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Has the insatiable urge to shred to pieces a never-ending tsunami of words on paper ever seem familiar? The name given to this self afflicting torture is homework. Most students at least once wondered “how to study when you don’t want to” and looked for a lot of information on how to simplify this process. One would think that students leave the classroom with a sense of accomplishment gained due to the power of knowledge, but instead, they leave with a back on the verge breaking thanks to the heavy burden of homework. Although there are many positive aspects of homework with the main goal being to overcome the gap between a student’s learning at school and at home, research has proven that the disadvantages of more than two hours of homework often outweigh the benefits. Homework has a highly negative impact on the lives of students, therefore, it is necessary that schools and teachers take measures to reduce the workload as homework is a huge source of stress, plays the main role in the loss of free time and is often counterproductive, making students dislike learning.

First of all, homework is a major contributor of stress to students of all levels, taking a substantial toll on their mental and physical health. In a study conducted by Stanford University in 2013, 56% of students stated homework as their primary source of stress. The students were asked whether they experienced any physical symptoms of stress such as sleep deprivation, headaches, nausea, and low energy levels. 80% of the students admitted to having experienced at least one of those symptoms with 44% stating that they experienced three or more of the symptoms. Imagine a situation where one wakes up at six in the morning, sits in classrooms for seven hours while being bombarded by information from every side! The individual has tests, assignments, projects, quizzes, the list never ends! By the time one comes home, one is on the verge of collapsing due to exhaustion. One lies down to take a nap but the fact that one has a million assignments in addition to personal commitments and extracurricular activities planned for the day wakes one back to reality. In fact, as a 16-year-old student who has experienced similar situations, it is clear that all of this is undoubtedly true. The struggle to find a balance between homework, extracurricular activities and social time is insane. As a result, this stress creates unnecessary anxiety and contrary to popular belief, worsens academic performance. Thus it can be assumed that homework is the number one cause of stress for the majority of high school students. Although a little bit of stress can motivate children to achieve their goals, it can be seen from above that too much stress has a highly negative impact on their lives.

Secondly, in addition to being a source of stress, homework is a primary factor in the lack of free time. Personal time is essential for students to refresh their minds. Not being able to do so is equivalent to being trapped in a prison. According to a survey conducted at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, 84% of the students in Fire Stream agreed that homework takes away time from activities that they are passionate about such as sports, extracurriculars, and hobbies. Imagine how disheartened and troubled one would feel having to give up their passions for the sake of marks? In fact, Dr. Updale, a fellow at Queen Mary, University of London stated “Children need space to themselves, free from the imperative to perform. In the muddle of undirected activity, they may discover interests that last a lifetime.” This is especially true for high school students who are at a very important stage in their life where this extra time is crucial to figure out who they are and what they would like to pursue in the future. How can society expect an 18-year-old person to choose a career if they are not given the time to do so? In addition to free time, homework also takes away family time. In an article published by The New York Times, a mother talks about how homework has impacted her family. “The stress homework places on families starts early. My children aren’t even in high school yet, and I’m not looking forward to the change. I don’t want them to give up everything they used to do. Already, homework struggles dominate many of our evenings.” To better understand the severity of this situation, suppose that one is a high school student who gets at least 2.5 hours of homework each day. One has two hours of extracurricular activities two days per week and works part-time three days per week. Imagine how exhausted, stressed and frustrated one would feel trying to balance all these responsibilities? The struggles students go through to cope up with homework is incomprehensible. In short, children should have time to be children. No one has the right to deprive students of the sweet memories of childhood created during their family time and free time.

Finally, the foremost reason why schools should reduce homework is that it is counterproductive. This is demonstrated through the research conducted by Gerald LeTendre and David Baker who examined the data from The International Study of Mathematics and Sciences. The study analyzed schools in 41 different countries and collected data on student performance from Grade 4 to Grade 12. The results implied that there was no connection between homework and test marks. For example, it was found that in countries such as Japan, the Czech Republic and Denmark, whose students score the highest marks, receive very little homework. On the contrary, the United States, Vietnam, Greece, and Iran whose students score low average marks receive a great deal of homework. Similar research was conducted by Dr. Harris Cooper, director of the education program at Duke University who arrived at the same conclusion. Dr. Cooper himself remarked that. ‘Even for high school students, overloading them with homework is not associated with higher grades,’ Moreover, he mentioned that if homework passes the 10-minute rule, which means that homework increases by 10 minutes for each grade level, then the work is extremely ineffective. Furthermore, in addition to earning good grades, the purpose of homework is to encourage learning and increase interest and enjoyment towards certain topics outside the school environment. However, research has found once more that isn’t always the case. The Stanford Education Scholar Denise Pope conducted a study on the effects of homework. Her results found that there was no link between the number of homework students receive and how much they enjoyed it. Pope was noted saying ‘This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points.’ Imagine the boredom one would feel spending hours and hours on something they don’t even have the slightest interest in. Even if they did, the interest would be suppressed due to the repetitive exercises and memorization that homework is usually composed of. Students are not robots programmed to do the same repetitive task called homework. They deserve to spread their wings and discover the wonders of knowledge through practical means that make their interest flourish and have an actual impact on their grades. Thus it can be said that homework is often inefficient and its purpose is rarely achieved.

Despite the disadvantages of homework mentioned above, some might still argue that homework is beneficial as it teaches children to work independently and train themselves to think alone, both of which are essential life skills. To a certain extent, homework does promote independence but definitely not as much as one might think. The reason is that when students are at home, they often receive help from their parents and siblings. Moreover, technology is growing faster than ever before. All the information students require to complete their homework is at their fingertips. However, when students are in the classroom, they don’t have access to these modes of information therefore they are forced to train their minds to think. Ultimately homework does not teach as much independence as one would expect but instead teaches dependency on the internet and sometimes family members.

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In conclusion, homework has detrimental consequences on the lives of students because it causes immense amounts of stress, deprives students of precious time and is counterproductive, therefore it is essential for reforms to be made to the education system such that students receive less homework. Albert Einstein famously proclaimed, ‘Education is not the learning of facts but the training of the mind to think.’ This can only be done when children approach learning with a passion which certainly cannot occur when one’s mind is stressed and deprived of time to refresh. Therefore the world must not rest until every child sleeps well, stays healthy and approaches learning with enthusiasm. Students hold the key to the future, whose door can only be opened if students are not robbed of their childhood. Monica Pellerin conveyed this flawlessly. “Give the kids a break… Let the kids enjoy life before life gets too tough.”

Works Cited

1. Cooper, H. (2006). The battle over homework: Common ground for administrators, teachers, and parents. Corwin Press.
2. LeTendre, G. K., & Baker, D. P. (2005). International perspectives on student outcomes and homework: Family–school–community partnerships. Theory Into Practice, 44(3), 182-193.
3. Kohn, A. (2006). The homework myth: Why our kids get too much of a bad thing. Da Capo Press.
4. Trautwein, U., & Koller, O. (2003). The relationship between homework and achievement—still much of a mystery. Educational psychology review, 15(2), 115-145.
5. Stanford Graduate School of Education. (2014). The case for (quality) homework. Retrieved from https://ed.stanford.edu/news/case-quality-homework
6. Vatterott, C. (2010). Rethinking homework: Best practices that support diverse needs. ASCD.
7. Kalish, N. (2012). The case against homework: How homework is hurting our children and what we can do about it. William Morrow.
8. Pope, D. (2014). Overloaded and underprepared: Strategies for stronger schools and healthy, successful kids. John Wiley & Sons.
9. Hill, N. E., & Tyson, D. F. (2009). Parental involvement in middle school: A meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement. Developmental psychology, 45(3), 740.
10. Epstein, J. L., & Van Voorhis, F. L. (2001). More than minutes: Teachers’ roles in designing homework. Educational psychologist, 36(3), 181-193.

