Planning Project of PepsiCo in the United Kingdom Assignment

Planning Project of PepsiCo in the United Kingdom - Assignment Example To achieve this purpose, the chosen company is PepsiCo. Inc. which manufactures and markets diverse brands. The origin of Pepsi Cola was traced from the talent of Caleb Bradham, a New Bern, North Carolina pharmacist more than 120 years ago. Together with Coca-Cola, these two soft drinks manufacturer has revolutionized the beverage industry through their concoction of carbonated soft drinks (CDS), defined by Canadean (2010) as beverages that include sweetened, non-alcoholic drinks containing carbon dioxide (par. 1). The British Soft Drinks Association (BSDA) (2010) more comprehensively defined carbonates as â€Å"ready to drink including draught dispense; home dispense; regular including sparkling juice; low calorie and zero calorie; cola; lemon including lemonade; lemon-lime; mixers including tonic and bitter drinks; orange; shandy; others including other carbonated fruit flavours, energy drinks, sparkling flavoured water, health drinks and herbal drinks† (British Soft Drinks Association (BSDA) 2010, 9). In the UK, PepsiCo. started operations in 1953 and the Pepsi Max brand was firs t marketed in 1993 (PepsiCo UK & Ireland 2011). believe we should be known not just for the financial results we generate but also for the imprint we leave on society as a whole† (PepsiCo UK & Ireland 2011). To achieve this purpose, the organization designed and implemented strategies that focus on healthier products, protecting the environment, and providing holistic support for personal and professional growth for their people. As such, PepsiCo UK aims to transform their core business into providing products with potential health benefits and ensure that they would be catalysts of change in UK’s food and beverage industry (PepsiCo UK & Ireland 2011). Accordingly, the future thrusts of the organization are to lead in the promotion of healthy products by producing and delivering balanced amounts of fruit, vegetables, wholegrain, fiber, and other positive nutrients and food groups  (PepsiCo UK & Ireland 2011).

Government Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Government - Essay Example Goodlad, or David Berliner and Bruce Biddle) questioned the majority of its findings, sometimes pointing at its logical or statistical inconsistencies (â€Å"A Nation at Risk†). According to Berliner and Biddle, for instance, the implementation of new academic-performance standards was ‘misdirected’, as this, and similar, reforms did not lead to any significant changes in the field. Nonetheless, despite such criticisms, numerous investigations and surveys published around 2003, the report’s 20th anniversary, purported to show that the progress done in the field of education was rather significant, with more rigorous course requirements being especially referenced (â€Å"A Nation at Risk†). To my mind, the problems that A Nation at Risk highlighted are still with us, as the public school system is often under-financed, a teachers’ shortage problem is not solved yet, and the education standards are somewhat lacking to face the shifting realities of the U.S. and world economy’s requirements. The conduct of educational reform is dependent entirely on the national and state institutions that are charged with the development of educational sphere. That is why the persistent delays in the conduct of necessary educational reforms point to the absence of political will on behalf of their

Minimum Wage Debate in the US

Minimum Wage Debate in the US Minimum wage has been a subject of sustained and polarizing debate in the realm of U.S. labor economics right from the time the Department of Labor came into existence in 1913 (Neumark, Salas Wascher, 2014). The debate is older than the official federal minimum wage legislation, which came into force in 1938. Nonetheless, despite the massive attention this subject has elicited over this lengthy period, a consensus concerning the effect of minimum wage on employment is not in the vicinity. Experts have argued plausibly both in favor of and against minimum wage laws. Even so, this paper seeks to add its voice to this debate by arguing that minimum wage laws are necessary because they speed up economic recovery after recessions, safeguard workers from exploitation, and attempt to bridge the income inequality crisis the country is presently witnessing. Annotated Bibliography Meer, J., West, J. (2015). Effects of the minimum wage on employment dynamics. Journal of Human Resources. Retrieved from http://people.tamu.edu/~jmeer/Meer_West_Minimum_Wage.pdf In this journal article, the authors advance a familiar argument in the field of labor economics. In their view, an increase in minimum wage or the existence of laws that specify a particular minimum wage serves to reduce employment growth over a lengthy period. Apparently, the reason most studies that seek to establish a relationship between minimum wage and employment dynamics fail to do