Qualities that describe a successful student Essay

Qualities that describe a successful student - Essay Example Two of the most important qualities a student should possess are curiosity and self-motivation. Students who are most successful in college are students who are curious and ready to learn about new things. There are many ways in which curiosity is an essential quality for students. To begin with, curiosity enables students to become interested in subjects they might not have considered before. This quality drives a desire to learn that makes the university process seem less like work and more like an adventure. Curiosity can also help students overcome feelings of resistance against required courses that perhaps don’t fall within their normal interest range. There are always classes that are part of a required curriculum that don’t necessarily appeal to the student, such as math classes for English majors or English classes for scientists. Curiosity can change the focus into discovering ways in which this course material might be applied to the major field of study or the promise of future courses may entice the student to complete the undesired course in order t o reach more desirable units. All the curiosity in the world will not help the student much, though, if they do not also possess the quality of self-motivation. High school classes begin to place responsibility for coursework upon the shoulders of the student as a means of preparing them for college, but this does not mean the work gets finished. High school students also usually have parents to push them to finish their work, but college students are expected to keep up with their work on their own. Self-motivation drives the student to complete their work on time and to keep track of their classes on their own. Also, since college doesn’t include mandatory attendance, it takes a self-motivated individual to ensure they get to class each day instead of sleeping in or hanging out with friends. While there are many qualities that students will need to make a

Latin America Cinema (Hour of Furnace and Third Cinema) Essay

Latin America Cinema (Hour of Furnace and Third Cinema) - Essay Example The aim of the Third Cinema is to motivate the masses towards starting a revolution, with the director joining in as a part of the group. Another aspect of the Third Cinema, according to the two Argentineans, is clandestinity; the films that form part of the Third Cinema should be shown secretly so that not only is censorship and other commercial groups (both part of the mainstream cinema) avoided, but also to include a risk on the part of the viewer who decides to see them. â€Å"The Hour of the Furnaces† is a pioneer film of the Third Cinema genre, if Third Cinema can be referred to as a genre. Directed by Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, â€Å"The Hour of the Furnaces† was secretly filmed in Argentina in the early 60s and with a runtime of over four hours. It serves as a very bold condemnation of the neocolonialism that has dragged the country specifically, and Latin America generally, down into the depths of economic and social colonization, first by Spain, then by the United Kingdom and finally by the United States. The film depicts the horrors of capitalism in the â€Å"underdeveloped† country, with the bourgeoisie and the oligarchy getting richer, while the poor laborers and farmers get poorer. The directors use a very fiery and fast tempo soundtrack to help them drive their point home. The point driven home is a call for revolution, an appeal to the masses by the directors to take up arms as all non-violent means, adapted by the Peronists to bring about a change by toppling the regime that came into power by a coup against Juan Domingo Perà ³n, had failed to do any good. In short, through this film, the directors have tried to become a part of the collective and are trying to inspire the masses into starting a revolution against the injustices that the ruling class has subjected them to through the methods of capitalism and neocolonialism. A manifesto of change, â€Å"The Hour of the Furnaces†

Different types of service organization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Different types of service organization - Essay Example Service factory includes services that involve low labour intensity and interaction. These demand huge capital and are standardized. Airlines and motels are the examples of such services. Highly labour intensive services with low interaction fall under mass service. These require low capital and service is provided on a standard basis to all customers. Retail giants such as Walmart follow this formula. Service shops support high degree of customisation and low labour intensity. Hospitals take up this mode of service, by accruing advantage of abundant capital (Inman). Advocates, medical practitioners, engineers etc, who provide professional services, show high customer interaction and customization. They are labour intensive. The success of labour-intensive services depends on employee training and welfare (Lashley 245-251). Keeping abreast technology and sequencing delivery make capital-intensive services attractive. Mass service and service factory are differentiated by ambience, wa rmth and marketing strategies(Verma 121-123). Service quality, sensitivity and responsiveness, coupled with cost-cutting guide highly interactive services.

