The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman -- Literary Analysis

Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote an amazing story in 1892 entitled â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†. The story is full of symbolism and was inspired by Gilman's own life struggles. This analysis of her work will cover some important parts of the author’s life, the characters, the setting of the story, and the plot. Throughout the analysis will be explanations of symbols and how the author tied her personal experiences into the story. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s work, â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† is a story that the author wrote to depict her own struggle with mental illness. In order to really appreciate this story, it may help to know about the author’s life. Born in 1860, she was the only child of Mary Finch Westcott and Frederick Beecher Perkins, a librarian and writer. It is said that Charlotte’s father abandoned his family, and, on the verge of poverty, they were forced to move around frequently (Merriman). At the age of 24, Charlotte married her first husband, Charles Watson Stetson, with whom she bore a daughter, Katharine Beecher Stetson. Shortly after giving birth, Charlotte began to suffer from severe postpartum depression and had a nervous breakdown. She spent some time at a sanitorium in Pennsylvania, under the care of Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell (Merriman). In 1913, Gilman wrote â€Å"Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’†; For many years I suffered from a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia – and beyond. During about the third year of this trouble I went, in devout faith and some faint stir of hope, to a noted specialist in nervous diseases, the best known in the country. This wise man put me to bed and applied the rest cure, to which a still good physique responded so promptly that he concluded that there was no... ... the characters in the story, the setting of the story, and the plot of the story. While times have changed drastically since Gilman wrote her story, it is my hope that women everywhere will read â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, recognize the struggles she faced in her life, and be grateful that she chose to not accept the advice of a male physician wanting her to submit to a domestic, docile, stereotypical housewife sort of life. Works Cited Booth, Allison and Kelly Mays. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. Merriman, C.D. â€Å"Charlotte Perkins Gilman.† Jalic, Inc. 2006. 27 Feb. 2015. http://www.online-literature.com/charlotte-perkins-gilman/. Voight, Heather â€Å"Symbols in the Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.† 2010. 27 Feb. 2015. http://www.helium.com/items/1753292-symbols-in-the-yellow-wallpaper.

