Consequences of Outsourcing Human Resources

Consequences of Outsourcing Human Resources This essay will attempt to highlight the issues pertaining to the effects of outsourcing human resource management. The essay will be structured as follows: An Overview on Outsourcing of HRM The Rationale of Outsourcing The advantages of Outsourcing The disadvantages of Outsourcing An analysis on effect of Outsourcing An Overview on Outsourcing of HRM-The HRO The Outsourcing is the new management mantra which came into existence during the turbulent times of 90s, where it was seen as an effective tool for cost cutting. Outsourcing basically means hiring of the relevant business function from a third party. This phenomenon made rapid advancement and very soon engulfed nearly all area of the business. The function of Human Resource management has also been affected by it. Although in HRM outsourcing is a relatively newer term but the economic crisis of global meltdown has helped it to a stage where more and more organisations and businesses are opting for it. Following are main findings of the survey carried out by CIPD (2009) in the UK- HR outsourcing (HRO) is used by 29% of the survey respondents. Most organisations are increasing their use of HRO. Over the last five years, 20% reported significant increases in HRO activity, and 44% reported a slight increase in HRO activity. Only 11% have reduced their reliance on HRO. Only 44% of those organisations that outsource other business functions also outsource HR. HR outsourcing is used predominantly in private sector organisations, with 69% of those outsourcing HR working in this sector. HRO is pursued by 25% of public sector organisations in this sample. The private service industry dominates the use of HRO, with 50% currently undertaking HRO activities. Twenty-four per cent of HRO activity is in manufacturing, 22% in public services, and 4% in voluntary and charitable organisations The top drivers for HRO include access to skills and knowledge (71%), quality (64%) and cost reduction (61%). Organisations stressing clear objectives and targets in these areas are also more likely to have achieved them. The top three wholly outsourced areas include legal activity (69%), payroll (66%) and pensions (64%). The areas partially outsourced the most include training (49%) and recruitment and selection (47%). HRO is not relieving pressure for the internal HR team, with 43% confirming HRO failure in this case. Source- CIPD survey 2009 Introduction to HRO HRO is often confused with the two more associated terms -HR shared services and HR expert leasing. To begin, it is necessary to distinguish HRO from HR shared services and HR expert leasing. The main reason for this confusion is the complexity involved in Shared Services and HR expert leasing. HR shared services are also known as co-sourcing (Shen et al. 2003). The shared service has two forms. First, there is a shared service set up by large organizations to provide assistance and services not only to their own departments or subsidiaries, but also to external client organizations as an outsourcing business. Second, the other type of shared service refers to those set up, again by large and often multinational or multi-establishment organizations, aimed at restructuring their service provision through recentralization and of a creation of an internal market system. This is very popular in large enterprises, such as Motorola, Fuji, HSBC, IBM and Nokia. HR expert Leasing refers to the concept used by some professional employer organizations of leasing HR experts to clients (Laabs 1996) due to the fact that when the option of leasing employees is used, HR is more likely to be kept in-house, thus HR expert leasing should not be regarded as HRO. Similarly the shared services which are designed at providing services to internal and external clients cannot be in strict sense be regarded as HRO. Thus we see that in both the cases, i.e. HR expert leasing and the Shared services, there is no significance of the third party, which as per the definition of HRO is an prerequisite for them to be classified as Outsourcing. Hence we see that there is a clear demarcation between all the three services being used to provide HR support to the organisation. The commencement of Outsourcing in HR functions commenced primarily with the field of Recruitment. The Business organisations felt the need for recruitment as an independent function which could be transferred to third party for a measure of cost cutting and bettered shared service. Soon the functions such as Pay roll management, benefits and legal advice, were also outsourced. If we analyse the key decision for whether the particular function is outsource or not is based on the fact that whether the function is a core function or not? The rationale behind the Outsourcing The five competitive forces (Charles R Greer; Stuart A Youngblood; David A Gray, 1999) that can be called as the driving force for the companies to outsource some or all of their HR activities are: downsizing, rapid growth or decline, globalization, increased competition, and restructuring. Downsizing: The inevitable restructuring of entire industries has recast HR departments as formulators and implementers of downsizing. The pressure of reducing costs has now made HR themselves as targets of downsizing due to the overwhelming demands for reduced costs for HR services. Rapid Growth or Decline: Again the Costs as a major factor, the retrenched firms, or those in decline, face incredible pressures to reduce costs, while high-growth firms face similar pressures to monitor costs. HR outsourcing presents the option of cost reduction Globalization: Due to this, the companies now staff comprising of host country or third party nationals, this required harmonizing pay and benefit packages in accordance with the local laws demands specialized expertise. Larger vendors that focus on compensation and benefits offer these specialized services and deliver expertise built on experience and concentration in particular regions of the world. Increased Competition: Increased competition, both on domestic and international front, emphasizes the value-added role of products and services. Firms that subscribe to the balanced scorecard approach to measure effectiveness look not only at financial measures of firm success, but also at customer and employee measures of service quality. As per General Electrics CEO Jack Welch- He pays attention to only three measures of firm effectiveness-cash flow, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. If HR departments are to be responsive to both internal and external customers, they  must look for ways to improve the quality and responsiveness of their services. Proponents argue that outsourcing offers HR an option to satisfy competing demands for improved service and responsiveness at a reasonable cost. Structuring: Firms that redeploy HR generalists to serve key divisions or business units of the organization can transform HR into a service role. Such a transformation serves as a source of competitive advantage for the firm. These new, service-quality cultures are not easy to build and sustain, particularly among established, traditional, or entrenched HR departments. Strategically, HR outsourcing decisions can potentially be part of a larger pattern of responses designed to deliver hard-to-imitate, hard-to-substitute, value-added services that enhance the value and quality of the firms products and services. After having seen the driving force behind the HRO we will now try to analyse various models of HRO as conceptualised by the resource-based view (RBV) (e.g. Barney 1991; Ulrich 1996); that suggests that the resources of a firm are rare and valuable and cannot easily be substitutable, are more likely to achieve sustained competitive advantage. According to the RBV, a firm should only outsource those resources which are replaceable or imitable not its core functions. This concept is in line with the core and periphery concept (Atkinson 1984), which can be applied to evaluate what HR activities are more likely to be outsourced. According