Countering the Anti-Israel Apartheid and the BDS Messages Essay

Intercultural Communication in the Workplace paper Essay

Intercultural Communication in the Workplace paper - Essay Example This is the thing that great entertainers do and there is a contrast between a ‘wooden actor’ and ‘expressive actor’ who passes on entire reams of emotions with articulations, discoursed and enunciation of discourse. It isn't sufficiently only to be attractive or to have a decent voice and keeping in mind that these assistance to upgrade the effect, a poor speaker can't depend on just these physical qualities. â€Å"Language is our chief methods for imparting, yet it isn’t the just a single we use. We convey at whatever point we transmit data about ourselves to other people and get such data from them. Our outward appearances, substantial positions, motions, and developments, regardless of whether oblivious, pass on data and are a piece of our correspondence styles (Chapter 15, p. 256). In associations, especially during group gatherings or assemblies, a viable speaker figures out how to get over physical boundaries, for example, plan looks, thick ac cents and different obstructions yet at the same time figure out how to keep individuals intrigued, by checking their state of mind and changing tonal intonations. This is a significant issue in intercultural correspondence, to keep the crowd intrigued and simultaneously get your message through. By culture, we mean the acknowledged standards of social conduct and acknowledgment of what is correct and what's going on and what is moral. To give a model, a lady smoking in US or Europe would not be seen yet a comparative activity in Arab nations would raise a ton of consideration. Associations, for example, Microsoft, Ford, GM, Toyota, British Petroleum and numerous others that work all inclusive need to adjust to different societies and comprehend these standards yet stay focused on their fundamental beliefs. This is a zone that is best taken care of by powerful intercultural correspondence and the aptitude is in utilizing a comprehensive technique where the message mixes across societies and brings a feeling of consistency. This requires aptitude and experience and basic language, checked for

12 Books to Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of The Oprah Winfrey Show

12 Books to Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of The Oprah Winfrey Show I have a bigtime love for Oprah. Her unparalleled daytime talk show was on my family TV from before I was born to the year after I graduated from college. I grew up reciting never go to a second location and live your best life and when you know better you do better. Oprah Winfrey is frequently (and correctly) referred to as the queen of daytime television, but she did a lot for the bookish world as well. Her book club alone popularized classic literature and catapulted many contemporary authors on to the best sellers list. I recently devoured the new NPR podcast Making Oprah, which celebrates what would have been the 30th season of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Here are some books that will keep the celebration of this important Oprah anniversary going. Get ready for lots of lightbulb moments! Food, Health, and Happiness: 115 On-Point Recipes for Great Meals and a Better Life by Oprah Winfrey Oprah’s relationship with food is notorious. I mean, the woman once wheeled out a wagon full of all the representational fat she’d lost. In this new book, she pairs recipes with personal essays and memories from her life. I definitely want a peak at the promised photos of Oprah’s kitchen. What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey Whenever I read Oprah’s magazine, which my mom still subscribes to, I flip to the back for Oprah’s “What I Know For Sure” column. Here her life lessons are collected and updated in one book. Amazing! I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings  by Maya Angelou Oprah called Maya Angelou her “mentor-mother-sister-friend.” She featured The Heart of a Woman in her 1997 book club, but I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings marks the first of Angelou’s seven autobiographies. Both are beautiful and excellent books. The Color Purple by Alice Walker Oprah finished The Color Purple in one day and soon was telling everyone how she was obsessed with her new favorite book. She called the story her own story. She starred in the 1985 movie adaptation, playing Sofia,  and was nominated for an Academy Award for her first ever film role. The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacqueline Mitchard This novel tells the story of a suburban family dealing with the disappearance of the youngest son. It was the first pick for Oprah’s famous book club in 1996 and, subsequently, a national best seller. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Toni Morrison’s novels appeared on Oprah’s book club several times. The Bluest Eye examines questions about race, gender, and conformity in the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl who is teased for her appearance and prays every day to be beautiful. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen Aside from the James Frey controversy, Oprah’s most controversial book club pick might have been Jonathan Franzen. When Oprah chose Franzen’s The Corrections for her book club in 2001, Franzen offended the host and her viewers when he scoffed at the honor saying that his novel was “a hard book for that audience” and that he wanted to attract more male readers instead. Still, in 2010 Oprah chose Freedom for her book club calling the novel “a masterpiece.” Wild by Cheryl Strayed The memoir Wild is the first pick of Oprah’s Book Club 2.0, the reincarnation of the book club post Oprah’s last season. In case you’ve been living under a rock or haven’t watched the Netflix Gilmore Girls reboot, Wild portrays the eleven-hundred mile solo hike that Cheryl Strayed undertook at age twenty-two following the death of her mother. Life Strategies: Doing What Works, Doing What Matters by Phillip C. McGraw I don’t know exactly how I feel about him, but no list of Oprah inspirations would be complete without a little Dr. Phil on it. In his first book, you will find such gems as, “you have to name it before you can claim it.” Because wisdom that rhymes is much easier to remember. In the Meantime: Finding Yourself and the Love You Want   by Iyanla Vanzant Iyanla is another Oprah Winfrey protégé who many peopled learned about through the show. She’s written many books, but this one is one of her most popular and a number one bestseller. The Underground Railroad  by Colson Whitehead This National Book  Award winner was Oprahs pick for the book club this year. In this acclaimed novel, the author reimagines the Underground Railroad as an actual railroad complete with conductors, train tracks, and engineers. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle There are few things that excite me as much as the news that Oprah will be playing Mrs. Which in the upcoming Ava Duvernay film adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. I cannot wait to see this amazing performance!

Descriptive Essay - Original Writing - 1012 Words

To see Kendrick leave this morning was much harder than I imagined it would be. To say we’d grown close would be an understatement. We come up with plans to Skype each other on his down time. It needed to be enough for the time being, we had no other options. I am so confused about what was going on with our relationship. I wanted to say the three little, but important words to him. I just wasn’t able to get the words past my lips. I knew in my heart Kendrick is nothing like the men in my past. Why in the past, I’d fallen so fast for the wrong type of men, and now I’m with someone of worth, my heart is so guarded. What in the holy mother of Eros did he mean ‘make ye mine?’ Was I hoping he meant to be together as in married? He†¦show more content†¦I will have plenty of time in the next month to think about my feeling in regards to Kendrick. I needed to finish up the article and get it off to my editor. I should be able to g et it done by tonight and send an email in the morning. I was thinking of writing my next article about the sea life around the Scottish coast. Since our salmon dinner last evening I thought I would do a piece about the commercial salmon farming that began in Scotland in 1969. In 2002 over 145,000 metric tons of farmed Atlantic salmon was produced. I thought a salmon farming article would be of interest to quite a few people. I needed to make a phone call to my sister Adaira. She had emailed me and said she needed to talk. I would place the call, at 6:00 pm tonight. Adaira said she would available at 10:00 am, Los Angeles time and that would work for me now that my Mr. Seal wasn’t around to distract me. All day I’ve been looking forward for a chance to talk to Adaira, we had a lot to catch-up on. Now that it’s almost six o’clock I get all comfy on the couch ready to see what my family’s been up to since I left the California. Adaira picks-up the phone on the second ring. â€Å"Hey, Aileana it’s so good to hear from you! I’ve missed you.† â€Å"Hey Dare, what’s happening on the Pacific coast. How are you and the family hanging? I’ve missed you too.† I said. â€Å"So how is Seanmhair doing and have you met

399 Tutorial 5 Essay - 2064 Words

ACCG 399: Accounting in Context Accounting’s Positivistic Tendencies: Overlaying a Social Science With Pure Scientific Rationale Tutorial 5 - Week 6 This written Comprehensive Professional Portfolio is comprised of individual and group tasks which are to be completed within tutorials and will require further work and writing up outside of the classroom. These set of tutorial activities extending till the end of the session, are intended to take you through a learning journey of exploration and development. They have been specifically designed to incorporate not only a real-life perspective to your university learning but also to further enhance graduate capabilities such as your ability to engage in critical, analytical and†¦show more content†¦I believe that anyone watching just the first part of this documentary can make the assumption that we were going downhill with all these unstable inventions that were supposed to bring in more turmoil for the rest of the world. In order to reporting accuracy, they interview lots of people to indicated this fact rather than merely provide neutral opinion. In addition, the film ill ustrates some data and provides some powerful reports to support their viewpoint. The following parts also explain the main factors result in the financial crisis, and the economic recession. The film also emphasis on the investor and related parties should burdened accountability what the challenge we need to face. Positive accounting theory refers to the branch of academic research in accounting[-0] that seeks to explain and predict actual accounting practices. These contrasts with normative accounting[-1] theory, that seeks to derive and prescribe optimal accounting standards. In other words, the accountant should to obey the standard accounting rules and regulation to prepare financial report and they must utilize optimal accounting standards. 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Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Free Essays

