Napolean and Stonewall Jackson Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Napolean and Stonewall Jackson - Essay Example Napoleon’s Influence on War Strategies Until Napoleon, the act of war was there were either the state rulers or the trusted warriors who were regarded as responsible of the entire affair. However, Napoleon and Fredrick II had introduced a new concept of ‘warrior-king’ who can apply diplomatic as well as military power for his own aims â€Å"†¦and thus could more directly tailor military actions to strategic aims--and more thoroughly conclude peace following decisive military events†2. The warfare was in evolution even in the age of Napoleon. He had cleverly noticed the problems of sustenance and movement of armies in the battlefield and he took advantage of it. He had increased the mobility of the armies and had applied his creative tactics in the art of warfare, especially in the quick formation of army combinations. His creativity and insight into the affairs of War tactics had won him great victories. Critics believe that Napoleon’s victory l ies mainly to his ability in synthesizing and exploiting the developments made by others. He did not rely on personal novelties; rather he tried to gain concepts from the war tactics applied by others. This approach ended the earlier â€Å"force employment, as opposed to weapons technology or logistical means†3. â€Å"Napoleon was about action; he did not share Jomini’s focus on principles†.4 To him, war was what is done in the battlefield, not in books. Though napoleon had not proposed a definite theory of War as his main concern was application of tactics, Jomini and Clausewitz have interpreted his actions and strategic aims to lay a basis for modern art and science of war. They had studied the operational circumstances and strategies applied by napoleon and they had added the active factors in the theory and art of war operations: pivotal points, main focus, climax, etc. Operational Arts â€Å"Operational arts† is a modern concept that deals with the c onception and execution of military operations through the direction of military forces for particular strategic intentions. The whole operation involves the combining of the forces and allocating of the assets to planned units. Thus, it forms a bridge between strategy and tactics by building an association between the aims of war and the actual fight in it, and seeks to attain a level between these. Napoleonic Impact on Operational Arts Many critics believe that the origin of the concept of operational arts lie back to eighteenth century with the theorists belonging to â€Å"the Soviet inter-war†. However until recently, this term referred to only a combination of activities performed in the battlefield, such as: defining the routes of attack, scavenging and stocking, and barriers along with the growth of overall mans, unceasing processes athwart manifold battles of war, and the distribution of power among dogmatic and armed leaders. Later, Napoleonic wars as well as the ind ustrial revolution developed them into a true set of operations. Napoleonic wars introduced large groups of inspired men-of-war while the other had provided with the sources for army’

Week 8 Discussion Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Week 8 Discussion - Research Paper Example as a result of the breach and more importantly, serve as a proof that the company is fully compliant with all applicable rules and regulations (Charlette, 1996). Basically, compliance starts with day to day compliance at the organizational level. The following are some of the benefits that accrue to an organization that implements an effective compliance program: 1) Good faith efforts in following the set rules and regulations whereby every organization that adheres to a compliance plan gives a good example of its efforts in compliance with set rules and regulations. 2) Sentencing guidelines whereby, if the government decides to sue a company for criminal offences, then a good record of compliance can act favorably for the company defense. 3) Proactive approach, whereby a company that voluntarily adheres to the compliance program portrays a good picture of both regulatory and statutory compliance. Every organization based in US and with a strong reputation for integrity and honesty must be fully compliant with the set plan. Therefore, such an organization must have a compliance plan within which to operate in pursuance of the organizational objectives. Further, such a plan could help an organization with investments across the borders to successfully conduct its business, therefore, not only the employees of local branches, but also those of foreign should comply with the set out procedures to ensure the overall success of the organization. As one of the largest energy companies, ExxonMobil have indicated on their website that environmental issues are of great concern. Further, by calling for extra vigilance to ensure environmental safety and protection, they remind us of the tragic incident of deepwater horizon, which led to massive oil spill (Engel, 1979). From their website, it is evident that the company has put in place measures that guarantee safety in their operations, emergency preparedness, environmental protection and management of climate change. More