Table of contents

1. Inverse Relationships
2. Introduction
3. Review of Literature
Economic Well-BeingOkun’s LawThe Okun’s Law RelationshipModern ApplicationsGDP, Unemployment Rate, and Economic GrowthSecondary Sources on Western Economies and ChinaRepresentation of Okun’s Law, using US dataChinaPrimary Data Assessment
4. Conclusion

This research paper will examine the relationship between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and unemployment rates across the world, arguing that the two economic factors are in fact correlated but not necessarily in a causal relationship. The paper first discusses the existing literature on the topic, as well as the available quantitative evidence from the past century. In addition to this review, the paper compares Germany, the United States, and Canada, and looks to China’s recent changes. Overall, the paper provides a holistic view of through the application of secondary sources and brief analysis of World Bank data. Through this assessment, the paper concludes that the relationship (and Okun’s Law) stand in the modern economy.

Inverse Relationships

The Effect of Unemployment Rates on GDP (and vice versa)

“Big ideas, big ambitious projects need to be embedded within culture at a level deeper than the political winds. It needs to be deeper than the economic fluctuations that could turn people against an expensive project because they’re on an unemployment line and can’t feed their families.”

~ Neil deGrasse Tyson

Introduction

Economics is a complicated field, creating an accurate picture of a country’s economic well being involves many statistical factors. However, there are two factors in particular that all economists agree on as being significant in economic analysis: output and unemployment. First, economists have long been concerned with both the potential influences on and impact of economic output – that is, how much a country produces and subsequently grows in a given year. Since the creation of modern international economics, this has been known as a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The GDP of a country is not only an indicator of how much a country produces in a given year, but can also indicate the country’s overall economic growth when compared to GDP from previous years in the same country. This is one of the most crucial indicators of nearly anything economic – from potential growth to sustainable economic practices.

Second, rates of unemployment have an important role in determining the economic well being of any country, as they are directly related to a economy’s ability to produce and ultimately prove productive in the long run. Unemployment rates have become especially important indicators of recovery in the years following the economic recession of 2008 and 2009. In the past several years, economists and policymakers alike have looked to the unemployment rate as a sort of barometer of economic recovery. In this way, both GDP and unemployment rates are crucial to understanding economic stability and growth, and are therefore inherently tied together.

This research paper will examine the relationship between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and unemployment rates across the world, primarily using the recent recession from 2008 as a backdrop. While the evidence for this relationship has been well established, such as through the creation of Okun’s Law, this paper takes an updated view on the subject, arguing that the two economic factors are in fact correlated but not necessarily in a causal relationship. In short, the research paper

The paper first discusses the existing literature on the topic, including an overview of Okun’s Law and secondary applications of the concept, as well as the available quantitative evidence from the past century. In addition to this review, the paper discusses several specific cases highlighting the relationship between growth and unemployment; more specifically, the paper compares Germany, the United States, and Canada to examine Okun’s law more closely, and looks to China’s recent changes as a possible exception to the coefficient.

Overall, the paper provides a holistic view of through the application of secondary sources and brief analysis of World Bank data. Through this assessment, the paper concludes that the relationship between GDP and unemployment rates (and Okun’s Law) stands in the modern economy. This is not an exhaustive account of these principal economic factors, but rather an adaptation of existing laws and research to a unique qualitative and slightly quantitative overview of the modern implications of the relationship between them – particularly as the two economic factors relate to the recovery from the 2008 recession.

Review of Literature

Economic Well-Being

One of the primary functions of economics is to determine the economic well-being and outlook of both individual economies and the global economy as a whole. Factors of this well-being and potential include economic input and output, unemployment rates, industrial growth, supply and demand, capital flows, financial crises, and more. In recent years, and more specifically since the 2008 financial crisis, economists and policymakers alike have turned to two specific factors as the main indicators of economic well-being and recovery from the recession: changes in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the unemployment rate. More specifically, potential GDP growth is described as “the rate of growth of real GDP that could be sustained with the economy at full employment and steady inflation” (Higgins, 2011, p. 2). Therefore, expected GDP is one of the most important factors of economic stability – and, as this paper establishes, in inherently linked to the unemployment rate in developed economies.

This has been especially true in the Western, developed countries that were hit the harest by the economic recession (Furceri & Mourougane, 2012). In fact, one study found that financial crises like the recession sparked in 2008 can “lower potential output by around 1.5-2.4% on average, with most of the impact coming from the effect on capital” (Furceri, Mourougane, 2012, 822). It is also interesting to note that these authors found that the overall impact of a financial crisis like the one in 2008 varies “according to structural features of the economies, such as the degree of openness, macro-economic imbalances, financial deepening and the quality of governance” (Furceri & Mourougane, 2012, p. 822). This is something that will be assessed in this paper’s subsequent discussion, but for now it is sufficient to acknowledge that Western economies’ recovery is largely dependent on GDP and unemployment rates – and the empirical (if not causal) relationship between the two.

It is also important to note at this point the importance of considering longitudinal data in determining economic well-being. As Baumol (1986) stated nearly thirty years ago, “Anxiety may compel attention, but it is not necessarily an aid to clear thinking” (p. 1072). The economist goes on to state that concerns regarding long-run economic growth do not necessarily “recognize that adequate economic analysis of such issues calls for the careful study of economic history” (Baumol, 1986, p. 1072). In other words, determining economic recovery and well-being is largely a process of historical economic analysis. The author concludes that considering the ‘long run’ is important “because it is not sensible for economists and policymakers to attempt to discern long-run trends and their outcomes from the flow of short-run developments, which may be dominated by transient conditions” (Baumol, 1986, p. 1084). In this way, the present research paper attempts to draw from historical data as well as economic changes since 2008. Policymakers and academics alike would do well to consider overall historical trends when assessing the relationship between GDP and unemployment rates.

Okun’s Law

At nearly fifty years old, Okun’s law (or coefficient) has proven to be one of the most accurate and long-lasting empirical relationships in macroeconomics. Most economic literature that today assesses the relationship between GDP and unemployment rates, particularly as signals of economic recession or recovery, draw from this established empirical relationship. As Higgins (2011) states, Okun’s law essentially describes the relationship as follows: “If GDP grows rapidly the unemployment rate declines, if growth is very low or negative the unemployment rate rises, and if growth equals potential the unemployment rate remains unchanged” (p. 2). In other words, there is an inverse empirical relationship between the unemployment rate and the GDP in any given country; as GDP rises, unemployment rates decrease, and vice versa. This theory was developed by Okun in 1962, based off of data from 1947 to 1960 (Okun 1962). More specifically, the coefficient that Okun created predicted that “each percentage point of the unemployment rate above four percent was associated with the real GNP being lower by approximately three percent” (Fidrmuc & Huang, 2015, p. 2). Over fifty years after this empirical contribution, Okun’s coefficient (now known as “Okun’s law”) is still accepted as a fundamental empirical relationship in macroeconomics.

Owyang, Vermann, and Sekhposyan (2013) provide a detailed overview of Okun’s law, and present a graph to highlight the empirical relationship. The graph is reproduced here.

