Mulan

Hayden Ikerd Mr. Wheeler AP Literature 12 April, 2013 Thomas Foster’s Themes Traced in Mulan In his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster explains many reoccurring themes in literature, and shows how to recognize them and in some instances shows certain works where they occur. By reading this guide to literature, one may gain a deeper understanding of the work itself and of the author’s intent in writing it. However, Foster’s methods can also be applied to films.A film that contains many of the various themes, models, symbolism, and devices discussed in his book is Walt Disney’s Mulan. Mulan is a character type with which people are familiar. Foster discusses this process of association in the chapter â€Å"Now Where Have I Seen Her Before? † In his book, he asserts that no work is wholly original. The whole idea of a female Chinese heroine was not originally conceived by Disney. The character of Mulan can be traced back to The Ballad of Hua Mulan, written sometime in the 11th century.Still, most people may not be so familiar with this relatively dated ballad. Some people may associate the character of Mulan with that of Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird. Both Mulan and Scout are tomboys by nature, acting in ways more suited to boys. Also, they both do things they do for the approval of their respective father figures. Mulan is notably the heroine of her story, saving the Chinese empire from the attacking Huns. The ‘heroine’ model can also be seen in characters such as Antigone and Hester Prynne. Food plays some role in every work- namely the act of consuming it.Mulan is no exception. Foster talks about this in the chapter â€Å"Nice To Eat With You. † Towards the beginning of the movie, Mulan along with several other young maidens go to visit the match maker, who is in charge of determining each girl’s eligibility as a wife. This process by which she judges them is by partaking in a cup of tea with each one. Mulan’s ‘interview’ as it were went over horribly. This is to establish the fact that Mulan has a measure of difficulty coming into womanhood, and the whole idea of being ladylike does not come to her naturally.The second meal that plays a big part in the film is the one that takes place in the barracks. Mulan just met her fellow soldiers, and the next thing to occur is a meal with them. Trying to establish herself as a man, she accidently picks a fight with one, leading to a riot, and rice being spilled all over the camp. After this, they all held her in contempt. Mulan’s first meal with her comrades shows that she has just as hard a time fitting in with these men as she did with the women. Mulan’s two meals show the difficulty she has trying to find her place.The role of men and women play an important role in this movie. Foster touches this phenomenon in the chapter â€Å"It’s All Political. † The unde rlying message of Mulan is that of gender equality. As a woman, Mulan is looked down upon, and is not allowed to fight in the war against the Huns in the first place. To fight is to disgrace her whole family. This offense was so dire, that when she was discovered to be a woman on the battlefield, she was sentenced to death. She is also portrayed as being weaker and less capable than the other soldiers.However, she learns to keep up, and eventually excels in combat training and proves to be an invaluable asset to the Chinese army. In the end, Mulan portrays women as strong, and in the battle could not have been won without femininity. Towards the end, the Huns are ultimately overcome by the male soldiers dressing as women, who seduce them, then defeat them. In the end of the film, virtually all of China bows to Mulan in respect, showing that she is held in equal esteem as even the emperor, who is male (he also bows, of course).Another important element in Mulan that Foster points out is that of rain, which he mentions in his chapter entitled, â€Å"It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow. † Foster would have one to believe that often times when a character goes through rain, snow, or something of the sort, that he or she has undergone a figurative baptism. After Mulan has failed in her encounter with the matchmaker, she goes home and begins singing the marvelous, gripping song called â€Å"Reflection†. She asks, â€Å"When will my reflection show who I am inside? She realizes that her fair appearance does not reflect her feelings. Singing this song, she washes away her makeup, and gives up on becoming the perfect daughter and bride; it is a baptism. Maybe it would be key to mention that during this song, Mulan sings in a downpour of rain. Just like Foster describes in his book, Mulan is ‘baptized’ in the rain. Disney movies are not notorious for their violent nature. So, when something violent occurs in a Disney movie, or an individu al (or animal in many cases) dies, it must carry some kind of importance.In the chapter of his book â€Å"More Than It’s Gonna Hurt You†, Fosters says that there is usually more to violence than just violence. When Mulan is struck by the sword of Shan Yu, many more things happen to her than a fatal wound. She almost meets her demise, and for the first time, the reality of war sets in. Mulan realizes that she is not invincible and grasps the perils of war for the first time. When she receives medical attention for her wound, she is discovered to be a woman. All she has worked for up until this point is now for naught, as she is expelled from the army and her family name is disgraced.Another instance where violence plays an important role is when Li Shang’s father is discovered to be dead. Li Shang’s father was the head general of the Chinese army; he was held in high esteem by everyone, especially his son. Li Shang aspired to be the general his father was. Shang’s father’s plan was to make an assault on the Hun army, and meet up with Shang after they had obtained victory, which they thought was inevitable. When Shang reaches the point at which he was to intersect with his father, he found him gone.Shang’s father’s death signals the time for Shang to take up the burden of leading the Chinese army and the time to become a man. The only way for China to be victorious was for Shang to surpass his father and to do what he could not: defeat the Huns. Without this loss, Shang would have never grown and would have never become the general that he was. One can see that Foster’s themes are very prevalent in the story of Mulan and are echoed in movies and books alike. Mulan is a real masterpiece to include so many elements of good literature.