David Hilbert Biography Essay Example for Free

David Hilbert Biography Essay David Hilbert was born in Koenigsberg, East Prussia, on January 23, 1862. He was a great leader and spokesperson of mathematics in the early 20th century, he was a Christian. Like most great German mathematicians, Hilbert was a product of Gà ¶ttingen University, at that moment the world’s mathematical center, and he spent much of his working life there. His formative years were spent at Kà ¶nigsberg University where he developed fruitful scientific exchange with his fellow mathematicians Adolf Hurwitz and Hermann Minkowski. At the University of Koenigsberg, Hilbert studied under Lindemann for his doctorate, which he earned in 1885. One of his friends there was Hermann Minkowski, who was also a doctoral student. In 1884, Adolf Hurwitz was appointed to Koenigsberg University and became friends with Hilbert, which was a very significant factor in Hilbert’s mathematical development. David Hilbert was a member of staff at Koenigsberg from 1886-1895, being the Privatdozent until 1892. He was then an Extraordinary Professor for one year before becoming a full professor in 1893. His calculus examination led him to invent â€Å"Hilbert space,† considered to be among the primary concepts of functional analysis as well as modern mathematical physics. He founded fields such as modern logic and met mathematics. In 1899, David Hilbert published his book – The Foundations of Geometry – in which he described a set of axioms that eliminated the flaws from Euclidean geometry. In the same year, American mathematician Robert L. Moore also published a set of axioms for Euclidean geometry at age 19. While some axioms in both systems were similar, there was a feature about the axioms that were different. Hilbert’s axioms were theorems from Robert Moore’s and Moore’s axioms were proved as theorems from David Hilbert’s. David Hilbert developed a program to axiomatize mathematics. With his attempt to achieve his goal, he began a â€Å"formalist school† of mathematics, which opposed the â€Å"Intuitionism† of Brouw er and Kronecker. Meanwhile, Hilbert was expanding his contributions to math in various directions partial differential equations, mathematical physics, and calculus of variations. He knew that he could not achieve this by himself. In 1900, Hilbert gave a massive homework assignment to all mathematicians across the world. He did this when he presented a lecture, entitled â€Å"mathematical  problems† before Paris International Congress of 1900. Hilbert proposed 23 mathematics problems to whose solutions he thought the 20th century mathematicians ought to devote themselves. These mathematics problems are now known as Hilbert’s problems and many of them remain unsolved today. Many Christians believe different things when it comes to mathematics, for example some believe that math is an incredible testimony to God’s faithfulness, while others believe it is anti-Christian. I can help others connected by raising awareness of the different beliefs. This is important to us as Christians because it opens our eyes to reality and how we should look at things through a Christian standpoint.

Examining The True Definition Of What Globalization Means Cultural Studies Essay

Examining The True Definition Of What Globalization Means Cultural Studies Essay It seems that nowadays just anybody can say something about globalization, or at least they think they can. No matter if they are scholars, social scientists, activists, politicians or ordinary people. A lot of people use the term globalization to push their own political agendas, like far left/right wing politics or feminism (see as an example Ruether 2005), in scientific (or better, scientific) journals that dont respect the scientific rigor. Others think that globalization is bringing cultural uniformity, but it seems that this is not true, there is a change in diversity (see Schuerkens 2003). But, when we are looking out for a definition of globalization we find a great confusion, and the more we search the more the image of globalization gets blurred, and theres no agreement on a unified definition of globalization. So while there is no agreement about what globalization is, the entire discourse of globalization is founded on a quite solid agreement that globalization is (Bartel son, 2000:180). It seems that the word globalization was used for the first time in 1962 in an article entitled The US Eyes Greater Europe, in The Spectator (Cerami cited by Van Der Bly 2005:877)  [2]  . Now, 47 years later, the word globalization is used on the Internet much more than the older words socialism (first time mentioned in 1837) and communism (first time mentioned in 1840) together, and even more than capitalism (first time mentioned in 1854) (Van Der Bly 2005:878)  [3]  . Economists already have a more or less commonly accepted definition of globalization and that is an international economic integration that can be pursued through policies of openness, the liberalization of trade, investment and finance, leading to an open economy (Van Der Bly 2005:875). They are developing also indicators in order to measure the openness of an economy such as trade flows, amount of foreign direct investment, portfolio capital flows and