to Atkinson, the core is defined as a numerically stable core group which will conduct the organizations key, firm-specific activities (Atkinson 1984: 29). The core can be redeployed easily between activities and tasks and has functional flexibility. All other function which support the core are known as the periphery, this provides the organization wit h an advantage to vary the numbers with fluctuation in labour demand (known as numerical flexibility). Ulrich (1998) suggested that core activities creates unique value to employees, customers and investors and are transformational in nature. Non-core activities are easily duplicated and replicated and are of transactional nature. Thus we find that HR core activities include top-level strategy, HR policies, employee relations, and line management responsibilities (e.g. appraisal and discipline) and the peripheral activities include specialist activities (e.g. recruitment and outplacement), routine personnel administration (e.g. payroll and pensions), relocation, and professional HR advice (e.g. legal advice related to employment regulations) {Finn (1999) and Lepak and Snell (1998)}. Thus according to the core and periphery theory, while the administrative and transactional functions (periphery) can be outsourced, it is in the interest of the firm to keep the strategic parts of HR (c ore) remain in-house. However, in practise, the core and periphery concept is difficult to distinguish as some HR activities appear to be purely administrative, but actually are not. For instance, recruitment is often seen as suitable for outsourcing, but its a key function that should stay in-house. To ascertain these arguments, we next shall analyse the advantages and the disadvantages of Outsourcing of HR functions. The advantages of Outsourcing As mentioned above one of the major benefits of HR outsourcing is Cost Saving but is not the only advantages of the Outsourcing. It provides a wide array of advantages specially to the small and rapidly growing businesses with limited resources, to achieve the same level of efficiency and service consistency in their HR functions as larger companies, without having to invest in large amounts of capital. The advantages of outsourcing can be enumerated as follows:- Cost Savings. Companies can realise substantial cost savings by outsourcing HR activities and functions. Torode (2000: 2) reported a success story about cost reduction about Trident Inc. reducing its HR administrative burden by 65 per cent and uncovering US$40,000 in overpayments for insurance premiums by using Employease Inc.s web-based human-resources application. The same is also supported by Gilley et al. (2004) that outsourcing training and payroll could lower administrative and overhead costs of training staff. Greater Focus on Core Business Activities. Due to globalisation companies face aggressive competition both locally and from abroad and thus can incur a tremendous amount in terms of lost business and loss of competitive advantage by spending more than required time and resources in non-core or administrative functions. Outsourcing enables companies to focus on their core competencies and to direct their full attention towards market dynamics and business strategy. Greater Participation by HR in Value-Adding Activities. Outsourcing certain HR administrative tasks enables the HR department to free themselves of time-consuming administrative tasks and direct their attention towards helping to improve their companys business performance thus fulfilling there roles as that of a strategic partner. Greater Efficiency. Due to the vertical specialisation and intense competition the outsourcing providers can usually perform the task more efficiently than the internal HR department. This is also due to the fact that service provider has a specialised team and since provides wide array of services to various outsourcer, hence at times can have more resources as well as experience to deal with any situation. This is specially true for medium and small firm which have a smaller HR department. Greater Flexibility of a Decentralized Structure. The business environment is very volatile, presenting newer challenges to companies. Outsourcing provides flexibility by removing those responsibilities and constraints that make it difficult to react effectively to changing conditions and issues. A leaner, more focused company engaged in fewer activities, is better able to react to environmental changes. Risk Reduction. Risk reduction is a major benefit of HR outsourcing. As the outsourced tasks are the outsourcing providers core competency, they are unlikely to make lesser mistakes as compared with the clients internal HR staff. Furthermore in case of eventuality of mistakes, the service provider can be held accountable for losses to its client thus lowering the level of risk. More so ever the firms can enjoy the benefits of the HR functions without having to invest heavily in those HR functions, at the same time also keeping the option to change the outsourcing supplier if required. More Objective Process. Outsourcing provides a certain degree of objectivity to the functions of HR department as service providers are not affected by political, cultural and bureaucratic conflicts intrinsic to the firm, which prevents the department from being fully productive and aligned with the strategic goals of the organisation. Outsourcing HR functions brings the objectivity of a third party into the process. Disadvantages of Outsourcing Cost-Savings Not Always Achieved. Laabs (1996) argued that HRO in fact leads to increasing costs because it may be less expensive to administer HR functions in-house, the same is also supported by Friel (2003),who argues that one major reason for higher costs of HR outsourcing is that HRO is still in its infancy. For example, software products must be tailored to organizations requirements, pushing up development costs. The following are examples showing increasing costs as a result of HRO. BP Amocos international contract with Exult increased costs by one third in 2001 (Broad 2002). BT admitted that costs were on the rise in its contract for HR service provision with Accenture HR Services in 2002 (Broad 2002). The September 2002 audit revealed that Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the United States paid up US$2.6 million to VA sytems well above the original estimate of US$1.2 million.(Friel 2003). Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of America paid NCS Pearson, US$700 million as against originally estimate of US$103 million,by the end of 2002. (Friel 2003). Greer et al. (1999) found in their study that specialized vendors were unable to achieve greater economies of scale and cost savings due to the magnitude of the internal HR operations of some large companies,. More importantly, as Greer et al. (1999) warned, outsourcing produced no cost savings when only two or three vendors dominate a specialized market. Caulkin (2002: 10) has supported Greer et al. by arguing that the argument of economies of scale and specialization is self-serving, benefiting providers, not purchasers. People Issues. This is one of the most debatable aspects of Outsourcing. An extensive study by Hackett Benchmarking Research revealed that companies consider the greatest obstacles to outsourcing to be cultural and political factors. The services being outsourced to an outside entity poses a threat to the employee trust in the system. Further more the vendor working environment and ethics might not be commiserating with the firms which would bring out contention of issues. For example (Broad 2002), when Bank of America formed an alliance with Exult which included a major outsourcing arrangement, employees were worried about the implications of the deal for their positions. It is only when they understood that it was Exult, and not Bank of America, that would make the required investments, that they became reassured and accepted the alliance Problems with the Outsourcing Provider. The providers might be faced with issue where he is forced to cover up for any mistakes for which the service