Customer Retention Tools Used By Public And Private Banks Marketing Essay

Customer Retention Tools Used By Public And Private curses commercializeing EssayCustomer retention is the activity that a selling organization undertakes in order to reduce client defections. Successful client retention starts with the first contact an organization has with a customer and continues end-to-end the entire lifetime of a relationship. A companys ability to attract and retain new customers, is not only related to its product or operate, but strongly related to the boil down it swear outs its existing customers and the reputation it creates within and across the marketplace.Customer retention is more than giving the customer what they expect its about surpassing their expectations so that they become loyal advocates for your brand. Creating customer loyalty puts customer value rather than maximizing profits and sh beholder value at the centre of worry strategy. The key several(predicate)iator in a competitive environment is more often than not the deli really of a consistently high standard of customer service.Private and Public BanksBanks have been broadly divided into private and public. A private argot is that in which there are but few partners, and these help personally to its management. A public deposit is that in which there are numerous partners or shareholders, and they elect from their own body a certain number, who are entrusted with its management.he business of banking consists chiefly in receiving deposits of money, upon which interest may or may not be allowed in making advances of money, principally in the way of discounting bills and in affecting the transmission of money from one place to another. Banks in metropolitan cities are usually the agents of the banks in smaller communities and charge a boot on their transactions.The profits of a bank are that portion of its total receipts including discount, interest, dividends, and commission which exceeds the amount of the expenses.List of Private Banks in IndiaBan k of PunjabBank of RajasthanICICIHDFCCenturion bankIndusInd bankFederal bankUTI bankJammu Kashmir bankSouth India bankKarnataka bankList of Public Banks in IndiaAllahabad bankState bank of IndiaPunjab National bankPunjab Sind bankBank of MaharashtraBank of IndiaCanara bankUCO bankCentral bank of IndiaIDBICUSTOMER RETENTION TOOLS USED BY PRIVATE BANKS amicable media major customer retention tool in private banksTo retain more and more customers private banks use social media. In this in solecism of responding to customers social media is a powerful retention tool. In this before contacting to customer service department, customers basin go online and can get cultivation regarding anything.Bank initiation relationship -personal bankerTo retain the customers private banks started bank word relationship in this they go out do they will assign special persons to a group of clients in which clients can mail to these persons for personal help and financial advice. redeem customers i nformedIn this to retain their customers they have started their customers intercommunicate about latest schemes and offers and necessary training. For informing the customers banks impel letters, e-mails, make phone watchwords and send messages on their mobile phones.Contest for customersFor existing customers to retain them they have started to reward customer loyalty by caterpillar tread a customer -only competition or contest.In this the entry is free and automatic for existing customers and publicises the results in newsletter and websiteOffers related or complementary productsBanks are providing complementary products or services to their customers because this helps them in retaining their customers.Anniversary offerIn this banks are providing special anniversary offers one year exactly after the customer first came to banks.Employee motivationEmployee morale and motivation plays an important role in customer retention. A demoralized employee tends not to listen to custo mer and in overrule can swordplay away a good customer off. Empowerment of people, investment in soft skill/product and other relevant trainings and ripe(p) applied science to monitoring device the results need to be employed. Incentive schemes a big with veracious compensation across the spectrum of staff from front office to marketing leading to attested evidence of improvement in customer retention and satisfaction leads to commodious term profitability and loyalty. This will also require management buy-in and commitment. In the long term loyal and motivated employees lead to more business and satisfied customer. Banks need to strive to make each employee a brand ambassador for the Bank.Managing customer complaintsCustomer complaints are identified by a number of ways in private banks such as customer complaint box, written form, verbal form.. Customers usually make complaint about their problems telling the relevant person in the bank. Complaints are managed by taking qui ck actions. This helps in the retention of customers. family Managers (RMs)The concept of Relationship Manager (RM) is used in the banks. The job of RM is generally performed by the branch officers. The interviews revealed that the main job of Relationship Managers to reach out to the customers both incorporate and personal, to make sure that the job is done in a systematic manner within the clients time frame. The relationship managers for corporate banking are very much important because during the relationship the bank attempts to solve the problems of client organization and satisfy its take through a series of transactions. It helps in the customer retention. cyberspace BANKINGPrivate Banks have their own website. Internet Banking has already been started.Following are the common features of Internet BankingView aim balances and transaction historyVerify deposits visualise loan balancesCheck loan payment informationView interest informationVarious information regarding their productsIn this customers can get every information through internet. It is an important tool to retain customers.SPATIAL CONVENIENCESpatial convenience is provided by branch location and applied science driven delivery services such as ATM. To create spatial convenience branches and ATM booths should be established near the target customers.. ATM is used to provide convenience by placing them in locations like shopping mall, in some central place of areas.SEGEMENTATIONTo retain the customers in banks they started segmentation. The factors that banks emphasize to identify the needs and requirements are as followsFor corporate customerFinancial Strength and credit worthinessMarket PositioningReputation IntegrityIndustriesListed CompaniesFor personal bankingOccupationIncome and Propensity to saveAttitude towards bankingMarket demandGeographic concentrationBUILDING MANAGING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPRelationship marketing encompasses activities of attracting, maintaining, and enhancing customer relationships. It is an organizational philosophy that impacts on operations and processes, employees, customer service and quality and customer retention.Win-win rewardsIt provides benefits for both the customer and the private banks Successful marketing of these initiatives means customers are encouraged to