investment. Sociologists, on the other hand, didnt succeed to build a common definition. As a matter of fact also the existing definitions have some problems, as we will see, with their scope, extension, field, etc. We can still dream about the sociological indicators of globalization  [4]  . Lets see first some of the most important definitions and features of globalization. For the dialectic Globalization-as-a-Condition vs. Globalization-as-a-Process Van Der Bly dissects Tomlinsons definition of globalization that is (as cited by Van Der Bly 2005:880) an empirical condition of the modern world, which I call complex connectivity. By this I mean that globalization refers to the rapidly developing and ever-densening network of interconnections and interdependencies that characterizes modern social life. Van Der Bly finds logical flaws in this definition because it defines globalization explicitly as a condition, but the rest seems talking about a process. So, is globalization a condition of the modern world or a process? If it isa condition in wht it is different from modernization or modernity? If it is a process the term leads to a neglect of the present, and that leads to the second dialectic. In the dialectic Globalization-as-Reality vs Globalization-as-Futurology, Van Der Bly explains that sociological studies of globalization can easily fall in the trap of futurology because it is not clear to what extent the reality relates to the concept of reality that is skatched (2005:882). When globalization is defined as a process it is implied that it refers to an outcome that is in the future which, by definition, cannot be measurable and definable. For this reason the possibilities to use the concept globalization as a research framework are restricted, so sociologists must turn to futurology and use its research methods such as scenarios, trend analysis, chaos theory, simulation games and mathematical modelling. So, because we must go in the future it is very unlikely that there will be reached a consensus over the definition of the concept. Another problem that rises with the concept of globalization as a process, and we fall in the realm of futurology, is that usually it is not presented to the public as futurology, so it creates fear (nightmare scenarios) or false hopes (utopias). In either way, as Van Der Bly says, it creates the iamge of a powerless individual, or evena powerless society, which has no free will to construct its, always unknown, future (2005:883). For the dialectic One-Dimensional Globalization vs. Multidimensional Globalization Van Der Bly says that even though a concept of a multidimensional globalization is more or less accepted by sociologists, it makes even more difficult to to clarify the term and give it a meaning because it reduces the possible significances. How could that happen? Well, lets think about globalization of economical flows, then about globalization of politics, then about the globalization of arts and culture, and so on What do these globalizations have in common? Not much, the least we can say. This multidimensional approach, as Van Der Bly says, surely fits the reality and its interconectedness among different fields of society and human behavior, but then it blurs the term with intrinsic contradictions and paradoxes that are absent in a more one-dimensional definition of globlization (as the economic one). So, we can conclude that multidimensionality leads to an underestimation of internal contradicti ons of globalization. (Van Der Bly 2005). Van Der Blys suggestions for the future of globalization are the following: sociologists should consider the idea of globalization as the idea of an open society, and discuss which empirical parameters indicate the level of openness of a society  [5]  , as economists have done with the openness of the markets. Sociologists should aim to strive for a commonly accepted definition that explicitly creates space for human agency and focuses on clarity (2005:891). Bartelson (2000) distinguishes three senses of the idea of globalization in the sociology of International Relations (macrosociology): Globalization as Transference Globalization as Transformation Globalization as Transcendence Globalization as transference means that globalization is an intensified transference or exchange of things between preconstitued units, be they political, economic or cultural. Thus conceived, globalization signifies a process of change that originates at the level of the unit, mainly in terms of the unintended consequences of the interaction between units. (Bartelson 2000:184). In this sense globalization is not very different from older concepts as internationalization and interdependence. Globalization as Transformation means that globalization is a process of transformation that occurs at the systems level, and it affects the system as much as it affects the identity of the units (Bartelson 2000:186). Globalization as transcendence means that globalization as a concept implies the transcendence of the distinctions that together condition unit [in the Interntional Relations sense], system and dimension identity (Bartelson 2000:189). It is a concept that dissolves the divide between inside and outside. It also despatializes and detemporalizes human practices