The Okun’s Law Relationship

Owyang, Vermann, & Sekhposyan, 2013, p. 2.

The authors explain that Okun attempted to identify the relationship between two variables: “the difference between the actual level of output and its potential” and “the difference between unemployment and its natural rate” (Owyang, Vermann, & Sekposyan, 2013, p. 2). By way of explanation, the authors state, “potential output is not the maximum an economy could theoretically produce, but a lower, sustainable number” (Owyang, Vermann, & Sekposyan, 2013, p. 2). In this way, Okun’s law is more of a description of the relationship between factors that affect economic growth, rather than a static, unchanging relationship.

Modern Applications

While more specific applications of Okun’s law to the recent economic recession and recovery will be provided in the subsequent discussion, it is worthwhile to mention how Okun’s coefficient has withstood economic testing over the past half-century. For the most part, the empirical relationship has stood up to the test of time, and most economists agree that the relationship has proven true over the past fifty years of economic change (Fidrmuc & Huang, 2015; Hoffman & Lemieux, 2014; Burgen, Meyer, & Tasci, 2012). However, this is an important caveat in the continued acceptance of Okun’s law: that there is a relationship, but not necessarily a causal one. As Burgen, Meyer, and Tasci (2012) conclude, it is crucial to recognize “that Okun’s law is just an empirical relationship. It may not necessarily reflect a structural link between output growth and unemployment rate. Moreoever,the relationship might change over time as the dynamics of the labor market change” (n.p.). Similarly, Fidrmuc and Huang (2015) clarify that the law is “an empirically observed rather than theoretically derived relationship” and there “stipulates correlation and says little as to whether the direction of causality goes from growth to unemployment or the other way around” (p. 5). Therefore, the subsequent discussion of case studies and empirical evidence does not attempt to establish a causal relationship, but merely an overview of the modern adaptation to Okun’s law.

GDP, Unemployment Rate, and Economic Growth

According to the average political pundit or economic commentator, the economic implication of Okun’s law following the 2008 financial crisis is simple enough: “we must get the American worker back into the labor force” (Patton, 2012, n.p.). It seems that the simplest way to drive economic growth is to decrease the unemployment rate, which should in turn increase output and GDP. However, like with most economic relationships, it is not a simple matter of adjusting one economic factor to better the other. As already noted above, the relationship between GDP and unemployment is established, but not necessarily causal.

Therefore, instead of focusing on causation, the subsequent discussion addresses the relationship between GDP and unemployment in terms of modern examples of economic recovery following the financial crisis in 2008. More specifically, the discussion turns to three primary Western economies – the United States, Germany, and Canada – to compare economic trends and recovery both leading up to and following the recent recession. The discussion also turns to China’s economy as an example of a potential exception to Okun’s law and the inferred relationship; more specifically, China’s economic changes highlight the fact that Okun’s law regarding the relationship between GDP and unemployment may only be applicable to already developed and stabilized Western economies. This discussion utilizes two aspects of assessment: the findings of secondary sources regarding these countries specifically, as well as an original quantitative description of the economic changes in these four countries since 2007, using World Bank Data.

Secondary Sources on Western Economies and China

As mentioned above, there have been a great many studies in the past half century to confirm Okun’s law throughout economic fluctuations, financial crises, and historical change. For example, one study found that the relationship only varied slightly in its “responsiveness” to unemployment – using data from 1948 to 2007, one researcher found that Okun’s coefficient “decreased dramatically in the 1990s and has since remained at a lower level” (Owyang & Sekhposyan, 2012, p. 399). The main point, however, is that the relationship has remained true, and it should prove beneficial to look at evidence from specific countries.

This paper has already discussed the fact that the relationship between GDP and unemployment has remained largely the same in OECD countries between 1960-2008 (Furceri & Mourougane, 2012). But what does the picture of this relationship look like in specific OECD countries? There are several studies that assess this. First, Hoffman and Lemieux (2014) examine levels of unemployment during the so-called “Great Recession” in three primary Western economies: Germany, Canada and the United States. More specifically, the paper investigated “the potential reasons for the surprisingly different labor market performance of the [three countries]…during and after the Great Recession of 2008-2009” (Hoffman & Lemieux, 2014, p. 1). By way of primary findings, the paper found that the percentage changes in unemployment in the three countries varied dramatically: unemployment remained relatively stable in Germany, rose slightly in Canada, and increased to dramatically higher levels in the United States (Hoffman & Lemieux, 2014). Since the Great Recession affected nearly every Western economy, one would expect all three countries to see a dramatic change in unemployment rate, along with a decrease in the GDP growth rate. So, why then, has the United States experienced a much greater change in unemployment in recent years?

The answer, according to this paper, is two-fold: first, “employment swings in the construction sector linked to the boom and bust in U.S> housing markets can account for a large fraction of the cross-country differences,” and second, “relative to pre-recession trends there has been a much larger drop in GDP in the United States than Germany between 2008 and 2012” (Hoffman & Lemieux, 2014, p. 2). While the first finding is not necessarily or inherently crucial to this paper’s discussion of GDP growth and unemployment rates, it does provide insight into the reiteration that Okun’s law is an empirical observation rather than a causal relationship. In other words, the fact that the makeup of the labor market in the United States as being largely focused around the construction industry during the housing boom affects the outcomes of Okun’s coefficient serves as a reminder that the economy does not respond well to a “quick fix”. It is multifaceted, and the relationship between GDP and unemployment rates is just one part of growth (or lack thereof).

The second finding from this paper, however, highlights the continued validity of Okun’s law. The relationship between GDP and unemployment is reconfirmed by just a little bit of economic research; simply put, the United States was hit the hardest by the financial crisis of 2008, and therefore experienced the largest fluctuations in both GDP and unemployment rates. As the authors state, “Differences in unemployment performance between the United States and Germany are very much in line with observed difference in GDP performance” (Hoffman & Lemieux, 2014, p. 4). More specifically, the authors find that the Okun relationship predicts that the 10 percentage point gap in GDP between the two countries would translate into a 5 percentage point difference in the two countries’ unemployment rates; this is less than two percentage points off of the actual difference, which is 6.5 percentage points (Hoffman & Lemieux, 2014, p. 7). Therefore, the relationship appears to stand in the assessment of the Canadian, American, and German economies’ performance.

The relationship is further highlighted by the graph from Burgen, Meyer, and Tasci (2012) from their discussion of the modern application of the coefficient:

Representation of Okun’s Law, using US data

These authors’ analysis drew from the last twenty years of data, and found no change in the applicability of Okun’s law through the financial crisis and recovery. Like with the assessment above, these scholars found that the percentage change in real GDP held a relatively stable relationship with the percentage change of unemployment rates from 2009 to 2011, the primary years of recovery.

China

The discussion of China in relation to this relationship between GDP and unemployment also yields insight into the applicability of the relationship in the modern economy. First of all, scholars do recognize the relationship between labor force numbers and productivity, even in the fast-paced economic environment of China. One paper found that “an increase in labor force participation and improvement in total factor productivity can significantly enhance the potential GDP growth rate” (Cai & Lu, 2013, p. 1). However, there are some important exceptions that make China’s economy a distinct case. As Fidrmuc and Huang (2015) state, their study found “considerable differences in the nature of this relationship across Chinese regions,” and ultimately argue that Okun’s law and the relationship between GDP and unemployment applies differently in transitional economies. (p. 1). In other words, the relationship may not apply in China because the factors affecting its economy are so much greater.