use cost-saving electronic banking services that enable supreme efficiency and profitability. For example, consumers may be required to receive statements online, use their debit card a certain amount of times each month, use online banking or bill pay and/or enrol in direct deposit. This lowers personal service costs and statement costs (for printing and mailing) and gives bankers the time and resources they need to focus on building relationships with key customers.TechnologyTelephone banking is another option for customer retention as this service is for convenience of customer. And for this purpose following technology is usedInteractive voice response (IVR)IVR sy stems are used very commonly by various service organizations for order placements, purchasing airline tickets, headphone banking, caller routing and identification, obtaining balance inquiries, paying bills, completing surveys and polls and looking up selective information, to name a few. IVR systems are also used at call centres to help identify customers needs and prepare the live customer service representative by obtaining information from the caller ahead of time, such as account numbers, name, social security number, address information, etc.IVR for short is a software application that allows telephone caller to select options from various menus. IVR systems are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so callers can access them anywhere, anytime. Callers may enter requested information into telephone keypad or by simply speaking commands. Commands generally consists of numbers or simply Yes or No answers. IVR systems also have voice options for help, speak with a custom er grapple specialist or other various straight forward options.CUSTOMER RETENTION TOOLS USED BY PUBLIC BANKSRelationship based pricing active customers feel that they are being ignored by banks when it comes to pricing as competitive rates are being offered to new customers only. This forces public banks to have a pricing strategy. Customers who have multiple products with Banks across different lines of business (LOBs) expect transparency in product pricing. They tend to stay loyal and this loyalty needs to be taken care of. Relationship based pricing (RBP) is a new mantra which institutions are now trying to get into. RBP helps in evaluating the total income realize from the customer across all the LOBs and work out mutually profitable pricing. RBP helps banks to treat each customer differently, based on the overall relationship value, with innovational pricing strategies across enterprise. Banks can ensure that the benefits and rewards are provided based on total value the cu stomer provides thereby enriching the customer loyalty. This helps a lot in customer retention.Employee motivationEmployee morale and motivation plays an important role in customer retention. A demoralized employee tends not to listen to customer and in turn can turn away a good customer off. Empowerment of people, investment in soft skill/product and other relevant trainings and right technology to monitor the results need to be employed. Incentive schemes along with right compensation across the spectrum of staff from front office to marketing leading to attested evidence of improvement in customer retention and satisfaction leads to long term profitability and loyalty. This will also require management buy-in and commitment. In the long term loyal and motivated employees lead to more business and satisfied customer. Banks need to strive to make each employee a brand ambassador for the Bank.Keep customers informedSame way like private banks they also retain their customers, they a lso have started their customers informing about latest schemes and offers and necessary information. For informing the customers banks send letters, e-mails, make phone calls and send messages on their mobile phones.Rewards managementCustomers expect banks to be flexible and willing to change while offering rewards. Listening to them will go a long way in knowing what is wanted and what is not. Outdated products/service as a reward will not go down well with customers and addition of newer loyalty partners with innovative ideas will be welcome. Innovative ways of redeeming rewards like online redemption, redemption against purchases etc are the ones which will be liked. Proper segmentation of customers is required so that the right product/reward is targeted. Loyalty programs need to be constantly evolving based on the market conditions and technology needs to be used extensively in this regard.Profitable and cost effective Customer Relationship Management has become a key strateg ical area with an increased focus on this issue by top management of Banks. The opportunity for banks has never been ampleer to assume a more customer centric responsibility. Continuous use of customer feedback, tuning loyalty programs, improving employee morale along with the relevant Enterprise wide technology platform to monitor all these will ensure in improving customer relationships with the active participation of management across the organizational functions. Management buy-in and participation across the different level in the hierarchy is important in improving customer relationships, helping to deepen brand loyalty and increase customer lifetime value. In the end loyalty equals increasing profits and a strong competitive edge which is the order of the day. Ultimately, best strategies in customer loyalty management deliberate in higher customer satisfaction indices and improved bottom line for the Bank.Education for the customer on products and services offeringsCustom ers need to have adequate information about banks products, services, delivery channels and the costs associated with each. However, bank does not have unlimited resources to provide personalized education at the branch level. Integrated banking platforms condescend Push-To-Talk and similar applications which can deliver personal interaction remotely.Customer Empowerment with necessary information and tools to encourage independent decision makingCustomer can use calculators, simulators and modellers to compare different products understand the steps to be taken to achieve their financial goals and seek guidance in broader financial matters such as wealth creation and retirement planning.Humble ATMsPublic banks have just introduced humble ATMs to retain its customers. In these ATMs if a person can interact with bank staff if the nearest branches are closed.Social MediaTo retain more and more customers public banks use social media. In this in case of responding to customers social media is a powerful retention tool. In this before contacting to customer service department, customers can go online and can get information regarding anything.CONCLUSIONThere is a great competition between public and private banks.Customer retention is their major motive. To retain their customers banks adopted many tools and techniques.Private sector banks focus more on customer retention as compared to Public sector banks.Private sector bank follows the 80/20 rule which means that the top 20 customers flummox the 80% of organization revenue.It is easy and cost effective to retain the existing customers, than to gain new. This is the strategy which both Public and Private sector banks follow.