as well as the conditions of human knowledge, and it projects them onto the global as a condition of its existance (ibid.). Bartelson thinks that globalization has a position that the concepts of civilization and revolution had before and during the French Revolution, since these concepts also lacked stable referents, but functioned as vehicles of social change by signifying change in its purest, most necessary and irreversible form: change as the condition of possible objects and possible identities in a possible future (Bartelson 2000:193). We can note the futurologist approach. For Sparks the various theories of globalization are not an accurate guide to the investigation of the world (Sparks 2007). Sparks distinguishes weak and strong theories of globalization. Weak theories are concerned with structures of domination, with the centrality of the economic in social explanation, with the destruction of less profitable forms of cultural production by the large capitalist corporations, and with the articulation between these capitalist corporations, and the political and military power of the state (Sparks 2005:135). These weak theories, according to Sparks, are better understood as a development of the imperialism paradigm. On the other hand, the strong theories, according to Sparks, have sufficient common underlying features to constitute a paradigm. From the point of view of media and culture Sparks finds five main elements for this new pardigm called globalization (2007:136-138): Understanding globalization requires a new methodology that is radically non-reductive, otherwise well be unable to find evidence of any direct relationship between, say, Backs autonomous logics of media products (culture), their international trade (economics) and the exercise of state power (politics). Symbolic exchanges, and international circulation of media products, are today central to the functioning of the global world in the way that the exchanges of raw materials and manufactured commodities were central to earlier epochs. The global epoch is characterized by the fact there is no dominating or controlling centre to the contemporary world In the global epoch, it is no longer viable to talk of isolated national units, either of economic life or culture. The global epoch is marked by the erosion of the power of the Westphalian state system, in economics, politics and in culture. [Sparks took this idea from Beck] Sparks concludes that none of the five elements mentioned above hold water. He takes one element after the other and deconstructs them (see Sparks 2007:138-150). In short, the USA is still the single greatest economic power in the world  [6]  , culture industries are not greater than other sectors, immigration is not a new phenomenon in the USA nor in EU countries, or anywhere else (and, after all, the majority of world migrations happen inside the various states), teh process of urbanization is not new, it has at least 200 years (Marx wrote about it more or less 200 years ago), the states are more interdependent but nevertheless they are still states, Internet may be global, but a quarter of the population of the planet dont have electricity (so, no Internet for them), etc The final conclusion is that [t]heories of globalization, as currently advanced by such writers as Giddens, Beck and Appadurai, are far from providing an accurate picture of the contemporary world that they ar e virtually useless (Sparks 2007:152). What can we say at the end? Well, it seems that current concepts of sociology are not necessarily obsolete and a paradigm shift is not systematically required (Martin et. al. 2006:513). Sociologists have discussed the concepts present in the Globalization Theory for at least 90 years. Many authors had the good idea to think a little bit more about the concept of globalization, and they found out that the concept is pretty empty. So, we can pose a question: Is globalization a concept that should be used in the social sciences? We can use plain mathematics too. If the term globalization hasnt a particular meaning, or various classical theories can easily digest various meanings and theories of globalization, in my humble opinion then, globalization is nothing, zero. And what do you get when you multiply zero by any number? Right, you get zero. Thats whats going on in the social sciences with the concept of globalization, we get a lot of theories built on sand, and eventually they will fall one day. Also Van Der Bly says (2005:879) that [t]he disadvantages [of the concept of globalization] arise exactly because confusion is caused by the combination of broad and yet undefined and implicit points of reference in the subject. If something means everything, eventually it becomes nothing []. We should bear in mind the bad fate of another unclear, blurry concept from the recent past, that of postmodernity that lost all its credibility, and makes laugh people from other scientific fields (for example, see Sokal 2008). Sociologists, in my humble opinion, should avoid another trap of that kind. My suggestion is to avoid the concept of globalization in any form, to use theories that hold water and that have shown a great endurance in the past time, and maybe to get along with analytical sociology, but thats another paper.