The authors state that the ‘law’ was created within the US, with a “mature market economy” – in contrast, China “has been undergoing a dramatic and multi-faceted transition since 1978” (Fidrmuc & Huang, 2015, p. 2). Therefore, the authors find that the economic transition in China had a much larger impact on the overall growth rate (GDP) and unemployment (or lack thereof) than the two factors had on each other. Even during its transition, China has maintained a centrally located and planned economy – ostensibly to this day. In this way, it is more the government and transition itself that affect overall growth. The authors also found in other countries that the Okun’s relationship “emerges in transition countries only after the transformation has progressed” (Fidrmuc & Huang, 2015, p. 5). Therefore, this relationship may become applicable in China once the economy is full transitioned into a free market economy.

Primary Data Assessment

In addition to reviewing the secondary sources discussed above, this paper also conducted an original assessment of the available data regarding GDP and unemployment rates within the United States, Germany, Canada, and China. This data is available from the World Bank.

These figures, represented using an available online tool on World Bank, visually reflect the findings discussed above. The most striking feature of these representations is that the United States has the largest unemployment rate relative to China in 2009, the year immediately following the financial crisis of 2008. This reflects two of the points from above: first, that the United States was hit the hardest by the recession because it suffered the largest percentage decrease in GDP growth, and that China went relatively unaffected by this recession because its economy is driven by so many different factors at once, as it transitions. The second element of this representation is a reaffirmation of Okun’s law: one can easily see that all three of the Western economies (Germany, the United States, and Canada) experienced a decrease in the unemployment rate beginning in 2010, the same year that GDP growth began to pick up. Therefore, even a cursory examination of the available data reaffirms the relationship between economic output (GDP) and unemployment rates.

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Conclusion

This research paper has examined the relationship between a country’s Gross Domestic Product and its unemployment rate. In addition to an initial review of literature on the economic topic, the paper utilized both secondary data and primary collection from the World Bank to reestablish the empirical relationship between these two economic factors. Case studies from three Western economies (Germany, Canada, and the United States) and China provided more detailed insight into how this relationship behaves across various economic structures and historical developments. While this discussion is certainly not exhaustive, it does reaffirm the continued validity of Okun’s law and prove information in the way the relationship interacts in individual economies.

Lactase Action on Milk Sugars

The reaction of the enzyme, untreated lactase, and whole milk and the reaction of the untreated lactase and skim milk prove to have actually had the enzyme break down its substance. For the enzyme and sucrose reaction, the solution did not have a change in its acidity levels therefore showing that the enzymes did not break down the sucrose. It can be concluded that molecules are quite particular about the molecules they interact and react with. The reasoning behind that is that lactase only breaks down lactose, which is found in milk, while lactase does not break down sucrose.

All the reactions of the heated enzyme with water, skim and whole milk and the sucrose solution all did not result in a change of acidity levels. Because the regular untreated enzyme caused a change in the milk, both skim and whole, reactions both caused a change in acidity levels while the treated enzyme, it is easy to see that the heated enzyme altered the enzyme. When heated to a certain temperature, enzymes can change shape and lose their abilities to speed up chemical reactions. Using that information, the results of treated enzymes and all the solutions didn’t change because the enzyme applied to it already lost its function.

The positive control in an experiment is the group in an experiment where the result is expected. The reactions that were positive controls were reaction A, unheated, and the reaction B, unheated.

The negative control of an experiment is the group in an experiment where the result is unexpected. The reactions that were negative controls of were options D, unheated, D, heated, and E.

Another variable that might also affect the ability of lactase to decompose lactose is pH. In Enzymes.1, the varying amounts of pH on a certain enzyme caused it to lose shape and function. An experiment to test how pH can affect enzymes’ abilities would be to place the same enzyme into different solutions of varying pH’s (10 solutions of pH’s one through ten). Then take the enzymes out and place it into a milk solution. After a certain amount of time, the enzymes will be tested to see how their structure after the time period is compared to the structure before the experiment was conducted. It will also be tested to see how the rate of reaction is different from the rate before the experiment started. I hypothesize that the enzyme will have no change in rate or shape from pH 4-7. The experimental variable will affect lactase activity because the pH levels has the same effect as temperature change on enzymes therefore causing the enzyme to denature at certain pH levels. I think that the optimal environmental condition would be at average body temperature, which is 37 ºC because our bodies use enzymes at that temperature so using that would be ideal.

Table of contents

1. Introduction
Market SegmentMarket TargetMarket Positioning
2. Conclusion

Introduction

United Overseas Bank (UOB) is a multinational banking organization, that has its headquarters stationed in Singapore. With branches found mostly in South East Asia, “UOB is committed to building lasting relationships with our customers, through product and market expertise, and our promise to always do what is right.” Quoted from UOB’s corporate profile, they have made a strong stand about maintaining a profitable customer relationship and will strive to do the righteous thing for their customers. UOB provides an array of services to serve the different types of needs the people might have. Services like commercial and corporate banking services, wealth banking and privilege banking services and private banking. To provide the highest degree of knowledge and services to their valuable customers, UOB send their employees from all around the world on monthly training to upgrade their skills and knowledge. Furthermore, the discussion of how UOB run and maintain its considerable influence in the banking industry, will be revealed.

Market Segment

UOB segmented their market into 3 groups, Individual, Companies and UOB Group Subsidiaries. Generally, banking services is relevant to all ages whether the old or the young, if there is money to bank in, anyone would need banking services. Specifically, UOB has 12 types of bank account opening and services suited for each age and income level group of people. Some of the 12 types of bank account opening and services starting from the most basic are Savings Account, Accounts in Trust, Gold Savings Account and Silver Savings Account, Junior Savers Account, Privilege Account, Wealth Premium Account. Judging from the list of account opening and services, it caters to the average income for individual adults, the children, the old and the higher income group of people. UOB offers these account and services as it gives the residents more options to choose from, given with their own personal situation.

UOB has many branches in many different parts of the world like the South East Asia, The States, Canada, Australia and many more. Having a diverse regional franchise enables UOB to serve customers ranging from consumers to large multinational corporates and to address the cross-border needs of companies doing business in this region. There are regional networks established too, to help with any business that needs any help. This way, UOB can reach out to as many potential future consumers as possible whilst serving their current different groups of customers.

Market Target

UOB came up with products and services that caters to everyone of all ages, however, the Baby Boomers and Generation X especially start up business owners are essentially more focused on as, UOB wants to create a long-term relationship and a reciprocal trading. The Baby Boomers and Generation X, are the priority targeted audience as they are the working adults that spend an estimated amount of $2.3 trillion annually and hold about three quarter of the nation’s assets. Hence, UOB has come up with many services to attract loyal working adults to choose UOB as their rightful bank. Services like the most basic, Passbook Savings Account, UOB provide incentives to consumers such as earning high daily interest rate of 0.05% and complimentary global Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card. These incentives will attract loyal customers especially the adults to choose UOB for their banking services needs as they earn high interest rates on top of their own savings. Besides that, when their customers travel overseas, they do not need to change and convert currencies as UOB provides them a global ATM card for customers to use in ease and with convenience while spending quality time with their family. To make things easier for consumers, UOB has 24 hours Internet Banking and have access to UniAlerts which will alert consumers of any transaction made via email or mobile phone.

