, Microsoft Word. I just honestly think that fair competition and a level playing field for Microsoft’s competitors would only benefit the consumer in the long run. More people with new insights will be given the chance to expand the technology already in place. Too many companies are skittish about taking on Microsoft because of the monopoly and the fear of being annihilated. Finally, I have learned that cases of anti-trust and monopoly are not always as clear cut as one may think. I always thought that Microsoft had a clear monopoly and that there was nothing any of us could ever do to remedy it. I also really didn’t care as long as they continued to improve Windows and the accompanying Office Suite. I can see now that competition in all economic arenas, whether it is cable television or fast-food or computer software, is important, no vital, for lower prices and increased technological growth.