UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS OF STARTEGY PLANNING Assignment

UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS OF STARTEGY PLANNING - Assignment Example The company’s strength is in its research and development team which focuses on dermatology and cosmetology. Such capability has allowed the company to develop new products like Armani Code Donna. The company has continuously registered dismal performance in North America where Procter and Gamble is doing well. In the hair styling market, in Western Europe, the company is doing poorly. Such performance undermines investor confidence (L’Oreal Annual Report). Markets like United States provide the company with new opportunities. The old population in United States provides a large market for beauty products. They use revitalizing lotions and cosmetics that give them a good appeal and appearance. Emerging markets in Brazil, India and China provides market for the company’s cosmetic products. Indians provide a high demand for hair color products. Threats faced by L’Oreal include consumers opting for new technologies like organ transplant, cosmetic surgery and advanced dermatology, the company could lose market for its products. Increased competition from companies like Avon, Revlon, Procter and Gamble, Unilever, and others poses a significant threat to L’Oreal. Availability of counterfeit products in the market reduces consumer confidence and tarnishes the brand image. PESTLE analysis establishes the political, economic, social, technological, legal and the environment in which a company thrives. The company is doing well in local and international markets. The hair color products of the company are in high demand, in India. The company registered 70 million new consumers worldwide and is targeting an increment of outlets in new markets. Socially, the company involves itself in education, affirmative action, science and other issues. The company continues to improve social lives in many countries. The most significant involvement is a partnership with United

Study of The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) 02165 Essay

Study of The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) 02165 - Essay Example The only condition followed in this case is the investor has to behave in conformity maintaining prescription of portfolio theory. Early practitioners are of opinion that beta is the only explanatory factor, which has the ability to explain cross-sectional variation in the asset prices. Therefore, the CAPM model has successfully examined the predictions, which are made for measuring the risk-return relationship of asset prices (Black, Jensen and Scholes, 1972). Though the model was initially developed by Harry Markowitz, it was later modified by Lintner and Sharpe. The model actually explained that if a particular investor selects a portfolio for a period of time then he/she is said to be risk averse (Black, Jensen and Scholes, 1972). However, the modified version of the model is developed based on the following assumptions: CAPM has gained prominence in corporate finance, but there are many criticisms regarding its validity in the security market. The risk-return relationship is questioned, whether it has the ability to help the investor for making a good investment decision. Sharpe (1964) and Lintner (1965) had identified the linear relation that exists between return, risk and beta of a stock. Beta is defined as a variable, which aims at explaining cross sectional returns of the stocks. The equation aims at explaining the risk-return relationship of the stocks to a great extent. The beta value is dependent on type of assets (Roll, 1977). It also helps in gauging the volatility of the stock with respect to market risk. The following interpretations can be made from the different value of beta (Solnik, 1974; Lahrech and Sylwester, 2011; Levy and Sarnat, 1970). The above explanations indicates towards the fact that beta can easily establish the risk-return relationship of stocks. Therefore, it can be depicted that the CAPM is a perfect model for evaluating the debt and equity status of a company by examining its risk-rerun relationship of the

An analysis of the budgeting in management accounting

An analysis of the budgeting in management accounting With the fast development of in the area of management accounting, more and more managers are aware of the importance of the budgeting, budgeting is an important control system in almost all organizations (Stephen C. Hansen, Wim A. Van der Stede, 2004, Management Accounting Research, Multiple facets of budgeting: an exploratory analysis,), and it provides an expression of the steps which management must take in the current period if it is to fulfil organizational objectives. (M.W.E.Glautier and B.Underdown. (1997) Accounting Theory and Practice, p531, 6th Edition, Great Britain: PITMAN PUBLISHING). This paper will discuss that what is budgeting and the budgeting committee, the budgeting purpose and types of budget, the benefits and limitations in the budget, and how to be a successful budgeting. The budgeting process focuses on the medium term period, normally one year, and it is an expression of plan in monetary terms, which is aim to achieve the organizational objectives, as Colin Drury said the budget is a financial plan for implementing the various decisions that management has made.