provider can be held liable. Further more the organisational culture of the provider would also be a binding factor as they can be a cause low service standardsr, a lack of attention to regulatory and business requirements, or unmet objectives and timeframes by the outsourcing provider. Loss of Control. Outsourcing HR functions can lead to a loss of control by the buying company. According to recent study by Accenture, 48% of executives surveyed stated that the fear of a loss of operational control was the greatest impediment to expanding their use of outsourcing. Their can be a fundamental mismatch of hierarchy in the firm as the line manager and the service provider might not be able to synchronise their working. Consequences of outsourcing Major implication, both in terms of their (changing) roles and their experience of the HR services of Outsourcing have been felt by HR professionals, line managers, employees who receive the services, and outsourced HR staff who provide the services. In-house HR Professionals. Most noticeable impact on in-house HR professionals will be in terms of the nature of their work and their career patterns, although due to scarce literature, the extent is difficult to predict. Ulrich (1998) proposes four new roles for HR; among those he recommends sharing of HR work in varying proportions among the line management, employees, external consultants, and other groups. But he does not really discuss the rationale by which this distribution of work would be determined (Procter Currie, 1999). Nor have the implications for their career prospects been contemplated. Greer et al.s (1999) study suggests that as a consequence of outsourcing of HR activities, the user company would mandatorily have to deploy in-house HR generalists who know can manage the outsourcing relationships. However, this also poses a threat of work intensification for these HR professionals, as they might still be relied by their colleagues to provide the service because they may be used to it or are unfamiliar with the new system. For example, Shen et al.s study (2004) indicates that the job content for the NHS maintenance manager of National Health Services (NHS) trust hospital in the United Kingdom has undergone severe work intensification and radical change ever since the outsourcing of maintenance. The same can also happen to the HR managers when outsourcing HR takes place, since both functions require intimate knowledge of the organization and a relatively high level of relationship management. HR outsourcing also raises concerns about the career prospects of the HR staff. One of the significant changes to career prospect would be Availability of fewer career development options for specialists as compared to generalist. At the same time, as there would be only a limited activities being performed in-house, general HR experience would be hard to gain. This will also raise question about the type of training to be provided to HR professionals that existing training for the HR profession is generalist-oriented, while in future the service provider would need specialists. Therefore, outsourcing HR could affect the in-house HR staff in ways such as job intensification, change in job content, reduction of career development opportunity, and increased levels of stress, especially when the relationship with the service provider is strained and the quality of services unsatisfactory. More broadly, the role that HR professionals play will be dependent upon their interaction with other groups both within and outside the organization (Procter Currie, 1999). Communication can be more difficult, especially when there is geographical, as well as organizational, separation. But if the onward march of HR outsourcing is a given, then the HR professionals will need to learn how to play the game (Turnbull, 2002). Line Managers. One of the apparent rationales of Outsourcing has been to delegate the softer aspects of the HR function to the line management ie involvement in and ownership of HR decisions. For example, Vernon et al. (2000) found that in Europe it is a common practise for sharing responsibilities between the HR specialists and the line management, in regard to the policy making: About a third of senior HR specialists reported an increase in line management responsibility for HR issues over the last three years (Vernon et al.,2000, p. 7). The role of line managers in executing HR policies and shaping HR practices has long been acknowledged (e.g., Currie Procter, 2001; Marchington Parker,1990; McConville Holden, 1999; Procter Currie, 1999). This has resulted in line managers taking on additional responsibilities, thus intensifying their role. This can at times all draw away or cloud the focus of line manager from their primary role. Also in reality, some of the smaller tasks may take longer to explain via electronic devices and are easier for the line managers to do themselves. The lack of HR support on-site seemed to have caused work intensification for the line managers, since they no longer have easy access to the HR staff. Another aspect which is pertinent to mention here is the competence of line manager. Line managers in the United Kingdom have been criticized for their lack of HR skills and competence, especially on legal matters such as discipline, dismissal, redundancy, and equal opportunities (e.g., Currie Procter, 2001; Hall Torrington, 1998; Mc-Conville Holden, 1999). They have also been criticized for their lack of interest in managing human resources, as HRM tends to be low down in their operational priority. In addition, they tend to focus on the hard, rather than soft, aspects of the HRM issues. Employees Receiving HR Services. The most significant outcome of this has been on the employees as they find difficulty in divulging confidential or private information with unknown HR person over the phone or online. This can also be termed as loss of Human touch from the term Human Resources. Research carried out by Feng Lee Cook (2006) about the employees response in Consult-Corp UK also indicates the same. Number of employees felt loss of emotional aspect as they felt that staff in the services centre, provide answers by reading off the screen or the manual and the entire process is mechanical. Another consequence of the outsourcing has been the lack of clarity of ownership of problems that may occur in HR services. With no HR department, at times the employees could find a void for issues such as grievance against their line manager itself especially when the grievance concerned the line manager or if the line manager responsible for their performance appraisal. All these change s may cause some fear and resistance among the workforce. BP Amocos outsourcing of HR is a case in point (see Higginbottom, 2001). As a result, it may actually be more costly for the organization to acquire the HR services from the external provider when all the indirect costs (both financial and emotional) that may incur in-house are calculated. This is especially true for large organizations in which employees are highly professional and highly paid. Outsourced HR Staff. Traditionally, skilled and knowledge-intensive work such as HR activities has been provided by workers of status. Employers tend to have an employment relationship with these employees that is characterized by relatively high levels of trust in order to elicit greater commitment and effort from the workers (Streeck, 1987). It has been argued that the tacit knowledge possessed by these workers is vital for the organizational competitiveness (Cooke, 2002; Manwaring, 1984; Pavitt, 1991; Polanyi, 1966; Willman, 1997). Outsourcing of this type of work replaces the status approach by a (short-term) contractual relationship of tight specifications of all aspects as a predominant mechanism of control. This mode of employment relationship does not encourage workers to provide extra-functional contribution to enhance the firms competitiveness (Fox, 1974). In fact, the potential problem of gaining commitment from the nonemployee workers is well recognized by organizations a nd academics (Cooke, Hebson, Carroll, 