Transmittal of Project Report on Flextime Strategy Research Paper

Transmittal of Project Report on Flextime Strategy - Research Paper Example Solutions and its impacts on both the employers and employees of the company. Various factors included in this research study were about the different types of flextime policies implemented by some of the well reputed business firms in the world and its impact on the organization. Primary research was also performed through questionnaires designed to survey the employees of Health Tech. Solutions. Based on the findings and analysis of the research study, it is recommended that Health Tech. Solutions should consider implementing a flextime policy for its employees that includes 4-day work week with 4 out of 10 working hours every day available as flexible time according to the choice of the employees. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions associated with the project report or if you need any kind of additional information. I will try to assist you in every way possible. Enc. Project Report TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 OVERVIEW 7 TYPE S OF FLEXTIME 9 IMPACT ON EMPLOYER 11 Advantages 11 Disadvantages 12 IMPACT ON EMPLOYEE 12 Advantages 13 Disadvantages 13 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS 14 Secondary Research and Analysis 15 Primary Research and Analysis 17 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 20 CONCLUSION 21 RECOMMENDATIONS 22 REFERENCES 22 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Table – 1: Preference for 4-day or 5-day work week 19 Table – 2: Preference of 8-hour days as working hours 20 Table – 3: Preference of 10-hour days as working hours 20 Figure – 1: Employees favoring work from home 19 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Flextime strategies have received a renewed attention in many of the companies all around the world. Health tech. Solutions is also thinking of implementing a flextime strategy in their company as suggested by many of the employees in the company. This research study deals with the problem statement about the various merits and demerits of a flextime strategy being implemented by an organization and its various impact s on both the employees and employers of an organization. Both secondary and primary research methods have been employed in order to conduct this study successfully. The different types of flextime strategies followed by five of the well reputed companies have been included in this study. Those companies include Pricewaterhouse Coopers, KPMG, Sun Microsystems, etc. Primary research has also been performed which included a questionnaire survey of the employees of Health Tech. Based on the research it has been found that the flextime strategies adopted by most of the companies have proved to be very much advantageous for them. It has resulted in increased performance of the employees and reduction of the employee turnover rates. The information collected from the questionnaire survey suggested that employees had greater interest in having flexible working hours in their work schedule. Hence it is recommended that a flextime strategy should be implemented in Health Tech. Solutions. The flextime policy should include four days 10-hours day per week work schedule and would include 4 hours as flexible working hours for the employees. It is suggested that implementation of flextime strategy in Health Tech. Solutions would prove advantageous for the company since the performance level of the employees would increase and the company would be able to save significant amount of turnover costs. OVERVIEW The concept of flexible timing in work

Utos Ng Hari Essay Example for Free

Utos Ng Hari Essay â€Å"I was once a student.† I was 4 years old when I first entered kindergarten. I remember those times before going to school, my father would tell me to play and mingle with my classmates, be friendly, and not have fight with anyone. Then my mother would say that I should listen to our teacher so I can get stars and expect an award from her if I would do really well. Being a kid, I never questioned why I have to do all of those. I just thought that maybe, those were the best things I must do. Since then, I assumed that maybe that’s how simple the essence of life is to socialize, excel, and make my parents proud of me. As I get older, things get rough. These three are not that easy to achieve anymore. People are not homogenous creatures. We all have our own shades and contours that sometimes we cannot control the things how they we like them to be. I have found out that life is not easy. Biases, prejudices, and judgments are forming nimbus clouds in the atmosphere. I hate that look people give to me. You know the look they give to me after I just explained what I want to be and what I want to do. There are a lot of obstructions along the way. Some will humiliate me. Others even bury me with all those discriminations and seem to condemn me of a serious crime. I really believe that most of the issues I have with myself are there because of other people’s influences. I was not insecure before someone told me I was not worthy of something. When making major changes or big decisions in our lives, we tend to look to the opinions of others for guidance; and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. Sometimes we need another viewpoint, and there are usually people in our lives whose opinions are really significant for us. Our culture is one in which people are accustomed to spending a great amount of time doing things to prove themselves to others– it’s present in everything from social media to how we choose to have fun, dress up, spend our weekends, and affiliate ourselves with others. This is a huge barrier to get over, but nobody should have the power to change how we feel about ourselves. The truth is that these people only know us as the people we have been up until now. We are the only ones capable of knowing what the next step should be in our lives. Sometimes people don’t know what’s best for us. There are so many people and so many opinions in the world; we’ll spend the rest of our lives in a state of sustained uncertainty if we don’t ground ourselves in what we know to be true. Now, I am no longer a student who just formally engages in learning and enrolls in a school or college; obey whatever the professors will tell her to do in order for her to get high grades but rather, I am a student who takes her baggage in distinct sizes: big or small with her, in her infinite faà §ade.