(Colin Drury. (2008) MANAGEMENT AND COST ACCOUNTING. p10, 7th Edition, China: GENGAGE Learning) The various decisions are covered in cost and revenues, cash flow, assets and liabilities. In additional, the annual budget likely to be sub-divided for reporting periods, such as monthly budget reports, because the risk can be reduced in the monthly budgets and it helps managers easy to find the problems during the operation. In organizations, budgeting is often in the hands of a budgeting committee (M.W.E.Glautier and B.Underdown. (1997) Accounting Theory and Practice, p533, 6th Edition, Great Britain: PITMAN PUBLISHING), so the members of the budget committee is very important. For example, in the sales budgeting process, marketing department may be deliberately underestimated future sales, thus contributing to their performance evaluation. However, underestimate the quantity of sales will result in a corresponding reduction in production, which means the production will not be able to achieve the most efficient state. Another example, some department may padding the expenses in order to get more budget funds, resulting in a waste of money. Therefore, the budget committee should consist of the various important department managers, and some high-level executives be the leader. Furthermore, it usually has an accountant to be the budget officer in the budget committee, the role of the budget officer is to coordinate the individual budgets into a budget for the whole organization, so that the budget committee and the budgetee can see the impact of an individual budget on the organization as a whole. (Colin Drury. (2008) MANAGEMENT AND COST ACCOUNTING. p357, 7th Edition, China: GENGAGE Learning). The budgeting purposes and types of budget setting There are six useful purposes of budgeting, which are planning, coordinating, communicating, motivating, controlling and evaluating. Therefore, the budget will help managers through the planned activities to determine the target of the organisation and allowed managers to consider all possible situations. however it not only to reflect projected revenue and expenditure budget as of the amount of financial figures, the budget is a kind of resource allocation, input and output of the program content, quantity, and the input-output timing details. Through the budget, so that business managers can have clear objectives. In addition, the budget serves as a vehicle through which the actions of the different parts of an organization can be brought together and reconciled into a common plan. (Colin Drury. (2008) MANAGEMENT AND COST ACCOUNTING. P355, 7th Edition, China: GENGAGE Learning) and it is an effective way of the communication in the organization. Managers and staff can be motivated b y the budget because of it can help to enhance the predictability and avoid blind behavior and thereby to motivate they to complete the objectives. The Budget is based on quantitative way to show management standards, it can thus be judged according to the budget implementation effectiveness of the work and analyze differences improve their work. Two types of the budget setting are top down and bottom up. The table of illustration as following TOP DOWN BOTTOM UP OVERALL BUDGET FUNCTIONAL BUDGETS DEPARTMENTAL BUDGETS In the top down way, it typically start with overall budget then broken down into functional budgets and then into departmental. If budget setting is top down, it can be directly link to the organization objectives and reflected to the authority and mandatory of budget. However, it may be limited of the information from lower levels thus that separated from reality and may reduce the effect of budget in planning, coordination and control. On the other hand, in the bottom up way, it typically start with departmental budgets then build up into functional budgets and then into overall budget. Similarly, if budget setting is bottom up, although it can solve the lack of the information from lower levels, but the exchange of information in each department may be not enough thus plans of one department is conflict with others, therefore the lack of coordination will arise. To solve those problems, the budget setting should be repeated between individuals and the budget committee. Firstly, the objectives proposed by the budget committee, such as the quantity of sales, production costs and target profits. Next, use those indicators to discuss with the various departments in order to reach an agreement, and then the budget committee will based on the agreement to determine the master budget and give to the departments. After this, the various departments based on the master budget to set out departmental budgets and build up into functional budgets. Finally, the budget committee use those individuals budget to set out the final master budget and gives to each department. The benefits and limitations The budget has some benefits to the organization, and it will show in the figure as follow: Provide a basis for a system of control Budgets Provide a system of authorization Help co-ordinate the various sections of the business Motivate managers to better performance Promote forward thinking and identification of short-term (Perter Atrill. Eddie McLaney. (2008) Accounting and Finance for Non- specialists. P312. 