The revenue recognition principle states that, under the accrual basis of accounting, you should only record revenue when an entity has substantially completed a revenue generation process; thus, you record revenue when it has been earned. The match inning (expense recognition) principle is one of the cornerstones of he accrual basis of accounting. Under this principle, when you record revenue, also record at the same time any expenses directly related to the revenue. We will write a custom essay sample on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or any similar topic only for you Order Now Thus, if there is a cause-and-effect relationship between revenue and the expenses, record them in the same accounting period. The materiality principle states tattoo are allowed to ignore an accounting standard if the net impact of doing so has such a small impact on the financial statements that a reader of the financial statements would not be misled. Accounting assumptions The going concern principle is the assumption that an entity will remain in cuisines for the foreseeable future. The monetary unit principle states that you only record business transactions that can be expressed in terms of a currency. The time period principle is the concept that a business should report the financial results of its activities over a standard time period, which is usually monthly, quarterly, or annually. The business entity concept states that you must separately record the transactions associated with a business from those of its owners or other businesses. Effective Internal Control Environment 1. Management integrity 2. Competent and ethical personnel: Selection/Good salaries/Training/Rotation 3. Establishment of responsibilities: Organization chart – clear lines of authority, defined areas of responsibilities Delegation of authority for key activities Policies and Procedures 1. Proper authorization 2. Separation of duties Operations from accounting Custody of assets from accounting Authorization of transactions from custody of assets 3. Control of documents and records Adequate records of transactions (egg invoices, purchase orders, cheeses, stockpiles, journals and ledgers) Proper control (pre-numbering invoices and receipts, lock and key, PC swords) 4. Electronic and computer controls Monitoring 1 . Supervision of Employees (all levels) Reduce temptation to steal or defraud company 2 Audits Internal Control of Cash 1. Using a bank account Receiving vs. paying cash [l physical handling of cash vs. accounting Accounting for cash receipts vs. accounting for cash payments 3. Cash receipt controls Physical controls (lock and key) Deposit cash receipts daily Counter-check cash receipts before depositing Match receipts per cash registers with bank deposit slips 4. Cash payment controls Approval for purchases to be separate from queue-signing Proper documents to support payments Authority limits for queue-signing to be strictly adhered to Two signatories for cheeses 5. Bank reconciliation +1- corrections of bank errors +/- corrections of book errors = Adjusted bank balance = Adjusted book balance Bank reconciliation should be done by a person separate from the one handling receipts/ payments If duties cannot be separated, bank reconciliation should be reviewed by a supervisor 6. Petty cash controls Petty cash = small amount of cash kept on office premises to facilitate miscellaneous expo. How to cite Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Papers Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Free Essays A corporation must use the same depreciation method for tax and financial reporting purposes. Must use different depreciation methods for tax and financial reporting may use different depreciation methods for tax and financial reporting must use different (than for tax purposes), but strictly mandated, depreciation methods for financial reporting purposes. 1 points Question 2 1 . We will write a custom essay sample on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or any similar topic only for you Order Now Allocation of the historic costs of fixed assets against the annual revenue they generate is called net profits. Gross profits. Depreciation. Amortization. 1 points Question 3 1 . Given the financial manager’s preference for faster receipt of cash flows, a longer depreciable life is preferred to a shorter one. A shorter depreciable life is preferred to a longer one. The manager is not concerned with depreciable lives, because depreciation is a non-cash expense. The manager is not concerned with depreciable lives, because once purchased, depreciation is considered a sunk cost. 1 points Question 4 1 . The Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACROS) is a depreciation method used for tax financial reporting managerial cost accounting Question 5 . The depreciable life of an asset is of concern to the financial manager. In general, a longer depreciable life is preferred, because it will result in a faster receipt Of cash flows. A shorter depreciable life is preferred, because it will result in a faster receipt of cash flows. A shorter depreciable life is preferred, because management can then purchase new assets, as the old assets are written off. A longer depreciable life is preferred, because management can postpone purchasing new assets, since the Old assets still have a useful life. 1 points Question 6 1 . A corporation sold a fixed asset for $100,000. This is an investment cash flow and a source of funds. An operating cash flow and a source of funds. An operating cash flow and a use of funds. An investment cash flow and a use of funds. Question 7 1 . A corporation raises $500,000 in long-term debt to acquire additional plant capacity. This is considered an investment cash flow. A financing cash flow. A financing cash flow and investment cash flow, respectively. A financing cash flow and operating cash flow, respectively. 1 points Question 8 1 . A firm’s operating cash flow (SCOFF) is defined as Ross profit minus operating expenses. How to cite Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Papers Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Free Essays Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Kelly Voelm NURS/571 March 25, 2013 Dr. Tricia Jenkins Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Companies and businesses are guided by rules and regulations that they must follow concerning financial data reporting. Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) assist accountants to work with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and are guidelines that apply to most financial statements. We will write a custom essay sample on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or any similar topic only for you Order Now The GAAP are a list of principles used by accountants and they influence most financial information. These principles of accounting are ? Accounting Entity ? Money Measurement ? Duality ? Cost Valuation ? Stable Monetary Unit Accounting Principles The Accounting Entity is the organization that is the focus of the reports and information. These entities include businesses, churches, school districts, governments, and many other social organizations. For the purpose of this paper health care organizations will be the focus. Hospitals, clinics, physician offices, and other health care entities are required to file monetary reports showing monetary value of the organization. Money Measurement is a concept that relates to transactions that can only be recorded if they can be recorded in monetary terms. There are certain aspects of an organization that cannot be counted on the financial statement. The expertise of staff, reliability of services, and employee working conditions are aspects of the organization that cannot be added to a financial statement. Duality is the assets which are equal to the liabilities and the net assets. The assets, liabilities, and the net asset accounts should always create a balance ending in the duality. This means that the cash used to buy an asset is placed on the liability side of a financial statement and the purchased item is placed on the asset side of that statement. Cost Valuation is also known as historical or acquisition costs are the original monetary value of an item. Assets and liabilities are costs that must be evaluated for financial reporting. Cost valuation does not consider inflation or depreciation values. Stable Monetary Unit allows the assumption that the dollar, a monetary unit, is stable regardless of inflation rates. Regardless of inflation rates financial statements over years usually have the same value. Intentions of Accounting Principles According to Cleverly, Song, and Cleverly, (2011), the accounting entity principle’s intention is to specify the entity for which the accounting focuses defines the information that is pertinent. Cleverly, Song, and Cleverly state that the intention of the money measurement principle is to define adequately the measuring of resources and obligations. Duality principle’s intention is to show that the value of assets will always equal the value of claims. When transactions increase the number of assets and liabilities also increase thus allowing for duality. The intention of the cost valuation principle is to show that asset value may not always equal the amount of money that can be gained by selling of these assets. One downfall is that this can cause old facilities to appear newer and more efficient than they actually are. The intention of the stable monetary unit is to keep changes in the value of a dollar or other form of monetary units from affecting financial worth. This would be like adding apples and oranges if the fluctuation was monitored. Health Care and Relation to Principles The accounting entity in relation to health care could be a clinic operation that is owned by a private physician may be the accounting entity. The organization must be clearly defined to be accurate and not misleading. The physician is not the accounting entity which is where most people make the mistake in placing ownership. Money measurement principle with regard to health care money measurement is guided by the organization and not the individual. The duality principle is evident when the financial statement of a health care facility is looked at such as if the organization purchases $40,000 of patient supplies. The balancing factor will show that there is an asset of this $40,000 of supplies. This has shown a balance of assets and liabilities. The cost valuation principle when it is shown in health care requires that the initial asset valuation will not equal the final valuation because of a dramatic inflation tendency. Current replacement value is not viable for future cash flow changes. The stable monetary unit principle is important in the health care field because even if the income is stable the cash flow can be considered a negative. The stability of money is crucial for there to be a positive outcome. In conclusion, the principles of accounting guide the financial aspects of organizations. These principles are crucial to assist the health care facilities to maintain financial integrity. The actual organization or accounting entity is the focus of the financial statement. The money measurement is in relation to only the transactions or services that are only recorded in a monetary way. Duality describes assets, liabilities, and net assets which are always balanced. Cost valuation refers to the original monetary value of any item. The stable monetary unit must stay stable regardless of inflation rates. The intention of these principles is to guide the financial and monetary aspect of all businesses. Checks and balances are implemented so that the health care organization is successful. Each of these principles allows a financial picture to be available for the constituents of the community involved. References Cleverly, W. O. , Song, P. H. , Cleverly, J. O. (2011). Essentials of health care finance (7th ed. ). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning. How to cite Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Papers Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Free Essays Introduction The purpose of this report is to identify the items that may result in adjusting entries for both prepayments and accrual by looking at the trial balance and Income statement. Furthermore, analyzing the historical summary of financial Is to know the trend for profit or loss of the company assets. Fundamental First of all, why we have to make BAD? Balance day adjustments are therefore required to ensure the financial statements portray a correct picture on the firm’s financial performance and financial position. We will write a custom essay sample on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or any similar topic only for you Order Now We have to recognize all transaction occurring in that accounting period, irrespective of whether cash has been received or paid. The ultimate objective of adjusting entries Is to ensure that the revenues (income) earned In the accounting period are matched by all costs Incurred for that name accounting period (Monish College, 2011). Prepayment There are two types of adjusting entries, prepayments and accruals. Prepayment is a payment in advance of the period to which it pertains. What this mean is, this category of adjustments aligns recorded revenues (income) and costs with appropriate accounting periods. For example, there are situations where cash Is received before goods and services are provided to customers or situations where cash has been paid In advance for costs of operation and which relate to future counting periods. Prepayments divided into two sections, which are prepaid expenses and unearned revenue. Prepaid expenses is type of assets that shown on a balance sheet as a result of business payments for goods and services to be received in the near future. While prepaid expenses are initially recorded as assets, their value Is expensed over time as the benefit Is receive something of value in the near future. Prepayments often occur In regard to Insurance, supplies, advertising, and rent. Earned revenue is also known as prepaid revenue. It means payment, which is received in advance of providing a good or service. Since an obligation exists on the part of the company to provide goods or services for which the advance payment was received, unearned revenue is a liability. An example is a retainer received by an attorney. When the services are performed, revenue is the earned. Another examples are pre-booked airline ticket, rent received In advance and magazine subscription How to cite Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Papers Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Free Essays Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (United States) In the U. S. , generally accepted accounting principles, commonly abbreviated as US GAAP or simply GAAP, are accounting rules used to prepare, present, and report financial statements for a wide variety of entities, including publicly-traded and privately-held companies, non-profit organizations, and governments. We will write a custom essay sample on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or any similar topic only for you Order Now Generally GAAP includes local applicable Accounting Framework, related accounting law, rules and Accounting Standard. Similar to many other countries practicing under the common law system, the United States government does not directly set accounting standards, in the belief that the private sector has better knowledge and resources. US GAAP is not written in law, although the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that it be followed in financial reporting by publicly-traded companies. Currently, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is the highest authority in establishing generally accepted accounting principles for public and private companies, as well as non-profit entities. For local and state governments, GAAP is determined by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), which operates under a set of assumptions, principles, and constraints, different from those of standard private-sector GAAP. Financial reporting in federal government entities is regulated by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB). The US GAAP provisions differ somewhat from International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), though former SEC