so due to the methods they employ. An example is the use of state-specific time trends (p. 1). Thus, the authors utilize state panel administrative employment data to arrive at their finding. Reportedly, the finding is in agreement with a number of other empirical findings. This journal article does not seem to agree with the position outlined in the thesis statement. However, a source, it will help in the development of the argument by bringing in the perspective of those opposed to minimum wages or their increase. A comprehensive and fully developed argument is one that pays attention to the opposing sides argument. This article and others that make similar arguments will serve to create this balance. Neumark, D., Salas, J. I., Wascher, W. (2014). Revisiting the minimum wage-employment debate: Throwing out the baby with the bathwater? ILR Review, 67(3 suppl), 608-648. This article revisits the minimum wage employment debate, apparently after a period of the authors abstinence from this area of focus for some time. According to the article, the minimum wage debate is age old, but in recent times, emergent literature is increasingly propagating the idea that new research in this area is inaccurate. The reason behind such claims is that the new research employs methods that critics say do not consider spatial heterogeneity. The article explores the research designs more closely and concludes that indeed, there is a cause for concern with these new researches. The research designs they employ are faulty. Through such designs, the studies indicate that minimum wage has not interfered with employment noticeably. In contrast, a link exists between minimum wages and employment rates. This article achieves its purpose by considering a number of other studies in the minimum wage debate. The studies it examines are those that claim to find no significant relationship between minimum wage and employment and those that criticize such studies. Insofar as the minimum wage debate is concerned, this article is informative due to fact that it gives the debate a historical context that many article fail to capture. It explains when and how the debate started as well as how it has developed over the years. Despite not taking a clear stand on whether minimum is bad or good, it is a great resource for the upcoming paper due to its informative nature. Orrenius, P. M., Zavodny, M. (2008). The effect of minimum wages on immigrants employment and earnings. ILR Review, 61(4), 544-563. In this article, the relationship between minimum wage laws are examined with the intent of determining the nature of impact such laws have on minimum wage earners. In contrast to natives, immigrants, who constitute the majority of minimum wage earners, are likely to be impacted more by minimum wage laws. Immigrants are often less educated, possess limited English language skills, and less connected socially. Although no direct indications of adverse effects of minimum wage laws on employment among minimum wage earners were established, there is a possibility that such laws influenced the settlement decisions of some immigrants. Trends seem to indicate that they preferred states in which the minimum wage bar was not high. In this article, the minimum wage debate is approached from a new perspective, the perspective of the minimum wage earner. Evidence suggests that although many may assume that minimum wage earners would rush to high minimum wage states, they actually tend to prefer low minimum wage states. The rationale behind this kind of disharmony is that when the minimum wage is high, employers tend to seek experience or higher levels of education. Based on what the article was investigating, immigrants will obviously shy away from such states. Thus, since this whole debate is about minimum wage, the article does well to approach it from the perspective of those groups that fall in the category of minimum wage earners. In other words, it is possible to determine how they feel about the whole issue. This unique approach will help diversify the argument. Pollin, R., Wicks-Lim, J. (2016). A $15 US minimum wage: How the fast-food industry could adjust without shedding jobs. Journal of Economic Issues, 50(3), 716-744. In this article, the possibility of adjusting from the current minimum wage to a minimum wage of $15 per hour without reducing the labor force is examined with fast food restaurants in mind. Apparently, fast food restaurants are the leading employers of minimum wage earners and those who earn below minimum wage. Thus, if they can adjust from the current minimum wage of $7.25 to $15 hourly, then any other employer can. This scenario is projected over a 4-year period with a two-step increment. It is achievable through turnover reductions, trend increases in sales growth, and modest annual price increases over the four-year period (p. 717). And fast food restaurants will not need to lower their profits to make the adjustment. The article is also unique in its approach to the debate. It does not