6th edition. Essex: Prentice Hall Europe.) However, the budget has also been found a number of limitations, such as the time lag in the system, which means the results of last month may not be reported in time and be delayed to next month or later. Moreover, there will always be some changes in the organization during the budget period; such as the shortage of funds, labour and materials, and the budget may be impacted thus the objective of organization cannot achieve the optimal state. To be successful budgeting As we have discussed in this paper, there are some limitations of the budget, and those limitations may lead to it hard to implement and dissatisfaction may express regarding how budgeting operates in practice. The following is some way to solve those problems and make the budgeting more successful. Firstly, the budget should be always concerned to achieve the objectives of organization, and need to avoid to only focus on its own target, the reasons of the budget may only focus on its own target and forget the objectives is that it may not properly reflect the requirements of objectives.. In order to prevent the replacement of the budget target, it should enable the budget to more reflect with the organizations objectives. Secondly, the budgeting should be flexibility, it because of that business conditions are always changing. Although we have planned the business conditions for the situation may occur in the future and make appropriate action to deal with changes, but on the one hand the budget setting cannot cover everything, and on the other hand the situations are always changing that some problems cannot be foresee. Therefore, it is necessary to view the budgeting process as a guide to future action, rather than a rigid plan which must be followed irrespective of changing circumstances.(M.W.E.Glautier and B.Underdown. (1997) Accounting Theory and Practice, p532, 6th Edition, Great Britain: PITMAN PUBLISHING) Conclusion In conclusion, budgeting is an important tool for management planning and control, and it has some useful functions for businesses and organizations, but it also has great limitations. The key point in the budgeting is make the benefits of it to be maximum, and reduce the limitations and solve problems during the period, thereby the budgeting can be achieved the most effective level. References ¼Ã… ¡ Colin Drury. (2008) MANAGEMENT AND COST ACCOUNTING. 7th Edition, China: GENGAGE Learning M.W.E.Glautier and B.Underdown. (1997) Accounting Theory and Practice. 6th Edition, Great Britain: PITMAN PUBLISHING Perter Atrill. Eddie McLaney. (2008) Accounting and Finance for Non- specialists. 6th edition. Essex: Prentice Hall Europe. Stephen C. Hansen, Wim A. Van der Stede. (2004) The electronic journal: Management Accounting Research, Multiple facets of budgeting: an exploratory analysis. P415-439. ScienceDirect [online] ¼Ã… ½ Available at ¼Ã… ¡http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL_udi=B6WMY-4DN9VP9-1_user=128592_rdoc=1_fmt=_orig=search_sort=d_docanchor=view=c_searchStrId=1095268002_rerunOrigin=google_acct=C000010620_version=1_urlVersion=0_userid=128592md5=f55e2a67d72ee304d2f1bc3f24de73eb

George Bizek :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Georges Bizet, who is best known for his opera, Carmen, has remained somewhat of a mystery as far as his musical education, social life, and personal life. He is not like so many other composers and musicians of the Romantic Period who led a highly publicized life like Hector Berlioz, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, or Johannes Brahms. He spent his short life devoted to music and he did not quite make it into the limelight like these other Romantic composers. The most believable explanation for his obscurity would be the lack of scandal in his life. He had a happy childhood, was well awarded with musical scholarships, and a happy marriage.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Georges Bizet grew up in a musical house. His father was a singing teacher and his mother was a well-known pianist who had attended the Paris Conservatory. His parents encouraged him in music. His father was confident that his son would become a great musician. His father was actually too supportive of his musical education. He had been known to hide young Georges' other school books so he would not be distracted from his musical studies. He received his first music lesson from his mother when he was just four years old. She was teaching him to read music at the same time she was teaching him his alphabet.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bizet was enrolled in the Paris Conservatory when he was nine years old. This was a special exception arranged by his uncle who taught at the Conservatory, since Bizet was still a year younger than the minimum age requirement. Here he studied piano, organ, singing, harp, strings, woodwinds, and composition. His instructors were the composers Charles Gounod, who is known for his opera Faust, and who is considered the greatest musical influence in Bizet's life. And Jacque Halevy, who wrote the opera LaJuive, is also considered an important musical influence. He had a unique, unstructured teaching style. Halevy would listen to and correct his students but he would never require them to do any specific types of composition. This was to affect Bizet throughout his life as he would be known to start and abandon work after work. This was blamed directly on Halevy's lack of discipline. At age fifteen, Halevy tried to convince Bizet to go and compete for the Prix de Rome. Bizet refused sighting his immaturity and need for additional background.