The Importance Of Being Ethical In The Business Marketing Essay

The Importance Of Being Ethical In The Business Marketing Essay This report mainly emphasize on the importance of being ethical in the business field and the consequences of failing to be ethical. It shows that Toyota has incurred many losses and faces negative impact in its reputation due to recall scandal. Failing to be ethical gain no benefits but only draw the company itself into unpredictable disaster. Toyota has destroy its reputation which is the excellent quality of its brand and trust of its customers towards the brand. Now the company has to spend huge amount of money to recall all the vehicles in order to build and gain back its companys reputation. Now, whenever it comes to the discussion about Toyota, people will immediately remember the ethical dilemmas of the company and it will affect the companys reputation in the long term. Introduction Toyota Motor Corporation, simply known as Toyota, one of the worlds leading manufacturers of automobiles and light trucks, based in Toyota, Japan. The company also makes buses, forklifts, and other industrial vehicles. Toyota was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda, who in 1933 established an automobile department in his fathers loom factory, Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd., following a trip to tour United States automobile plants. The department concentrated on building fuel-efficient vehicles and completed its first experimental vehicles in 1935. In 1937 Toyoda established Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. Besides manufacturing automobiles, Toyota also involves in financial services via its Toyota Financial Services division and build robots as well. Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Industries have form the bulk of the Toyota Group as one of the largest multinational company in the world. 2.0 Toyota Ethical Dilemmas 2.1 Neglecting safety concerns and delaying recall investigations Toyota admitted to engaging in unethical behaviour when the safety of its vehicles are seriously being questioned and investigation comes into as well. The Associated Press released an article has proven that Toyota not only neglected its cars safety defects, but also continuously on doing so. Wins for Toyota Safety Group, presentation called in 2009 shows that in 2007, Toyota repeatedly delayed safety regulations and intentionally avoiding defect investigations and hold up government inquiries into safety concerns. It was also stated by The Associated Press that the financial benefit of delay is shown in the new documents. Toyota stated in the presentation that a phase in to new safety regulations for side airbags saved the company $124 million and 50,000 man hours. Besides, delayed a rule for tougher door locks saved $11 million. Toyota is a company that practice the philosophy of kaizen, meaning continuous improvement, but they somehow negotiated and justified with the government to flee away from their problem. In its headlong rush to become the worlds No. 1 carmaker, Toyota lost control of the very thing its reputation has been built on which is quality. Now the company is facing consequences due to poor ethical in the business industry are loss of confidence and trust in businesses. A loss of trust greatly reduce customers loyalty and motivate them to turn to competitors. 2.2 Sweatshops and Union Busting Back in Japan, Toyotas manufacturing plants resembles some of the worst sweatshops in the world. The companys operations have been illustrated as slavery and human trafficking. According to a 65-pages report entitled The Toyota You Dont Know released by Human rights group The National Labour Committee, it alleges that Toyota is linked to human trafficking. The report highlighted the trafficking of foreign workers mainly from Vietnam and China. These workers are stripped of their passports and were frequently forced to work overtime every day, seven days a week and received wages below the legal minimum wages (Rosen, 2002). There are thousands of karoshi claims each year in Toyota. This karoshi claims means over worked to death. There was a case of Kenichi Uchino who died of being overworked on an assembly line at Toyotas Prius plant. Uchino, who was just 30, routinely worked 13 to 14 hours a day, putting in between 106 and 155 hours of overtime in the 30 days leading up to his death. Toyota claimed he had only worked 45 hours of overtime and that the extra time was voluntary and unpaid. Uchinos wife had to go to court to fight for a pension for their children. She succeeded and the court ruling that Mr Uchino was worked to death. Besides, When an injury has occurred to employees, on the job they are layer off, and receive no compensation. Many small countries