UOB also provides business banking, commercial banking and corporate and institute banking for businesses. Business bank loan is also applicable for startup owners too. UOB has 3 different types of service for business loan, UOB Business Loan, UOB BizMoney and UOB overdraft. Startup owners who wish to uplift their business can apply for UOB BizMoney that provides up to $350,000 of funds and up to 4 years of repayment with an interest rate of 10.88%. To make things even more convenient for customers, UOB has come up with products like Business Application whereby business owners have access to business tools, business news and insights and business banking access that is 24 hours. This allows business owners to gain extra knowledge of business while using the Business Application. On top of all the incentives, if the customer successfully applied for UOB Business Loan, they get extra benefits like vouchers to use for free.

With existing customer portfolio that the bank has, UOB will upgrade customers who have a total asset of S$100,000 and S$350,000 to Wealth Banking segment and Privilege Banking segment respectively whereby their banking experiences will be more conducive, more comfortable in a specialized centre serving drinks and a dedicated relationship manager to provide advisory services on their banking and investment needs. Higher segment customers are also sometimes offered higher interest accounts. With this, more customers will be attracted to place in more funds with UOB and getting the information and banking services they need whilst luxuriating in the hospitality and customer services being provided with comfort.

Market Positioning

UOB target its mass market customers mainly through media like newspaper, television, magazines and online websites (Facebook, Instagram and YouTube) to publicize the current products and promotion that the bank is offering to attract new customers to expand their customer base. UOB chooses these platforms because technology is very advanced, and these mobile devices makes connection and communication handy at the tip of their fingers. Everyone’s eyes are basically glued onto the screens of their devices. Hence, this works as an opportunity to grasp hold of their attention while they are on social platform. For instance, UOB pays YouTube for their advertisement to be played before users of YouTube gets to watch their videos. There would be a commercial advertisement about 10 seconds to maximum, 2 minutes to advertise application or goods and services to the users of YouTube. Occasionally, UOB would come up with new advertisements yearly, especially during festive seasons like Chinese New Year or Christmas to promote some of their new products. This way, it provides an impression of what UOB does for their customers through storytelling and at the same time, imprinting the valuable impression into the user’s memory. Ages ranging from 21 and above still uses Facebook frequently, hence UOB also put some of their new or promotional products out onto Facebook to inform the users about UOB and its products and services. Some of the times, UOB would advertise their products on public transportation vehicles like the bus or on the Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) stations whereby residents would notice once they raise their heads off of their mobile devices.

Conclusion

In conclusion, UOB has put in tremendous effort to maintain a profitable relationship with their customers by offering many different types of services to the different group of people that they have segmented. Whilst building trust and long-term relationship between all their valuable customers from all around the world, UOB provides comfort and their best knowledge with moral values to cater to their customer’s banking services needs. UOB wants to make sure that their valuable customers will have the best experience while working with them by treating their customers importantly, with absolute care and attention. This way, they can maintain their current customers and at the same time, increase the size of their customer base.

Table of contents

1. Egg Lab
Materials:Procedure:Application:
2. Conclusion

Egg Lab

Objective: To use the properties of both diffusion and osmosis to see the affects of either maple syrup or water on a shell-less raw egg over a three day period. Also, applying properties hypotonic, hypertonic, and isotonic solutions.

Problem: How does a water solution and a syrup solution affect a cell’s mass?

Hypothesis: If an egg is placed in a 50% water and 50% sugar solution, then it will not increase or decrease in mass because it is in an isotonic solution.

Variables: The manipulated variable is the type of solution and the responding variable is the increase or decrease in mass.

Materials:

• Raw shell-less egg
• Water
• Beaker (or plastic cup)
• Pancake Syrup
• Scale
• Saran (plastic) Wrap

Procedure:

Day 1

1. Measure the mass of the cup.
2. Measure the mass of the cup + the egg inside.
3. Subtract these masses to obtain the mass of the egg alone. Record in data table.
4. Place raw egg in vinegar until shell-less.
5. Take mass of raw shell-less egg.

Day 2

1. Remove vinegar from cup.
2. Measure mass of cup + egg.
3. Subtract mass of cup from mass of cup + egg. Record in data table.
4. Add specified amount of solution to egg and cup.
5. Let egg and cup sit in solution for the weekend.

Day 3

1. Remove solution from cup.
2. Measure mass of cup + egg.
3. Subtract mass of cup from mass of cup + egg. Record in data table.
4. Observe egg’s increase/decrease in mass.

Data/Results/Observations:

Qualitative Data: Table 1: Egg Observation over a Three-Day Period.

Solution Day 1 Day 2 (After Vinegar) Day 3 (After Solution)

50% Water 50% Sugar A regular egg. The egg is slightly larger than before. The egg is brown and white and is squishy.

Analysis Questions:

1. The 100% syrup solution caused the egg to be in a hypertonic solution.
2. The 100% water solution caused the egg to be in a hypotonic solution.
3. The egg placed in syrup gained a small amount of mass after soaking in vinegar because vinegar is 95% water, so water went into the egg, increasing the mass.
4. The 75% water and 25% sugar solution was the closest to being isotonic.

Application:

The phrase “structure determines function” applies to what the egg and sperm cells do. The egg cell's structure must be larger so its function (to become a baby) can be carried through. The sperm must be constructed the way is, so it can easily carry its genetic information to the egg cell and focus on getting there.

The advantage of having human survival/reproduction set-up as one sperm cell being nothing and one ovum determining everything is that the ovum has millions of possibilities of being fertilized by a sperm so the reproduction process has numerous chances of working.

Conclusion

This experiment tested how a water solution and a syrup solution affected a cell’s mass. Over the course of the lab, the egg increased or decreased in mass depending on what solution it was placed into. The eggs mass increased if there was more water than sugar as the solution and the mass decreased when there was less water than sugar. The data shows that in the 100% water solution, the eggs mass greatly increased, while in the 100% sugar solution, the mass decreased. During this lab, the mass of the egg could have been affected by the inability to remove all of the solution of the cup, creating a larger mass than it should have been. Also, the egg may have been squished when pouring out the solution, also affecting the mass. This lab could be extended upon by adding different percentages of water and sugar and using a different acid to remove the shell from the egg. In conclusion, the mass of an egg is affected by the amount of a solute in a solution.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet depicts theme such as fate, deceit and procrastination through many characters such as Claudius, Hamlet and Ophelia. However, it is Hamlet who really gives significance to the plot and to the major themes which will be discussed in this essay.

In fact, one perspective of the seeing the play is placing Hamlet as someone who had no control over the events happening in his life. He finds himself completely shattered at the death of his father. Worse, is that his father was murdered by his own uncle, Claudius and to crown it all, Hamlet’s mother re-marries Claudius. He is himself confused and the audience feels how the re-marriage of his mother affected him when he refers to Claudius and Gertrude as ‘’uncle-father’’ and ‘’aunt-mother’’ respectively.

These sudden changes in his life shaped his thoughts and feelings and have instigated him to take revenge upon Claudius as well as have created a feeling of hatred towards his mother. This might resume to Hamlet’s own words: ‘’There’s a divinity that shapes our ends’’.

This sheds light to the statement ‘’character is destiny’’. The play can be said to be the journey through which Hamlet discovers that his intellectual view of life failed in front of the power which fate holds. The Wheel of Fortune is what shapes the life of people. He even says: ‘’How all occasions do inform against me’’.