Chairman Chris Cox set out a timetable for all U. S. ompanies to drop GAAP by 2016, with the largest companies switching to IFRS as early as 2009 Basic objectives Financial reporting should provide information that is: †¢useful to present to potential investors and creditors and other users in making rational investment, credit, and other financial decisions. †¢helpful to present to potential investors and creditors and other users in assessing the amounts, timing, and uncertainty of prospective cash receipts. à ¢â‚¬ ¢about economic resources, the claims to those resources, and the changes in them. [edit] Basic concepts To achieve basic objectives and implement fundamental qualities GAAP has four basic assumptions, four basic principles, and four basic constraints. [edit] Assumptions †¢Accounting Entity: assumes that the business is separate from its owners or other businesses. Revenue and expense should be kept separate from personal expenses. †¢Going Concern: assumes that the business will be in operation indefinitely. This validates the methods of asset capitalization, depreciation, and amortization. Only when liquidation is certain this assumption is not applicable. †¢Monetary Unit principle: assumes a stable currency is going to be the unit of record. The FASB accepts the nominal value of the US Dollar as the monetary unit of record unadjusted for inflation. †¢The Time-period principle implies that the economic activities of an enterprise can be divided into artificial time periods. [edit] Principles †¢Cost principle requires companies to account and report based on acquisition costs rather than fair market value for most assets and liabilities. This principle provides information that is reliable (removing opportunity to provide subjective and potentially biased market values), but not very relevant. Thus there is a trend to use fair values. Most debts and securities are now reported at market values. †¢Revenue principle requires companies to record when revenue is (1) realized or realizable and (2) earned, not when cash is received. This way of accounting is called accrual basis accounting. †¢Matching principle. Expenses have to be matched with revenues as long as it is reasonable to do so. Expenses are recognized not when the work is performed, or when a product is produced, but when the work or the product actually makes its contribution to revenue. Only if no connection with revenue can be established, cost may be charged as expenses to the current period (e. g. office salaries and other administrative expenses). This principle allows greater evaluation of actual profitability and performance (shows how much was spent to earn revenue). Depreciation and Cost of Goods Sold are good examples of application of this principle. †¢Disclosure principle. Amount and kinds of information disclosed should be decided based on trade-off analysis as a larger amount of information costs more to prepare and use. Information disclosed should be enough to make a judgment while keeping costs reasonable. Information is presented in the main body of financial statements, in the notes or as supplementary information [edit] Constraints †¢Objectivity principle: the company financial statements provided by the accountants should be based on objective evidence. †¢Materiality principle: the significance of an item should be considered when it is reported. An item is considered significant when it would affect the decision of a reasonable individual. Consistency principle: It means that the company uses the same accounting principles and methods from year to year. †¢Prudence principle: when choosing between two solutions, the one that will be least likely to overstate assets and income should be picked (see convention of conservatism). Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (UK) The Generally Accepted Accounting Practice in the UK, or UK GAAP, are the overall body of regulation establis hing how company accounts must be prepared in the United Kingdom. This includes not only accounting standards, but also UK company law. What is referred to elsewhere as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles is in the UK referred to as Generally Accepted Accounting Practice. [edit] History Accounting standards derive from a number of sources. The chief standard-setter is the Accounting Standards Board (ASB), which issues standards called Financial Reporting Standards (FRS). The ASB is part of the Financial Reporting Council, an independent regulator funded by a levy on listed companies[1], and it replaced the Accounting Standards Committee (ASC), which was disbanded in 1990 following a number of criticisms of its work. To the extent that the ASC’s pronouncements, known as Statements of Standard Accounting Practice (SSAPs), have not been replaced by FRS, they remain in force. [edit] Creation/Revision of Standards The ASB has a formal exposure process for proposed standards. Early concepts are issued as Discussion Papers. These are released to the public and comments invited. Where a new standard is to be proposed, a Financial Reporting Exposure Draft (FRED) is released for comment. The standard in final form is only issued when comments have been incorporated or addressed. This aims to address the criticisms levelled at the ASC, whose comment process was less rigorous. Issues that require an immediate solution are considered by the Urgent Issues Task Force (UITF). The UITF comprises a number of senior figures from industry and accounting firms. It meets as necessary to consider pressing issues and issues Abstracts which become binding immediately. [edit] Legislation The principal legislation governing reporting in the UK is laid down in the Companies Act 2006, which incorporates the requirements of European law. The Companies Act sets out certain minimum reporting requirements for companies and, for example, requires limited companies to file their accounts with the Registrar of Companies who makes them available to the general public. From 2005, this framework changed as a result of European law requiring that all listed European companies report under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). In the UK, companies which are not listed have the option to report either under IFRSs or under UK GAAP[2]. Recently issued UK FRSs have, in any case replicated the wording of corresponding IFRSs, reducing the differences between the two sets of standards significantly. China Accounting Standards From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Chinese Accounting Standards) Jump to: navigation, search Chinese accounting standards are the accounting rules used in Chinese state owned corporations in mainland China. They are currently being phased out in favour of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or International Accounting Standards. As of February 2010, the Chinese Accounting Standard Systems is composed of Basic Standard, 38 specific standards and Application Guidance. Chinese accounting standards are unique because they originated in a socialist period in which the state was the sole owner of industry. Therefore unlike Western accounting standards, they are less a tool of profit and loss and an inventory of assets available to a company. In contrast to a Western balance sheet, Chinese accounting standards do not include an accounting of the debts that a corporation holds, and are less suitable for management control than for accounting for tax purposes. This system of accounting is widely considered to be unsuitable for managing corporations in a market economy. As a result, Chinese corporations are gradually moving toward International Financial Reporting Standards. This has proven to be a massive undertaking. As a consequence Chinese companies who offer shares for sale in the United States used to be required to prepare three sets of statements, one using Chinese accounting standards (China GAAP), one using international standards (IFRS), and one using North American GAAP standards (US GAAP). However, since 2008 the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allows foreign private issuers to use financial statements prepared in accordance with IFRS. [1] However, in recent years, The Finance Department of Chinese Government has issued new Chinese Accounting Standards which converge into IFRS and the similarity is almost 90-95%. The translation cost has been reduced greatly because of this measure How to cite Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Papers Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Free Essays Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Stephanie R. Stewart HCS/571 September 24, 2012 Anne Harney Finlon Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are important ideas to understand when discussing finances of any kind. It is important for all nurses, especially those in management roles, to understand financial concepts and be involved in the budgetary process. We will write a custom essay sample on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or any similar topic only for you Order Now This paper will help to create an understanding of GAAP, the purpose of the principles, and how they relate to the health care industry today. Every profession tends to have a language specific to the profession or occupation. The financial world is not immune to this language subset. The term Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) provides a dictionary for the language used in the finance world. GAAP also allows for consistency and encourages integrity with financial reporting. According to Finkler, Kovner, and Jones (2007), this set of principles involves eight key rules â€Å"established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board† (p. 104). Additionally, accountants are compelled to denote if the financial records being examined are in accordance with GAAP (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). Therefore, it is important for health care entities to follow the GAAP concept and ensure adherence to these eight key tenets. While some sources and authors will only list five or six principles, Finkler, Kovner, and Jones discuss eight rules as part of GAAP explanation. These principles â€Å"include the following: * Entity concept * Going-concern concept * Matching principle and cash vs accrual accounting * Cost principle * Objective evidence * Materiality * Consistency [and] * Full disclosure (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007, p. 104). Each of these principles has a general intent and is important for consistency in financial reporting. The entity concept defines what group or person is being discussed within the financial records. An example of such an entity is Shady Acres Nursing Home. The second rule is known as going concern. This specific concept examines the likelihood of whether the entity will still be operating tomorrow, next month, or next year. The reason for examining this information is due to the value of organizational assets (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). Assets of a company that is not expected to be in business next month will have a different value than the assets of a company expected to be in business for many years to come. For example, the value of the building where Shady Acres Nursing Home operates may be worth far less if it is known the facility will be ceasing operation in a few weeks. The next tenet of GAAP is the matching principle and cash vs. accrual accounting. As discussed by Finkler, Kovner, and Jones (2007), payment for services rendered is not always received in the same year. Additionally, the cost of providing those services may also not be noted as paid in that same year. Inconsistencies can occur as a result of the timing of income and expenses towards the end of a financial year. This GAAP rule helps to create consistency by requiring income and expenses to be reported in the same year. An instance of this rule is when Shady Acres provides skilled nursing care to Mrs. Smith for the month of December 2012. Though it is unlikely that Mrs. Smith’s insurance will pay Shady Acres any sooner than January 2013, the accountants at the nursing home must show that the income was received in 2012. Additionally, the providers of care likely will not be paid for all hours worked until 2013, but that expense also must be shown in 2012. The rules of cost principle and objective evidence are very closely related. The cost principle can be difficult to determine without taking into consideration the objective evidence available to the accountants. Cost principle is essentially the amount paid by an entity to purchase the item. Yet, with many items accountants must take into consideration the depreciation or which will occur over time. This is especially true with buildings and other very expensive items expected to be used for many years. Shady Acres may have paid three million dollars for the land and building five years ago, but because of the real estate crisis the cost principle is now only two million dollars. Due to objective evidence the cost principle will never rise higher than the cost reported on the accounting report even if there is appreciation present. Since cost over time can fluctuate based upon the market and the assessor, it is important to include the rule of objective evidence within this set of accounting principles. To decrease forecasting of cost, accountants list â€Å"the value of most assets at their cost† (Finkler, Kovner, ; Jones, 2007, p. 106). In the previous example, Shady Acres was acquired for three million dollars. If the real estate market rebounds next year and the building appreciates in value, accountants will still use the rule of objective evidence and not set the cost above that which was paid to purchase the building. The sixth component of GAAP is materiality. As pointed out by Finkler, Kovner, and Jones (2007), the expectation for accounting records to be error free is unreasonable. Therefore, accountants take into consideration the degree of the errors made in the financial records. If the degree of error causes decisions to be made differently than if no errors were made, then this is unacceptable and must be corrected. For instance, if Shady Acres was interested in selling the facility to a wealthy investor, accountants would need to determine the value of organization by calculating assets and outstanding expenses. If accountants made an error and valued the organization at a total worth of four million dollars while the organization is only worth three million dollars, then the investor would be making a purchase decision based on faulty information. Accountants would be required to correct this information under GAAP as soon as it is discovered. Consistency is one of simplest rules in GAAP, yet has quite profound effects if not followed. Financial methods of accounting chosen by organizations should be consistent from year to year. If accountants at Shady Acres chose to use a different accounting method for 2012 than had been used for the preceding years then comparisons of Shady Acres’ financial health would be difficult to make. Finally, the rule of full disclosure within GAAP requires that organizations divulge all information related to the financial picture of the organization. It is important to exhibit details of the broader statements generally submitted so that a clear financial status can be ascertained. For example, Shady Acres would be required to submit statements detailing cash flow, appreciation or depreciation of assets, and justifications of all statements presented in addition to the standard â€Å"balance sheet and an operating statement† (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007, p. 106). The concepts of GAAP explained in this paper should be followed by all organizations, including health care organizations. Accountants expect to find adherence to these standards when auditing organizational finance records. Nurses are familiar with standards and policies in health care; GAAP is yet another set of standards to follow. As leaders in health care organizations, nurses should be aware of these concepts and assist the organization’s accountants with the implementation and use of all eight principles. Reference Finkler, S. A. , Kovner, C. T. , ; Jones, C. B. (2007). Financial management for nurse managers and executives (3rd ed. ). St. Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier. How to cite Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Papers