2005). For the employees of the service provider, job security may be low and firm-specific knowledge may be lacking as a result of multiclient services and the standardization of work processes. Indeed, lack of critical expertise and a customer service focus, or failure to take the interests of their client into account when delivering their HR services, have been found to be some of the main reasons for the failure of the HR outsourcing relationships (Greer et al., 1999). Additional complications in the employment relationships may occur where the HR outsourcing decision involves the transfer of existing HR staff to the external service provider (see Table 1). For the employees concerned, the transferred HR staff are likely to be protected, at least in principle, by some sort of employment regulation of the specific country (e.g., the Transfer of Undertaking Protection of Employment [TUPE] regulations in the United Kingdom). In theory, the em ployment contract of the transferred workers is preserved intact under TUPE regulations. In reality, however, their terms and conditions and other experience of work may change significantly, albeit incrementally (Cooke et al., 2004), since the impact of TUPE has proven to be only marginal to date (Colling, 1999; Wenlock Purcell, 1990). As Domberger pointed out, the principal effect of TUPE is to ensure minimum standards are maintained in negotiated transfers. The legislation is designed merely to assure the continuity of employment (Domberger, 1998, p. 143). For example, Cooke et al.s (2004) study of outsourcing in the public sector reveals that work intensification and increased performance monitoring are common features of post-transfer working life. Outsourcing offers the new employers opportunities to improve organizational performance by creating change through reducing staff numbers; introducing new skills and working practices; and by modifying individual incentives, employ ment terms and conditions, and attitudes to the workplace Domberger, 1998). None of these changes can be prevented effectively by TUPE, although not all of these changes necessarily point to a worsening scenario to the disadvantage of the workers (Cooke et al., 2004). However, this raises a question as to the extent to which the client organization can expect their ex-employees to (continue to) demonstrate loyalty and commitment in providing their services. These employees may be resentful that they are being dumped by their former employer and/or may have taken on their new employers organizational values that are not necessarily in line with those of their former employer. These issues may be exacerbated if the new employer has also taken on staff from other client organizations, thus creating a work environment with multiple cultures, multiple identities, and competing demands for preferential treatment from client organizations (Rubery et al., 2003). These issues also present a serious challenge for the new employer. The outsourcing firm has to manage a fragmented workforce, one where employees have different employment packages. At the same time, the outsourcing firm is trying to implement a coherent HR strategy and a consistent organizational culture while delivering customized HR services to its client organizations. Conclusions The aim of this article has been to provide an overview of the various aspects of HR outsourcing with a combination of empirical evidence and academic debate. The intention has been to provide a critical review of the state of affairs in the practice of HR outsourcing and to raise issues that require further academic research and attention from organizations interested in HR outsourcing. Existing literature on HR outsourcing appears  to be rather limited in general. This is perhaps due to both research and practice in HR outsourcing being in its early stages of development. There is a longer tradition of firms outsourcing discretional aspects of HR (e.g., payroll, training, health and safety,  legal advice), areas in which they lack inhouse expertise and that are deemed noncost- effective to develop and maintain inhouse. Existing evidence suggests that HR outsourcing has increased substantially over the last decade, although some authors remain cautious about the future growth of HR outsourcing. Training and payroll appear to be the favorite aspects of HR outsourcing. In addition, recruitment, taxation, and legal compliance are often outsourced. However, employee relations, HR planning, career  management, and performance appraisal are less likely to be outsourced, as they are more likely to be seen as core competencies or activities. Even so, there are no clear patterns of the types of HR activities that are outsourced. Existing evidence also suggests that the primary motives for HR outsourcing are to reduce cost, to gain external expertise, to enhance strategic focus of the in-house HR function, and to improve service quality. Cost reduction and sell-out strategy are also important factors for making decisions. While the overwhelming objective for outsourcing appears to be cost reduction, both the transaction-cost economics model (Williamson, 1985) and the resource-based view of the firm (Barney, 1991) seem to influence firms HR outsourcing decisions. T he diverse evidence as to whether the HR outsourcing trend is set to grow or not and/or at what rate implies pragmatic decision making by firms when considering whether to outsource HR activities. Due to the limited number of empirical studies on various aspects of HR outsourcing and the fragmented and inconclusive evidence they have yielded, it is difficult to draw clear conclusions on the types of HR activities that should be outsourced and the effectiveness of HR outsourcing. In fact, evidence seems to suggest that organizations decisions in outsourcing are not always rational  (Vernon et al., 2000), nor is their process successful or the outcome effective. It is possible, however, to identify a number of research issues and practical implications that require further attention from academics and practitioners. Conclusion The resource-based view (RBV) (e.g. Barney 1991; Ulrich 1996) suggests  that a firms resources that are valuable, rare, and not easily imitable or  substitutable are more likely to achieve sustained competitive advantage. According to the RBV, a firm should focus on its core competencies and  outsource those not valuable, and imitable or substitutable resources. The  RBV is consistent with the core and periphery concept (Atkinson  1984), which can be applied to analysing what HR activities are more  likely to be outsourced. According to Atkinson, the core is defined as a  numerically stable core group which will conduct the organizations key,  firm-specific activities (Atkinson 1984: 29). The core can be redeployed  easily between activities and tasks, by means of multiskilling or through  flexible career structures, known as functional flexibility. The periphery,  however, provides the organization with the ability to increase or decrease  the organizations headcount in response to every fluctuation in demand  for labour (known as

A Dirty Job Chapter 5