Hamlet, too, acknowledges that he is a victim of his circumstances. His actions will not save him from the hands of destiny, not even Shakespeare could save his character from suffering his fate. Shakespeare, like the Greeks, believed their life to be ‘’their own destiny beyond the gods’’. The force of fate is so powerful in the play that it targets the other characters as well, not only the protagonist. In fact, the helplessness of human beings in front of fate is shown through the words of the First player:

‘’Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,

In general synod, take away her power;

Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,

And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,

As low as to the fiends’’

Finally, this technique is used by Shakespeare to portray that nobody escapes fate.

Characters in this play constantly face difficulty in finding the truth about others, whether that be their intentions, their true characters, or even their sanity. Shakespeare expresses in the play how protagonists are the makers of their own fate and self-destruction. Humans who are ruled by obsessive behaviour will only act rashly and cause their own demise. In the play, Hamlet deceives everyone in the play including himself. He deceives himself into thinking that what he is doing is warranted and that his uncle must burn in hell for his actions, and this is why he hides behind his fake insanity. Since the beginning of the play, there are hints that Hamlet is suicidal. He isolates himself from everyone thus creating a void in his life making himself feel empty, lonely and that he has no self-worth. Furthermore, he is angry about his father's death and young adults tend to look for escapes when they become angry with things. The quote "O, that this too too solid flesh would melt" said in act 1 scene 2 is great in expressing how Hamlet feels even at the beginning of the play. Hamlet wishes he could just dissolve into a dew, and he could cease to exist, he wishes he could leave all the problems of living behind him. However, since his body is unlikely to turn into a dew, the next option would be to end is o life through suicide.

To conclude, Hamlet is unique among all the tragedies of Shakespeare. Hamlet's tragic flaw indeed made him to commit the fatal mistake of procrastinating which lead to his downfall and this affected the life of the other characters as well to provide such a depressing end for the audience. Unlike Coriolanus whose tragic flaw, pride, led to his downfall only, the fatal mistake of Hamlet gives way to the fate of the other characters as well.

The problematic relationship that Italian American women writers, poets, filmmakers, and performers reveal with their cultural tradition are that many think the women should just be in the kitchen, taking care of children, and taking care of the house. Furthermore, the stereotype that Italians have, such as, being loud, men being guidos, eating spaghetti and meatballs, women being submissive, having bad diction, and being a fuller figure is something that is still around but has changed over time due to many Italian Americans being annoyed and embarrassed due to the stereotypes. Especially with shows like Jersey Shore giving them a bad reputation. However, many of these performers have broken through these barriers through music, film, and writing. Italian American actress Alyssa Milano has expressed her outrage over shows, such as, Jersey Shore due to giving Italian’s an awful stereotype and showing them in a very negative light.

Performers like Lady Gaga and Madonna have expressed their love of the heritage, while also stating their annoyance at the stereotypes of Italian women. In Lady Gaga’s “Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)” music video, she showed the Italian stereotypes of pasta and meatballs, being loud, her riding a Vespa, men in white tank tops, and Italian flags everywhere in a Little Italy area. However, she breaks the stereotypical submissive woman stereotype of being conservative and only doing what her man wants while also doing common house chores. So it shows that artists, such as Lady Gaga, how Italian American woman can still be great wives/spouses while being confident in themselves and being fashionable in a non-conservative but still feminine and appropriate way.

The pop artist Madonna has strayed away from the conservative, modest, Italian woman. She became famous in the 1980’s due to the sexual nature of all her songs and music videos in a time where most women performers/singers, especially Italian women, did not do that. She was one of the first, very famous Italian American female singers and is probably the most famous one to date. Many thought of her as promiscuous and to “out there,” but she was just showing the world that she does not need a man to be happy and successful and is independent. Such an attitude and perspective steers away from the old-fashioned Italian woman, where she only deals with a kitchen and children. She is a great example because she has kids but also a career and lives by her terms not anyone else’s.

Madonna is named after the figure “Madonna” which is the main representation of femininity for the Italian culture. Many Italian women respect her but feel that her traditional and archaic ways are not made for the times of 2016. Women are on Earth for more than domestic jobs and raising kids. “Madonna” is an enormous figure but is not the only woman Italian women aspire to be like or look up to anymore. Many Italian American performers do not base their life on Madonna due to her religious and virgin attributes.

In the 21st century women do not base everything on religion. In their personal life, these performers may be religious and look up to the Virgin Mary but in their professional life they steer clear. Italian American performers, such as Madonna and Lady Gaga, just want every woman to feel confident and independent. Women do not need to rely on anyone else for their own happiness and to not feel like they are stuck in a bubble. This is why Madonna started extending the boundaries for women in the 1980’s with her sexual content and lyrics in songs such as “Like A Virgin”, wild lifestyle, and revealing clothing. She was not going to let the idea of women in society stop her. Lady Gaga is very similar to Madonna but for the 21st century pop culture woman. She does and wears whatever she wants from meat dresses to coming into the Grammy’s inside an egg. However, her lyrics are not as sexually influenced as Madonna’s and is more on the girl power side. Both these artists represent their Italian heritage well. They always talk about how they are proud of their Italian background, and explain how they are different from the past Italian American performers/women.

Many Italian women feel that they must negotiate between their public, personal life, her home, and professional life through separating both of them. By dealing with her career outside of the home and during her work hours while coming home and dealing with the family. Some Italian women think that they must choose both because in their culture some still think that women only belong in the kitchen however, in 2016 they can balance and have both. Some women choose just one because they think that they cannot have both and many feel swayed to the domestic side. Some still feel like they are guilty of doing something wrong just because they chose a career instead of just family. Thankfully, as time progresses women can choose one path and not feel shameful of their decision.

In the current century, third and fourth generation Italians want to know about their background and the way/heritage that their grandparents grew up in; especially the transition from coming to America from Italy. In Antoinette (Tina) De Rosa’s autobiographical novel ‘Paper Fish’ the main protagonist, Carmolina BellaCasa, wants to know her Italian heritage and is centered around her family, such as, her father, mother, and sister, but specifically her grandmother, Doria. The first generation Italians did not want to Americanize but the second and third generations did. However, now these younger generations want to know their backgrounds, by learning Italian, visiting their homeland, and learning about their ancestors. The older generations were taught to be a domestic women, to cook, clean, be a mother first, while now women do not have to choose either life, they can have both. They can have self-affirmation knowing that they are providing food on the table for their families and having a career for themselves. Italian women are more than just caregivers; they are part of the whole equation.

There is significant and growing evidence from the recent studies that crime, exploitation and scare of crime can be prevented. This information shows us that properly focused and well-designed prevention initiatives can reduce levels of crime and victimization and increase the safety and well-being of our communities. The problem is that Canada does not make enough use of this vital knowledge. We must do more to harness this expertise in order to build a safer Canada.

The level of crime in society is measured through two primary data sources: police statistics and crime victimization surveys. Police statistics have the advantage of being able to provide trends over time but are restricted to offences that are reported to police. Crime victimization surveys interview samples of citizens about their experiences and perceptions of crime and have the advantage of capturing crimes that were not reported to police. However, these surveys are limited by the fact that they do not include all types of crimes, do not interview children or businesses and are only conducted every five years. While both sources of data contribute to our knowledge of levels of crime, victimization and fear of crime, both are limited in their ability to capture the full picture and likely underestimate the true level of crime in Canada. Crime rates vary across the country. Rates are highest in the territories and are higher in provinces west of Ontario than in central and eastern Canada.