Pinkerton’s Detective Agenc Essay

Pinkerton (A) Late one afternoon in November 1987, Tom Wathen, sole owner and CEO of California Plant Protection (CPP), sat in his office staring at two financing plans. Wathen was trying to decide whether or not he should increase his $85 million bid to purchase Pinkerton’s—the legendary security guard firm—from its current owner, American Brands. On the previous day, Wathen had been told by Morgan Stanley, American Brands’ investment banker, that his bid of $85 million had been rejected and that nothing less than $100 million would be accepted. While Wathen was elated at still being in the deal, he had a problem. CPP’s board of directors had reluctantly approved the earlier $85 million bid and were sure to balk at a $100 million bid. Wathen desperately wanted to buy Pinkerton’s, but was not sure how much it was worth or how to finance it. Wathen knew he had to act now or miss this unprecedented growth opportunity and probably his last chance to be one of the industry’s biggest players. The Security Guard Industry The security guard industry had two segments: (1) proprietary guards and (2) contract guards. While both types of guards performed similar services, a proprietary guard was an employee on the payroll of a nonsecurity firm. Contract guards were â€Å"rented† from specialist suppliers like Pinkerton’s, CPP, Wackenhut, and Baker Industries. The historical growth of the contract guard segment of the industry was due in part to companies concluding that they gained operating flexibility by contracting out their security needs as opposed to managing their own security operations. By late 1987, security guard services was a $10 billion industry growing at 6% a year. But the industry was also mature, fragmented, and price-competitive. As a result there was an ongoing trend toward consolidation at the expense of smaller, local guard companies whose employees were often imperfectly screened and  poorly trained. Pinkerton’s The security guard industry began in 1850 when Allan Pinkerton founded the Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. The firm gained fame in the nineteenth century with its pursuit of such outlaws as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. In the film portrait of that pair, Paul Newman repeatedly asks Robert Redford, â€Å"Who are those guys?† Those â€Å"guys† were Pinkerton’s men and women. Pinkerton ran his firm until he died in 1884. The company was then headed by four generations of Pinkertons until the family’s reign ended in 1967 with the death of Robert Pinkerton. Adam S. Berger (MBA ’91), prepared this case under the supervision of Professor Scott P. Mason as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. American Brands, the $5 billion consumer goods company—with brand names such as Lucky Strike cigarettes, Jim Beam bourbon, Master locks, and Titleist golf balls—purchased Pinkerton’s for $162 million in 1982. American Brands made the acquisition in order to expand the service side of its business and because it saw the Pinkerton’s brand name as a great addition to â€Å"a company  of great brand names.† The Pinkerton family sold the company to American Brands because they felt the industry was becoming extremely price-competitive and therefore the company needed a strong parent to compete and grow. In 1987 Pinkerton’s was among the largest security guard firms in the United States, with sales over $400 million, 150 offices in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and a particular strength in the eastern United States. Exhibit 1 gives selected financial data for Pinkerton’s. California Plant Protection When Wathen bought CPP in 1963, the firm had 18 employees and revenues of $163,000. By 1987, Wathen had built CPP into a $250 million security guard company with 20,000 employees and 125 offices in 38 states and Canada. Exhibit 2 gives selected financial data for CPP. Wathen built CPP with his consummate marketing skills and the strategy of differentiating the firm with employee screening and continual training. CPP’s expansion was aided by the explosive growth of California’s economy and because the bigger, more established East Coast security guard firms had ignored the West Coast. While Wathen was the sole owner of CPP, he had a board of directors that he used as advisors. The board had three members: Albert Berger, James Hall, and Gerald Murphy. Berger was an entrepreneur, COO of an electrical connector firm and a CPP director since 1975. Hall was an attorney, a former vice president of MCA, the former California Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and a CPP director since 1976. Murphy was president of ERLY Industries, a director of several companies, and a CPP director since 1975. CPP’s Acquisition of Pinkerton’s Wathen wanted to buy Pinkerton’s for several reasons. First, he had always had the goal of creating the largest firm in the security guard industry, and the acquisition of Pinkerton’s would put him in a virtual tie with Baker Industries—a subsidiary of Borg Warner and the largest provider of contract guard services. Secondly, Wathen had been convinced for some time that American Brands was mismanaging Pinkerton’s and destroying a great brand name with its pricing strategy. In October 1987, American Brands announced  it had decided to sell Pinkerton’s because the security guard firm no longer fit into Brands’s long-range business strategy. Upon this  announcement, Jerry Brown, CPP’s secretary and general counsel, recalls, â€Å"Tom [Wathen] called me in and from that moment I knew he was going to do whatever it took to buy Pinkerton’s. Tom was always hung up on being the largest, and on Pinkerton’s name.† Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, was to represent American Brands in the sale and the bidding promised to be hotly contested. A task force of senior managers was quickly formed to prepare CPP’s bid which they knew, given the time pressures of the sale, would not have the benefit of adequate preparation. The task force believed there were three ways CPP could create value by acquiring Pinkerton’s. The most obvious source of value would come from consolidating the operations of CPP and Pinkerton’s by eliminating common overhead expenses such as corporate headquarters, support staff, and redundant offices. Second, the task force believed that significant improvements could be made in the management of Pinkerton’s net working capital. The third source of value, and possibly a unique insight by Wathen and the CPP task force, was the Pinkerton’s name. They believed that, while the industry was highly price-competitive, the services of both Pinkerton’s and CPP could be successfully marketed under the Pinkerton’s name at a premium price. Specifically, the task force felt that even though higher prices could lead to reduced revenue, the resulting improvement in gross profit margins, due to the marketability of the Pinkerton’s name, would be su fficient to result in greater gross profits. For example, the  task force believed that a premium price strategy would definitely reduce Pinkerton’s revenues since that firm had acquired a significant amount of business since 1985 using a low-price/high market-share strategy. The new pricing strategy would result in Pinkerton’s revenues shrinking, in a smooth fashion, to 70% of their 1987 level by the end of 1990 and then growing at 5% a year thereafter. But the task force was uncertain in its estimate of the impact of the new strategy on profitability. They expected that the new pricing strategy would improve Pinkerton’s gross profit margins from 8.5% in 1988 to 9.0% in 1989, 9.5% in 1990, and 10.25% thereafter. The task force further expected the new strategy to produce higher margins for CPP, increasing the projected operating profit from CPP’s own business by $1.2 million in 1989, $1.5 million in 1990, $2.0 million in 1991, and $3 million in 1992. This increase in CPP’s projected operating profit would be over and above that level that would otherwise have been anticipated in those years, and was expected to grow at 5% a year, in line with sales, beyond 1992. (Exhibit 3 gives a five-year forecast of CPP’s net income and cash flow assuming Pinkerton’s is not acquired). However, the task force realized there was a distinct possibility that the new pricing strategy would have no impact on CPP’s projected operating profits, and Pinkerton’s gross margins would improve to only 8.5% in 1988, 8.75% in 1989, 9.0% in 1990, and 9.5% thereafter. The task force was confident that, as a result of eliminating common overhead, Pinkerton’s operating expenses, as a percentage of sales, could be reduced to 6% in 1988, 5.9% in 1989, and 5.8% in 1990 and beyond. The task force was also confident that Pinkerton’s net plant and equipment could be reduced to 4% of sales and maintained at that percentag e relationship for the foreseeable future. The task force was somewhat less confident in its estimate of improvements to the management of Pinkerton’s net working capital. This was due to concerns over the ability of CPP’s accounting department to handle a much larger and more geographically diverse operation. The task force expected that Pinkerton’s net working capital, as a percentage of sales, could be reduced to 8.6% in 1988, 7.4% in 1989, and 6.2% thereafter. However, if CPP’s accounting department experienced difficulties in integrating the two firms’ operations, then Pinkerton’s net working capital would remain at 9.5% of sales. The idea of CPP acquiring Pinkerton’s was not universally popular. Most of the investment banks and lenders contacted by CPP expressed negative feelings about the potential acquisition, citing inadequate cash flow and weak market conditions following the dramatic dislocation of the stock market in the previous month. However, a representative of Sutro & Co., a prominent West Coast investment bank, indicated he was â€Å"highly confident† he could get financing for the acquisition from either Manufacturers Hanover Trust Corporation or General Electric Credit Corporation. In addition, Wathen had some problems with CPP’s board of directors. For example, Berger thought there would be obvious synergies in merging the two businesses, but that there was not enough management depth at CPP capable of running the combined firms. According to Berger, there was no COO, no CFO, no marketing manager, and nobody to handle the day-to-day details of operating a $650 million firm. The last thing CPP needed was growth, Berger argued. He felt the field people could handle a larger firm, but the corporate management could not. Nonetheless, the task force pressed on with their analysis of Pinkerton’s. In addition to current financial market conditions, the analysis took special notice of Wackenhut, the only publicly traded security guard firm. (See Exhibits 4 and 5.) Only 12 days after receiving the details of the sale  from Morgan Stanley, and with the reluctant approval of his board, Wathen bid $85 million for Pinkerton’s. Wathen did not receive a response to his bid for two weeks. Through his own network, Wathen knew another firm had bid more than CPP and that Morgan  Stanley was negotiating with that firm. Wathen was disappointed that he might miss his last opportunity to be one of the biggest in the business. When Morgan Stanley finally called and told Wathen his $85 million bid was too low, and that nothing less than $100 million would be accepted, Wathen was elated that he had another chance to buy Pinkerton’s. But he suspected the reason Morgan Stanley had finally called him was that the other buyer had been unable to finance their higher bid. Financing a $100 Million Bid In a last ditch effort to improve his bid for Pinkerton’s, Wathen asked his investment banker to determine the options for financing a $100 million bid. The banker responded with only two alternatives. The first alternative came from an investment firm who would provide both debt and equity financing. The debt, in the amount of $75 million, would have a seven-year maturity and an 11.5% interest rate. The loan principal would not be amortized prior to maturity, at which time the entire $75 million would come due. Finally, this debt would be a senior obligation and be backed by all the assets of the new combined firm. The equity, in the amount of $25 million, would be provided in exchange for 45% of the equity in the new combined firm. The second alternative was a 100% debt financing offered by a bank. The bank would lend $100 million at the rate of 13.5% a year. The loan principal would be amortized at the rate of $5 million a year for six years, with a final payment of $70 million at the end of the seventh year. Again, this loan was collateralized by all of the assets of the new combined firm. Under either financing alternative, Wathen was very concerned about the required debt service. The new combined firm’s nonpublic, as well as high-leverage, status could make any cash flow problems over the next five years highly problematic. The task force also reminded Wathen that a $100 million purchase price would result in the creation of good will on his balance sheet which would have to be amortized at the rate of $5 million per year for the next 10 years.1 Wathen sat in his office and prepared to make the biggest decision of his career. As an entrepreneur and an experienced security guard executive, Wathen was sure Pinkerton’s was a good buy. However, he had routinely relied on his board and other advisers for  financial advice. His board had reluctantly approved his earlier bid of $85 million and was sure to balk at a $100 million bid. How could he justify a $100 million bid for Pinkerton, particularly in light of his earlier bid of $85 million? And if he was successful in convincing the board, how was he going to finance the acquisition?

Personal Statement, My Personal Experiences Essay

Personal Statement, My Personal Experiences - Essay Example His ambition for his children has often placed me in challenging positions. The most challenging of these was when, following the completion of my secondary education, he decided to transfer me to SMUK-1 BPK Penabur, the most difficult and best high school in Indonesia. I did not want to transfer and quite honestly, did not feel that I was capable of succeeding in such a competitive and tough educational environment where students where, to a large degree, expected to rely on themselves for success or failure. The environment, being so very different from what I was accustomed to, frightened me and for much of my first high school year, I was miserable. It was, within the limits of my experience, a period of tremendous intellectual and psychological hardship. Besides being extremely competitive and difficult, I had no friends at SMUK-1 BPK Penabur. There was, therefore, no one to guide me through this period and, at the same time, my father demanded nothing less than excellence. All I could do, therefore, was accept the situation and apply myself as I had never in my life done. While I recall this as a miserable year, the fact is that I succeeded and achieved the grades demanded of me. More importantly, I discovered that nothing is really ever too difficult. (2) As Indone

Compare and Contrast two U.S. Presidents - Harry Truman and Ronald Essay

Compare and Contrast two U.S. Presidents - Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan - Essay Example Truman summed up this notion with the words: â€Å"I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure.† (Truman, 1947, quoted in Bostdorff: 2008, p. 4) The speech was carefully crafted by Truman’s advisers, and it proved to mark a definitive change in the direction of U.S. foreign policy, leading swiftly into a period of high tension that we know as the Cold War internationally. Within the United States the anti-Communist rhetoric led to the persecution of people known to have, or suspected of having, Communist sympathies. The events leading up to the Korean war show a President increasingly reliant on military force, or the threat of military force, in foreign policy. There had been qualifying statements in the original speech, spelling out that military options were not the only, nor even the main form of support that America could offer to states under threat from â€Å"outside pressure† : â€Å"I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political processes.† (Truman, 1947, quoted in Bostdorff: 2008, p. 120) Despite this qualification, Truman found himself drawn into military options and launching into an in which America perceived itself as playing a policeman role in world politics. It may be that one reason for this turn of events is that Truman, never very eloquent or subtle in his dealing with critics and opponents, could not envisage any other path than a clear and simple resistance. Critics acknowledge the great service that Truman gave in his term of office, and his... This essay discusses that each new President brings to the job a different mix of character traits, experience and skills which then help to determine the style of his administration and the type of leadership that the country experiences. Harry Truman, a Democrat, became President towards the end of the Second World War. He made one of the most fateful decisions in the history of mankind when he gave permission for the use of the atom bomb on Japanese cities, in an effort to bring the war to a speedy conclusion. Having served himself as a soldier in France in the First World War he had direct experience of the dreadful casualties of trench warfare with mechanized traditional weapons, and he was reluctantly persuaded that the atom bomb would be a means to an end, pushing the enemies to surrender. The tactic was effective, but the cost in human life shocked the world, and the shadow of nuclear weapons has influenced world history ever since. After the war Truman proved to be a diligen t supporter of the victims of the war. He helped put together the Marshall plan which sent aid to millions of starving people and contributed to the rebuilding of war-torn Europe. Ronald Reagan was a completely different type of character than Truman. He was a Republican, and through his experience in the world of films had an easy rapport with the great and the good of America. He was at first regarded as something of a liability, because of his advancing age, and his lack of substance, but he became one of the most popular Presidents at home and abroad.

Labor issue paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6500 words

Labor issue paper - Essay Example Analysis of resemblance in cases where workers were reinstated and kept on the payroll, and features of cases where workers resigned, despite their intention to return, revealed that whether or not the workers were allowed an opportunity to argue about labor conditions with their employer in a group before their dismissal probably has a significant effect on the possibility of reinstatement. 1. Introduction Based on cross-country comparisons regarding which out of compensation and reinstatement is primarily granted as a remedy for unjust dismissal, it was revealed that remedies in Japan are reinstatement-centered. A ranking on a scale of one to four regarding the possibility of reinstatement in cases of unjust dismissal among 40 OECD and non-OECD countries shows that 9 countries, including Japan, are ranked first as countries where reinstatement is possible on almost every occasion. Some of the 9 countries also offer options for compensation depending upon types of dismissal and inte nt of workers2. However, in Japan, reinstatement is always possible regardless of types of dismissal and intent of workers and, therefore, it is safe to say that remedies in Japan are reinstatement-centered. In Japan, courts have decided that dismissal without rational reasons and social adequacy is not valid. Also, workers unjustly dismissed in Japan may claim compensation for damages. Further, it has been said that many workers do not choose the option to return to their former employer or quickly resign after reinstatement even if the court rejects the dismissal as invalid. This goes to show that reinstatement-centered remedies do not always entail high rate of actual reinstatement. How often does reinstatement take place and what are the decisive factors of reinstatement possibilities? Driven by these questions in mind, the author investigated how often reinstatement is realized and the effectiveness of reinstatement remedies in the past3. Though direct investigation of dismisse d workers was not possible in that investigative study, the author had a chance to hold interviews of dismissed workers later4. This study is aimed at describing decisive factors of possibilities of reinstatement5 that are implied by data acquired through the interviews survey. In Section 2, a brief overview of findings of Yamaguchi (2001) is provided and data used in this study are described. In Section 3, findings regarding the correlation between Japanese employment practices and reinstatement-centered remedies are reviewed. In Section 4 common factors among cases where returners keep working in their former organizations are considered. In Section 5, reasons workers did not return to their former positions despite their actions to the court for reinstatement are discussed. The last section is the conclusion. 2. Findings of Yamaguchi (2001) and Data Used in This Study For Yamaguchi (2001), the author could not directly contact the dismissed workers and, therefore, made questionna ire surveys and interviewed14 lawyers familiar with labor issues: 9 lawyers primarily working for workers and 5 lawyers primarily working for employers. This study defined the primary factors of possibilities of reinstatement as follows: (1) Employer factor: level of employer's acceptance of reinstatement; (2) Dismissed worker factor: (a) the fact that some workers seek to return to their job as a remedy but others do not, and (b) persistence