Expert Systems: The Past, Present and Future of Knowledge-based Systems :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Expert Systems: The Past, Present and Future of Knowledge-based Systems Expert Systems were invented as a way to decrease the reliance by corporations on human "experts" -- people who apply reasoning and experience to make judgements in a specific field, such as medicine, insurance underwriting or the operation of a power-plant. Hence, an expert system should include a database of facts and a way of reasoning about them. In many, but not all, applications it is also helpful to have a way for the system to reason with probabilities or non-Boolean truth values. Expert systems are also sometimes referred to a "knowledge-based systems". In classical AI many different reasoning methods have been tried. A few of the common ones are "forward chaining", in which conclusions are drawn from a set of facts by using modus ponens, syllogism, and other simple tools of logic; "backward chaining", which uses trickier logic, such as modus tollens; and neural nets. Most expert systems simply use forward chaining and backward chaining, with some non-Boolean component such as Fuzzy Logic only where necessary. Expert systems tend to be more practical than AI in general. It is quite possible to build an expert system in a conventional programming-language, such as COBOL, C or Java. However, much of the machinery inside an expert system can be abstracted away from any specific domain, and the main criterion in the success of an expert system is its ease of use and maintenance, not it's ability to make decisions in a fraction of a second. Therefore, it is possible to build a "knowledge system shell" which can then be prepared for almost any domain simply by listing rules and data in a standard form. Few expert systems are written in LISP, because most LISP implementations lack robust user-friendly input-output routines. A good knowledge system shell includes I/O routines, a way to accurately and generally represent facts, and an easy, efficient, accurate way to give the system inference-rules. However, even the best expert system shell is limited by the problem domain to which it is applied. One researcher divided problem domains into four categories: "Class 1. ... if the effective domain decompositions are not known and the available domain knowledge is limited to the set of allowable actions and constraints. An example of such a problem is maze traversal, where the knowledge about the structure of the maze is not available a priori. "Class 2.

Analysis of On the Waterfront Essay -- Eliza Kazan, Budd Schulberg

On the Waterfront is a classic, award-winning and controversial film. It received eight academy-awards in 1954, including best-picture and director. The director, Eliza Kazan, in collaboration with Budd Schulberg wrote the film’s screenplay. Based on actual dockside events in Hoboken, New Jersey, On the Waterfront is a story of a dock worker who tried to overthrow a corrupt union. Marlon Brando superbly portrays the character of Terry Malloy. He is a young ex-prize fighter, now a dock worker given easy jobs because his brother is the right-hand man of the corrupt union boss Johnny Friendly. After Terry unwittingly allows himself to be used in setting up a man’s death, he starts to question the basic assumptions if his life. This includes his loyalty to his brother and Johnny, who after all ordered him to take a dive in his big fight at Madison Square Garden. The film’s controversy exists in the fact that Terry decides to testify against Johnny Friendly. His testimony attempts to show how it is fundamentally right to break group silence in a tough situation, even if a person appears to â€Å"rat† on his friends. To be at peace with oneself, Kazan seems to say, one must tell the truth, despite the fact that one will face ostracism, and, as in the film, probably be murdered. Kazan makes the hardships of testifying painfully clear. Thus, Brando’s character is a hero. However, a dark agenda exists behind the film’s plot. On the Waterfront was made in 1954, two years after Kazan willingly testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1952, Kazan named the names of eight friends and colleges allegedly affiliated with the communist party. Kazan was an active member of the communist party in the 1930s, until he went through a violent break with the party prior to the hearings. He said that communism could override a person’s intellect and beliefs. He also stated that Hollywood and Broadway heavily financed the party. Recounting his decision to testify, Kazan said, â€Å"Communists were in a lot of organizations--unseen, unrecognized, unbeknownst to anybody. I thought if I don’t talk, nobody will know about it.† On the Waterfront is Kazan’s justification for his decision to testify. In the film, when a union boss shouts, â€Å"You ratted on us Terry,† Brando shouts back: â€Å"Maybe from where your standing, but I’m standing over here no... ...â€Å"You’re a cheap, lousy, dirty stinkin’ mug. And I’m glad what I’ve done to you,† disturbed some people. Critics interpreted this to mean that Kazan was not sorry for his severely damaging testimony. It appeared that he had no remorse for his actions. For other viewers, the buried agenda of On the Waterfront tarnishes the picture. The critic John Rosenbaum told Roger Ebert that he could â€Å"Never forgive Kazan for using the film to justify himself.† In later years, Kazan did eventually have remorse for the people whose lives he ruined and the blemish his testimony left on the whole film industry. In his 1988 autobiography he says, â€Å"I have some regrets about the human cost of it. One guy I told on I really like a lot.† Twenty years later, unlike On the Waterfront’s victorious ending, in Kazan’s picture The Visitor, a man also testifies against former friends; however, that movie ends on a note of despair. Perhaps the words of a legendary character he helped to create, haunted Kazan. As Terry Malloy said, â€Å"Conscience. That stuff can drive you nuts.† Bibliography: References 1. Dirks, Tim. On the Waterfront: Greatest Films. 2. Cannon, Damian. On the Waterfront.