all around the world has been dominated and destroyed with Toyota well-known union busting. Reducing the standards of living amongst the countries citizens. There are already 1800 cases in the US where Kentucky plants employees have been injured, fired, and they were not included in the compensation pay roll. Approximate of 400 Americans working at Toyota are facing this problem every year. Toyota have their plants assembled in the poorest states to gain advantage of the lowest wages in the country. Many are kept as temporary workers for over 4 years. Their target is to control and lower the average wages and economic in America, and Honda seems to be supportive on Toyotas action. Toyotas strategy is to hire the poorest workers in the state to manufacture the cheapest materials and maximize its profits. The more profits they make, the more they lower worker wages. 2.3 Toyota Diluted Quality and Recall Scandals Toyotas production line expanded from 5.2 million to 10 million since year 2000. This include 17 more productions sites. Due to such unsustainable production, Toyota has to reach to other subcontractors from overseas to procure auto-parts, this resulting difficulty for the company to inspect every process involved in the quality control process. Vast growing competition from other rivals has caused Toyota to force its subcontractors to cut production costs at least 30%, which resulted in diluted quality. According to a analysis of complaints by auto safety control firm Quality Control System, National High Way Traffic safety Administration received tripled complaints since introduction of electronic throttles in Toyota vehicles. Many people have died in road accidents due to break problems as well. However Toyota just kept its business operating without taking this matter seriously and put all the blames on the drivers instead. Toyota started recalling vehicles for rectification afte r these complaints has drawn high media coverage and pressure by customers. These decisions are said to be unethical because Toyota gave priority to its profitability plans over security procedures and risks of precious live. An estimated amount of more than 8 million vehicles were recalled back due to break paddle and floor mat problems (Schonberger, 2010). This recall amount exceeded Toyota total global sales of 6.98 million vehicles in 2009 (Schonberger, 2010). This recall scandal has degraded Toyotas reputation in regards to social media. Social media analyst Webtrends research proposes that 60% of all online comments about Toyota were negatively made. Brand valuation consultancy, Brand Finance, has stated that Toyota may possibly face a loss of 25% of the overall  £17 billion brand value due to the recall crisis. The crisis is not just affecting Toyotas reputation but affecting the entire business too in the long run. 3.0 Toyota Actions Solving Dilemmas 3.1 Toyota: How to Win Back Your Customers The due care theory is in place because Toyota always have advantage in knowledge over their products including how it was manufactured. In the case, Toyota failed to exercise due care in their vehicles. The company manufactured dangerous vehicles with faulty gas pedals and breaking system. Then Toyota did not concern much about how risky and dangerous of its vehicles and directly sold them to their customer. This case has shown how Toyota has completely failed to exercise due care. Toyota recently announced recalls on seven U.S. and European models. Not only this will bring bad reputation for the worlds largest automakers image, but it could also have a serious impact on its sales. Toyota is now focusing on winning back its customers and reassuring them of the quality and the safety of its vehicles (Rother, 2009). Yoshimi Inaba, President and COO of Toyota Motor North American during his testimony on February 24, stated that Toyotas dealers across North American and 172,000 team members are giving out their best efforts to complete the current recalls. Solutions have been tested rigorously and they are confident with these repairs, and Toyota vehicles will remain among the safest on the road today. Besides, president and CEO of Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc, James Lentz stated during his testimony on February 23 that the company dealers are making extraordinary efforts to complete their recalls as quickly and conveniently as possible. Some of the dealers are staying open 24-7 and they are repairing vehicles at a rate of 50,000 a day. To date, Toyota have repaired close to a million vehicles. In this case, rule utilitarianism is also applied in Toyotas situation. Toyota failed to be ethical because rule utilitarianism includes the after-act benefits and cost (Fullerton, 2004). After the act of be ing unethical in delaying the safety issues of its vehicles, Toyota had loss millions of dollars for the recall and to rebuild their reputation. This meaning the cost is higher than the benefits and therefore it was unethical. 