Cyprus Financial Crisis Essay

I. Introduction With a population of only 1 million and no more than half a percent of Euro zone economy, it is surprising to find out that the financial crisis in a tiny country called â€Å"Cyprus† has enormous global implications (Long 2013). It cannot be also denied that the â€Å"Subprime Mortgage Crisis† of the US in 2008 has its downbeat domino effect to the world including European Union and Cyprus. In this report, not only the most critical reasons but also the aftermath of Cyprus financial crisis and possible alternatives which could have been done to ease such economic downturn will be carefully examined. II. Body 1. Main Reasons The root of the crisis lies when Cyprus experienced a terrible recession in 2009 when the country’s economy was diminished by 1.67% including significant reduction in tourism and shipping which obviously caused high unemployment rate (CIA 2013). Since then, the country’s economy worsen and with the 30% decline of the real estate market has put enormous pressure on a rise in non-performing loans of banking system (The World Bank 2013). Therefore, the banks ended up with Greek Private Sector debt of Euro 22 billion and accumulated $120 billion inclusive of $60 billion from Russia according to Jolly and Castle (2012). Furthermore, it is the direct result of the crisis in Greece known as Greek Debt Crisis where the second biggest retail bank in Cyprus over-invested in Greek Bonds and as a result of this, Cyprus failed on its recapitalisation where the Government is left with limited time and option as mentioned in Aljazeera news podcast (2012). Besides, Hans Humes pointed out during an interview conducted on 21 February 2012 that one of the significant reasons that led to a threat in collapse of the Cyprus Banks is 50% haircut in 2011 during Greek Crisis. Next, Cypriot Banking system is in shortage of at least 10 billion Euros in new capital plus 8 billion to satisfy public debts (Long 2013) and to make matter worse, the government has not got enough money to help out as it is impossible to raise money in bond market due to high level of borrowing rates. The country’s credit rating was rated CCC by Standard & Poor’s in September (Bases 2013) and this left the country with no benefits but high rise in percentage of yields on long term bond. This can be added as a reason to confirm that the country is not in the position to calm down its banking sector. They also made a wrong step in refusing UN’s plan for uniting their island which clearly annoyed their E.U partners and caused weak strategic position (Dixon 2013).The country’s economy could be a lot healthier if it had restructured the banks. 2. Consequences The consequences of the Cyprus financial crisis has had a surprising impact on the eurozone and raised concerns about the euro currency in the market. The two main financial institutions in Cyprus were both effected by the Greek financial crisis due to their operation heavily in the Greek Government Bond & the Greek Debt. The two largest banks in Cyprus, the Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank were both heavily impacted by the Greek financial crisis through exposures to their own operations in Greece and to Greek sovereign debt. According to the latest confirmation of GDP data, Cyprus is gliding deeper into recession and no sign of financial stress in economy is abating (Ernst & Young 2013). The Cyprus financial crisis have had helped driving the value of the euro currency to fall down from $1.36 at Feb to $1.28 at the end of March and lead to rising unemployment caused industrial unrest. Many workers struggle against wage cuts. However, the unemployment rate will likely continue to rise and wages fall, contributing to reduced consumption in the next few years (Ernst & Young 2013). To resolve the nation debt a solution was introduced by the government to force depositors and savers to scarify 10% of their life savings. As part of the Government’s austerity program, the VAT rate was raised from 17% to 18% in January 2013. The Inflation rate under impact of higher VAT was also increased from 1.5% in December to 2% in January (Ernst & Young 2013). That decision let Cypriots themselves furious and they have responded by trying to clear out their accounts and that will negatively impact on the deposit security or stability. Apart from any possible instability in deposit base, Eurozone banks may see their ability to rise unsecured funding deteriorate. Cyprus became the first ever Eurozone country to apply capital controls with limits on credit card transactions, daily cash withdrawals, foreign money transfers and cashing cheques. This is a clear indication of the severity of the situation and, effectively, at least temporarily devalues Euros located in Cyprus as they are now less easy to transfer. More than a thousand bank employees marched in the capital Nicosia on Saturday, angry that their jobs could be lost in the forced restructure of the island’s economy — and that the government had proposed to nationalise pensions in order to fund the bailout. That option was later rejected. Some protests to express Cypriots’ indignation happened on the street, while parliament voted overwhelmingly to reject the tax on bank accounts. Furthermore, Banks have been closed for more than a week, to prevent depositors moving their money off the island, which would have caused the banks to collapse and made the entire situation worse. However, ATMs were still opened, and they were quickly ran out of money as everyone tried to withdraw as much as possible (Ghostagenda 2013). Many businesses are refusing to take credit cards. Retailers have faced cash-on-delivery demands from suppliers, the Cyprus Mail reported, and shelves are emptying. Some are running out of coffee, cigarettes, alcohol and soft drinks. European governments rejected taking money from depositors in order to pay for necessary bailout packages. The fact created a panic, led to emergency negotiations. For example, the discussion happened between the Cypriot government and the troika in an attempt to reach a deal which was successfully achieved that managed to save the country from bankruptcy at the 11th hour (Ghostagenda 2013). Nobody doubts that, after such this financial crisis Cyprus will be pushed into a harsh recession. According to forecast in the troika’s source, GDP will shrink by about 10% before any hope of recovery. 3. Strategies In order to overcome the current financial crisis, focusing on the economic itself is not enough. Policymakers should include the full range of factors which interact the country’s financial situation- such as economic security policies, investment, interest rate, inflation, employment, etc. (The Star, 2009). In general, developed countries need to save their incomes more and consume less; developing countries, in contrast, have to boost their domestic demand as well as export. However, Mohsen, Abdulla & Jalal (2011) states that it is much easier said than done in the real circumstance. Iqbal (2010) suggests some strategies to overcome such difficult situation and avoid this particular issue in the future: †¢ The existing financial structure of related countries is required to modify. †¢ Creating and monitoring an effective exchange rate policy. †¢ The accounting standards need to be customised to fix the global economic situation, for instance: the convergence of United State and international accounting standards in terms of changing from fair value measurement back to historical value measurement. †¢ Globally coordinated and huge fiscal stimulus †¢ More transparency in the operation of financial institutions. Application in real situation of Cyprus: The Cyprus’s banking system has done a huge number of works in order to reduce the impact of financial crisis on its economy. Encouraging international investors to invest in Cyprus is one of its most effective policies which were proved to boost its economy. By providing â€Å"attractive† policies and tax, more and more Chinese investors are interested in putting their money into this market in many different sectors, for example: shipping, construction and energy industry. They also offer the opportunity to become a permanent resident to foreigners who purchase  £300,000+ in value of property. According to the Cypriot embassy in Beijing, more than 500 properties had sold to Chinese investors so far (Shengnan, 2013). Cypriot government is also seeking the financial assistance to solve their current debt crisis, primarily happened as a result of over-invested in Greek banks. European Union (EU) is a main target which Cyprus considers as its assistance for such an issue. On 25/3/2013, Greek-Cyprus government and EU singed a commitment which stated that EU would provide â‚ ¬ 10 billion bailout fund associated with some conditions: reducing money laundering, increasing the corporate tax and the one-off tax on bank deposits (Burgin, 2013). This was planned to catch â‚ ¬5.8 billion contribution for the bailout packages from internal resources. The Cypriot government has also declaredspecial fiscal measures with the aim of improvement the investment into their main industries such as tourism and construction. However, there is no empirical evidence on how it worked for their own circumstance (The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, 2009). In addition, government also boost the guarantee on deposit to â‚ ¬100,000. This action encourages foreign investors to deposit in Cyprus banks as the EU guarantee was only â‚ ¬50,000 (7/10/2008). Furthermore, the It is estimated that Gas revenues will be an important factor in solving Cyprus’s the economic malaise forecast for the next few years. The Government agreed to set up a resource fund to cope with the expenditure from gas exploitation. They hope that Cyprus can start exporting the natural gas in 2019. This should contribute to stronger growth in the medium term (Ernst & Young 2013). III. Conclusion To conclude, this is a difficult stage for Cyprus. There is still some argument on how will affect government debt sustainability when this country borrow under the economic adjustment programme and how the government debt burden can be reduce from the income of natural gas exploration and exploitation. However, the agreement was reached with the troika is a significant step in restoring the country’s economy. Everyone has shown understanding, consensus, readiness and elasticity to adopt a programme of financial reform, fiscal and structural amendment in accordance with the needs of the country. In the future, it is estimate that the Cyprus economy as well as its financial sector will overcome the current crisis and become stronger than before. The economic reform program is seen as an effective way to strengthen and stabilize the macro economy and the domestic financial. It also contributes to the revival of private economic activity, promotes economic growth and creates more jobs for labors. Moreover, in longer term, Cyprus may have good prospects for growth in the shape of its offshore gas reserves, which could help lower the debt burden of future generations (Central bank 2013).