Thematic Analysis on the Book American Buffalo by David Mamet

A buffalo accepts minimum from the society and gives the maximum-its food is grass (unless you feed something special) and the finished product that you get is milk! The junk store shown when American Buffalo opens, doesn’t inspire much. Normally, when the curtains are raised, the opening scene/set is supposed to be the best, highly impressive, to create a lasting impression with the audience. The secondhand â€Å"antique† store run by Don Dubrow nevertheless, kindles curiosity. The stage is filled with lots of junk. It is ‘easy’ to create neat and clean or fascinating sets.A jumble set needs so much imagination to do. For example, a big overflowing dustbin prominently kept at the stage evokes as much curiosity as the big flower-vase full of colorful flowers. It evokes immediate enthusiasm in the minds of the spectators, â€Å"Why it is there on the stage at this initial stage of the drama? † The opening dialogues go to the credit of Don who is deliv ering a business discourse to Bob, inviting his attention to the promised deals and the necessity to stick on to it. Bob was busy with not so healthy and socially acceptable ideas to get rich quick.Bob apologizes, but Don speaks with a frustrated note at his friend’s temporary betrayal. Don retorts, â€Å"Don’t tell me you’re sorry, I’m not mad at you. † This observation speaks about the sincerity of Don to bring his friend to the right track, by involving him in the respectable business of junk dealings! Filling the stage with the junk in such voluminous and vast quantity is not the easiest of the things to do. Clive Barnes (writing for the New York Times) called the Broadway set â€Å"astonishing† and described it as â€Å"an agglomeration of trash that must have taken a team of assistants months to acquire.† (American†¦) Out of that confusing and unclassified dump, David Mamet tries to find the essential needs for a dignified life. The junk yard is the not the final destination for those articles. They rather wait for a new beginning—yet another lease of respectful life! The theme as conceived by Mamet, has some hidden agenda as for the welfare of the society. He has strange ways of propounding how to achieve his objectives! American Buffalo received intense critical attention, for it set the critics thinking and disturbed their psyche.What they saw on the stage was not an ordinary effort as depicted by an ordinary story. The emotional highs and lows of the characters were realistic as per conditions obtaining in a big chunk of the American Society. David Mamet used the lowest of the language, the meanest of the vocabulary, to say his truth. He was bold in his approach, but no so beautiful and refined. But where is refine ness in the real-life situations that he was explaining? But the nods and appreciation that he secured for the plot and for his characters must be from those who have experienced such situations, either with or without success.David Manmet doesn’t value victory or defeat much. He sees the truth in the permanent efforts. The untiring ones! His thematic approach to the language and expressions he used in the play is with a definite purpose. He could have written the dialogues in ‘King’s English’, but he preferred the idiosyncrasies and the latent humor of everyday speech of an average individual. Such characters responded and reacted to the routine situations in an ordinary but emphatic way. They expressed their opinions in a crude manner, by ‘keeping the essential dignity’ of their position in the society.Every individual lives his life along with certain ambiguities, which he carries as his luggage, when he is unable to solve them. He however has a hope that one day he will be able to solve them, and will achieve a problem-free state. Reading a play is one thing, and looking at the performance, when many characters â €˜read’ the play in accordance with their acting abilities, is another matter. The script, when you read may confuse you, may keep you less-inspired, you may feel that you are making desperate efforts to go through confusing paragraphs and sentences.But when the characters do their sincere job of pronouncing them on the stage, David Mamet proves to us that he is right. He has judged their spirits and caught their moods right, with those appropriate utterances, what if they are half-thoughts and obscenities. He has showed and depicted the reality of obscenity, because you find it very much prevalent in the vocabulary of the society about which he is writing. So, what harm is there in calling the spade a spade? The incident shown about three crook’s planning to steal a coin collection in the name of â€Å"good business† is right according to their level of thinking.