3.2 Is Toyota Willing to Solve Slavery Operations? Unfortunately, most multinational companies like Toyota that is benefiting from sweatshops labour around the world are doing nothing about this problem. The question arise here is, does Toyota follow the rights and duties? Toyota has the duty to provide a better and comfortable environment for its workers. However, to maximise its profits and minimise the cost of production, Toyota choose to forsake the rights of its workers (Campbell Miller, 2004). Given that sweatshops conditions exist around the world, what can be done to counter these assaults upon human dignity and human rights that affect most vulnerable people in economic food chain? Currently, three major groups oversee factory inspections to monitor sweatshops condition. These groups including Social Accountability International (SAI), Fair Labour Association (FLA), Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). Due to considerable variation in the methodologies used by SAI, FLA, and ETI, many companies have engaged in some form of self-monitoring. Now, SAI, FLA, and ETI appears to be on the verge of changing as a consequence of an ambitious 30-month experiment, called the Initiative on Corporate Accountability Workers Right (Campbell Miller, 2004). There are six anti-sweatshop activist groups and eight global apparel makers are sponsoring this experiment. The purpose is to devise a single set of labour standards with a common factory-inspection system that will replace todays overlapping hodgepodge of approaches with something that is easier and cheaper to use, and that might gain traction with companies. If it works, the 30 months experiment would be a great step in bringing order to the piecemeal manner in which even the biggest companies set and monitor workplace conditions across the developing world. It is all about the human rights, Toyota has the duty to take care of its workers wh o are working under the company. 3.3 Utilise Social Media Effectively Business is responsible to provide reasonable product to customers. In a sense, Toyota had made consumer to trust that their products are safe. Therefore Toyota should not manufacture unsafe product to their customers. Now Toyota started to practice business duty by using social media to update their customers especially the recall and repair of the vehicles to gain back their customers trust towards their products. Toyota Recall Micro Site This Micro site is created by Toyota to provide recall information for its customers. Many web 2.0 aspects was included in the micro site such as a customer comments section. Existing customers can leave comments on what is the current situation with their Toyota. Toyota has also included a live update counter in the micro site to highlight the speed at which it fixing the accelerator pedals (Refer to Appendix 1). Toyota Recall Timeline Toyota have utilised a timeline to highlight how the company is dealing to the recall effectively. A facts and figures section is set up to calm down and reassure their customers that the company had the recall under control ( Refer to Appendix 2). Toyota Conversation Toyota Conversations was created by Toyota and powered by Tweetmeme that collects and updates the news, images and video about Toyota and to be published on Toyotas own Twitter feed. Toyota can analyse this information and act accordingly (Refer to Appendix 3). Toyota have utilised Digg as well to update and keep its customers in contact regarding the recall. US Toyota president Jim Lentz was involved in a consumer question and answer session. Toyota has used this approach that allow the company to engage its customer base and express remorse to their customers for the recall. Toyota also make use of YouTube to combat the threat of the recall. The company has been uploading videos describing the faults with the foot pedals and offering an explanation to its customers (Rother, 2009). 4.0 Toyotas Ethical Best Practices and Values Virtue ethics emphasis on doing things with character, and this character can be simplified as a good one. Toyota does practice virtue ethics. Virtue ethics do not follow any rules or consequences, but purely on doing good things (Devettere, 2002). 4.1 Recycling as One Approach Making People-Friendly and Environmentally-Friendly Cars In order to ensure that automobiles will continue to be a sustainable mode of transport in the 21st century, Toyota considers it is important to proactively take action to reduce their environmental impacts all along their life cycle. Toyota is now focusing on the important aspects which is the recycling stage. The company is thinking about recycling opportunities at every stage of life cycle of vehicles. For example, Toyota is involved in activities to reduce waste as much as possible and recycle whatever can be reused at the development, production, use, and disposal stages. Toyota is strongly committed to developing technologies for effectively utilising resin and rubber, which are difficult to reuse or recycle due to difficulties in separation of composite materials and to high quality standards requested. The recycling technologies that have been developed are first applied to the remnant materials generated in production processes; commonly remnants from the manufacturing of pl astic parts are recycled internally, for example in the case of bumpers. Toyota has extended the application of these recycling technologies to the parts collected at dealers and from end-of-life vehicles. 4.2 Initiative Designed to Educate People in Traffic Safety The company has been involving actively in various activities to educate people in traffic safety since 1960s. Toyota Driver Communication In 1987, this programme was designed to improve safe driving by allowing drivers to experience the performance of cars at their limits and to study the effects and proper usage of ABS (electronically controlled braking system) and other safety technologies. In April 2005, Toyota opened the Toyota Safety Education Centre where safe driving courses are offered on a regular basis. Toyota Traffic Safety Campaign Toyota has conducted the Toyota Traffic Safety Campaign every spring and autumn since 1969. This campaign was participated by car dealers, parts distributors, logistics systems forklift dealers and rental/lease dealers in conjunction with the Japans Nationwide Traffic Safety Campaign. In FY2004, Toyota focused on traffic safety education for children and their parents and promotion of proper seatbelts and child restraint systems. 4.3 Community Care Toyota de Venezuela, C.A (TDV) The main purpose in ethics of care is to care for each other as every parties relationship always interlinked with one another. For example, Pinta Tu Escuela (Paint Your School) program was launched by TDV in 2005. The purpose was to paint the school to improve the study atmosphere. But, after TGV had leant the actual needs of the schools, it realized that they have to go beyond on what they were doing. TDV then promised to build a school in Laguna Chica. However, there was a lot of doubting among the local community if the school will ever be materialized since this promise was made before by other organization. Nevertheless, TDV was serious with their promise and a synergy and trust between TDV and the townspeople was built that allowed the schools construction to run smoothly. The opening ceremony of the school in Laguna Chica was on December 9, 2008 (Refer to Appendix 4 5). In this case, Toyota is practicing ethics of care which can lead to building a goodwill and reputation in the view of public or the community, and it is a significant ethic that a large organization should practice. 5.0 Recommendations Unethical decisions can be catastrophic for any organization. Organization profitability can be affected, same goes to employees morale when unable to answer customers complaints and queries when the companys customers suffered from defective products. Thus, reputation of a company faces negative impact. Every time before the top management of a company decide any big decision, it is suggested that they should consider and outline all the possibly negative outcomes particularly the ethical issues. It is always beneficial to a companys long term planning if ethical considerations are taken account into every decision making. It is evident that running from a moral obligation or not obeying appropriate moral practice in business would lead to many failure and disputes. Toyota is one of the best example for the statement as the company ignoring the warning alarm that their action will put consumer in dangerous, and eventually, Toyota itself is liable to correct their mistakes by spendin g million and billion dollars. Avoiding a ethical obligation brings only benefits in the short term, but the company would be led into trouble in the long term since the business reputation and goodwill are placed in a high risks. Toyota should have faced the problem instead of avoiding or minimizing it. If a company is facing a serious problem due to serious ethical issue, the company should turn back to its philosophy. For example, Toyotas philosophy is kaizen or continuous improvement. The company can gain back its customers trust by proving that Toyota still possess the desire to manufacture its vehicles as one of the safest vehicles on the road for its customers (Weiss, 2009).