Description and Care of the Monkey Puzzle Tree

Monkey-Puzzle Tree is a wild, scary evergreen with open splaying and spiraling branches. The tree can grow to 70 feet tall and 30 feet wide and forms a loose, see-through, pyramidal shape with a straight trunk. The tree is so open you can actually look through it. The leaves are dark green, stiff, with sharp needles that cover the limbs like armor. Monkey-Puzzle tree makes an attractive, novelty specimen for large, open yards. It is seen in large numbers in California. Specifics Scientific name: Araucaria araucanaPronunciation: air-ah-KAIR-ee-uh air-ah-KAY-nuhCommon name(s): Monkey-Puzzle Tree or Puzzle TreeUSDA hardiness zones: 7b through 10Origin: Chile (national tree) and the Andes of South America.Uses: garden specimen; indoor tree specimenAvailability: somewhat available, may have to go out of the region to find the tree. Monkey Puzzles Range There are no native monkey puzzle trees in the United States. The natural monkey puzzle tree is now found in two small areas in the Andes and on the coastal mountain range. It is a highly fire-adapted species, occurring in an area where fires have long been caused by volcanic activity and, since the early Holocene, by humans. The tree can grow in North America along the coastal zone from coastal Virginia, down the Atlantic, west through Texas and up the Pacific coast to Washington. Description Dr. Mike Dirr in Trees and Shrubs for Warm Climates says: The habit is pyramidal-oval in youth, later with a slender bole and ascending branches near the top....cones are about twice the size of hand-grenades and hurt even worse. Tolerates extremes of soil, except permanently moist. Etymology The origin name Monkey-puzzle derives from its early cultivation in Britain in about 1850. The tree was very popular in Victorian England. Legend has it that an owner of a young tree specimen in Cornwall was showing it to a group of friends, and one made the remark, it would puzzle a monkey to climb that. The popular name became, first monkey-puzzler, then monkey-puzzle. Prior to 1850, it had been called Joseph Banks Pine or Chile Pine in Britain even though it is not a pine. Pruning The Monkey Puzzle needs to be isolated from other trees for the best display of its graceful and natural limb sweep. Maintain a central leader and do not top for best effect. Branches should be protected and only pruned if dead wood appears. Dead branches are hard to work on but will cause the tree to decline if not removed. Monkey Puzzle in Europe Monkey-puzzle was introduced to England by Archibald Menzies in 1795. Menzies was a plant collector and naval surgeon on Captain George Vancouvers circumnavigation of the globe. Menzies was served the seeds of the conifer as a dessert while dining with the governor of Chile and later sowed them in a frame on the ships quarterdeck. Five healthy plants made it back to Great Britain and were the first plants to be planted. Culture Monkey puzzle tree does best where the summers are cool and humid, and they are popular landscape oddities in England.Light: Full sun to partial shade.Moisture: Likes a moist, but well-drained soil and regular watering.Propagation: By seeds or by tip cuttings from vertical shoots. Cuttings from lateral-growing shoots will develop into sprawling shrubs. In-Depth Description Monkey-puzzle prefers well-drained, slightly acidic, volcanic soil but will tolerate almost any soil type provided drainage is good. It prefers temperate climates with abundant rainfall, tolerating temperatures down to about −20 Â °C. It is far and away the hardiest member of its genus and the only one that will grow in mainland Britain, or in the United States away from the extreme south. In Canada, Vancouver and Victoria have many fine specimens; it also grows on the Queen Charlotte Islands. It is tolerant of salt spray but does not like exposure to pollution. It is a popular garden tree, planted for its unusual effect of the thick, reptilian branches with a very symmetrical appearance. The seeds are edible, similar to large pine nuts, and are extensively harvested in Chile. A group of six female trees with one male for pollination could yield several thousand seeds per year. Since the cones drop, harvesting is easy. The tree, however, does not yield seeds until it is around 30-40 years old, which discourages investment in planting orchards.