Ayn Rands novel †The Fountainhead

Ayn Rands novel – The Fountainhead Free Online Research Papers Webster’s Dictionary defines fountainhead as â€Å"a fountain or spring from which a stream flows; the head or source of a stream.† In Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead, which was first published in 1943, Howard Roark is the fountainhead. He is the fountain of knowledge, persistently providing a stream of wisdom wherever he goes to everyone he comes in contact with. The only way this is possible is for him to go outside the â€Å"box† of his society. By showing great independence and individuality in both his thoughts and actions, Howard Roark is looked at as an outsider, squandering his life away for an unworthy purpose. These individualistic traits are very uncommon and daring, but can prove to either be very beneficial, or more often than not, overwhelmingly detrimental and life ruining. A good example of this in the book was the life of Henry Cameron. By going outside of the â€Å"box† of society, he was considered a brilliant architect. Bam. All of the sudden he is living in a rundown shack, barely surviving off pocket change. After an immense amount of thought, I have discovered that I am not a chance taker, but instead just your average conformist. I intend to become an independent thinker someday. It seems that as a person’s knowledge level rises, their likeliness of becoming an individualist grows immensely. As a young child, I always attended church with my family and other social events which they deemed suitable for our position on the situation. That was just the problem. It should never be our choice. It should be mine or yours. We should all be free to decide what we believe is right or wrong, without the fear of being labeled an outcast for the rest of our lives. I think that I was 10 years old before I ever discovered any other religions besides Christianity. Most parents today unintentionally force their kids into their image, simply because that was the way they were raised! It is very important that as children we learn all of the major choices in life having to do with religion, sex, politics, etc. This ensures that we are making the right decisions for ourselves and not for someone else. There are of course chastisements for behaving just as you want, which is obviously necessary. If we all ran around doing what we wanted to do all of the time, there would be no sense of control in the world. Chaos. That is what we would be left in. By being your own person, others would still outcast you by means of their own opinions, and life would still be dreadfully intolerable. Advantages to this lifestyle are that you could find a place and a way to enjoy yourself significantly, with whomsoever you please. In the face of such a chaotic atmosphere, it would be easier to rise and shine, and if you were like Howard Roark, you could even put up buildings that you were satisfied with wherever you wanted. Physically and socially a person can afford to not be true to themselves, but there is an emotional decay taking place inside their soul at the same time. This hatred within yourself becomes a burning thorn in your chest, and will eventually cause you to let it out through actions or words that you would never on a normal occasion use. This can be done over time slowly, or through one bottled up burst of emotions gone wrong such as suicide or murder. Peter Keating never thought for himself. As he confessed in The Fountainhead, â€Å"Howard, I’m a parasite. I’ve been a parasite all my life . . . I have fed on you and all the men like you who lived before we were born. . . . if they hadn’t existed I wouldn’t have known how to put stone to stone. . . . I have taken that which was not mine and given nothing in return.† By admitting this to Howard Roark, Peter acknowledged that he was a conformist, using an independent thinkers ideas. This was killing him inside, and was all let out at once. The Fountainhead proved to be a noteworthy book, and as soon as I finish reading it I will probably hold a different outlook on life. Thanks once again for a long, but good book for your favorite class, and of course me, your favorite student. Research Papers on Ayn Rand’s novel - "The Fountainhead"Effects of Television Violence on Children19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraCapital PunishmentQuebec and CanadaThe Spring and AutumnHip-Hop is ArtPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationRelationship between Media Coverage and Social and

Mandarin Chinese Sentence Structure

Mandarin Chinese Sentence Structure Mandarin Chinese sentence structure is quite different than English or other European languages. Since the word order doesnt match, sentences which are translated word-for-word to Mandarin will be difficult to understand. You must learn to think in Mandarin Chinese when speaking the language. Subject (who) Just like English, Mandarin Chinese subjects come at the beginning of the sentence. Time (when) Time expressions come immediately before or after the subject. John yesterday went to the doctor.Yesterday John went to the doctor. Place (where) To explain where an event happened, the place expression comes before the verb. Mary in school met her friend. Prepositional Phrase (with whom, to whom etc.) These are phrases which qualify an activity. They are placed before the verb and after the place expression. Susan yesterday at work with her friend ate lunch. Object The Mandarin Chinese object has a great deal of flexibility. It is usually placed after the verb, but other possibilities include before the verb, before the subject, or even omitted. Conversational Mandarin often omits both the subject and the object when the context makes the meaning clear. I like on the train read the newspaper.

MAI Systems Corporation Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

MAI Systems Corporation - Case Study Example Recently, Softbrands purchased the Company back in August 2006. Since its inception in 1957, the Company has gone through significant changes. Being an opportunist and thanks to IBM and the Justice Department in 1956 when the entire computer industry was under the monopoly of IBM, Walter R. Oreamuno and his associate came up with an idea of re-purchasing the computer equipment from IBM customers and leasing it back to the customers at a lower rate than what was being offered by IBM. This idea was a great boast to the MAI's growth but did not last that long. During this time, the Company opted for an IPO with an Not realizing IBM's strategy of depreciating its punch card equipment and the innovation of 360 third generation computer, MAI invested substantially in the older equipment that resulted in MAI's growth to stall. During 1967, a major setback on merger plans with Transamerica, Oreamuno stepped down as the CEO and was replaced by Luther Schwalm an ex-IBM veteran. With a shift in strategy, the earlier investment in the older IBM equipment did not prove to be fertile, Schwalm decided to write-off the outdated older equipment. MAI's cash flow was impacted so substantially that its net worth in 1970 was negative $ 28 million. Oreamuno's decision proved out to be so wrong that even Schwalm was unable to bring the Company out of trouble. It was that when in 1971 MAI's CFO took over as the President. With a new strategy, Kurshan reorganized MAI into a holding company with various subsidiaries. Basic/Four and Sorbus subsidiaries of MAI did well in bringing MAI back to life. Sorbus took advantage of MAI's existing 1,200-person maintenance staff as its core, and expanding from there. Basic/Four was a major success instantaneously. In 1972, Basic/Four introduced the first multi-user transaction-processing mini-computer to use the Business Basic language. Basic/Four's revenue grew up to $43 million, and it was contributing around two-thirds of MAI's tot al earnings. Focused on software products, MAI in 1977 took over acquired Word stream Corporation. This company was producing word processing systems and IBM-compatible CRT terminals. MAI shipped its 10,000th computer system in the year 1980. The market for these computers began to shift drastically at this time, and small companies were turning to cheaper, newly available personal computers instead of the mini-computers that had been Basic/Four's forte. In 1983, the company introduced its MAI 8000, a super-minicomputer nearly as powerful as a mainframe computer, which was proficient enough of servicing up to 96 users at one time. In 1984, a New York-based investor Asher Edelman purchased 12 percent of MAI's stock. Edelman by means of a proxy war for control of the company won four seats on MAI's ten-member board of directors. In the course of the proxy battle, Edelman received a settlement in the $1 million range following a libel suit filed against MAI concerning company advertisements. During April 1984, MAI International Corporation, the company's worldwide marketing arm, was folded into