5 DARKNESS GETS UPPITY Hey, Ray,† Charlie said as he came down the steps into the storeroom. He always tried to make a lot of noise on the steps and usually fired a loud and early â€Å"hello† to warn his employees that he was coming. He'd worked a number of jobs before coming back to take over the family business, and had learned from experience that nobody liked a sneaky boss. â€Å"Hey, Charlie,† Ray said. Ray was out front, sitting on a stool behind the counter. He was pushing forty, tall, balding, and moved through the world without ever turning his head. He couldn't. As a San Francisco policeman, he'd caught a gangbanger's bullet in the neck six years ago, and that was the last time he'd looked over his shoulder without using a mirror. Ray lived on a generous disability pension from the city and worked for Charlie in exchange for free rent on his fourth-floor apartment, thus keeping the transaction off both their books. He spun around on the stool to face Charlie. â€Å"Hey – uh – I wanted to say that, you know, your situation, I mean, your loss. Everybody liked Rachel. You know, if I can do anything – â€Å" It was the first time Charlie had seen Ray since the funeral, so the awkwardness of secondary condolences had yet to be forded. â€Å"You've done more than enough by picking up my shifts. Whatcha working on?† Charlie was trying desperately to not look at the various objects in the shop that were glowing dull red. â€Å"Oh, this.† Ray rotated and pushed back so that Charlie could see the computer screen, where there were displayed rows of portraits of smiling, young Asian women. â€Å"It's called Desperate Filipinas dot-com.† â€Å"Is this where you met Miss LoveYouLongTime?† â€Å"That was not her name. Did Lily tell you that? That kid has problems.† â€Å"Yeah, well, kids,† Charlie said, suddenly noticing a matronly woman in tweed who was browsing the curio shelves at the front of the store. She was carrying a porcelain frog that was glowing dull red. Ray clicked on one of the pictures, which opened a profile. â€Å"Look at this one, boss. It says she's into sculling.† He spun on his stool again and bounced his eyebrows at Charlie. Charlie pulled his attention from the woman with the glowing frog and looked at the screen. â€Å"That's rowing, Ray.† â€Å"No it's not. Look, it says she was a coxswain in college.† Again with the eyebrow bounce, he offered a high five. â€Å"Also rowing,† Charlie said, leaving the ex-cop hanging. â€Å"The person at the back of the boat who yells at the rowers is called the coxswain.† â€Å"Really?† Ray said, disappointed. He'd been married three times, and been left by all three wives because of an inability to develop normal adult social skills. Ray reacted to the world as a cop, and while many women found that attractive initially, they expected him eventually to leave the attitude, along with his service weapon, in the coat closet when he arrived home. He didn't. When Ray had first come to work at Asher's Secondhand, it had taken two months for Charlie to get him to stop ordering customers to â€Å"move along, there's nothing to see here.† Ray spent a lot of time being disappointed in himself and humanity in general. â€Å"But, dude, rowing!† Charlie said, trying to make it all better. He liked the ex-cop in spite of his awkwardness. Ray was basically a good guy, kindhearted and loyal, hardworking and punctual, but most important, Ray was losing his hair faster than Charlie. Ray sighed. â€Å"Maybe I should search for another Web site. What's a word that means that your standards are lower than the desperate?† Charlie read down the page a little. â€Å"This woman has a master's degree in English lit from Cambridge, Ray. And look at her. She's gorgeous. And nineteen. Why is she desperate?† â€Å"Hey, wait a minute. A master's degree at nineteen, this girl is too smart for me.† â€Å"No she's not. She's lying.† Ray spun on the stool as if Charlie had poked him in the ear with a pencil. â€Å"No!† â€Å"Ray, look at her. She looks like one of those Asian models for Sour Apple Flavored Calamari Treats.† â€Å"They have that?† Charlie pointed to the left side of the front window. â€Å"Ray, let me introduce you to Chinatown. Chinatown, this is Ray. Ray, Chinatown.† Ray smiled, embarrassed. There was a store two blocks up that sold nothing but dried shark parts, the windows full of pictures of beautiful Chinese women holding shark spleens and eyeballs like they'd just received an Academy Award. â€Å"Well, the last woman I met through here did have a few errors and omissions in her profile.† â€Å"Like?† Charlie was watching the woman in tweed with the glowing frog, who was approaching the counter. â€Å"Well, she said that she was twenty-three, five feet tall, a hundred five pounds, so I thought, ‘Okay, I can have fun with a petite woman.' Turns out it was a hundred and five kilos.† â€Å"So, not what you expected?† Charlie said. He smiled at the approaching woman, feeling panic rise. She was going to buy the frog! â€Å"Five foot – two-thirty. She was built like a mailbox. I might have gotten past that, but she wasn't even twenty-three, she was sixty-three. One of her grandsons tried to sell her to me.† â€Å"Ma'am, I'm sorry, you can't buy that,† Charlie said to the woman. â€Å"You hear the expression all the time,† Ray went on, â€Å"but you hardly ever meet anyone really trying to sell his own grandmother.† â€Å"Why not?† the woman asked. â€Å"Fifty bucks,† Ray said. â€Å"That's outrageous,† the woman said. â€Å"It's marked ten.† â€Å"No, it's fifty for the grandmother Ray is dating,† Charlie said. â€Å"The frog is not for sale, ma'am, I'm sorry. It's defective.† â€Å"Then why do you have it on the shelf? Why is it marked for sale? I don't see any defect.† Evidently she couldn't see that the goofy porcelain frog was not only glowing in her hands, it had started to pulsate. Charlie reached across the counter and snatched it away from her. â€Å"It's radioactive, ma'am. I'm sorry. You can't buy it.† â€Å"I wasn't dating her,† Ray said. â€Å"I just flew to the Philippines to meet her.† â€Å"It is not radioactive,† the woman said. â€Å"You're just trying to jack up the price. Fine, I'll give you twenty for it.† â€Å"No, ma'am, public safety,† Charlie said, trying to look concerned, holding the frog to his chest as if shielding her from its dangerous energy. â€Å"And it's clearly ridiculous. You'll note that this frog is playing a banjo with only two strings. A travesty, really. Why don't you let my colleague show you something in a cymbal-playing monkey. Ray, could you show this young woman something in a monkey, please.† Charlie hoped that the â€Å"young woman† would win him points. The woman backed away from the counter, holding her purse before her like a shield. â€Å"I'm not sure I want to buy anything from you wack jobs.† â€Å"Hey!† Ray protested, as if to say that there was only one wack job on duty and he wasn't it. Then she did it, she quickstepped to a rack of shoes and picked up a pair of size-twelve, red Converse All Stars. They, too, were glowing. â€Å"I want these.† â€Å"No.† Charlie tossed the frog over his shoulder to Ray, who fumbled it and almost dropped it. â€Å"Those aren't for sale either.† The tweed woman backed away toward the door, holding the sneakers behind her. Charlie stalked her down the aisle, taking the occasional grab at the All Stars. â€Å"Give them.† When the woman butt-bumped into the front door and the bell over the jamb jingled, she looked up and Charlie made his move, faking hard left, then going right, reaching around her and grabbing the laces of the sneakers, as well as a scoop of big, tweedy ass in the bargain. He quickstepped back toward the counter, tossed the sneakers to Ray, and then turned and fell into a sumo stance to challenge the tweed woman. She was still at the door, looking as if she couldn't decide to be terrified or disgusted. â€Å"You people need to be put away. I'm reporting you to the Better Business Bureau and the local merchants' association. And you, Mr. Asher, can tell Ms. Severo that I will be back.† And with that, she was through the door and gone. Charlie turned to Ray. â€Å"Ms. Severo? Lily? She was here to see Lily?† â€Å"Truant officer,† Ray said. â€Å"She's been in a couple of times.† â€Å"You might have said something.† â€Å"I didn't want to lose the sale.† â€Å"So, Lily – â€Å" â€Å"Ducks out the back when she sees her coming. The woman also wanted to check with you that the notes for Lily's absences were legitimate. I vouched.† â€Å"Well, Lily is going back to school, and as of right now, I'm back to work.† â€Å"That's great. I took this call today – an estate in Pacific Heights. Lots of nice women's clothes.† Ray tapped a piece of notepaper on the counter. â€Å"I'm not really qualified to handle it.† â€Å"I'll do it, but first we have a lot to catch up on. Flip the ‘Closed' sign and lock the front door, would you, Ray?† Ray didn't move. â€Å"Sure, but – Charlie, are you sure that you're ready to go back to work?† He nodded to the sneakers and frog on the counter. â€Å"Oh, those, I think there's something wrong with them. You don't see anything unusual about those two items?† Ray looked again. â€Å"Nope.† â€Å"Or that once I took the frog away from her, she went right for a pair of sneakers that are clearly not her size?† Ray weighed the truth against the sweet deal he had here, with an apartment and under-the-table income and a boss that had really been a decent guy before he went 51/50, and he said, â€Å"Yeah, there was something strange about her.† â€Å"Aha!† said Charlie. â€Å"I just wish I knew where I could get a Geiger counter.† â€Å"I have a Geiger counter,† Ray said. â€Å"You do?† â€Å"Sure, you want me to get it?† â€Å"Maybe later,† Charlie said. â€Å"Just lock up, and help me gather up some of the merchandise.† Over the next hour Ray watched as Charlie moved a set of what seemed randomly chosen items from the store to the back room, directing him to under no circumstances put them back out or sell them to anyone. Then he retrieved the Geiger counter that he'd obtained on a sweet trade for a stringless oversized tennis racket and tested each item as Charlie instructed. And, of course, they were as inert as dirt. â€Å"And you don't see any glowing or pulsating or anything in this pile?† Charlie asked. â€Å"Sorry.† Ray shook his head, feeling a little embarrassed that he was witnessing this. â€Å"Good first day back to work, though,† Ray said, trying to make it all better. â€Å"Maybe you should call it a day, go check on the baby, and make that estate call in the morning. I'll box this stuff up and mark it so Lily won't sell or trade it.† â€Å"Okay,† Charlie said. â€Å"But don't throw it out, either. I'm going to figure this out.† â€Å"You betcha, boss. See you in the morning.† â€Å"Yeah, thanks, Ray. You can go home when you finish.† Charlie went back to his apartment, checking his hands the whole way to see if any of the red glow from the pile of objects had rubbed off on them, but they seemed normal. He sent Jane home, fed and bathed Sophie, and read her to sleep with a few pages from Slaughterhouse-Five, then went to bed early and slept fitfully. He awoke the next morning in a haze, then sat bolt upright in bed, eyes wide and heart pounding when he saw the note sitting on the nightstand. Another one. Then he noticed that this time it wasn't his handwriting, and the number was obviously a phone number, and he sighed. It was the estate appointment that Ray had made for him. He'd put it on the nightstand so he wouldn't forget. Mr. Michael Mainheart, it read; then upscale women's clothing and furs, with a double underline. The phone number had a local exchange. He picked up the note, and under it was a second piece of notepaper, this one with the same name, written in his own handwriting, and under it, the numeral 5. He didn't remember writing any of it. At that moment, something large and dark passed by the second-story bedroom window, but by the time he looked up, it was gone. A blanket of fog lay over the Bay and from Pacific Heights the great orange towers of the Golden Gate Bridge jutted through the fog bank like carrots from the faces of sleeping conjoined twin snowmen. In the Heights, the morning sun had already opened the sky and workmen were scurrying about, tending yards and gardens around the mansions. When he arrived at the home of Michael Mainheart the first thing Charlie noticed was that no one noticed him. There were two guys working in the yard, to whom Charlie waved as he passed, but they did not wave back. Then the mailman, who was coming off the big porch, drove him off the walkway into the dewy grass without so much as an â€Å"excuse me.† â€Å"Excuse me!† Charlie said, sarcastically, but the mailman was wearing headphones and listening to something that was inspiring him to bob his head like a pigeon feeding on amphetamines, and he bopped on. Charlie was going to shout something devastatingly clever, then thought better of it, for although it had been some years since he'd heard of a postal employee perpetrating a massacre, as long as the term â€Å"going postal† referred to anything besides choosing a shipping carrier, he felt he shouldn't press his luck. Called a wack job by a complete stranger one day and shouldered off the sidewalk by a civil servant the next: this city was becoming a jungle. Charlie rang the bell and waited to the side of the twelve-foot leaded-glass door. A minute later he heard light, shuffling steps approaching and a diminutive silhouette moved behind the glass. The door swung open slowly. â€Å"Mr. Asher,† said Michael Mainheart. â€Å"Thank you for coming.† The old man was swimming in a houndstooth suit that he must have bought thirty years ago when he was a more robust fellow. When he shook Charlie's hand his skin felt like an old wonton wrapper, cool and a little powdery. Charlie tried not to shudder as the old man led him into a grand marble rotunda, with leaded-glass windows running to a vaulted, forty-foot ceiling and a circular staircase that swept up to a landing that led off to the upper wings of the house. Charlie had often wondered what it was like to have a house with wings. How would you ever find your car keys? â€Å"Come this way,† Mainheart said. â€Å"I'll show you where my wife kept her clothes.† â€Å"I'm sorry about your loss,† Charlie said automatically. He'd been on scores of estate calls. You don't want to come off as some kind of vulture, his father used to say. Always compliment the merchandise; it might be a piece of crap to you, but they might have a lot of their soul poured into it. Compliment but never covet. You can make a profit and preserve everyone's dignity in the process. â€Å"Holy shit,† Charlie said as he followed the old man into a walk-in closet the size of his own apartment. â€Å"I mean – your wife had exquisite taste, Mr. Mainheart.† There was row upon row of designer couture clothing, everything from evening gowns to racks, two tiers high, of knit suits, arranged by color and level of formality – an opulent rainbow of silk and linen and wool. Cashmere sweaters, coats, capes, jackets, skirts, blouses, lingerie. The closet was shaped like a T, with a large vanity and mirror at the apex, and accessories on each wing (even the closet with wings!), shoes on one side, belts, scarves, and handbags on the other. A whole wing of shoes, Italian and French, handmade, from the skins of animals who had led happy, blemish-free lives. Full-length mirrors flanked the vanity at the end of the closet and Charlie caught the reflection of himself and Michael Mainheart in the mirror, he in his secondhand gray pinstripe and Mainheart in his ill-fitting houndstooth, studies in gray and black, stark and lifeless-looking in this vibrant garden. The old man went to the chair at the vanity and sat down with a creak and a wheeze. â€Å"I expect it will take you some time to assess it,† he said. Charlie stood in the middle of the closet and looked around for a second before replying. â€Å"It depends, Mr. Mainheart, on what you want to part with.† â€Å"All of it. Every stitch. I can't stand the feel of her in here.† His voice broke. â€Å"I want it gone.† He looked away from Charlie at the shoe wing, trying not to show that he was tearing up. â€Å"I understand,† Charlie said, not sure what to say. This collection was completely out of his league. â€Å"No, you don't understand, young man. You couldn't understand. Emily was my life. I got up in the morning for her, I went to work for her, I built a business for her. I couldn't wait to get home at night to tell her about my day. I went to bed with her and I dreamed about her when I slept. She was my passion, my wife, my best friend, the love of my life. And one day, without warning, she was gone and my life is a void. You couldn't possibly understand.† But Charlie did. â€Å"Do you have any children, Mr. Mainheart?† â€Å"Two sons. They came back for the funeral, then they went home to their own families. They offer to do whatever they can, but†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"They can't,† Charlie finished for him. â€Å"No one can.† Now the old man looked up at him, his face as bereft and barren as a mummified basset hound. â€Å"I just want to die.† â€Å"Don't say that,† Charlie said, because that's what you say. â€Å"That feeling will pass.