This involves identifying a problem and locating elements that are amenable to intervention. This stage is actually a great deal more difficult than one might imagine. For one thing, a significant portion of offences never comes to public attention. This reality is complicated by the myths and misinformation that surround crime and justice, and the lack of an accepted set of indicators to help diagnose problems and assess the impact of our interventions. We often do not have the knowledge and skills required to identify all the risk and protective factors involved in a particular problem or to select the ones most open to intervention.

The evidence base provides some guidance in this regard. However, decisions about priorities are never purely scientific. Problems and their solutions intersect with a broad range of interests. The challenge is to translate problems into priorities for action and to identify “solutions” we are willing to try and able to afford. Setting objectives is a political process and coming to an agreement about goals and targets requires compromises among competing concerns and interests.

There is considerable guidance available in the extensive evidence-based literature on crime prevention, both about the types of programs that work and the delivery mechanisms that they require. Unfortunately, prevention initiatives tend to run into three main roadblocks. The first is that much of the evidence is little known to those who are in a decision-making position or to the public. The second is that the organizations that are mandated to respond, and that have the greatest relative level of resources, usually are inclined to keep doing more of the same. It is very difficult and risky to break a new trail, and there is pressure to stay with the tried and true. Given the orientation of the criminal justice system, this usually means an emphasis on offenders, and a reluctance to extend their mandate or their activities into the types of areas where risk and protective factors can be addressed systematically. The third key factor is the reality of limited resources. All too often, we choose program options because of what we can afford rather than because they are the best possible solution. The availability of resources is often the key determinant of what is done in response to a problem.

Few areas of public policy are as impervious to impact evaluation as criminal justice. This is unfortunate given the high costs associated with both the problem of crime and the financing of the criminal justice system. Problem-solving approaches always require that initiatives should be assessed to determine whether they had the desired impact and whether there were unanticipated results (for better or for worse). This raises the issue of what the appropriate indicators of success might be—how should progress be measured? The concern for public accountability also emphasizes the question of the costs of an initiative, and an attempt to measure whether the benefits were obtained in the most efficient manner. Once again, the difficulty is that few organizations have the knowledge, skills and resources necessary to do sound evaluations. Agencies must be encouraged to become more fully engaged at this stage of the problem-solving process and they must be equipped to do so.

I was re-introduced to yoga through a friend of a friend. He was an old man from Bermuda only known to me as Swami. He happened to spend some time with us in Kenya at my friends place in Nairobi. My friend Job and I listened to Swami as he told us about his travels to East Africa for the sun. He did sun yoga. It energizes him just like what physical exercise will do to you. He gets his energy through the sun. We thought that was weird and why anybody would travel the world just for the sun. Every morning before the sun came up, Swami was frail and a little bit dull just like the 75-year-old that he was. Immediately the sun came up, he was full of strength and could walk for miles and never seem to wear down.

Why I say re-introduced is because we had come across yoga 5 years before. Weighed it as a group and generally decided it was not our thing. At the time we were traveling back and forth as performing artiste. We thought yoga would make us over flexible and with our acrobatics we thought we will be more liable to injury. Mostly though, we thought yoga was for women.

Anyway, on days we sat and spoke with Swami about the difference between his country and other countries he had traveled as we discussed our lives challenges as young men in Nairobi. Swami listens and he tells us yoga would be our best shot. That in yoga we will discover our strengths and learn to convert our passion to profits. He did not stop there, he practically took us to a yoga studio. The studio was in Parklands, the Africa Yoga Project. This was way far from where we stayed. He introduced us to the administration presented our case and a teacher was send to our community shortly after. As we saw Swami off, we promised to give yoga a try mostly on my part as I was curious about yoga now that Swami spoke about it so intimately.

The teacher came to our training hall in our community. We arranged to have classes once a week for starters. We went on for almost a month and we were getting better and better as a team and it was so much fun learning.

For a long time, I had thought yoga to be “girlish.” I was so wrong, and coming from a background of intense physical practice you’d think yoga would be easy for me. Yoga kicked my butt. I was sweating and shaking in “downward dog” like I have never seen before. It was amazing to see and discover so much about my body. The most interesting bit was that, I was looking at slowly moving into teaching, I just didn’t know how to go about it and that yoga would be my field, was like a dream come true for me.

Yoga hit me and woke me up. It is with yoga that I became truly aware of my contribution, as in the way I showed up in life and how that shaped or determined the kind of results that I got in life.

‘He heard the will in his wife’s voice, and was at a loss. Her language was unintelligible to him’ (D.H. Lawrence).

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In the novels Howards End and A Passage to India, EM Forster evokes the social backgrounds and priorities of his characters through the difference in their language, and the difficulties they have in communicating with each other. The marriage of Margaret and Henry in Howards End appears to reconcile two worlds by joining the moral, cultured Schlegals, primarily concerned with ideas and words, with the bullying, dynamic Wilcoxes and their ‘outer life’ of ‘telegrams and anger’ (this description by Margaret in Chapter 4 reduces them to modern brutality but also admits their superior ability for ‘outer’ action.) The differences between husband and wife, however, are still prevalent in their conversations, as Forster exhibits in their disagreement over Helen in chapter 34. Forster expresses Margaret’s realisation that something could be wrong with Helen mentally as an epiphany about London: ‘Helen seemed one with the grimy trees and the traffic and the slowly flowering slabs of mud… she felt that her sister had been going amiss for many years’. Margaret’s romantic ideas about the pollution of London compared to the idyllic countryside as embodied by Howards End are an impractical but characteristic part of her concern.

Henry, on the other hand, receives the news with clichéd remarks, like that it was ‘just like Helen’ to worry her relatives. He is not concerned with any lists of original imagery or using language in a different way at all, and when Margaret asks why Helen’s nature is ‘allowed to be so queer, and to grow queerer’ he replies ‘Don’t ask me. I’m a plain man of business. I live and let live.’ His short sentences, often capturing common idioms, separate him from the Schlegels’ meaning, and when Tibby says that he has not seen the point, Henry replies ‘I don’t suppose I ever shall’ as though admitting the limitations of communication between him and the ‘gifted but ridiculous family’ he laughs at. The lack of verbal ingenuity is one barrier of characteristics between the married couple, but another, as Forster demonstrates a page later, is his inherent aggression: speaking of Helen as an object to be seized, he asks ‘You want to get a hold of her?’ and plots to lie to her so that ‘we can run her up to a specialist in no time.’ As the narrator comments, his intentions are good but the plan ‘drew its ethics from the wolf-pack’ and Margaret rejects it on the grounds that ‘It’s not the particular language that Helen and I talk’; the direct plan of action could not work due to the language-based sympathies of the sisters.