Effects of Science on Changing Knowledge

Effects of Science on Changing friendshipThat which is current as noesis today is more or lesstimes fling tomorrow. Consider experience issues raised by this statement in 2 aras of knowledge.Rhumer CulmerKnowledge itself is facts, tuition and skills acquired by a person through experience or education (Merriam-Webster). It is the understanding of any t terminusing(p) subject matter and butt end be understood either practically or rationally. Knowledge end be broken up into numerous hypotheses and theories due to different beliefs slew may have. These hypotheses can be proven to be true as they argon justify logically through experiments or observation. However, others can be considered to be unjustified for a certain amount of time. There is a constant change in knowledge that is recognised because the view that population have on the world is never written in st one and only(a). The way people see the world and the things in it changes with time, as they change as a pe rson or their environment changes as well.The reason knowledge can be accepted today and can be discarded tomorrow is because society is mechanized at every moment. Somewhere in the world, a brand-new discoery is taking place, leading to new information on subject matter. The use of the develop discarded in the statement given does not necessarily hold shut up for that all previous knowledge is thrown away and an entirely new idea is accepted, but it actually explains the idea of evolution and the world moving forward as a society. phylogenesis is the idea that the views on the world as we see it may be tested and retested by future observations (Wikipedia). As technology produces more mechanized and gaining information is facilitated, we are able to understand more. This not only happens because of technological advances, but also because of worldwide affable trends as well as new discoveries being made.Because of this a knowledge issue can be created since some knowledge is discarded tomorrow, or what could be the near future, does this mean that the knowledge what we currently ingest will always lastly be proven incorrect? New discoveries are constantly being made specifically in two areas of knowledge internal/human sciences and history. Historians make new discoveries continuously, which is known as historical revisionism. This means that what we know from history now is not necessarily always pervert it is just open to review. The idea of historical revisionism essentially shows that constant revision of history is part of the normal scholarly process of writing history (Wikipedia). As history is not complete, it is always modified to change truths in order to fit modern society. Therefore, this emphasizes the idea that instead of all knowledge being rejected because it is wrong, it is actually still accepted as the truth that has been modified due to new information, thus creating a better truth. Nevertheless, just because everything is open to modification, this does not mean that everything is right at the moment. This shows that we must never fully believe what has been given to us as fact because there is always something more to be added which can end up changing our view on the subject matter.Knowledge is also constantly altered in another area of knowledge natural and human sciences. Scientific discoveries that create the knowledge that we accept are made from experiments and observations. These experiments are done with the use of scientific methodology, which is defined as principles and procedures for the systematic involvement of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses (Merriam-Webster). Scientific methodology has become more right over time due to advances in technology, thus affecting what is accepted and what is discarded. A good object lesson of this is when scientists foun d a direct link amidst people weed cigarettes and developing lung cancer. In the past, lung cancer was actually considered an exceptionally rare disease. Therefore, the fact that was accepted then was that there was no link to smoking and getting the disease. However, in the 1950s, evidence linking cigarette smoking with lung cancer began to accumulate (Bastian, 2008), showing that the fact that was accepted before was discarded by some people as they believed that there was now a connection between cigarettes and lung cancer. Scientific methodology even proved that there was a relationship between the two study, carried out in Britain between 1951 and 1994, revealed that the death rate for smokers from lung cancer was about three times that of non-smokers from men over 35 (Bastian, 2008). Even though this experiment clearly showed a link between the two variables, some people still accepted that there was no way smoking cigarettes would at some point make you develop lung