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   During his time as a student he wrote Symphony in C Major (1855), which was not performed during Bizet's lifetime, but from it's first performance in 1935 it has become an established symphony in a standard repertoire. George Bizek :: essays research papers   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Georges Bizet, who is best known for his opera, Carmen, has remained somewhat of a mystery as far as his musical education, social life, and personal life. He is not like so many other composers and musicians of the Romantic Period who led a highly publicized life like Hector Berlioz, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, or Johannes Brahms. He spent his short life devoted to music and he did not quite make it into the limelight like these other Romantic composers. The most believable explanation for his obscurity would be the lack of scandal in his life. He had a happy childhood, was well awarded with musical scholarships, and a happy marriage.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Georges Bizet grew up in a musical house. His father was a singing teacher and his mother was a well-known pianist who had attended the Paris Conservatory. His parents encouraged him in music. His father was confident that his son would become a great musician. His father was actually too supportive of his musical education. He had been known to hide young Georges' other school books so he would not be distracted from his musical studies. He received his first music lesson from his mother when he was just four years old. She was teaching him to read music at the same time she was teaching him his alphabet.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bizet was enrolled in the Paris Conservatory when he was nine years old. This was a special exception arranged by his uncle who taught at the Conservatory, since Bizet was still a year younger than the minimum age requirement. Here he studied piano, organ, singing, harp, strings, woodwinds, and composition. His instructors were the composers Charles Gounod, who is known for his opera Faust, and who is considered the greatest musical influence in Bizet's life. And Jacque Halevy, who wrote the opera LaJuive, is also considered an important musical influence. He had a unique, unstructured teaching style. Halevy would listen to and correct his students but he would never require them to do any specific types of composition. This was to affect Bizet throughout his life as he would be known to start and abandon work after work. This was blamed directly on Halevy's lack of discipline. At age fifteen, Halevy tried to convince Bizet to go and compete for the Prix de Rome. Bizet refused sighting his immaturity and need for additional background.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   During his time as a student he wrote Symphony in C Major (1855), which was not performed during Bizet's lifetime, but from it's first performance in 1935 it has become an established symphony in a standard repertoire.

African American Women in Hollywood Essay

In early film many African American actresses portrayed roles as mammies, slaves, seductresses, and maids. These roles suppressed them not allowing them to show their true talents. Although they had to take on these degrading roles, they still performed with dignity, elegance, grace and style. They paved the way for many actresses to follow both blacks and whites. These women showed the film industry that they were more than slaves, mammies, and maids. These beautiful actresses showed the film industry that they are able to hold lead parts and even carry the whole cast if need be. Phenomenal actresses such as Hattie McDaniels, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Waters, Nina Mae McKinney, and Dorothy Dandridge, to name a few, are African-American stars who paved the way for so many African-American actresses today despite the hardships that they were faced with. These women displayed beauty, intellect and talent, which allowed the stars that followed that they do not have to just settle for stereotypical roles. In early film there was much propaganda and even today, which lead to these demeaning roles that they had to betray, Professor Carol. Penney of Yale-New Haven writes, â€Å"Film is one of the most influential means of communication and a powerful medium of propaganda. Race and representation is central to the study of the black film actor, since the major studios reflected and reinforced the racism of their times. The depiction of blacks in Hollywood movies reinforced many of the prejudices of the white majority rather than objective reality, limiting black actors to stereotypical roles† (1). Hattie McDaniels, a trailblazer amongst African-American film, acquired many firsts for African-American actors. McDaniels was the first African-American to sing on the radio, first to receive an Oscar for best supporting actress in Gone with the Wind. She was also the first African-American to star in a sitcom in 1951 that featured an African-American actress in the title role (Pax 1). â€Å"McDaniels appeared in more than three hundred films during the twenties and thirties. Her career was built on the ? Mammy’ image, a role she played with dignity† (Smith 7). She received much flack from the blacks because of the roles she played in film and on radio. Blacks felt that she was degrading the race but her reply was to these views were, â€Å"Hell I’d rather play a maid than be one† (Encyclopedia of World Biography 406). After her acclaim