The Daoism and the Confucianism in Han Dynasty free essay sample

The Daoism and the Confucianism in Han Dynasty As the dominant philosophical school for around two thousand years in Chinese imperial history, Confucianism is always regarded as the most representative ideology of China, associated with numerous books, poems, artworks and stories that glorify Confucianism’s permeation into every corner of Chinese society. However, before Han Wudi, Confucianism was only one of those competing philosophical schools founded in Spring and Autumn period. During the Warring States period and Qin dynasty, Legalism took place of all other philosophical schools and helped King Zheng, the First Emperor, to unify China for the first time. Why Confucianism defeated Legalism as well as other philosophical schools in Han dynasty and thrived thereafter is a very interesting and important topic in Chinese history. This essay focuses on the transition from Legalism to Confucianism and elaborates the adaptation of Confucianism in the period of Han Wudi. When Han was first established by Gaozu, the country was in a mess due to the lasting wars. We will write a custom essay sample on The Daoism and the Confucianism in Han Dynasty or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The industries were devastated severely, the population decreased, the peasants were in exile, the economy was backwards and the national treasury was empty. What was worse, Gaozu made a mistake by â€Å"rewarding his old comrades with large territories to govern as vassal states†, because â€Å"dispersed power proved a danger to the emperor† (Ebrey 64). Under this kind of unfavorable circumstance, the first several emperors of Han, e. g. Gaozu and Wendi, chose to govern the country without imposing too many harsh policies and consolidate the regime in a more Daoism way rather than a Confucianism way. Ebrey describes Gaozu’s and Wendi’s ideas of ruling class as the following: The first Han emperors, although prudently avoiding the harsh policies of repudiated Qin, were not partial to Confucianism. Gaozu found the Confucian scholars of his day useful primarily as formulators of court rituals that would elevate him above his erstwhile companions and keep them from getting rowdy in court. Wendi (r. 179-157 BC) favoured Daoism, finding much of value in its laissez-faire message. (77) The goal of that era was to maintain peace and harmony in the society and develop the economy to make people’s life better. Therefore, the first several emperors of Han relieved the harsh laws prescribed by Qin, reduced the taxation and solved the conflict with those nomads by conciliatory policies, e. . â€Å"wooing the Xiongnu leaders with generous gifts, including silk, rice, cash, and even imperial princesses as brides† (68). The government preferred Daoists’ laissez-faire way of ruling, which emphasized on the government’s reduced role over civilian lives and governing without action. Thus, consistent with the trend then, Daoism dominated in the early period of Han dynasty and helped Han achieve social and economical stability during Wendi’s and Jingdi’s reigns, which is called the Rule of Wen and Jing   in Chinese history. When Wendi’s grandson Wudi came to the throne, Han was very stable and prosperous. Daoism’s governing without action was not suitable for Han because Han was no longer vulnerable as before. Therefore, Wudi thought it was time for him to solidify his control over the country by centralization of authority. As Ebrey writes: Wudi set about curbing the power of princes and other lords; he confiscated the domains of over half of them on whatever pretext he could find. Moreover, he decreed that domains would have to be divided among all the lord’s heirs, thus guaranteeing that they would diminish in sized with each passing generation. (64) By impairing the power of vassal states, Wudi implemented his centralization over the whole country. Moreover, in economy, Wudi â€Å"curbed the power of great merchants† by â€Å"gaining new sources of revenue through his state monopolies and commercial taxes; in foreign relations, he â€Å"was especially aggressive, revising the early conciliatory policies† (65). However, it is always easy to start the process of centralization but difficult to maintain the state of centralization. Faced with this knotty problem, Wudi adopted Confucianism, which underlined â€Å"the moral basis of superior-subordinate relations, appreciating that in the long run the ruler would achieve his goals more easily and economically when his subordinates viewed their relationship with the ruler in moral terms of loyalty and responsibility† (65). In fact, Han’s Confucianism is not the same as the Confucianism during the period of the Spring and Autumn or Warring States.

Crime Among the Immigrant Teenage Population essays

Crime Among the Immigrant Teenage Population essays The criminal population of immigrants and illegal aliens is on the rise. Not only has crime escalated within the years, but the number of immigrants in itself has gone through the roof. Most of the immigrants in our country today are illegal aliens. From the time you woke this morning to the time you go to sleep tonight, 10,000 illegal aliens will have flooded into the United States from and through Mexico. Tomorrow, the same will happen. In the past 7 years, the estimated number of illegal aliens residing in the U.S. has grown from 5 million to between 9 and 11 million. There are currently as many as 115,000 illegal immigrants from Middle Eastern countries living in the United States. In addition, there are over 400,000 illegal immigrants who continue to live in the U.S. despite having received orders from judges to be deported. Largely unknown to most Americans is the large percentage of the nation's incarcerated criminal population representing the failure of those agencies responsible to protect this nation against the dangers posed by illegal aliens. (American Policy Center). A majority of teenage crime among immigrants is due to the alarming increase of poverty, lack of education, no sense of identity, and the fact that most of them are not in school and do not have jobs. An excessive amount of immigrant families are currently living in poverty and are poorly educated, if educated at all. Poverty is a situation in which a person's family income falls at or less than the official federal poverty threshold. In defense of the recent immigrants, they are not completely at fault for their poverty because of the changes within the economy. It is important to keep in mind that the challenges of the new economy have hit immigrants especially hard because of their comparatively low educational attainments and maternal labor force participation. Poverty increased among children of immig...