† Which he said because everyone had been saying it to him. As far as he knew, he was just slinging bullshit clichs. â€Å"She was – † Mainheart's voice caught on the edge of a sob. A strong man, at once overcome by his grief and embarrassed that he was showing it. â€Å"I know,† Charlie said, thinking about how Rachel still occupied that place in his heart, and when he turned in the kitchen to say something to her, and she wasn't there, it took his breath. â€Å"She was – â€Å" â€Å"I know,† Charlie interrupted, trying to give the old man a pass, because he knew what Mainheart was feeling. She was meaning and order and light, and now that she's gone, chaos falls like a dark leaden cloud. â€Å"She was so phenomenally stupid.† â€Å"What?† Charlie looked up so quickly he heard a vertebra pop in his neck. Hadn't seen that coming. â€Å"The dumb broad ate silica gel,† Mainheart said, irritated as well as agonized. â€Å"What?† Charlie was shaking his head, as if trying to rattle something loose. â€Å"Silica gel.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Silica gel! Silica gel! Silica gel, you idiot!† Charlie felt as if he should shout the name of some arcane stuff back at him: Well, symethicone! Symethicone! Symethicone, you butt-nugget! Instead he said, â€Å"The stuff fake breasts are made of? She ate that?† The image of a well-dressed older woman macking on a goopish spoonful of artificial boob spooge was running across the lobes of his brain like a stuttering nightmare. Mainheart pushed himself to his feet on the vanity. â€Å"No, the little packets of stuff they pack in with electronic equipment and cameras.† â€Å"The ‘Do Not Eat' stuff?† â€Å"Exactly.† â€Å"But it says right on the packet – she ate that?† â€Å"Yes. The furrier put packets of it in with her furs when he installed that cabinet.† Mainheart pointed. Charlie turned, and behind the large closet door where they had entered was a lighted glass cabinet – inside hung a dozen or so fur coats. The cabinet probably had its own air-conditioning unit to control the humidity, but that wasn't what Charlie was noticing. Even under the recessed fluorescent light inside the cabinet, one of the coats was clearly glowing red and pulsating. He turned back to Mainheart slowly, trying not to overreact, not sure, in fact, what would constitute an overreaction in this case, so he tried to sound calm, but not willing to take any shit. â€Å"Mr. Mainheart, I appreciate your loss, but is there something more going on here than you've told me?† â€Å"I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean.† â€Å"I mean,† Charlie said, â€Å"why, of all the used-clothing dealers in the Bay Area, did you decide to call me? There are people who are much more qualified to deal with a collection of this size and quality.† Charlie stormed over to the fur cabinet and pulled open the door. It made a floof-tha sound that the seal on a refrigerator door makes when opened. He grabbed the glowing jacket – fox fur, it appeared to be. â€Å"Or was it this? Did the call have something to do with this?† Charlie brandished the jacket like he was holding a murder weapon before the accused. In short, he thought about adding, are you fucking with me? â€Å"You were the first used-clothing dealer in the phone book.† Charlie let the jacket drop. â€Å"Asher's Secondhand?† â€Å"Starts with an A,† Mainheart said, slowly, carefully – obviously resisting the urge to call Charlie an idiot again. â€Å"So it has nothing to do with this jacket?† â€Å"Well, it has something to do with that jacket. I'd like you to take it away with all the rest of it.† â€Å"Oh,† Charlie said, trying to recover. â€Å"Mr. Mainheart, I appreciate the call, and this is certainly a beautiful collection, amazing, really, but I'm not equipped to take on this kind of inventory. And I'll be honest with you, even though my father would be spinning in his grave for telling you this, there is probably a million dollars' worth of clothes in this closet. Maybe more. And given the time and space to resell it, it's probably worth a quarter of that. I just don't have that kind of money.† â€Å"We can work something out,† Mainheart said. â€Å"Just to get it out of the house – â€Å" â€Å"I could take some of it on consignment, I suppose – â€Å" â€Å"Five hundred dollars.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Give me five hundred dollars and get it out of here by tomorrow and it's yours.† Charlie started to object, but he could feel what felt like the ghost of his father rising up to bonk him on the head with a spittoon if he didn't stop himself. We provide a valuable service, son. We are like an orphanage to art and artifact, because we are willing to handle the unwanted, we give them value. â€Å"I couldn't do that, Mr. Mainheart, I feel as if I'd be taking advantage of your grief.† Oh for Christ's sake, you fucking loser, you are no son of mine. I have no son. Was that the ghost of Charlie's father, rattling chains in his head? Why, then, did it have the voice and vocabulary of Lily? Can a conscience be greedy? â€Å"You would be doing me a favor, Mr. Asher. A huge favor. If you don't take it, my next call is to the Goodwill. I promised Emily that if something ever happened to her that I wouldn't just give her things away. Please.† And there was so much pain in the old man's voice that Charlie had to look away. Charlie felt for the old man because he did understand. He couldn't do anything to help, couldn't say, It will get better, like everyone kept saying to him. It wasn't getting better. Different, but not better. And this fellow had fifty more years in which to pack his hopes, or in his case, his history. â€Å"Let me think about it. Check into storage. If I can handle it, I'll call you tomorrow, would that be all right?† â€Å"I'd be grateful,† Mainheart said. Then, for no reason that he could think of, Charlie said, â€Å"May I take this jacket with me? As an example of the quality of the collection, in case I have to divide it among other dealers.† â€Å"That would be fine. Let me show you out.† As they passed into the rotunda, a shadow passed across the leaded-glass windows, three stories up. A large shadow. Charlie paused on the steps and waited for the old man to react, but he just tottered on down the staircase, leaning heavily on the railing as he went. When Mainheart reached the door he turned to Charlie, extending his hand. â€Å"I'm sorry about that, uh, outburst upstairs. I haven't been myself since – â€Å" As the old man began to open the door a figure dropped outside, casting the silhouette of a bird as tall as a man through the glass. â€Å"No!† Charlie dove forward, knocking the old man aside and slamming the door on the great bird's head, the heavy black beak stabbing through and snapping like hedge clippers, rattling an umbrella stand and scattering its contents across the marble floor. Charlie's face was only inches from the bird's eye, and he shoved the door with his shoulder, trying to keep the beak from snapping off one of his hands. The bird's claws raked against the glass, cracking one of the thick beveled panels as the animal thrashed to free itself. Charlie threw his hip against the doorjamb then slid down it, dropped the fox jacket, and snatched one of the umbrellas from the floor. He stabbed up into the bird's neck feathers, but lost his purchase on the doorjamb – one of the black talons snaked through the opening and raked across his forearm, cutting through his jacket, his shirtsleeve, and into the flesh. Charlie shoved the umbrella with all he had, driving the bird's head back through the opening. The raven let out a screech and took flight, its wings making a great whooshing noise as it went. Charlie lay on his back, out of breath, staring at the leaded-glass panels, as if any moment the shadow of the giant raven would come back, then he looked to Michael Mainheart, who lay crumpled on his side like a stringless marionette. Beside his head lay a cane with an ivory handle that had been carved into the shape of a polar bear that had fallen from the umbrella stand. The cane was glowing red. The old man was not breathing. â€Å"Well that's fucked up,† Charlie said.

Dewey Theory of Experience

Dewey’s philosophy of education is closely related to his unified philosophy of pragmatism and democracy, which can be simply expressed as experience = life = education, which sets the stage for this paper. According to Dewey, efficient education is contingent on an intrinsic understanding of human nature and how they have the experiences they do, as well as the unique differences between each student. It served a pragmatic purpose, of discovery learning for a moral purpose and the self actualization of the subject as an effective member of democratic society (Trifonas and Ghiraldelli, 2004).His theory of education largely focused on the theme of active learning by experience, in which learning was a social, rather than an individual activity. Experience, in Deweyian terms, is â€Å"the undivided, continuous transaction or interaction between human beings and their environment†, as stated by Ziniewicz (1999), further elaborating that it includes not only thought but als o feeling, doing, suffering, handling, and perceiving. It follows then that continuity and interaction forms the core foundation for education for Dewey.Continuity postulates that humans are affected by experience, and learn something from every experience, both positive and negative. Accumulated learned experience influences the nature of further experiences, and hence all experiences are inextricably linked, both past and potential. Hence, continuity is the concept that each experience is stored and carried on into the future. Interaction is a further elaboration of continuity, in the sense that it defines how past experiences interact with the current situation and affects one’s present experience.As such, any situation can be experienced differently due to unique individual differences, and thus it is critically important for educators to understand student past experiences as they have no control over it. As Dewey (1902) himself states, â€Å"Learning is active. It invo lves reaching out of the mind. It involves organic assimilation starting from within†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (), and indeed, inquiry was one of the core concepts of Dewey’s unified philosophy. Dewey thought that inquiry being an observable behavioral process, training in its techniques is essential in the education (of young children), and especially in the course of life-long learning.In this context, we can also easily understand Dewey’s strong opposition to institutionalized education, in which learning took place in an artificial educational environment, where pre-ordained knowledge was delivered, not inquired for and interacted with. In summary, Dewey believed that education should not be of facts and figures. Rather, education should teach skills and knowledge which can be fully integrated into their lives as humans and citizens (of a democratic society). It should broaden the intellect, and impart problem solving and critical thinking skills, as the earlier passage on inq uiry demonstrates. References Dewey, J. (1902), The Child and the Curriculum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Ziniewicz, Gordon L. (1999) John Dewey: Experience, Community, and Communication. Retrieved February 25, 2006, from http://www.fred.net/tzaka/dewey.html Trifonas, Peter Pericles, Ghiraldelli, Paulo Jr. (2004). Experience, Reason, and Education.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   JCT. Rochester: Winter 2004. Vol. 20, Iss. 4;   pg. 141 Retrieved February 25, 2006, from http://proquest.umi.com.virtual.anu.edu.au/pqdweb?did=783839511&sid=10&Fmt=4&clientId=20870&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Analysis Of The Epic Of Gilgamesh - 979 Words

The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the legend of King Gilgamesh of Uruk and his adventures with the feral human Enkidu. At the beginning Gilgamesh shares a lot of similarities to Egyptian Pharaohs. He’s worshiped by his people in a way that’s almost pious and holds himself up with a certain arrogance. The only difference with Gilgamesh is he is one part deity and two parts human. Over the coarse of the Epic we see Gilgamesh’s demeanor change to a more humble one. This change can be attributed to the trials and tribulation he endures with Enkidu as well as the influence of the female characters he encounters along his journey. Even though the female characters did not have much presence in the epic they were by far the most influential characters. The first female character we meet is Shamhat. Shamhat is a prostitute of the temple of Ishtar. Even though she is only briefly in the epic she has a lot of influence on Enkidu. Enkidu was created in the image of Aruru to combat Gilgamesh’s arrogance. We first find him in the wilderness setting free animals that have been trapped by a hunter. The hunter eventually finds Enkidu at a watering place. He plots to tame Enkidu by venturing to Uruk and requesting Gilgamesh for aid. After speaking to Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh sends Shamhat to seduce Enkidu. After seducing and having sex with Enkidu for six days and seven nights the animals that Enkidu knew all his life instead of being friendly, would dart away; Enkidu was becoming more human thanShow MoreRelatedThe Epic Of Gilgamesh And Analysis1436 Words   |  6 Pages The Epic of Gilgamesh –Summary and analysis Introduction The Epic of Gilgamesh is an excerpt of the original text of the Epic listed in the Sources of the Western Tradition, 5th edition, by Perry, Peden and Von Laue (2003). 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Furthermore, each mental fantasy referenced within the epic delineates the rationale of all beings to actRead MoreAnalysis of the Epic of Gilgamesh Essay1122 Words   |  5 PagesAnalysis of the Epic of Gilgamesh The epic of Gilgamesh is the earliest primary document discovered in human history dating back to approximately 2,000 B.C.E. This document tells a story of an ancient King Gilgamesh, ruler of Sumer in 2,700 B.C.E. who is created gloriously by gods as one third man and two third god. In this epic, Gilgamesh begins his kingship as an audacious and immature ruler. Exhausted from complaints, the gods send a wild man named Enkidu to become civilized and assist GilgameshRead MoreEpic Of Gilgamesh Literary Analysis1837 Words   |  8 Pagesmortality, divinity, punishments are told through stories of individuals and societies. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a Mesopotamian book that was written long before the Bible. 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Aruru created Enkidu to be just like Gilgamesh and for them to contend together and leave Uruk in quiet. When Gilgamesh got up and went to the house of a bride waiting for the bridegroom, Enkidu stepped outRead MoreAnalysis Of The Epic Of Gilgamesh 1284 Words   |  6 PagesPerhaps one of the earliest pieces of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh is a tale about a Mesopotamian king named Gilgamesh who crudely dominates the natural world surrounding his gleaming society. Juxtaposing Gilgamesh’s godlike stature, Enkidu is a wild beast used to counterbalance the king in a literary sense. The hierarchical dichotomy expressed in the epic has appeared thematically within numerous mediums, including the revered artwork of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Raised in the Lower East Sid e (LES)Read MoreAnalysis Of The Epic Of Gilgamesh 1119 Words   |  5 PagesTranslation Comparison Gilgamesh The Epic of Gilgamesh has been read and reviewed/ critiqued by numerous authors. I took the articles’ ‘Angiology in the Epic of Gilgamesh’ by Th. Jacobson, and compared it to Benjamin Fosters ‘A New edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh’ These two articles both critique the writings of The Epic of Gilgamesh but in different ways. Foster’s article is a critique on a critique that has been written about The Epic of Gilgamesh, where as Jacobson critiques the epic itself, so we are