role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind, McDaniels was never paid anything less than $31,000 for a performance. This was much for an African-American as well as a white entertainer. Even though she broke that barrier McDaniel was still oppressed by racism not only on film, but also off film. She was faced with racial legal problems when trying to acquire a home in Los Angeles. At that time there was a limited black land and home ownership right. Though she won the suite she still was subjected to racial hostility from her neighbors. McDaniels experience oppressions of many types during her career, but she continued to take the mammy roles but played them with dignity and respect. In spite of her being the mammy, McDaniels made sure that her characters had the â€Å"upper hand†. After McDaniels death the mammy roles died with her. Pearl Bailey, the â€Å"Ambassador of Love† career took off on Washington’s U street at the age of fifteen years of age. She started off as a singer and appeared in many nightclubs. In the mid-30’s she performed with the Noble Sissle’s Band in the Village Vanguard and Blue Angel Club. In the 40’s she was the lead singer for Count Basie, Cab Calloway and Cootie Williams. She debuted on Broadway in St. Louis Blue; she won honors for as Broadway’s best newcomer. After her debut on Broadway films she performed in Variety Girl, Isn’t It Romantic, Carmen Jones, and Porgy and Bess. â€Å"In 1967 she won a Tony Award for heading the all-black cast of Hello Dolly! A role that allowed her, she said, ? to sing, dance, say intelligent words on stage, love and be loved and deliver what God gave me? and I’m dressed up besides'†(Black History: Virginia Profiles 1). Hello Dolly! allowed Bailey to be beautiful. Former President Ronald Reagan awarded Bailey was with the Medal of Freedom in 1988. She was also a special delegate to the United Nations under Ford, Reagan and Bush. While in her sixties Bailey went back to college and received her degree in theology from Georgetown University (2). Ethel Waters, â€Å"Sweet Mama Stringbean†, started her career in Vaudeville and nightclubs. In the 1921 Waters performed her first debut album â€Å"The New York Glide† and â€Å"At the New Jump Steady Bump†. In the mid-twenties she was coined as a pop singer (Red Hot Jazz 1). â€Å"On stage she was in successful productions of Africana, Blackbird of the 1930, Rhapsody in Black, and Cabin in the Sky† (Penney 8). She also starred in Pinky in 1949 this was a message film on racism. Waters did not receive recognition for her work until she portrayed Berenice Sadie Brown in The Member of The Wedding. â€Å"The Member of the Wedding was more than simply a movie. It was very important repects a motion-picture event. Foremost, it marked the first time a black actress was used to carry a major-studio white production. Secondly, the movie was another comeback for Ethel Waters. Her autobiography, His Eye Is On The Sparrow? she told all the lurid details of her life the turbulent events in the autobiography convinced patrons that Ethel Waters, who always portrayed long-suffering women, was indeed the characters she played? Now patrons rooted for her to succeed? to triumph†(8). During Waters’s career she was nominated for an Oscar best supporting actress in the film Pinky. She also received the New York Drama Critics Award for best actress. Ethel Waters’s last performance was in the film The Sound and the Fury in 1959. She continued singing and touring with evangelist Billy Graham until her death in 1977 (Red Hot Jazz 1). Nina May McKinney was â€Å"the screen’s first black goddess† (Penney 3). â€Å"She was the first black actor in the film to be recognized as a potential mainstream star† (7). McKinney was also the most successful African-American actress in the 1920’s and 1930’s (South Carolina African American History Online 1). McKinney’s career started as a New York City nightclub dancer and later received a role in Lew Leslie’s Blackbird Revue. In 1929, King Vidor, of MGM Studios, casted McKinney as Chick, a promiscuous young woman in Hallelujah. â€Å"In the famous cabaret scene McKinney, as Chick, danced a sensuous dance which has been copied by leading lady Lena Horne in Cabin in the Sky to Lola Falana in The Liberation of L. B. Jones† (Penney 7). In Hallelujah, â€Å"Chick represented the black woman as an exotic sex object, half woman, half child. She was the black woman out of control of her emotions, split in two by her loyalty and her own vulnerabilities. Implied throughout the battle with self was the tragic mulatto theme? In this stereotypical concept the white half of her represented the spiritual; the black half-animalistic† (7). Hallelujah was considered the â€Å"‘ace of all-black pictures’? The film had a strong plot, but unfortunately the message was? blacks should stay in their place. Though McKinney received much praise for her role as Chick she did not generate leading roles in the American film industry. â€Å"She was relegated to assuming routine black characters or to partaking in independently produced, low budget all black movies, as was the pattern for most of the outstanding African-American actors and actresses of the era? McKinney acted in a few other films in the 1940’s. Her most notable role was in Pinky. McKinney was also a stage actress and performed at the famous Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Barred from opportunities and stardom in Hollywood, she soon departed the United States and took her great