The Symbolism of Hester Prynnes Appearance in The Scarlet Letter :: Essays Papers

The Symbolism of Hester Prynnes Appearance in The Scarlet Letter Throughout The Scarlet Letter, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many literal and figurative items to illustrate the significance of various characters or themes. Coupled with the tangible evidence given, the reader can make many miscellaneous assumptions of the importance of these items to directly and indirectly contribute to the issues of the novel. One cryptic item that symbolizes more than it seems to is the appearance of one of the main characters, Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne's appearance and hair signify the levels of will and determination she possesses at the moment. The first example of this implication occurs at the beginning of the novel, during and before the first scaffold scene. Hester's hair is let down, shining and "so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam." This hair compliments an elegant, beautiful woman standing tall and proud. During this time, Hester's emotions, at full integrity, mirroring her appearance. When Hester is being questioned upon the scaffold, her virtue shines through when she refuses to name the partner of her sin. In the next example, Hester's pride and stature both seem to dwindle in accordance to her appearance. Within the next seven years, Hester has gone through a change both physically and emotionally. The book describes the scarlet letter to have absorbed all the rebellious and fiery qualities of Hester, leaving a cold and lonely woman, her tenderness "crushed so deeply into her heart that it can never show itself more." At the same time, Hester started "hiding" her beautiful rich hair in a cap, therefore practically eliminating her beauty and femininity. As Hester becomes less passionate internally, she becomes less passionate externally as well. The last example takes place during Hester's talk with Arthur Dimmesdale in the forest. During their emotional conversation, Hester regains her previous composure, and tries to prove to Arthur that the past can be erased. With the literal simple gestures of pulling off her scarlet letter and taking off her cap, she figuratively obliterated all that had happened before she was forced to wear the scarlet letter. Her womanliness and pride came rushing back as her hair fell back to her shoulders, becoming as she was before the scarlet letter took over her life. The Symbolism of Hester Prynnes Appearance in The Scarlet Letter :: Essays Papers The Symbolism of Hester Prynnes Appearance in The Scarlet Letter Throughout The Scarlet Letter, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many literal and figurative items to illustrate the significance of various characters or themes. Coupled with the tangible evidence given, the reader can make many miscellaneous assumptions of the importance of these items to directly and indirectly contribute to the issues of the novel. One cryptic item that symbolizes more than it seems to is the appearance of one of the main characters, Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne's appearance and hair signify the levels of will and determination she possesses at the moment. The first example of this implication occurs at the beginning of the novel, during and before the first scaffold scene. Hester's hair is let down, shining and "so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam." This hair compliments an elegant, beautiful woman standing tall and proud. During this time, Hester's emotions, at full integrity, mirroring her appearance. When Hester is being questioned upon the scaffold, her virtue shines through when she refuses to name the partner of her sin. In the next example, Hester's pride and stature both seem to dwindle in accordance to her appearance. Within the next seven years, Hester has gone through a change both physically and emotionally. The book describes the scarlet letter to have absorbed all the rebellious and fiery qualities of Hester, leaving a cold and lonely woman, her tenderness "crushed so deeply into her heart that it can never show itself more." At the same time, Hester started "hiding" her beautiful rich hair in a cap, therefore practically eliminating her beauty and femininity. As Hester becomes less passionate internally, she becomes less passionate externally as well. The last example takes place during Hester's talk with Arthur Dimmesdale in the forest. During their emotional conversation, Hester regains her previous composure, and tries to prove to Arthur that the past can be erased. With the literal simple gestures of pulling off her scarlet letter and taking off her cap, she figuratively obliterated all that had happened before she was forced to wear the scarlet letter. Her womanliness and pride came rushing back as her hair fell back to her shoulders, becoming as she was before the scarlet letter took over her life.