Best Analysis Love and Relationships in The Great Gatsby

Best Analysis Love and Relationships in The Great Gatsby SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Love, desire, and sex are a major motivators for nearly every character in The Great Gatsby. However, none of Gatsby’s five major relationships is depicted as healthy or stable. So what can we make of this? Is Fitzgerald arguing that love itself is unstable, or is it just that experiencing love and desire the way the characters do is problematic? Gatsby’s portrayal of love and desire is complex. So we will explore and analyze each of Gatsby’s five major relationships: Daisy/Tom, George/Myrtle, Gatsby/Daisy, Tom/Myrtle, and Jordan/Nick. We will also note how eachrelationship develops through the story, thepower dynamics involved, and what each particular relationship seems to say about Fitzgerald’s depiction of love. We will also include analysis of important quotes for each of the five major couples. Finally, we will go over some common essay questions about love, desire, and relationships to help you with class assignments. Keep reading for the ultimate guide to love in the time of Gatsby! Roadmap Analyzing the characters via the major relationships (including key quotes) Marriages Tom/Daisy George/Myrtle Relationships/Affairs Daisy/Gatsby Tom/Myrtle Nick/Jordan Common Essay Prompts/Discussion Topics Quick Note on Our Citations Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text. Analyzing The Great GatsbyRelationships We will discuss the romantic pairings in the novel first through the lens of marriage. Then we will turn our attention to relationships that occur outside of marriage. Marriage 1:Daisy and Tom Buchanan Tom and Daisy Buchanan were married in 1919, three years before the start of the novel.They both come from incredibly wealthy families, and live on fashionable East Egg, marking them as members of the â€Å"old money† class. Daisy and Tom MarriageDescription As Jordan relates in a flashback, Daisy almost changed her mind about marrying Tom after receiving a letter from Gatsby (an earlier relationship of hers, discussed below), but eventually went through with the ceremony â€Å"without so much as a shiver† (4.142). Daisy appeared quite in love when they first got married, but the realities of the marriage, including Tom’s multiple affairs, have worn on her. Tom even cheated on her soon after their honeymoon, according to Jordan: â€Å"It was touching to see them together- it made you laugh in a hushed, fascinated way. That was in August. A week after I left Santa Barbara Tom ran into a wagon on the Ventura road one night and ripped a front wheel off his car. The girl who was with him got into the papers too because her arm was broken- she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel† (1.143). So what makes the Buchanans tick? Why has their marriage survived multiple affairs and even a hit-and-run? Find out through our analysis of key quotes from the novel. Daisy and Tom Marriage Quotes Why they came east I don't know. They had spent a year in France, for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together. (1.17) Nick introduces Tom and Daisy as restless, rich, and as a singular unit: they. Despite all of the revelations about the affairs and other unhappiness in their marriage, and the events of the novel, it’s important to note our first and last descriptions of Tom and Daisy describe them as a close, if bored, couple. In fact, Nick only doubles down on this observation later in Chapter 1. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. 'All right,' I said, 'I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." "You see I think everything's terrible anyhow," she went on in a convinced way. "Everybody thinks so- the most advanced people. And I know. I've been everywhere and seen everything and done everything." Her eyes flashed around her in a defiant way, rather like Tom's, and she laughed with thrilling scorn. "Sophisticated- God, I'm sophisticated!" "The instant her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said. It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me. I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged." (1.8-120) In this passage, Daisy pulls Nick aside in Chapter 1 and claims, despite her outward happiness and luxurious lifestyle, she’s quite depressed by her current situation. At first, it seems Daisy is revealing the cracks in her marriage – Tom was â€Å"God knows where† at the birth of their daughter, Pammy – as well as a general malaise about society in general (â€Å"everything’s terrible anyhow†). However, right after this confession, Nick doubts her sincerity. And indeed, she follows up her apparently serious complaint with â€Å"an absolute smirk.† What’s going on here? Well, Nick goes on to observe that the smirk â€Å"asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.† In other words, despite Daisy’s performance, she seems content to remain with Tom, part of the â€Å"secret society† of the ultra-rich. So the question is: can anyone – or anything – lift Daisy out of her complacency? "I never loved him," she said, with perceptible reluctance. "Not at Kapiolani?" demanded Tom suddenly. "No." From the ballroom beneath, muffled and suffocating chords were drifting up on hot waves of air. "Not that day I carried you down from the Punch Bowl to keep your shoes dry?" There was a husky tenderness in his tone. ". . . Daisy?" (7.258-62) Over the course of the novel, both Tom and Daisy enter or continue affairs, pulling away from each other instead of confronting the problems in their marriage. However, Gatsby forces them to confront their feelings in the Plaza Hotel when he demands Daisy say she never loved Tom. Although she gets the words out, she immediately rescinds them – â€Å"I did love [Tom] once but I loved you too!† – after Tom questions her. Here, Tom – usually presented as a swaggering, brutish, and unkind – breaks down, speaking with â€Å"husky tenderness† and recalling some of the few happy moments in his and Daisy’s marriage. This is a key moment because it shows despite the dysfunction of their marriage, Tom and Daisy seem to both seek solace in happy early memories. Between those few happy memories and the fact that they both come from the same social class, their marriage ends up weathering multiple affairs. Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table with a plate of cold fried chicken between them and two bottles of ale. He was talking intently across the table at her and in his earnestness his hand had fallen upon and covered her own. Once in a while she looked up at him and nodded in agreement. They weren't happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale- and yet they weren't unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together. (7.409-10) They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . . . (9.146) By the end of the novel, after Daisy’s murder of Myrtle as well as Gatsby’s death, she and Tom are firmly back together, â€Å"conspiring† and â€Å"careless† once again, despite the deaths of their lovers. As Nick notes, they â€Å"weren’t happy†¦and yet they weren’t unhappy either.† Their marriage is important to both of them, since it reassures their status as old money aristocracy and brings stability to their lives. So the novel ends with them once again described as a unit, a â€Å"they,† perhaps even more strongly bonded since they’ve survived not only another round of affairs but murder, as well. Daisy and Tom MarriageAnalysis Neither Myrtle’s infatuation with Tom or Gatsby’s deep longing for Daisy can drive a wedge between the couple. Despite the lying, cheating, and murdering that occurs during the summer, Tom and Daisy end the novel just like they began it: careless, restless, and yet, firmly united. The stubborn closeness of Tom and Daisy’s marriage, despite Daisy’s exaggerated unhappiness and Tom’s philandering, reinforces the dominance of the old money class over the world of Gatsby. Despite so many troubles, for Tom and Daisy, their marriage guarantees their continued membership in the exclusive world of the old money rich. In other words, class is a much stronger bond than love in the novel. Tom and Daisy somehow end the novel with a stronger marriage! Want to get better grades and test scores? We can help. PrepScholar Tutors is the world's best tutoring service. We combine world-class expert tutors with our proprietary teaching techniques. Our students have gotten A's on thousands of classes, perfect 5's on AP tests, and ludicrously high SAT Subject Test scores. Whether you need help with science, math, English, social science, or more, we've got you covered. Get better grades today with PrepScholar Tutors. Marriage 2: Myrtle and George Wilson In contrast to Tom and Daisy, Myrtle and George were married 12 years before the start of the novel. You might think that since they’ve been married for four times as long, their marriage is more stable. In fact, in contrast from Tom and Daisy’s unified front, Myrtle and George’s marriage appears fractured from the beginning. Myrtle and George Marriage Description Although Myrtle was taken with George at first, she overestimated his money and â€Å"breeding† and found herself married to a mechanic and living over a garage in Queens, a situation she’s apparently unhappy with (2.2). However, divorce was uncommon in the 1920s, and furthermore, the working-class Myrtle doesn’t have access to wealthy family members or any other real options, so she stays married – perhaps because George is quite devoted and even in some ways subservient to her. A few months before the beginning of the novel in 1922, she begins an affair with Tom Buchanan, her first affair (2.7). She sees the affair as a way out of her marriage, but Tom sees her as just another disposable mistress, leaving her desperate and vulnerable once George finds out about the affair. Myrtle and George MarriageQuotes I heard footsteps on a stairs and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering. She smiled slowly and walking through her husband as if he were a ghost shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. Then she wet her lips and without turning around spoke to her husband in a soft, coarse voice: "Get some chairs, why don't you, so somebody can sit down." "Oh, sure," agreed Wilson hurriedly and went toward the little office, mingling immediately with the cement color of the walls. A white ashen dust veiled his dark suit and his pale hair as it veiled everything in the vicinity- except his wife, who moved close to Tom. (2.15-17) As we discuss in our article on the symbolic valley of ashes, George is coated by the dust of despairand thus seems mired in the hopelessness and depression of that bleak place, while Myrtle is alluring and full of vitality. Her first action is to order her husband to get chairs, and the second is to move away from him, closer to Tom. In contrast to Tom and Daisy, who are initially presented as a unit, our first introduction to George and Myrtle shows them fractured, with vastly different personalities and motivations. We get the sense right away that their marriage is in trouble, and conflict between the two is imminent. "I married him because I thought he was a gentleman," she said finally. "I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn't fit to lick my shoe." "You were crazy about him for a while," said Catherine. "Crazy about him!" cried Myrtle incredulously. "Who said I was crazy about him? I never was any more crazy about him than I was about that man there." (2.2-4) Here we get a bit of back-story about George and Myrtle’s marriage: like Daisy, Myrtle was crazy about her husband at first but the marriage has since soured. But while Daisy doesn’t have any real desire to leave Tom, here we see Myrtle eager to leave, and very dismissive of her husband. Myrtle seems to suggest that even having her husband wait on her is unacceptable – it’s clear she thinks she is finally headed for bigger and better things. Generally he was one of these worn-out men: when he wasn't working he sat on a chair in the doorway and stared at the people and the cars that passed along the road. When any one spoke to him he invariably laughed in an agreeable, colorless way. He was his wife's man and not his own. (7.312) Again, in contrast to the strangely unshakeable partnership of Tom and Daisy, the co-conspirators, Michaelis (briefly taking over narrator duties) observes that George â€Å"was his wife’s man,† â€Å"worn out.