(It is better than stabbing an individual to rob his wealth or cheat a bank with fraudulent ideas ) That is the stage of their progression in life. They are able to offer justification for their actions as per their own perfected reasoning. Whether the society accepts it or not is another matter. But they have no confusion about their objective. The characters of David Mamet have a particular level of existence. You can’t pass judgment on them by sitting on the ivory tower. To know them, you need to reach their level. Understand their real-life situations and put you in their shoes!They do, what they do, not out of pleasure; but out of sheer necessity of existing in this world. Therefore, the seemingly inarticulate utterances yield a rhythm found in few other playwrights' work. â€Å"Part of the fascination of the play,† wrote Women's Wear Daily's Howard Kissel, lies in â€Å"noting how the same banal language takes on different colors as we perceive the changing relationships† between the characters. (American†¦) To maintain friendship and business tog ether requires lots of understanding. The beginning seems to be good, but what really matters is maintenance of the relation ship.Business world is not always the domain of ethics. The fundamental principle and the goal in business are profits, success and self-interest. The play makes good beginning as for the combination of business and friendship but by the end of the play, the edifice of friendship collapses, and self-interest hoists the flag of victory. The theme of any story always tells something about the author, even when the author makes conscious efforts to avoid it. Recollections of author’s past appear in some form or the other.May be some dialogues, situations, trials and tribulations, duty and beauty of the characters—somewhere between the interactions of the character it surfaces in a subtle form. David Mamet had a difficult childhood. He was born in Chicago, and was raised in a Jewish neighborhood. His father being a labor attorney, discussion about la bor problems must have been commonplace. Mamet has learnt and depicted the anger, frustration and slang of American youth and men very well and this can be learnt and captured in the printed page only through direct experience and exposure to situations.David Mamet introduces a unique theme in American Buffalo-the judicious use of sabotage. They say, all is fair in war and love. Mamet adds one more category to this-business wisdom (when reduced to its basest form. ) He was appreciated for his ability to find equation with the common man through this play. Their slang became his weapon of success. His characters rarely speak full sentences, but what they utter has the telling effect. You nod in approval, as it appeals to you emotions. The three main characters, the low life thugs, succeed in taking potshots at the American way of life and its business ethics.The bricks of foundation of America are dispossession of the land from the former owners and genocide of the local Indian popul ace. â€Å"The drama and conflict among the characters is intense in a very disturbing way. This is a play that makes you very uncomfortable about the way that people relate to each other and challenges your hopes that values like friendship and honor are greater than the drive to get a bit ahead no matter who you step on in the process. † (Theatre†¦) Conclusion: American Buffalo is a common man’s drama, in common language, dominated bycommon characters, but written by an uncommon author. ========== References Cited: Article: Theatre Card: American Buffalo By David Mamet . †¦ www2. netdoor. com/~campbab/theatre/buffalo. html – 10k – Retrieved on October 10, 2007. Article: American Buffalo Summary and Study Guide – David Mamet. †¦ www. enotes. com/american-buffalo – 15k –Retrieved on October 10, 2007. Mamet, David: American Buffalo (Paperback) Publisher: Grove Press; Subsequent edition (January 11, 1994) ISBN-10: 0802150 578 ISBN-13: 978-0802150578