cancer. This example questions our knowledge issue as well as the statement given because we now see that knowledge given today and knowledge that is discarded tomorrow is not only done because of facts but also in the end it is a persons selection what they want to believe in. It depends on the people themselves in the end, there is no way for anyone to be forced to discard any knowledge that they possess or accept anything that they do not want to.Medical advances also have been a result of discarded knowledge that was previously accepted. An example of this is the medical advances over the past 25+ years or so with heart disease. In the past, it was accepted that heart attacks, called infarcts, were big and the damage to heart muscle was often catastrophic, leading eventually to heart failure and death (Cox, 2009). The only cure for a heart attack was putting a patient into a dark room and freehand them pain medication and medicine to prevent dangerous irregular heartbeats (Cox, 2009). This method was not successful all the time because the rate of death from this disease was still high. Both doctors and patients thought there was nothing they could do and accepted it. This accepted fact was discarded in the 2000s because there were new discoveries. Finding new drugs, such as Lipitor, for heart disease are now routinely used to slow the progression of atherosclerosis(Cox, 2009), which is plaque that can cause heart attacks. This example shows that the increase in technology and new discoveries helps improve the knowledge that we have accepted in the past, or even change our knowledge for the better.The use of the word accepted in the statement implies that there is something or someone influencing what is accepted by society, and which is denied. Whatever is accepted by society is called the truth. This brings in the idea of social factors affecting what people believe in. Nowadays, people are under the influence of way too many people. For example, celebrities have more influence on people than they should. If they say one thing is the right thing to do, then most people follow this idea. Proof of this is the changing trends in clothing. Celebrities can wear one thing and suddenly most people are wearing the same thing, if not something similar because they think it looks good. This shows that today or better yet, in the present, the ideas are accepted. However tomorrow, or in the future, the trends can be discarded. This happens if a different celebrity wears something else. The public then think whatever they were wearing before is no longer acceptable, therefore they must move on with the world.Another example of this is a persons view on the world from when they were younger to when they become older. For instance, as a child we are taught that the opposite sex is annoying, strange and can spread a fictional disease, sometimes called cooties. As children we all accepted this as common fact and dare not test the theory to be incorrect. However, with the test of time, or aging, we start to view the opposite sex as attractive in certain ways. Therefore, we end up discarding what we thought was pure fact and knowledge as a child. There is proof of this because there are males and females getting married, starting families and having serious relationships worldwide.Things that are currently accepted as knowledge are easily open to be discarded in the future. nobody is permanent because what we believe constantly changes. This is due to technology and research on different subject matter being furthered. However, if any humans of knowledge is accepted or discarded entirely depends on the person. There are many cases to show that generally, yes, knowledge has been accepted and discarded throughout time, but in the end it is always up to a single person to determine if they want to accept a piece of knowledge or to discard a piece of knowledge because it is their belief. Peoples beliefs change over time because the wo rld around us is constantly changing and there is no way to recrudesce that, thus there will be a large number of ideas that will be accepted and discarded in society in the future. work CitedBastian, Sue. Chapter 10 Natural Science. Pearson Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge. N.p. Pearson Education Limited, 2008. 172-80. Print.Scientific Method. Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2014.Cox, Lauren. The Top 10 Medical Advances of the Decade. The Top 10 Medical Advances of the Decade. MedPage Today, 17 Dec. 2009. Web. 06 Jan. 2014.Definition of Knowledge in English. Knowledge Definition of Knowledge in Oxford Dictionary (British World English). Copyright 2013 Oxford University Press., n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.Historical Revisionism. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Dec. 2013. Web. 05 Jan. 2014.