† Obviously, this situation gets turned on its head when George locks Myrtle up when he discovers the affair, but Michaelis’s observation speaks to instability in the Wilson’s marriage, in which each fights for control over the other. Rather than face the world as a unified front, the Wilsons each struggle for dominance within the marriage. "Beat me!" he heard her cry. "Throw me down and beat me, you dirty little coward!" A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting; before he could move from his door the business was over. (7.314-5) We don’t know what happened in the fight before this crucial moment, but we do know George locked Myrtle in a room once he figured out she was having an affair. So despite the outward appearance of being ruled by his wife, he does, in fact, have the ability to physically control her. However, he apparently doesn’t hit her, the way Tom does, and Myrtle taunts him for it – perhaps insinuating he’s less a man than Tom. This outbreak of both physical violence (George locking up Myrtle) and emotional abuse (probably on both sides) fulfills the earlier sense of the marriage being headed for conflict. Still, it’s disturbing to witness the last few minutes of this fractured, unstable partnership. Myrtle and George MarriageAnalysis While Tom and Daisy’s marriage ends up being oddly stable thanks to their money, despite multiple affairs, Myrtle and George’s marriage goes from strained to violent after just one. In other words, Tom and Daisy can patch things up over and over by retreating into their status and money, while Myrtle and George don’t have that luxury. While George wants to retreat out west, he doesn’t have the money, leaving him and Myrtle in Queens and vulnerable to the dangerous antics of the other characters. The instability of their marriage thus seems to come from the instability of their financial situation, as well as the fact that Myrtle is more ambitious than George. Fitzgerald seems to be arguing that anyone who is not wealthy is much more vulnerable to tragedy and strife. As a song sung in Chapter 5 goes, â€Å"The rich get richer and the poor get- children† – the rich get richer and the poor can’t escape their poverty, or tragedy (5.150). The contrasting marriages of the Buchanans and the Wilsons help illustrate the novel’s critique of the wealthy, old-money class. Myrtle and George are a very slow burn that eventually explodes. Relationship 1: Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby The relationship at the very heart of The Great Gatsby is, of course, Gatsby and Daisy, or more specifically, Gatsby’s tragic love of (or obsession with) Daisy, a love that drives the novel’s plot. So how did this ill-fated love story begin? Daisy and Gatsby Relationship Description Five years before the start of the novel, Jay Gatsby (who had learned from Dan Cody how to act like one of thewealthy) was stationed in Louisville before goingto fight in WWI. In Louisville, he met Daisy Fay, a beautiful young heiress (10 years his junior), who tookhim for someone of her social class. Gatsby maintained the lie, which allowed their relationship to progress. Gatsby fell in love with Daisy and the wealth she represents, and she with him (though apparently not to the same excessive extent), but he had to leave for the war and by the time he returned to the US in 1919, Daisy has married Tom Buchanan. Determined to get her back, Gatsby falls in with Meyer Wolfshiem, a gangster, and gets into bootlegging and other criminal enterprises to make enough money to finally be able to provide for her. By the beginning of the novel, he is ready to try and win her back over, ignoring the fact she has been married to Tom for three years and has a child. So does this genius plan turn out the way Gatsby hopes? Can he repeat the past? Not exactly. Daisy and Gatsby RelationshipQuotes "You must know Gatsby." "Gatsby?" demanded Daisy. "What Gatsby?" (1.60-1) In the first chapter, we get a few mentions and glimpses of Gatsby, but one of the most interesting is Daisy immediately perking up at his name. She obviously still remembers him and perhaps even thinks about him, but her surprise suggests that she thinks he’s long gone, buried deep in her past. This is in sharp contrast to the image we get of Gatsby himself at the end of the Chapter, reaching actively across the bay to Daisy’s house (1.152). While Daisy views Gatsby as a memory, Daisy is Gatsby’s past, present, and future. It’s clear even in Chapter 1 that Gatsby’s love for Daisy is much more intense than her love for him. "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay." Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor. (4.151-2) In Chapter 4, we learn Daisy and Gatsby’s story from Jordan: specifically, how they dated in Louisville but it ended when Gatsby went to the front. She also explains how Daisy threatened to call off her marriage to Tom after receiving a letter from Gatsby, but of course ended up marrying him anyway (4.140). Here we also learn that Gatsby’s primary motivation is to get Daisy back, while Daisy is of course in the dark about all of this. This sets the stage for their affair being on unequal footing: while each has love and affection for the other, Gatsby has thought of little else but Daisy for five years while Daisy has created a whole other life for herself. "We haven't met for many years," said Daisy, her voice as matter-of-fact as it could ever be. "Five years next November." (5.69-70) Daisy and Gatsby finally reunite in Chapter 5, the book’s mid-point. The entire chapter is obviously important for understanding the Daisy/Gatsby relationship, since we actually see them interact for the first time.But this initial dialogue is fascinating, because we see that Daisy's memories of Gatsby are more abstract and clouded, while Gatsby has been so obsessed with her he knows the exact month they parted and has clearly been counting down the days until their reunion. They were sitting at either end of the couch looking at each other as if some question had been asked or was in the air, and every vestige of embarrassment was gone. Daisy's face was smeared with tears and when I came in she jumped up and began wiping at it with her handkerchief before a mirror. But there was a change in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room. (5.87) After the initially awkward re-introduction, Nick leaves Daisy and Gatsby alone and comes back to find them talking candidly and emotionally. Gatsby has transformed – he is radiant and glowing. In contrast, we don’t see Daisy as radically transformed except for her tears. Although our narrator, Nick, pays much closer attention to Gatsby than Daisy, these different reactions suggest Gatsby is much more intensely invested in the relationship. "They're such beautiful shirts," she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. "It makes me sad because I've never seen such- such beautiful shirts before." (5.8). Gatsby gets the chance to show off his mansion and enormous wealthy to Daisy, and she breaks down after a very conspicuous display of Gatsby’s wealth, through his many-colored shirts. In Daisy’s tears, you might sense a bit of guilt – that Gatsby attained so much just for her – or perhaps regret, that she might have been able to be with him had she had the strength to walk away from her marriage with Tom. Still, unlike Gatsby, whose motivations are laid bare, it’s hard to know what Daisy is thinking and how invested she is in their relationship, despite how openly emotional she is during this reunion. Perhaps she’s just overcome with emotion due to reliving the emotions of their first encounters. His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete. (6.134) In flashback, we hear about Daisy and Gatsby’s first kiss, through Gatsby’s point of view. We see explicitly in this scene that, for Gatsby, Daisy has come to represent all of his larger hopes and dreams about wealth and a better life – she is literally the incarnation of his dreams. There is no analogous passage on Daisy’s behalf, because we actually don’t know that much of Daisy’s inner life, or certainly not much compared to Gatsby. So we see, again, the relationship is very uneven – Gatsby has literally poured his heart and soul into it, while Daisy, though she obviously has love and affection for Gatsby, hasn’t idolized him in the same way. It becomes clear here that Daisy – who is human and fallible – can never live up to Gatsby’s huge projection of her. "Oh, you want too much!" she cried to Gatsby. "I love you now- isn't that enough? I can't help what's past." She began to sob helplessly. "I did love him once- but I loved you too." Gatsby's eyes opened and closed. "You loved me too?" he repeated. (7.264-66) Here we finally get a glimpse at Daisy’s real feelings – she loved Gatsby, but also Tom, and to her those were equal loves. She hasn’t put that initial love with Gatsby on a pedestal the way Gatsby has. Gatsby’s obsession with her appears shockingly one-sided at this point, and it’s clear to the reader she will not leave Tom for him. You can also see why this confession is such a blow to Gatsby: he’s been dreaming about Daisy for years and sees her as his one true love, while she can’t even rank her love for Gatsby above her love for Tom. "Was Daisy driving?" "Yes," he said after a moment, "but of course I'll say I was." (7.397-8) Despite Daisy’s rejection of Gatsby back at the Plaza Hotel, he refuses to believe that it was real and is sure that he can still get her back. His devotion is so intense he doesn’t think twice about covering for her and taking the blame for Myrtle’s death. In fact, his obsession is so strong he barely seems to register that there’s been a death, or to feel any guilt at all. This moment further underscores how much Daisy means to Gatsby, and how comparatively little he means to her. She was the first "nice" girl he had ever known. In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people but always with indiscernible barbed wire between. He found her excitingly desirable. He went to her house, at first with other officers from Camp Taylor, then alone. It amazed him- he had never been in such a beautiful house before. But what gave it an air of breathless intensity was that Daisy lived there- it was as casual a thing to her as his tent out at camp was to him. There was a ripe mystery about it, a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms, of gay and radiant activities taking place through its corridors and of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender but fresh and breathing and redolent of this year's shining motor cars and of dances whose flowers were scarcely withered. It excited him too that many men had already loved Daisy- it increased her value in his eyes. He felt their presence all about the h ouse, pervading the air with the shades and echoes of still vibrant emotions. (8.10, emphasis added) In Chapter 8, when we get the rest of Gatsby’s backstory, we learn more about what drew him to Daisy – her wealth, and specifically the world that opened up to Gatsby as he got to know her. Interestingly, we also learn that her â€Å"value increased† in Gatsby’s eyes when it became clear that many other men had also loved her. We see then how Daisy got all tied up in Gatsby’s ambitions for a better, wealthier life. You also know, as a reader, that Daisy obviously is human and fallible and can never realistically live up to Gatsby’s inflated images of her and what she represents to him. So in these last pages, before Gatsby’s death as we learn the rest of Gatsby’s story, we sense that his obsessive longing for Daisy was as much about his longing for another, better life, than it was about a single woman. Gatsby and Daisy RelationshipAnalysis Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship is definitely lopsided. There is an uneven degree oflove on both sides (Gatsby seems much more obsessively in love with Daisy than Daisy is with him). We also have difficulty decipheringboth sides of the relationship, since we know far more about Gatsby, his past, and his internal life than about Daisy. Because of this, it’s hard to criticize Daisy for not choosing Gatsby over Tom – as an actual, flesh-and-blood person, she never could have fulfilled Gatsby’s rose-tinted memory of her and all she represents. Furthermore, during her brief introduction into Gatsby’s world in Chapter 6, she seemed pretty unhappy. â€Å"She was appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented "place" that Broadway had begotten upon a Long Island fishing village- appalled by its raw vigor that chafed under the old