talents to Europe? in Greece she was known as the Black Garbo? she also starred with the great actor Paul Robeson in the film Sanders of the River† (South Carolina 2). Later in McKinney’s life the great star returned to the States and died in New York City in 1967. Dorothy Dandridge is amongst Hollywood’s beauties in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Though she receives much recognition today as the most beautiful and talented actresses of her time, but at that time she was seen as just another Black actress. Followed in the footsteps of the great Nina Ma McKinney, though they possessed the beauty and the charisma as other female actresses of their time their color was still seen first. Like many actors and actresses of her time Dandridge career went through many highs and lows because of her race. Dandridge’s career began as a singer with her sister Vivian, they were known as the Wonder Children and later the group became a trio by the name the Dandridge Sisters. She played in many movies in the 1940’s such as: Yes Indeed, Sing for My Supper, Jungle Jig, Easy Street, Cow Cow Boogie, and Paper Dolls to name a few. She was not recognized until her performance as Carmen in Carmen Jones. Her co-stars were Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey and Diahann Caroll. She was the first Black to be nominated for an Oscar for best actress (African-American Almanac 248). Dandridge’s role as Carmen lead to more opportunities for African-Americans in films. Dandridge was the first African-American woman to be held in the arms of a white man in the film, Island in the Sun. She was also the first African-American to have an interracial kiss in The Decks Ran Red (Pioneer Actress 2). Though the film Carmen Jones allowed Dandridge to have a lead role she the character was the stereotypical mulatto woman with a high sex drive and filled with deceit. Penney writes, â€Å"The irony that overshadowed Dandridge’s career was that although the image she marketed appeared to be contemporary and daring, at heart it was based on an old classic type, the tragic mulatto. In her important films Dorothy Dandridge portrayed doomed, unfilled women. Nervous and vulnerable, they always battled with the duality of their personalities. As such, they answered the demands of their times. Dorothy Dandridge’s characters brought to a dispirited nuclear age a razor-sharp sense of desperation that cut through the bleak monotony of the day. Eventually- and here lay the final irony- she may have been forced to live out a screen image that destroyed her† (10). Dorothy Dandridge broke many barriers during her career. She opened the doors for black romance in films. She crossed over the racial lines with interracial relationships on and off screen. Later in Dandridge’s career she found it hard to get work. She filed for bankruptcy and later committed suicide. Dandridge made it possible for African-American women to be seen as beautiful and not exotic and sexual. In conclusion, many African-Americans actresses were blackballed by the industry. They were not able to achieve the success that they were entitled to because of the era that they were living in. These stars were oppressed because of the color of their skin and not because they did not possess talent. They were limited to roles that did not allow them to be the damsels or have leading roles. And if they were cast as the lead the film stereotyped the Blacks as shiftless, deceitful, or ignorant. These are just a few of the great African-American women in film that made it easier for African-American women to get into the industry. Though today African-American people are still seen shiftless, drug addicts, gang bangers, killers, whores, and criminals, but now they have more access to the industry because now African- Americans are able to write and direct films that depict them in a better light. Film today has changed for the past from mammies. Now African-American women are teachers, doctors, lawyers, business tycoons and what have you. Yet, they are still oppressed because they are only able to produce what the movie studios say that they can produce. Today there are films like Soul Food, Love and Basketball, Rosewood, Bamboozled, and many more that have messages and have African-American women in lead roles and not being in the background. These great stars allowed Black girls to see their own kind on a big screen and feel that they are beautiful too. Work Cited The African-American Almanac, 1997. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Vol. 10&16. Detroit: Gale Research, 1987. â€Å"Ethel Waters. † Online. 10 March 2005. Available: www. http://www. redhot jazz. com/waters. html. â€Å"Honoring Black History Month. † Pax Stars. Online. 10 March 2005. Available: www. http://www. pax. tv/bios/one-bio. cfm/hattie-mcdaniel. â€Å"Nina Mae McKinney. â€Å" South Carolina African American History Online. Online. 11 March 2005. Available: www. http://www.scafam-hist. org/aahc/. â€Å"Pearl Bailey. † Black History: Virginia Profiles. Online. 13 March 2005. Available:www. http://www. gatewayva. com/pages/bhistory/1996/bailey. shtml. Penney, Carol. â€Å"Black Actors inamerican Cinema. † Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Online. 12 March 2000. Available: www. http://www. yale. edu/ynhti/cirriculm/units. â€Å"Pioneer black actress Dorothy Dandridge has a famous cast of modern-day admirers. † Online. 12 March 2005. Available: www. http://ohio. com/bj/fun/tv/0299/002827htm.

Poetry and Painting

Analysis on the Relationship Between Poetry & Painting An analysis on the relationship between poetry and painting Lope De Vega, in one of his sonnets, refers to two famous contemporaries in a striking way; he calls the Italian poet Marino â€Å"a great painter for the ears† and the Flemish painter Rubens â€Å"a great poet for the eyes†. Six hundred year and 6000 miles away, a similar concept occurs in a parallel situation. The Chinese poet Su Shi, in one of his poems, praises two men, one a poet and the other a painter: â€Å"Tu Fu’s poems are figureless paintings, Han Kan’s paintings are wordless poems. In both poems, a very special relationship is established between poetry and painting. They are considered parallel and comparable; more than that, they take each other’s place. A comparative treatment of the same phenomenon in two widely seperated and obviously unrelated literatures may bring out siginificant differents as well as integritions. Actually, the conversation between poetry and painting has been through centuries, traced back to 6th century until now, different people have different opinions. For Plato, poets and painters are both imitators and their work a third-generation removed from the truth. For Aristotle, â€Å"The poet being an imitator just like the painter or other maker of likenesses, he must necessarily in all instances represent things in one or other of three aspects, either as they were or are, or as they are said or thought to be or to have been, or as they ought to be. † More than five hundred years ago Leonardo da Vinci entered into a stinging debate with a bunch of pompous poets who degraded painting as a mechanical art. Defending the primacy of art, Leonardo—painter, architect, scientist, and a genius of high Renaissance—snapped: â€Å"If you call painting dumb poetry the painter may call poetry blind painting. † He argued that a good painter can provide a more intelligible and beautiful sense experience than a poet because painting satisfies the eye whereas poetry appeals to the ear and seeing is superior to hearing. In the 18th century the playwright and philosopher Gotthold Lessing described the intrinsic difference between ainting and poetry in terms of the distinction between image and word. He rejected the ancient belief that these two arts are in fact similar, or as the Roman poet Horace put it: Ut pictura poesis (painting is like poetry). Lessing also pointed out that the domain of painting is space while the domain of poetry is time. In my opinion, transfering a poem exactly to another form is quite an impossible task because of the unique nature of every vernacular and their peticular idioms. And on the other hand, painting as an art form is unique as well. It can portray astonishingly beautiful or ugly people, or show breathtakingly magnificent or depressingly dull landscapes and still lives and other visual phenomenon, which defy exact verbal description. Generally speaking, objects of the visual world can be represented in painting more accurately than in words. However, poetry has the upper hand in describing emotional states and mental events. A comparison of these two art forms reveals that in many ways both poetry and painting resist conversion, and they mutually defy transference into each other. However, despite their irreconcilable differences, painting and poetry share many common attibutes. With the development of literature and enlargement of understanding about this world, we have to acknowldge the integration of poetry and painting as well. Through five thousand years of continuous civilization, Chinese art has developed a rich language of symbols. By the second century the image of falling leaves, for instance, had become a metaphor for troubled times in which great talent was cast aside and unjustly punished with exile. Magnificent flowers often symbolize beautiful ladies. Rising above a lake they may represent fairies with red hair spins walking above the water and one single lotus flower in the Hua Qing Pool is like the entire world. In spite of its fragmentary posture western culture has produced great artists excelling in different branches of art. Among painters and poets the oeuvre of such artists as Michelangelo, Goethe, William Blake, Apollinaire and Picasso shows the unity of painting and poetry. As the proverb goes, â€Å"there is a poem painting, painting in poetry†. A successful poem, in my perspective, is the one with a relative aesthetic painting in our mind when we read it. That is what we called in Chinese Yi Jing. For example, a famous poem in China â€Å"Shi Zhi Sai Shang† written by Wang Wei, which gives us a picturesque painting in our mind immediately: the desolation and broadness of a frontier fortress, a puff of smoke and the setting sun†¦In terms of painting, painter integrates with poetic beauty. In Song dynasty, the task for getting a professional painter certification required examine to draw a painting according to a piece of poem. Poetry enters the painting, bringing the creativity into the painting. Even the limit of time can also be overcome. In conclusion, although poetry and painting have some differences, they both are important literature forms, we pay more attention to what they bring to us. In my vision painting and poetry invite us to step into a deeper level of reality that lies under the peel of surface appearances. The creativity power of art can play a significant role in ameliorating the human human condition, in making the planet a habitable and welcoming environment for ourselves and for future generations. Without concern, responsibility, care, compassion and love we cannot survive.