In A Passage to India, the contrast of the characters Mrs Moore and Adela lies in the ease with which Mrs Moore adapts to her surroundings through conversation, called a true ‘Oriental’ by Aziz, whereas Forster depicts Miss Quested as having a theoretical sympathy towards the native Indians rather than a natural one. The efforts of both Miss Quested in this novel and Helen in Howards End are seemingly well-intentioned but fundamentally flawed and result in them actively ruining the lives of those who they are trying to understand or help. The barriers between Adela and full understanding of India are evoked in the stilted conversation between her and Aziz: in their conversation amongst the Marabar Caves, she shocks him by asking with no knowledge of Indian marriage besides Mrs Turton’s racism, ‘Have you one wife or more than one?’ Forster prefaces this blunder with the description ‘in her honest, decent, inquisitive way’ (the triplicate of adjectives appearing almost hyperbolically defensive) and clarifies that the attachment to one wife is a ‘new conviction’ for an educated Muslim like Aziz at this time, as though to lessen the impact of her honest ignorance through narration. The comparative dishonesty of Aziz is also emphasised as though in her defence: he lies because he feels it is ‘more artistic to have his wife alive for a moment’ and tries to ‘conceal his confusion’ through the stuttering ‘one, one in my own particular case’. Aziz is also speaking in a language foreign to him, and is exerting himself to impress Adela with little reciprocation; rather than shielding Adela by making him appear dishonest and therefore immoral, however, Forster uses these complications and barriers to natural communication to illustrate how little Adela is attempting to connect in comparison. While Aziz makes an effort to protect her feelings by hiding how offended he is, Adela is ‘quite unconscious that she had said the wrong thing’ and leaves ‘not seeing him’. This ignorance demonstrates that the difficulties in communication they have stem from the fact that she is using him as a representation of his culture, rather than a person who she could offend. The condescension behind her thoughts, such as diluting the admiration in ‘what a handsome little Oriental he was’ with the diminishing caveats of ‘little’ and ‘Oriental’ rather than simply ‘man’, prevent her from speaking as honestly with him as Mrs Moore does.

Another example of an attempt to impress met with well-intended condescension is Howards End’s Leonard. In Chapter 5 of Howards End, Leonard compares his conversation to that of the cultured Schlegel sisters wistfully: ‘If he could talk like this, he would have caught the world. Oh, to acquire culture! Oh, to pronounce foreign names correctly! Oh, to be well informed, discoursing at ease on every subject that a lady started!’ The poetic nature of this triadic structure, with the wistful interjections of ‘Oh’ regretting his ignorance, may seem to contradict the character’s actual meaning as he can speak elegantly. During their actual conversation in chapter 14, however, the sisters treat him as a curiosity because he speaks so differently and is so separate from culture. By saying ‘No’, that the dawn was not wonderful as Helen expected, he gains ‘unforgettable sincerity’ by presenting a practical, working-class view of the world and ‘down toppled all that had seemed ignoble or literary in his talk’. He excites the sisters by talking about how hungry he was instead of beauty or culture (indeed, the narrator mocks his cultural aspiration with the childishly rhyming ‘Borrow, Thoreau and sorrow’.) Leonard wishes for the power that comes with cultured language, but only is remarkable to the sisters, and perhaps to the reader, as a contrast.

In an almost comically literal metaphor, Leonard is ultimately killed by a representation of the upper classes and collapses in a ‘shower’ of books due to a misunderstanding: his desire to associate with and speak the same language as his social “superiors” has brought about his downfall. The language of his perspective shifts to simplistic, infantilised short sentences in his final moments as well, as though to heighten the contrast: ‘The man took him by the collar and cried: "Bring me a stick." Women were screaming. A stick, very bright, descended. It hurt him, not where it descended, but in the heart. Books fell over him in a shower. Nothing had sense.’ He has no understanding of who ‘the man’ is or why books are falling over him, and the childish simplicity of language like ‘It hurt him’ or ‘Nothing had sense’ echoes the narrator calling him a ‘naive and sweet-tempered boy’ in Chapter 14. He is overwhelmed by this world and the language of it (even when it is not intended maliciously, as when he is ‘hurt terribly’ by Helen’s supposedly kind letter in Shropshire), and Forster reflects that in the language of his final moments.

Forster’s characters use language to bridge the gap of West and East in A Passage to India in a manner unlike the real Anglo-Indians for whom Forster had an admitted ‘lack of sympathy’. The friendship between Cyril Fielding and Aziz begins when the former casually says ‘Please make yourself at home’ at his house, as Aziz is honoured by the familiarity. While it may seem like basic etiquette, the actions of the English at the garden party in which they ignore their Indian guests and in Chapter 1 when Mrs Callender takes Aziz’s tonga clearly portray a society in which polite language is used as a conduit for further association only amongst certain groups. The Anglo-Indians often ignore polite convention with the Indians, which is why this formal show of etiquette is paradoxically familiar, and incites a friendly relationship. Fielding and Aziz are, however, separated by Fielding’s empathy towards Adela after the trial: language here does not come between them but their identities, as Aziz has chosen to reject the Western world after being so badly misunderstood by it. In the original 1913 draft, Forster had Aziz revealed as guilty, but the final version embodies a lot more sympathy for his character and for falsely vilified Indians (perhaps influenced by the Amritsar Massacre of 1919 – there is a clear parallel in the idea of forcing Indians to crawl past a certain spot where an English woman had been supposedly hurt, which was enforced by General Dyer in real life.) This empathy, creating what Leonard Woolf called ‘the most absolutely “real” Indian to be found in fiction’, makes his choice understandable for British readers who may more naturally align themselves with Fielding. The argument does therefore appear realistic on both sides and inevitable, happening despite communication rather than because of it.

After they reunite at the end, Forster writes that ‘Tangles like this still interrupted their intercourse. A pause in the wrong place, an intonation misunderstood, and a whole conversation went awry’. Even between these natural friends, misunderstandings still arise because of specific social barriers complicating their language. The natural world itself rejects the idea of them being true friends in the final lines as ‘the earth didn’t want it… the palace, the birds, the carrion… they didn’t want it, they said in their hundred voices “No, not yet,” and the sky said, “No, not there”’. The emphasis by disrupted anaphora of ‘yet’ and ‘there’ make it clear that the time and place of their acquaintance is to blame. This failure is an example of an originally shared affinity through language not being sufficient, and their fundamental beings as Western and Eastern sabotaging a connection. Edward Said described the barriers to their friendship as ‘ontological’, rather than ‘political’ or an inability to speak the same language, so in his view Forster unfortunately neutralises the Indian nationalism movement, as they are not a political force eloquently capturing the need for freedom in words.

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The use of language unspoken within the narrative but clearly from a certain characters’ perspective is complicated by the presence of a narrator. For example, in Howards End, the extent of the Schlegel’s hypocrisy in treating Leonard, and how that may impact the miscommunications between them, is uncertain as the particularly cruel inner comments of Margaret used by Bradshaw as evidence of her snobbery such as describing Leonard as metaphorically trailing ‘odours from the abyss’ could be coloured by the narrator. The commentator of Howards End does interject their opinion, and does exhibit classist attitudes when, for example, sneeringly describing the Basts’ living room as fitted with ‘one of the masterpieces of Maude Goodman’ (a saccharine artist very popular at the time.) The narrator’s role in this novel is clearly biased and that may obscure the unspoken language of the characters; this may be Forster’s intent, however, as it evokes the sense of miscommunication that the Schlegels, Wilcoxes and Basts live through. The narration in ‘A Passage to India’, on the other hand, grants unprecedented amounts of sympathy to an Indian character as Aziz, who speaks in a foreign language to all the English characters, is a victim of miscommunication rather than the perpetrator. The social context of these novels lend relevance to the barriers the characters face. The class differences as well as differing methods of dealing with a changing world of class in Howards End prevent clear communication, and the ultimate lack of empathy towards those of a different race in A Passage to India means that the English and the Indian cannot maintain friendship ‘now’. Through the novels themselves, however, Forster managed to communicate the biases and motivations of his characters in a language the reader would understand, creating a revolutionary empathy.