Melvilles White Jacket as Public Forum on Corporal Punishment :: Melville White Jacket Essays

Melville's White Jacket as Public Forum on Corporal Punishment Author, Herman Melville utilized many of his literary works as a public forum for politics. Subsequently, the nineteenth century became a time period of great outspokenness among authors who condemned many of societies woes. Authors such as: Thoreau, Longfellow and Emerson all voiced their opposition to these tragedies. Melville wrote openly about slavery, abuse, and many other social injustices. In his novel, White Jacket, Melville wrote against corporal punishment aboard United States Naval Frigates. He cited many instances of flogging, imprisoning sailors, and other humiliating procedures endured by navy men at the hands of commanding officers. Unfortunately, corporal punishment was a legal means of punishment as governed by the Articles of War. Melville interjected a positive feeling into the narrative, White Jacket, by introducing three humanitarians. These included: Mad Jack, Colbrook, and Jack Chase. Each of these characters spoke out against corporal punishment in the narrative; however, the ultimate decision to punish the men remained in the hands of the unforgiving captains at sea. The main character of the novel occurred as White Jacket. Unfortunately, he committed an unwitting offense and was to be subjected to flogging. In his frantic last moments prior to flogging, White Jacket envisioned himself grabbing Captain Claret and flinging them both over the side to the more forgiving sea. Fortunately, humanitarians, Colbrook and Chase, both stepped forward at great risk to themselves and saved White Jacket from humiliation and abuse. White Jacket's desperate attempt to elude punishment conveyed to society the drastic measures needed to induce change. In the end, it remained obvious that Melville likened the ship to a wo rking model of society. He observed that naval discipline was not compatible with democratic ideology. Author Eleanor Simpson stated in her essay, "Melville and the Negro," that Melville attacks all forms of arbitrary government and legalized brutality. Though his immediate target is the military machine as codified in the Articles of War, his whole stance is one of democratic rebellion against the law or act of government, which undermines or simply ignores the dignity and rights of men. Melville stated, "He knows the same law which impels it-the same law by which the culprits of the day must suffer; that by that very law he also is liable at any time to be judged and condemned.

Accounting Cycle

The accounting cycle is a systematic process used to help perform the basic function of accounting, which is to identify, record, and communicate information. A business or organization may have its own unique way of performing its accounting cycle, but each must perform the task in one way or another. Alvarez Bookkeeping Services, a small family operated business, has a very simplified version of the accounting cycle. The company was established in 1971 and is located in Flushing, NY.The company is consists of four employees this includes the owner. One person, the owner, performs the entire accounting cycle for the Alvarez Bookkeeping Services. Gradually, the accounting cycle has evolved much like business have evolved; the multiple steps have been reduced as technology has simplified the process, â€Å"today, most companies use accounting software that processes many of these steps simultaneously† (Averkamp, n. d. , para. 3).The accounting cycle consists of: identifying, jo urnalizing, posting, trail balance, adjusted entries, adjusted trial balance, preparing financial statements, closing, post-closing trial balance, reversing entries, and financial statements (Kieso, Weygandt, & Warfield, 2007). Identifying a transaction or event is the first step in the cycle; businesses engage in various activities on a daily, as a result, determining when to record and activity is crucial. Once the activity is identified a transaction must be recorded, the next step is to journalize the transaction.The journalizing process can be completed in a variety of ways; the most common method is the general journal, although some companies keep other special journals. The next step in the accounting cycle is posting, which is the procedure of transferring journal entries to the ledger accounts (Kieso et al. , 2007), so that the transactions reflect in the appropriate ledger accounts balances. After the transactions from the general journal have passed to the general ledger a trail balance can be performed. The trial balance â€Å"lists accounts and their balances at a given time† (Kieso et al., 2007, pg. 74), which is very useful in detecting errors that may have occurred during recording or posting. In the event an error is detected or a transaction is missing, an adjusting entry is made. Adjusting entries may also be made to update an account, such as prepaid accounts. For instance, a company may have pre-paid insurance on its books as assets, at the end of the period an adjusting entry is made to reflect what is prepaid and what an expense is. Often times a trial balance is done after the adjusting entries are made just to be sure everything is still in balance.At this point in the accounting cycle, the financial reports are typically generated, the most common are the: balance sheet, income statement, and retained earnings. The accounting cycle concludes with the closing entries and closing trial balances. The expense and revenue accounts are closed against income summary, which is closed against retained earnings; thus, preparing the cycle to start again in the coming period. Today, technology is used often in accounting and has made it easier processing accounting. The way a company processes accounting is changing.Alvarez Bookkeeping Services uses accounting software called Peachtree Quantum has vastly improved the accounting cycle process. The transactions are recorded in the software’s general journal, if the transaction is out of balance the system will not complete the transaction and prompt to balance the transaction, therefore eliminating the need for trial balances. Once the transaction is recorded the system automatically posts to proper ledger accounts and also carries the information over to financial statements.If the owner wishes to review how the company is doing, he would run a financial report by selecting the report and forms option selecting the specific report they would like run. Adjustin g entries are still necessary, but the accounting cycle has been effectively reduced to: identifying, journalizing, adjusted entries, financial statements, and closing. The accounting cycle is proven methodical system is beneficial in performing accounting tasks at Alvarez Bookkeeping Service.The role of people and systems in the cycle has changed the way companies perform the accounting cycle; some companies have departments specified for specific tasks of the cycle, whereas Alvarez Bookkeeping Services has one individual who does the entire process. Nonetheless, companies have benefited from the advancements in technology and most notably in accounting systems. Accounting systems have expedited the process and given more accurate results, which allow the user to focus on analyzing the information.

Effects of Slavery on American Society - 2112 Words

African American slavery has a dramatic impact on slaves and it changed all time periods in American society throughout America’s history. From the 1600’s when slaves first arrived from Africa, through the Civil War, Great Depression, Civil Rights Era and up until today, slavery’s impact has been felt in America. Slavery was brought to America as early as 1619, but we chose to keep it here for over 200 years, longer than any other country who also adopted the ways of slavery. Our economy flourished with the cheap labor of slaves, and as new inventions, and products came to our attention, we always had a cheap way to produce a mass quantity of it. The South is known for being Pro-slavery, while the Northern states where known for†¦show more content†¦An example from his narrative is â€Å"†¦every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This shows that every slave was going through a time of depression. The author also shows how Equiano’s fear of the white men. This quote â€Å"†¦but, being afraid of him, I would not take it out of his hand,† demonstrates that he wouldn’t even take food from them, even though he was starving. Equiano feared the white men and wouldn’t even reach out when they offered a helping hand because of his past experiences. What is more important is what Equiano says about how the slave market affects families. He expresses how cruel the white slave traders were with slave families in the quote â€Å"†¦relations and friends separated most of them never to see each other again.† This is explaining that families were split up, and most of the time, never got to see one another ever again. In his slave narrative Equiano demonstrates the horror and struggle of living in slavery. His use of imagery conveys a powerful feeling of sympathy into his readers, and also a feeling of anger and hatred towards white slave traders. Equiano uses a lot of examples of families being separated from one another; I think he does this to give you an example of just how cruel and careless the white men were. Overall Equiano’s message was that slavery was a horrible thing, and he was trying to get that message into theShow MoreRelatedEffects Of Slavery On The American Society Essay2196 Words   |  9 PagesGerson Ventura and effect essay Nov 3rd, 2015 Cause and effect of slavery on the American society The term slave is defined as a person held in servitude of another, or one that has no control to a dominating influence. A long time ago people realized that the slaves could be used to make a profit, and during the early 16th century, and sailors began to travel to Africa to get slaves. 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