euphemisms and by the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short cut from nothing to nothing. She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand† (6.96). So could Daisy have really been happy if she ran off with Gatsby? Unlikely. Many people tie Gatsby’s obsessive pursuit of Daisy to the American Dreamitself – the dream is as alluring as Daisy but as ultimately elusive and even deadly. Their relationship is also a meditation on change – as much as Gatsby wants to repeat the past, he can’t. Daisy has moved on and he can never return to that beautiful, perfect moment when he kissed her for the first time and wedded all her hopes and dreams to her. Gatsby's problem is seeing time as circular rather than linear. Relationship 2: Tom Buchananand Myrtle Wilson In contrast to Gatsby and Daisy’s long history, the novel’s other affair began much more recently: Tom and Myrtle start their relationship a few months before the novel opens. Tom and Myrtle Relationship Description Myrtle sees the affair as romantic and a ticket out of her marriage, while Tom sees it as just another affair, and Myrtle as one of a string of mistresses. The pair has undeniable physical chemistry and attraction to each other, perhaps more than any other pairing in the book. Perhaps due to Myrtle’s tragic and unexpected death, Tom does display some emotional attachment to her, which complicates a reading of him as a purely antagonistic figure – or of their relationship as purely physical. So what drives this affair? What does it reveal about Tom and Myrtle? Let’s find out. Tom and Myrtle RelationshipQuotes "I think it's cute," said Mrs. Wilson enthusiastically. "How much is it?" "That dog?" He looked at it admiringly. "That dog will cost you ten dollars." The airedale- undoubtedly there was an airedale concerned in it somewhere though its feet were startlingly white- changed hands and settled down into Mrs. Wilson's lap, where she fondled the weather-proof coat with rapture. "Is it a boy or a girl?" she asked delicately. "That dog? That dog's a boy." "It's a bitch," said Tom decisively. "Here's your money. Go and buy ten more dogs with it." (2.38-43) This passage is great because it neatly displays Tom and Myrtle’s different attitudes toward the affair. Myrtle thinks that Tom is spoiling her specifically, and that he cares about her more than he really does – after all, he stops to buy her a dog just because she says it’s cute and insists she wants one on a whim. But to Tom, the money isn’t a big deal. He casually throws away the 10 dollars, aware he’s being scammed but notcaring, since he has so much money at his disposal. He also insists that he knows more than the dog seller and Myrtle, showing how he looks down at people below his own class – but Myrtle misses this because she’s infatuated with both the new puppy and Tom himself. Myrtle pulled her chair close to mine, and suddenly her warm breath poured over me the story of her first meeting with Tom. "It was on the two little seats facing each other that are always the last ones left on the train. I was going up to New York to see my sister and spend the night. He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes and I couldn't keep my eyes off him but every time he looked at me I had to pretend to be looking at the advertisement over his head. When we came into the station he was next to me and his white shirt-front pressed against my arm- and so I told him I'd have to call a policeman, but he knew I lied. I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didn't hardly know I wasn't getting into a subway train. All I kept thinking about, over and over, was 'You can't live forever, you can't live forever.' " (2.9-20) Myrtle, twelve years into a marriage she’s unhappy in, sees her affair with Tom as a romantic escape. She tells the story of how she and Tom met like it’s the beginning of a love story. In reality, it’s pretty creepy – Tom sees a woman he finds attractive on a train and immediately goes and presses up to her like and convinces her to go sleep with him immediately. Not exactly the stuff of classic romance! Combined with the fact Myrtle believes Daisy’s Catholicism (a lie) is what keeps her and Tom apart, you see that despite Myrtle’s pretensions of worldliness, she actually knows very little about Tom or the upper classes, and is a poor judge of character. She is an easy person for Tom to take advantage of. Some time toward midnight Tom Buchanan and Mrs. Wilson stood face to face discussing in impassioned voices whether Mrs. Wilson had any right to mention Daisy's name. "Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai- - " Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand. (2.124-6) In case the reader was still wondering that perhaps Myrtle’s take on the relationship had some basis in truth, this is a cold hard dose of reality. Tom’s vicioustreatment of Myrtle reminds the reader of his brutality and the fact that, to him, Myrtle is just another affair, and he would never in a million years leave Daisy for her. Despite the violence of this scene, the affair continues. Myrtle is either so desperate to escape her marriage or so self-deluded about what Tom thinks of her (or both) that she stays with Tom after this ugly scene. There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control. (7.164) Chapter 2 gives us lots of insight into Myrtle’s character and how she sees her affair with Tom. But other than Tom’s physical attraction to Myrtle, we don’t get as clear of a view of his motivations until later on. In Chapter 7, Tom panics once he finds out George knows about his wife’s affair. We learn here that control is incredibly important to Tom – control of his wife, control of his mistress, and control of society more generally (see his rant in Chapter 1 about the â€Å"Rise of the Colored Empires†). So just as he passionately rants and raves against the â€Å"colored races,† he also gets panicked and angry when he sees that he is losing control both over Myrtle and Daisy. This speaks to Tom’s entitlement – both as a wealthy person, as a man, and as a white person – and shows how his relationship with Myrtle is just another display of power. It has very little to do with his feelings for Myrtle herself. So as the relationship begins to slip from his fingers, he panics – not because he’s scared of losing Myrtle, but because he’s scared of losing a possession. "And if you think I didn't have my share of suffering- look here, when I went to give up that flat and saw that damn box of dog biscuits sitting there on the sideboard I sat down and cried like a baby. By God it was awful- - " (9.145) Despite Tom’s abhorrent behavior throughout the novel, at the very end, Nick leaves us with an image of Tom confessing to crying over Myrtle. This complicates the reader’s desire to see Tom as a straightforward villain. This confession of emotion certainly doesn’t redeem Tom, but it does prevent you from seeing him as a complete monster. Tom and Myrtle RelationshipAnalysis Just as George and Myrtle’s marriage serves as a foil to Tom and Daisy’s, Tom and Myrtle’s affair is a foil for Daisy and Gatsby’s. While Daisy and Gatsby have history, Tom and Myrtle got together recently. And while their relationship seems to be driven by physical attraction, Gatsby is attracted to Daisy’s wealth and status. The tragic end to this affair, as well as Daisy and Gatsby’s, reinforces the idea that class is an enormous, insurmountable barrier, and that when people try to circumvent the barrier by dating across classes, they end up endangering themselves. Tom and Myrtle’s affair also speaks to the unfair advantages that Tom has as a wealthy, white man. Even though for a moment he felt himself losing control over his life, he quickly got it back and was able to hide in his money while Gatsby, Myrtle, and George all ended up dead thanks to their connection to the Buchanans. In short, Tom and Myrtle’s relationship allows Fitzgerald to sharply critique the world of the wealthy, old-money class in 1920s New York. By showing Tom’s affair with a working-class woman, Nick reveals Tom’s ugliest behavior as well as the cruelty of class divisions during the roaring twenties. Tom's subtlety in dealing with Myrtle. Want to get better grades and test scores? We can help. PrepScholar Tutors is the world's best tutoring service. We combine world-class expert tutors with our proprietary teaching techniques. Our students have gotten A's on thousands of classes, perfect 5's on AP tests, and ludicrously high SAT Subject Test scores. Whether you need help with science, math, English, social science, or more, we've got you covered. Get better grades today with PrepScholar Tutors. Relationship 3: Nick Carraway and Jordan Baker We’ve covered the novel’s two married couples – the Buchanans and the Wilsons – as well as the affairs of three out of four of those married parties. But there is one more relationship in the novel, one that is a bit disconnected to the others. I’m talking, of course, about Nick and Jordan. Nick and Jordan Relationship Description Nick and Jordan are the only couple without any prior contact before the novel begins (aside from Nick apparently seeing her photo once in a magazine and hearing about her attempt to cheat). Jordan is a friend of Daisy’s who is staying with her, and Nick meets Jordan when he goes to have dinner with the Buchanans. We can observe their relationship most closely in Chapters 3 and 4, as Nick gets closer to Jordandespite needing to break off his relationship back home first. However, their relationship takes a back seat in the middle and end of the novel as the drama of Daisy’s affair with Gatsby, and Tom’s with Myrtle, plays out. So by the end of the novel, Nick sees Jordan is just as self-centered and immoral as Tom and Daisy, and his earlier infatuation fades to disgust. She, in turn, calls him out for not being as honest and careful as he presents himself as. So what’s the story with Nick and Jordan? Why include their relationship at all? Let’s dig into what sparks the relationship and the insights they give us into the other characters. Nick and Jordan RelationshipQuotes I enjoyed looking at her. She was a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage which she accentuated by throwing her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet. Her grey sun-strained eyes looked back at me with polite reciprocal curiosity out of a wan, charming discontented face. It occurred to me now that I had seen her, or a picture of her, somewhere before. (1.57) As Nick eyes Jordan in Chapter 1, we see his immediate physical attraction to her, though it’s not as potent as Tom’s to Myrtle. And similarly to Gatsby’s attraction to Daisy being to her money and voice, Nick is pulled in by Jordan’s posture, her â€Å"wan, charming discontented face† – her attitude and status are more alluring than her looks alone. So Nick’s attraction to Jordan gives us a bit of insight both in how Tom sees Myrtle and how Gatsby sees Daisy. "Good night, Mr. Carraway. See you anon." "Of course you will," confirmed Daisy. "In fact I think I'll arrange a marriage. Come over often, Nick, and I'll sort of- oh- fling you together. You know- lock you up accidentally in linen closets and push you out to sea in a boat, and all that sort of thing- - " (1.131-2) Throughout the novel, we see Nick avoiding getting caught up in relationships – the woman he mentions back home, the woman he dates briefly in his office, Myrtle’s sister – though he doesn’t protest to being â€Å"flung together† with Jordan. Perhaps this is because Jordan would be a step up for Nick in terms of money and class, which speaks to Nick’s ambition and class-consciousness, despite the way he paints himself as an everyman. Furthermore, unlike these other women, Jordan isn’t clingy – she lets Nick come to her. Nick sees attracted to how detached and cool she is. "You're a rotten driver," I protested. "Either you ought to be more careful or you oughtn't to drive at all." "I am careful." "No, you're not." "Well, other people are," she said lightly. "What's that got to do with it?" "They'll keep out of my way," she insisted. "It takes two to make an accident." "Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself." "I hope I never will," she answered. "I hate careless people. That's why I like you." Her grey, sun-strained eyes stared straight ahead, but she had deliberately shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. (3.162-70) Here, Nick is attracted to Jordan’s blasà © attitude and her confidence that others