Global Feminism in the Early 20th Century Essay

Global Feminism in the Early 20th Century - Essay Example Women’s historic omission from the political process is the result of the long-standing patriarchal social arrangement which only relatively recently has begun to soften somewhat. This discriminatory system that heavily favors men originated from both perpetual economic and rigid religious foundations that were present in the beginnings of mankind and strengthened throughout man’s development. However, with the advent of new technologies and working positions that ‘even women’ could perform in combination with shortages of necessary work forces particularly during times of war, women began to realize their true value to society on a global level. In England, Virginia Woolf became a spokeswoman for the concepts of educational and vocational opportunity for women through her writing and speaking engagements. Woolf tackles the subject of the female voice in her essay â€Å"A Room of One’s Own† (2000). The basic argument she presents here is not that women write according to a materialistic style or that women necessarily must pursue material possessions if they wish their voices to be heard. Instead, she makes a case that the only way in which women’s voices are going to be heard in literary circles is if they are freed of the daily grind of civilized living through the provision of a living income and a room in which they can work unmolested by children, maids, husbands and others who continually place demands on their time. In addition, she criticizes the female writers that have come before her for placing their own agendas in their works rather than allowing their characters to explore the various sides of the issues presented. She indicates that Charlotte Bronte, for instance, â€Å"will write of herself where she should write of her characters† (â€Å"A Room†, 2000). The written novel should reflect the ideas that are held, but should do so in keeping with the characters involved, their knowledge and their explorations as they are

A Rose for Emily Critical Analisis Research Paper

A Rose for Emily Critical Analisis - Research Paper Example Even though Emily commits the gruesome murder of Homer Baron, her lover, she must be excused on account of her powerlessness to rid herself of the imposed personality. In sum, Emily’s character and actions are born out of external influences over which she has no control. Outline I Nature of Emily’s relationship with her father II Character traits of Mr. Grierson Class consciousness Patriarchal nature III Grierson’s influence on Emily’s personality IV Murder of Homer Baron V Conclusion Analysis Emily spends most of her adult life by her father’s side. Her father objects to all endeavors by eligible suitors to marry Emily partly due to the pride of class. The Griersons had considered themselves as occupying a privileged position in the society (Ruthmann 56). They did not wish to make any kind of acquaintances with the townspeople because of the divide on matters of class. As a result of this, Emily had learnt to accept her father as the only relevant companion in her life. After her father’s death, and later after the disappearance of Homer, she remained in solitude, â€Å"After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all† (Faulkner 12). It might be necessary to examine Mr. Grierson’s character in light of its possible influences on Emily. Grierson is portrayed as a domineering father with a strong character and irreconcilable aversion to common people. He is a man who could not compromise his social status and perspectives for ordinary things. As the only man in Emily’s world, he imparted these lopsided views on the young woman thus converting her into an antisocial individual. Mr. Grierson created a private mental universe in which he could live out his fantasies of class supremacy and patriarchal prejudices. He forced his daughter to share in this world and the two adopted a bird’s eye view on the society, which they regar ding in particularly demeaning terms. Mr. Grierson desired to convert her daughter into a super-human individual that could exist beyond the touch of all that was ordinary. It was precisely because of these delusions of grandeur that he disallowed Emily to marry the many suitors that came her way, â€Å"None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such† (Faulkner 34). This would be the beginning of the unnatural feelings of necrophilia that would later demolish the citadel of grandeur in which she had been forced into by a patronizing Grierson. Emily shares a single mind with her father and appears ready to continue this union to the physical level. Her refusal to admit the reality of her father’s death and the three days reluctance to release the corpse for burial offers strong hints at the kind of physical bond, which she had nurtured towards her father. Her father was the singular point of reference in her life of social exclusion and represented the only essence of affection and company, which she could truly relate to. With his demise, Emily’s life lost all meaning. Naturally, Emily might have fought off her genuine feelings of love and compassion in an effort to stay the course on which her father had placed her. She sacrificed her individuality and sense of self with the intention of walking the straight and narrow established by her overbearing father. The force of patriarchy, which her father so brazenly embodied, would later fend off all forms