preoccupy itself with whether the increase of minimum wage is bad or good. Instead, it seeks to demonstrate through a breakdown of relevant figures that it is possible for fast food restaurants to accommodate a minimum wage of $15 per hour without eating into their profits. The authors make an effort to be quite thorough in their analysis as well as breakdowns. The practical nature in which tackle this issue proves beyond doubt that a higher minimum wage is possible in America and stands in support of the argument of this project. Highly paid employees are prone to working hard and more effectively. Watanabe, M. (2013). Minimum wage, public investment, economic growth. Theoretical Economics Letters, 3(05), 288. In this article, the author argues in favor of minimum wage increases citing poverty reduction, and reasonable living as its direct outcomes. Despite there being divergent views on the same, through a two-period overlapping generation model, (p. 288) the author endeavors to show that the negativities associated with minimum wage increment can be countered with increased productivity among workers. Moreover, the study establishes that minimum wage increases have a positive on economic growth. This article also argues in favor of the position that is outlined in the thesis statement. This means it will in the development of a strong argument to show that despite the widespread claims that minimum wage increment has negative effects, there is actually a lot of good it can help achieve. The level of language and engagement with the technical economics in this article demonstrates the authors expertise in this field. As a consequence, this article gives an authoritative argument backed by facts and adequate examples. This will serve as a very important resource during the actual writing of the final paper. References Meer, J., West, J. (2015). Effects of the minimum wage on employment dynamics. Journal of Human Resources. Retrieved from http://people.tamu.edu/~jmeer/Meer_West_Minimum_Wage.pdf Neumark, D., Salas, J. I., Wascher, W. (2014). Revisiting the minimum wage-employment debate: Throwing out the baby with the bathwater? ILR Review, 67(3 suppl), 608-648. Orrenius, P. M., Zavodny, M. (2008). The effect of minimum wages on immigrants employment and earnings. ILR Review, 61(4), 544-563. Pollin, R., Wicks-Lim, J. (2016). A $15 US minimum wage: How the fast-food industry could adjust without shedding jobs. Journal of Economic Issues, 50(3), 716-744. Watanabe, M. (2013). Minimum wage, public investment, economic growth. Theoretical Economics Letters, 3(05), 288.

Adam Sandlers what The Hell Happened To Me?: How Music Affects Cult :: essays research papers

Adam Sandler's "What the Hell Happened to Me?": How Music Affects Culture This song means that culture affects how we grow up greater then most people think. I shows that when Adam Sandler was young, he was a well-rounded boy that liked to have fun. The song is also saying that our culture is affecting innocent youth that are forced to deal with the problems that the previous generations made for them. This song shows how all people are affected when they are really just innocent bystanders that have to witness the world at its roughest. They are forced to deal with it although they are truly unprepared for such a harsh treatment. Traits. The song presents cultural traits in that it shows how we grow up and are affected by culture. Cultural traits presented in this song are how we teach children and what we subject them to. Our methods of education and entertainment both affect how we turn out in the long run. The song shows how these traits affect how people grow up, and what they value in life. For example, the song talks about selling lemonade, eating popcorn, and watching parades. Then it goes on to say he's "only happy when [he's] drinking JD" The point is that people are changing because of society and our culture's lack of certain elements, such as respect and discipline. Values. The values presented by this song include the value of respect and discipline, and the need for more strict ways to keep a young mind safe of destruction. These values are presented in the line "I only did the things that Mama said I should, but now I do whatever I want." That line shows that values change as we age and the reason is because of society; obviously if Adam only did what was allowed, culture's values of discipline and respect must have turned him the wrong way, because his mother did not. Other values presented in the song are education and entertainment. This is shown by the lines stating that as a boy, Adam was well-behaved and had fun in parks and carnivals. He played in the snow and he loved sports, but as an adult he only finds pleasure in things he would never had imagined he could have only 20 years ago. Also, it is shown that culture has made such a mess of his mind that he can't understand why he would be in this shape. he presents this information to us in the lines "It makes no sense, I can't believe I'm me.

Night John Essay

Mrs. Barrows Us History I 25 August 2012 Nightjohn Reflection Questions Chapter I 1. The narrator of this story is Sarny and she’s twelve years old. 2. This story is told in first person. 3. Clel Waller is Sarny’s owner. 4. Sarny doesn’t care or really respect Waller because when he isn’t around she calls him dog droppings and many other names. 5. Sarny is not dumb and how I know this is because she’s just quiet and listens to learn new things and if she were to be dumb she wouldn’t learn anything. 6. Sarny’s mother is not around because she was sold when Sarny was four years old and old Delie raised Sarny. . The work that Sarny does on the plantation is working around the quarters, cleaning the yard, gathering eggs, and helping old Delie with the young ones. 8. What Sarny does at night is she gets on a pallet in the back of the long log house and thinks. Chapter II 1. Sarny’s job in the flower garden was to work on the roses an d her job allows her to chew on tobacco leaves to kill bugs. 2. Clel Waller paid one thousand dollars when he bought Nightjohn and this tells me that Nightjohn is worth money. 3. a. Sarny’s mammy prayed in the kettle. b.Sarny’s mammy prayed inside the kettle because they didn’t let pray so had to whisper in it. c. Sarny’s mammy prayed to be free. Chapter III 1. Nightjohn was brought in to the plantation with a rope to his neck. 2. The condition Nightjohn was in when brought to the plantation was bad. 3. The meals in the plantation were buttermilk down the trough, cornbread, and sometimes pieces of pork fat twice a day so the meals weren’t as good. 4. What Nightjohn did the first night on the plantation was teach Sarny the first letter of the alphabet and this tells me he is a genuine guy. 5.What Nightjohn tells Sarny about why reading is not allowed for slaves is that if white folks find out she is going to be in more trouble than she needs. Chapte r IV 1a. Alice was someone used for breeding on the Waller plantation. 1b. The first time that Alice tried to run away she was brought back and got whipped in front of all the slaves. 1c. The next time she tried to escape she got caught and killed by dogs. 2a. Jim was a slave in the Waller plantation. 2b. What happened to Jim when he tried to run away was get caught because he hid in a tree and the tree wasn’t high enough to escape the dogs and got killed by the dogs. a. Pawley was a slave in Clel’s plantation that fell in love with a girl in another plantation. 3b. What happened to Pawley was that he got caught coming back from another planation visiting a girl and Waller cut his heels and bled to death 4. Sarny thinks it’s brave and stupid at the same time to escape because it would be a miracle if slaves actually made it, but they always get caught. 5. Sarny does still continue to learn letters from Nightjohn and what that tells me about her character is that she sticks in what she believes in. 6a.The reason why Mammy reacts the way she did when she catches Nightjohn teaching Sarny is because she could be in big trouble if the white folks find out and she has to protect Sarny from any harm. 6b. Mammy’s attitude changes from being overprotective to being calm and understanding after Nightjohn explains his reason for teaching her. 7a. Nightjohn got scars in his back before he escaped a plantation. 7b. Nightjohn returned after escaping because he came back to teach slave children how to read and write. 7c. He wants to teach slave children to read and write because he wants them to have something to hold on to and to be brave.Chapter V 1. What Sarny is learning in her lessons with Nightjohn is how to read and write. 2a. Sarny was writing in the dirt. 2b. Sarny tells Waller that he deserves to go to hell. 2c. Waller kicks Sarny in the stomach. 2d. The conflict for Sarny is external because it is between her and Waller. 2e. Mammy was p unished and her punishment was getting shackled to the wall. 2f. Nightjohn confessed to teaching Sarny the letters and this tell me he is a brave individual. 2g. Waller cuts two of Nightjohn’s toes with the help of his son Robe. 2h.Sarny believes that Waller is cruel by what he did to Mammy and Nightjohn, and that he deserves nothing but the worse. Chapter VI 1. The actions that John takes after his toes are chopped off are admirable. He starts writing an A while all the slaves in the plantation are around him while saying he has learned his lesson. Then he writes a B saying â€Å"This is B. What I named my wifeâ€Å". One of the slaves then calls over Clel, their owner, and he continues with the next letter in the alphabet. While writing the letter C he says â€Å"This is the letter C like a mouth open just like if you had something important to say†. . Yes, I believe John will be successful with his planned because he is a brave man and would do anything to reach h is goal. 3. What John promises Sarny is that he will always be looking for her and she seems to believe him. I myself believe him because he seems like a man that’s about his words. Chapter VII 1. Nightjohn was successful with his plan because he made it away safely and afterwards came back for Sarny like he promised. 2. What has happened to Sarny since John left was that she never wrote words in the dirt learned the letters A-J. 3. Yes, John kept his promise to Sarny because he came back for her. . John takes Sarny to â€Å"School† and it is so secretive because the white people can’t find out about it. 5. Nightjohn was at the school teaching other kids while he was gone. 6. Nightjohn teaches reading by using catalogs. 7. Sarny feels very glad that she gets to write and learn again. Chapter Words 1. In this short chapter, Sarny tells us how every night he walks to school just to teach them how to read and write. 2. What I think would happen if another chapter w as added to the book is that it will tell us how Sarny is now a wise woman that sacrifices herself to help children learn how to read and write.

Change in Indian Family

Change in the Family structure and Familial relation in India. Introduction Family structure is the way that a household or a family is set up. It is different for every family as families may have single parents, may have both parents or may have step parents involved. The family is a basic unit of society. The study of the change in the family structure in India is quite complex. With the increase in the urbanization and industrialization, the concept of the family in India, which once created and maintained a common culture among the members of the family, is undergoing change.The family life or the family structure has remained the integral part of the Indian Society with the spirit of family solidarity. For generations, India has had a prevailing tradition of the joint family system. Usually the oldest male member of the family is the head of the joint Indian Family system. He is the one who makes all the important decisions of the family. After the urbanization and the economic development of the country, India has witnessed a break up of traditional joint family into more nuclear like family.Cohen, Yebudi A, in his book â€Å"Shrinking Households†, he said that households have reputedly been shrinking in size for ten thousand years or more , right up to the present , and this is a result of an evolving technology that requires fewer co-operating people to secure food, rear children and look after them. The Objective of Study The specific objective of this study is to understand the change in family structure in India and its familial relationship.

What Do You Find Interesting About The Work Of Grace Nichols Essay Example

What Do You Find Interesting About The Work Of Grace Nichols Essay Example What Do You Find Interesting About The Work Of Grace Nichols Paper What Do You Find Interesting About The Work Of Grace Nichols Paper Essay Topic: Interesting Grace Nichols was born in Guyana in 1950. She lived there until 1977 when she came to live with her partner, another poet. She writes many poems and anthologies. Her poems are mainly about black people and their sense of culture. She writes about the pride they have to be themselves and not to feel embarrassed about who they are. She has also written poetry about missing her home and about what it feels like to be away. I have chosen to study four poems by Grace Nichols: these are, Beauty, The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping, Like A Beacon and Island Man. These four poems all explore different aspects of cultural diversity. Beauty is about Nichols own views of beauty and not listening to the stereotypical ideas that are impounded into everybodys minds. Nichols doesnt mean beauty in the sense of having a perfect figure and features but beauty in the form of being proud of herself and content with whom she is. This poem is primarily about a fat black woman. Another of these poems is about a fat black woman. The title of this is The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping. Though this poem shows that she is proud of who she is, it also shows a little touch of insecurity within herself. I can tell this through the lines and de pretty face sales gals exchanging slimming glances These lines show that she feels anger towards the girls for having the stereotypical traits of beauty that she was so against in the last poem. It shows how she wants society to change and become less bothered about size. The other two poems are about being away and missing home. Like A Beacon is about Grace Nichols missing her home and the comforts that she used to have there. This poem shows that home is an important aspect of her life. She also seems to take it as an important part of other peoples lives too as the last poem Island Man is about a man from the Caribbean who lives in London: he misses his home and dreams about being there. Even though Nichols has written this poem about others, her sub heading is for a Caribbean island man in London who still wakes up to the sound of the sea. From the sub heading, it could be imagined that she wrote this thinking about herself as well as others. By writing that sub heading, it sounds as if she relates to the island man who features in her poem. It seems as if she wrote the heading to show her readers in that position that she empathises with them. Titles of poems can sometimes say a lot about a poem. Beauty is a short simple title. If the reader had only got as far as the title, it could be presumed that it would be similar in content to the stereotypical views of beauty or about the scenery. When the poem is read fully, it is actually about a fat black woman. It would surprise the reader because the first thought in a persons head is not one of beauty. The poem The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping, has a long but precise title. It tells you exactly what the poem is about. It is very direct and it hides nothing. To say, in the title of a poem The Fat Black Woman shows that Nichols is not ashamed to say, or to be who she is. One could presume that the poem is autobiographical because it changes from third-person text; to first-person text for the line Lord is aggravating. This indicates that she knows personally how this situation feels. For her to describe herself as a fat black woman in a poem, which is likely to be read by many people, takes a strong-minded person who isnt afraid to emphasise the fact that she is who she is. Like A Beacon is not a title which appears to give anything away. The word beacon can be associated with belisha beacons by a zebra crossing but this poem is not about these. In this poem, beacon is meant as a strong, important light. Nichols is implying that her home is the warmth and strength that she loves and is an important part of her life. Shes basically trying to say that her home is the light of her life. Island Man has a short title. It tells the reader very little (that it is about a man from an island) but the sub heading tells the reader a lot more. For an island man who lives in London and still wakes up to the sound of the sea. It explains what the poem is about and what it is trying to say, but it is very long. It is an appropriate sub heading but is too long to be a title. Island Man says what it needs to and the sub heading adds to it perfectly In most of these poems, she uses third person narrative but in one she uses first person and in another she switches between the two. In her poem Beauty, Nichols uses third person narrative. This is an effective form to use because it makes the poem general and open to all fat black women, not just Nichols herself. If it were in first person narrative, the poem may not seem beautiful it would seem quite conceited on Nichols part. In third person, the poem is left completely to the imagination of the reader. I. e. what the fat black woman looks like and how she feels when she is walking the fields or riding the waves. In first person, the reader perhaps knows what she looks like and since she is so bold to say she is beauty, the reader can get an idea what she is feeling too. The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping also uses third person narrative throughout the poem except for one line where it moves to first person. Her use of both techniques is very effective and changes the mood of the poem largely. Though Nichols mainly uses third person it seems obvious that she is writing about her own experiences as she shifts to first person, which suggests that she agrees and somehow sympathises with the character in the poem. Like A Beacon is the only poem in which she uses first person narrative throughout. It is effective as it gives the reader the feeling of understanding her character and her inner thoughts a lot better. The poem talks about how Nichols feels and what she misses from home such as the food that her mother used to cook. If Nichols wrote the poem in third person narrative, it would not have such an impact because it would feel as if she was presuming that this was how people felt and it would not be as effective. Because this poem is about Nichols herself, it leaves the reader thinking or imagining how they would feel if they left home and what they would miss. Island Man also uses third person narrative. This is effective in this poem as it makes the poem seem as if it is a dream. It distances the reader from the person in the poem and makes the whole situation seem further away. If it had been written in first person, it would have made the reader feel closer to the person in the poem and so it would have made it feel less like a dream and more like life. Third person narrative gives you the feeling of distance, which makes the poem more enjoyable to read. Nichols uses many techniques to create the moods that she feels are appropriate for her poems. In her poem Beauty, Nichols wants to create the image of warm, calm settings. This is effective because the poem is based on beauty and warm, calm things are thought of as beautiful. The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping wants to create an angry and miserable mood. Nichols does this by using hard alliteration and pathetic fallacy. She uses winter to create cold images and hard alliteration to create the presence of anger and annoyance. This is effective in the poem because she is aggravated at the fact that the shop is prejudiced against women with clothes sizes over 14, as they dont have any. The poem Like A Beacon is trying to set the mood of the beacon being warmth and the light of her home, the Caribbean, and where she actually is, London, the cold place and not somewhere she would like to be. She talks about the things that she misses about home: in search of plantains Saltfish/sweet potatoes. The alliteration of the s makes those two lines sound very calm and positive. Island Man is trying to create two images: One of a beautiful, tropical place and the other of a dull, grey, cold place. Nichols tries to accomplish this mood using different styles of writing. For example: to make London sound dull, Nichols uses words such as groggily which is related to waking up and still being really tired and miserable. To make the Caribbean sound tropical, Nichols uses words like emerald which is related with beautiful jewellery so it make the island sound calm and a place on a similar level with Heaven. A main theme used in Nichols poetry is Cultural Identity. Nichols is not ashamed of who she is or what her background she has. She makes it very clear that her past is very important to her through her poetry. In her poem Beauty, Nichols states that Beauty is a fat black woman. This contrasts with the western ideal of female beauty i. e. white, thin, tall, and blonde. Nichols directly challenges these stereotypes and strongly asserts black female cultural identity. It is essentially a celebration of the beauty seen in a large, black, curvaceous woman. The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping is very similar to Beauty as it is also about a fat black woman. This poem also adds the fact of prejudice towards fat black women. This shows the divide between cultures. The poem Like A Beacon, uses a different form of cultural identity. It shows the difference between London and the Caribbean through the way Nichols describes what she misses about her home. She talks about the food that she used to eat (plantains, salt fish, sweet potatoes) which are not things that the English (white) culture is used to. Nichols poem Island Man is similar to the cultural identity in her poem Like A Beacon. It also talks about the differences between London and the Caribbean. This poem talks about the beauty and warmth of the Caribbean islands and the beaches there. It also talks about the cold and grey areas of London. It shows that the cultural identity of the island man is the opposite of a person who is from London. Nichols language techniques vary in her poetry depending on what she feels she should use to emphasise points or moods. She uses personification in both her poems Beauty and The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping. In Beauty, she says while the sea turns back to hug her shape. Nichols uses a soft mood to make the woman seem even more beautiful. She does this by saying; that even the sea wants to hug her-though the sea has no feelings. In the poem The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping, Nichols uses it to achieve almost the opposite affect of which it had in Beauty. She uses the lines frozen thin mannequins fixing her with grin to emphasise the fact that the woman in this poem is quite paranoid, being in this shop. She presumes that even the plastic mannequins are laughing at her, though of course, that is not possible. This shows her insecurity about her size, particularly the views of others about it. Nichols uses alliteration in three of the four poems. In The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping, Nichols uses hard alliteration to create a flowing image (bright, billowing, breezy. ). In the poem Like A Beacon, Nichols uses this language technique when describing the food that her mother used to cook. The s in saltfish/sweet potatoes lingers as it is read and it gives the reader the sense of the lingering smells of these foods as they were being cooked and afterwards too. Island Man also uses alliteration. Here, s is also used (sun surfacing) but she uses it to be sharp and snappy as the next word is defiantly and sharp and snappy words or letters seem quite defiant. In some of her poems, Grace Nichols uses particular words to create a mood or image. In Island Man she uses hard words-such as groggily, metallic, surge and crumpled-to create a dull and gloomy image of London. She also uses soft words-for example surf, wombing and emerald-to create a bright, happy image of the Caribbean. In her poem Beauty, she uses many soft word-such as hug, cheek, breezed and drifting-to create the warm beautiful image of the woman in it. Grace Nichols uses many techniques to emphasise points and to make lines stand out. In the poem Beauty, she uses repetition. She repeats the lines Beauty s a fat black woman to emphasise what the poem is about. She uses the structure of the poem to emphasise the same point as she leaves Beauty on its own to show that it is important. In The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping, Nichols uses rhyme, repetition and the structure to make lines stand out. Most of this poem is written in verses but to show how the character in the poem feels, she leaves the line Lord is aggravating on its own. Though that is only one line, i t seems to stand out and the reader reads that first. It makes you think a great deal about the feelings of the subject. Nichols also uses rhyme at the end of this poem. It is the only time that she does this and it is very effective: that when it comes to fashion the choice is lean nothing much beyond a size 14. It really stands out and makes the irritation of the subject much greater. If rhyme had been used throughout the poem, it would not have been so effective. Nichols use of repetition in this poem works very well. The poem is all about a long unproductive day and repetition exaggerates that. She repeats the word journeying twice and it gives a real sense of boredom and tiredness. In her poem Like A Beacon, Nichols also uses the structure to emphasise a main point. She wants to make it clear about how she feels. She has written I Need This Link on its own, in between the two verses. The poem flows very well until it gets to that line. Nichols separates it and this makes the reader stop and think about what the poet is trying to say. Island Man uses repetition. Nichols uses it to exaggerate the first word and to make the mood of the poem clearer. It works well and it accentuates the dull image that Nichols is trying to paint of London e. g. groggily groggily. These four poems by Grace Nichols are poems that I have found very interesting. They all use ideas about cultural identity and racial difference and this makes the poems very engrossing. Though I have never been in the situation of missing home (Like A Beacon and Island Man) or having to deal with prejudice against my size (The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping), I feel, through reading the poetry that I understand and sympathise greatly with people who have to deal with these things. The poems have given me a greater understanding of the culture of Grace Nichols and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading and working on them.