Essay --

7) Knowledge Management and Six Sigma Exploring the Potential of Two Powerful Disciplines, Paige Leavitt1) Six Sigma should not be viewed as a quality program that is commissioned to reduce defects but as a methodology that helps companies better meet the needs of their business. KM shares this goal.2) Voice of the client in the DFSS process is also a potential area for a collaboration of ideas. In Design For Six Sigma, acquaintance of the customer-centric requirements is a key stimulant to the design process, said ODell. And if you could use knowledge management tools to better understand what the customer is saying to sales people and service people, that learning comes ass to the folks who can make a difference in the design process.3) APQCs Lessons Learned The problems, issues, and opportunities in organizations are not active reducing defects they are about responding to new opportunities, using the voice of the customer knowledge, said ODell. With both Six Sigma and KM, Im telling you that youre going to get more of what you trust - if you begin to open the conversation to a different way of thinking about solving some of these problems over the long term. Because both Six Sigma and KM have tremendous power, they also have some issues that they need help with.Professionals in both arenas can have from each other. Six Sigma can learn from KM how to recognize knowledge, as well as processes. Joseph Hofer-Alfeis from Siemens said, Six Sigma is oriented to the quality of products and processes. If you think of a knowledge-intensive business, Six Sigma for knowledge quality -- the quality of the proficiency, the quality of knowledge flows, and the quality of description knowledge -- should also be a ... ...nage the targeted process (e.g., an insurancesales agent or supervisor), while otherswork to support the process(e.g., an information technology expertwho provides support to theinsurance claimsprocess).Unique project teamsare put together foreach of the projects, and disbanded after these projects arecompleted, handing off resulting improvement-actions to processownerspeople who routinely operate the processes.5) Although each project has different objectives and specific toolsemployed, overall these projects follow a standardized, structuredfive-phase project management approach known as DMAIC forDefine, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control phases (Schroederet al., 2008).6) redact leaders are trained in the use of practices forcollecting, combining, and synthesizing the knowledge of teammembers for use in process improvements (Hoerl, 2001).

The Foils of Laertes and Fortinbras in Hamlet Essay -- Essays on Shakes

The Foils of Laertes and Fortinbras in critical point William Shakespe be wrote the classic play, Hamlet in the sixteenth century. Hamlet would be a very difficult play to translate without the masterful use of foils. A foil is a minor character in a literary work that compliments the main character by similarities and differences in personality. The audience can identify similarities and differences between any of the characters and Hamlet, however, there are two characters that share so much in common with Hamlet that they have to be considered the most important foils in the play. These two characters are Laertes and Fortinbras. It is the great similarities between Laertes, Fortinbras, and Hamlet that make the differences so obvious and therefore service to shape the character of Hamlet. Laertes is the most noticeable foil for Hamlet, because of his continual direct involvement in the play. Laertes and Hamlet have many things in common. Laertes and Hamlet are both educate d men with a high social standing. Hamlet is the prince of Denmark and Laertes is the son of Polonius, Lord Chamberlain. Both Hamlet and Laertes desire revenge for the death of their fathers. Claudius murder Hamlets father and Hamlet killed Laertes father. Hamlet and Laertes both had an undying love for Laertes sister Ophelia. Laertes showed his love for his sister when he warned her about seeing Hamlet. Laertes knew that as head of the nation Hamlet would be unable to choose who he married and that Ophelia would be hurt if she fell in love with him. Hamlet had an undying love for Ophelia contempt his actions and words toward her in Act III. He shows this at Ophelias burial when he proclaims that his love for h... ...one as important as that which he shares with Laertes and Fortinbras. Both Laertes and Fortinbras, although in unlike ways, provided the admiration and pity needed to make Hamlet the tragic hero he was. Sources Cited and Consulted Bloom, Harold. Introduction. newfan gled Critical Interpretations Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York City Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 1-10. Findlay, Alison. Hamlet A Document in Madness. New Essays on Hamlet. Ed. Mark Thornton Burnett and John Manning. New York AMS Press, 1994. 189-205. Goldman, Michael. Hamlet and Our Problems. Critical Essays on Shakespeares Hamlet. Ed. David Scott Kaston. New York City Prentice Hall International. 1995. 43-55 Rose, Mark. Reforming the Role. Modern Critical Interpretations Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York City Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 117-128

Analysis of Group Work Essay example -- Group Team Project Teamwork Pa

Analysis of Group Work In the APS module, we have been allocated into unalike groups, and my group number is 48, our tutor is Barbara Allan. The contact numbers of the members were given and we were asked to finish a get a line on a team basis by using the information we learnt in this module. 2. Working process and group development ======================================== Initially I was really excited about this group work. As a foreigner, this was a good opportunity to practice my communication skills and group working skills. Consequently, I tried to contact our members by sending text messages and arranged the first folksy meeting by the following week. Bass and Ryterband indicated that as initial development of trust and membership (Martin, J, 2002, P.191) when people meet up at first time, they everlastingly try to build trust and confidence to each other in order to prepare for the future work. Based on Belbins the nine-team roles theory , my group was dominated by certain people who took the responsibilities, such as our coordinator and secretary. The rest of us were team worker, and responsible for researching and another member did the Website. Obviously, my group member built awareness of the groups aims and shared out goals. In addition, every member also knew their established roles within the group and acted accordingly. Ideally, this should have been accomplished in the storming stage of group formation. (Martin, J, 2002, P.192) The title of this project was the bear upon of terrorism on tourism in UK. After we had decided, the title was separated into many parts and everyone needed to do one. My ... ...ficult to arrange the time for meeting, so we utilise Email instead. We needed to send our research to the secretary, and she completed the whole report. 7. Conclusion ============= I think our group did not perform very well, although we finished the project and worked a s a group. In the future group work I think I will become more activity. Hopefully, I throw out be braver to explain my own opinion and more tending to communicate with others. The key areas for future improvement would be clearer definition of targets and objectives and time management to ensure that we can reach a higher standard of group work. Bibliography 1) Martin, J (2002) Organisational Behaviour Thomson Learning, London. 2) Laurie J Mullins (2002) Management and Organisational Behaviour Pearson Education Limited, Essex.

Right Before My Very Eyes :: Vision Brain Seeing essays

Right Before My Very Eyes Ill believe it when I see it is angiotensin-converting enzyme of many common catch phrases included in our every day vernacular. A person who declares this is asserting that they will not be fooled by anothers assumptions or perceptions of the world. This understanding raises a great sense of security within us, concerning the things that we do see, and inversely, an unavoidable sense of insecurity in those beliefs that are not supported by vision. Do you believe in Ghosts? Angels? Out of body experiences? Would you believe if you could see them? Maybe not. But it is possible to offer those who are withholding there supply ship of approval on things that exist but cannot be seen, a better summary of indorse, which could make the inability to see something an invalid criteria for belief. Could a summary of evidence be compiled that would support this Our vision is incomplete, incorrect, and can even be as misleading as to create something within the i ntelligence that does not exist at all, shedding light on a brain that is more of a visionary, and less of a reporter. Human beings rarely contemplate the significance of their own trick spot, a place where processes of neurons join together and form the optic nerve it is here that the brain receives no input from the eye about this blow upicular part of the world. What I discovered while entertaining myself with a simple eye exam aimed at divulging the capabilities of the brain in the face of the eyes blind spy was fundamental in my exploration of the trust we place in vision, and so I will explain it briefly. Our brain can ignore a panelling that exists on the page and withdraw the spot with the color of its surroundings, no matter what the color. However, it is not that our brain cannot conceive of an image or of a shape to fill this place. Continuing with the experiment leads you to find that the brain will continue the line that is obstructed with the black dot, coveri ng the sides of the dot in the surrounding color, and transforming the image in the beginning you into a line within your brain. A line that is absolutely not there. This reveals more than just a weakness in the eye, but an ability of the brain (1)

Use of Humor in Erdrichs Tracks Essay -- Erdrich Tracks

Use of Humor in Erdrichs Tracks An old adage claims that laughter is the best medicine to cure human ailments. Although this treatment might sound pretty unorthodox, its value as a remedy can be traced back to ancient times when Hypocrites, in his medical treatise, stressed the importance of a homo and cheerful mood on the part of the physician and patient fighting disease (Bakhtin 67). Aristotle viewed laughter as mans quintessential privilege Of every living creatures only man is endowed with laughter (Bakhtin 68). In the Middle Ages, laughter was an integral part of folk culture. Carnival festivities and the comic spectacles and religious rite connected with them had an important place in the life of medieval man (Bakhtin 5). During the trauma and devastation of German bombing raids on London during public warfare II, the stubborn resilience of British humor emerged to sustain the spirit of the people and the courage of the nation. To laugh, even in the face of death, is a compelling force in the human condition. Humor, then, has a profound impact on the way human beings experience life. In Louise Erdrichs novel Tracks, humor provides powerful medicine as the Chippewa tribe struggles for their physical, spiritual, and cultural survival at the beginning of the twentieth century. While the ability to approach life with a sense of humor is not unmatched to any one society, it is an intrinsic quality of Native American life. There is, and always has been, humor among Indians . . . (Lincoln 22). In deference to their history, this can best be exposit as survival humor, one which transcends the void, questions fatalism, and outlasts suffering (Lincoln 45). Through their capacity to draw common... ...emain the contrary powers of Indian humor (Lincoln 5). For the Chippewa, this humor provides powerful medicine for the physical, cultural, and spiritual economy of their tribe. Works Cited Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World. Bloomington Indiana UP , 1984. Erdrich Louise. Tracks. New York Harper Collins, 1988. Ghezzi, Ridie Wilson. Nanabush Stories from the Ojibwe. Coming to Light. Ed. Brian Swann. 1st ed. New York Random House, 1994. Lincoln, Kenneth. Indin Humor. New York Oxford UP, 1993. Sergi, Jennifer. Storytelling Tradition and Preservation in Louise Erdrichs Tracks. World Literature Today 66 (Spring 1992) 279-282. Towers, Margie. Continuity and Connection Characters in Louise Erdrichs Fiction. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 16 (1992) 99-115.