will avoid her careless behavior – an attitude she can afford because of her money. In other words, Nick seems fascinated by the world of the super-wealthy and the privilege it grants its members. So just as Gatsby falls in love with Daisy and her wealthy status, Nick also seems attracted to Jordan for similar reasons. However, this conversation not only foreshadows the tragic car accident later in the novel, but it also hints at what Nick will come to find repulsive about Jordan: her callous disregard for everyone but herself. It was dark now, and as we dipped under a little bridge I put my arm around Jordan's golden shoulder and drew her toward me and asked her to dinner. Suddenly I wasn't thinking of Daisy and Gatsby any more but of this clean, hard, limited person who dealt in universal skepticism and who leaned back jauntily just within the circle of my arm. A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: "There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired." (4.164) Nick, again with Jordan, seems exhilarated to be with someone who is a step above him in terms of social class, exhilarated to be a â€Å"pursuing† person, rather than just busy or tired. Seeing the usually level-headed Nick this enthralled gives us some insight into Gatsby’s infatuation with Daisy, and also allows us to glimpse Nick-the-person, rather than Nick-the-narrator. And again, we get a sense of what attracts him to Jordan – her clean, hard, limited self, her skepticism, and jaunty attitude. It’s interesting to see these qualities become repulsive to Nick just a few chapters later. Just before noon the phone woke me and I started up with sweat breaking out on my forehead. It was Jordan Baker; she often called me up at this hour because the uncertainty of her own movements between hotels and clubs and private houses made her hard to find in any other way. Usually her voice came over the wire as something fresh and cool as if a divot from a green golf links had come sailing in at the office window but this morning it seemed harsh and dry. "I've left Daisy's house," she said. "I'm at Hempstead and I'm going down to Southampton this afternoon." Probably it had been tactful to leave Daisy's house, but the act annoyed me and her next remark made me rigid. "You weren't so nice to me last night." "How could it have mattered then?" (8.49-53) Later in the novel, after Myrtle’s tragic death, Jordan’s casual, devil-may-care attitude is no longer cute – in fact, Nick finds it disgusting. How can Jordan care so little about the fact that someone died, and instead be most concerned with Nick acting cold and distant right after the accident? In this brief phone conversation, we thus see Nick’s infatuation with Jordan ending, replaced with the realization that Jordan’s casual attitude is indicative of everything Nick hates about the rich, old money group. So by extension, Nick’s relationship with Jordan represents how his feelings about the wealthy have evolved – at first he was drawn in by their cool, detached attitudes, but eventually found himself repulsed by their carelessness and cruelty. She was dressed to play golf and I remember thinking she looked like a good illustration, her chin raised a little, jauntily, her hair the color of an autumn leaf, her face the same brown tint as the fingerless glove on her knee. When I had finished she told me without comment that she was engaged to another man. I doubted that though there were several she could have married at a nod of her head but I pretended to be surprised. For just a minute I wondered if I wasn't making a mistake, then I thought it all over again quickly and got up to say goodbye. "Nevertheless you did throw me over," said Jordan suddenly. "You threw me over on the telephone. I don't give a damn about you now but it was a new experience for me and I felt a little dizzy for a while." We shook hands. "Oh, and do you remember- " she added, "- - a conversation we had once about driving a car?" "Why- not exactly." "You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn't I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride." "I'm thirty," I said. "I'm five years too old to lie to myself and call it honor." (9.129-135) In their official break-up, Jordan calls out Nick for claiming to be honest and straightforward but in fact being prone to lying himself. So even as Nick is disappointed in Jordan’s behavior, Jordan is disappointed to find just another â€Å"bad driver† in Nick, and both seem to mutually agree they would never work as a couple. It’s interesting to see Nick called out for dishonest behavior for once. For all of his judging of others, he’s clearly not a paragon of virtue, and Jordan clearly recognizes that. This break-up is also interesting because it’s the only time we see a relationship end because the two members choose to walk away from each other – all the other failed relationships (Daisy/Gatsby, Tom/Myrtle, Myrtle/George) ended because one or both members died. So perhaps there is a safe way out of a bad relationship in Gatsby – to walk away early, even if it’s difficult and you’re still â€Å"half in love† with the other person (9.136). If only Gatsby could have realized the same thing. Nick and Jordan RelationshipAnalysis Nick and Jordan’s relationship is interesting, because it’s the only straightforward dating we see in the novel (it’s neithera marriage nor an illicit affair), and it doesn’t serve as an obvious foil to the other relationships. But it does echo Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship, in that a poorer man desires a richer girl, and for that reason gives us additional insight into Gatsby’s love for Daisy. But it also quietly echoes Tom’s relationship with Myrtle, since we Nick seems physically drawn to Jordan as well. The relationship also is one of the ways we get insight into Nick. For instance, he only really admits to his situation with the woman back at home when he’s talking about being attracted to Jordan. â€Å"I'd been writing letters once a week and signing them: "Love, Nick," and all I could think of was how, when that certain girl played tennis, a faint mustache of perspiration appeared on her upper lip. Nevertheless there was a vague understanding that had to be tactfully broken off before I was free† (3.170). Through Jordan, we actually see Nick experience exhilaration and love and attraction. Finally, through his relationship with Jordan, we can easily see Nick’s evolving attitude toward the wealthy elite. While he allows himself to be charmed at first by this fast-moving, wealthy, and careless world, he eventually becomes disgusted by the utter lack of morality or compassion for others. It's shocking that calmly saying goodbye is a rarity in this world. More often? Breakup by violent death. Discussion and Essay Topics on Love inThe Great Gatsby These are a few typical essay topics surrounding issues of love, desire, and relationships you should be prepared to write about. Some of them give you the opportunity to zoom in on just one couple, while others have you analyze the relationships in the book more generally. As always, it will be important to close-read, find key lines to use as evidence, and argue your point with a clearly-organized essay. (You can read more of our essay writing tips in our Character Analysis article.) So let’s take a look at a few common love and relationships prompts to see this analysis in action! Is there any couple in The Great Gatsby that has true love? For any essay topic that asks if characters in a book represent some kind of virtue (whether that’s true love, honesty, morality, or anything else), you should start by coming up with a definition of the value. For example, in this case, you should give a definition of â€Å"true love,† since how you define true love will affect who you choose and how you make your argument. For example, if you argue that true love comes down to stability, you could potentially argue Tom and Daisy have true love, since they actually remain together, unlike any of the other couples. But if you argue true love is based on strong emotion, you might say Gatsby’s love for Daisy is the truest. So however you define true love, make sure to clearly state that definition, since it will shape your argument! Remember it’s also possible in a prompt like this to argue that no one in the book has true love. You would still start by defining true love, but then you would explain why each of the major couples does not have real love, and perhaps briefly explain what element each couple is missing. Is The Great Gatsby a love story or a satire? Some essays have you zoom way out and consider what The Great Gatsby’s overall genre (or type) is. The most common argument is that, while Gatsby is a tragic love story on the surface (the love of Gatsby and Daisy), it’s really more of a satire of wealthy New York society, or a broader critique of the American Dream. This is because the themes of money, society and class, and the American Dreamare pretty constant, while the relationships are more of a vehicle to examine those themes. To argue which genre Gatsby is (whether you say â€Å"it’s more of a love story† or â€Å"it’s more of a satire†), define your chosen genre and explain why Gatsby fits the definition. Make sure to include some evidence from the novel’s final chapter, no matter what you argue. Endings are important, so make sure you link Gatsby’s ending to the genre you believe it is. For example, if you’re arguing â€Å"Gatsby is a love story,† you could emphasize the more hopeful, optimistic parts of Nick’s final lines. But if you argue â€Å"Gatsby is satire,† you would look at the sad, harsh details of the final chapter – Gatsby’s sparsely-attended funeral, the crude word scrawled against his back steps, etc. Also, be sure to check out our post on the novel's ending for more analysis. Is what Gatsby feels for Daisy love, obsession, affection, or accumulation/objectification? What is Fitzgerald’s message here? A really common essay topic/topic of discussion is the question of Gatsby’s love for Daisy (and sometimes, Daisy’s love for Gatsby): is it real, is it a symbol for something else, and what does it reveal about both Daisy and Gatsby’s characters? As we discussed above, Gatsby’s love for Daisy is definitely more intense than Daisy’s love for Gatsby, and furthermore, Gatsby’s love for Daisy seems tied up in an obsession with her wealth and the status she represents. From there, it’s up to you how you argue how you see Gatsby’s love for Daisy – whether it’s primarily an obsession with wealth, whether Daisy is just an object to be collected, or whether you think Gatsby actually loves Daisy the person, not just Daisy the golden girl. Analyze the nature of male-female relationships in the novel. This is a zoomed-out prompt that wants you to talk about the nature of relationships in general in the novel. Still, even though we have clearly identified the five major relationships, it might be complicated for you to try and talk about every single one in depth in just one essay. Instead, it will be more manageable for you to use evidence from two to three of the couples to make your point. You could explore how the relationships expose that America is in fact a classist society. After all,the only relationship that lasts (Tom and Daisy’s) lasts because of the security of being in the same class, while the others fail either due to cross-class dating or one member (Myrtle) desperately trying to break out of her given class. You could also talk about how the power dynamics within the relationships vary wildly, but only the couple that seems to have a stable relationship is also described as â€Å"conspiratorial† and often as a â€Å"they† – that is, Tom and Daisy Buchanan. So perhaps Fitzgerald does envision a sort of lasting partnership being possible, if certain conditions (like both members being happy with the amount of money in the marriage) are met. This prompt and ones like it give you a lot of freedom, but make sure not to bite off more than you chew! What’s Next? Wondering how else you can pair these characters in an essay? Check out our article on comparing and contrasting the most common character pairings in The Great Gatsby. Why is money so crucial in the world of the novel? Read more about money and materialism in Gatsbyto find out. Need to get the events of the book straight? Check out our chapter summaries to get a handle on the various parties, liaisons, flashbacks, and deaths. Get started with our book summary here! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: