A Review of Zoot Suit, a Book by Luis Valdez

A Review of Zoot Suit, a Book by Luis Valdez In Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit, the zoot suit has many conspicuous and inconspicuous meanings. The zoot suit is an ostentatious outfit that many Chicano gangsters wore in order to gain recognition of the police and the people of Los Angeles. The boys’ family members believe that the zoot suit symbolizes insubordination while police offers and press view it as delinquency. The boys of the Thirty-eighth Street Gang, who admire the zoot suits, regard the zoot suit as empowering. In the play, there is a clash of opinions as to whether the zoot suit represents power or delinquency. The zoot suit helps many chicano boys of the Thirty-eighth Street Gang identify themselves with the other boys as they face discrimination and aggression from the Downey Gang and police officers. In the beginning of the play, El Pachuco, who is Henry Reyna’s alter ego, expresses his appreciation and passion for the zoot suit. He describes putting on a zoot suit, â€Å"†¦makes [Chicancos] feel real root look like a diamond, sparkling, shinning†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Valdez 1.1.3). Rather than hiding, El Pachuco displays himself as if he is a radiate gem that all can fawn over because he dresses in style, and therefore should commands respect. The zoot suit gives the boys the confidence and swagger to gain esteem from their fellow boys and the Downey gang, a rival group. The boys use the zoot suit as a uniform symbolizing the ideology of a group of individuals fighting for common goal which was Chicano pride. Even more, El Pachuco, who dons the zoot suit, epitomizes the Chicano spirit because he reminds Henry Reyna to not waver from trying to gain respect from the police. In the end, El Pachuco states he is, â€Å"†¦the ideal of the original chuco was to look like a diamond to look sharp hip bonarro† (Valdez 2.6.16). Therefore, the boys looks up to Pachuco as a genuine symbol of what they are fighting for. The boys feel more formidable when the other boys put on the zoot suit because it gives a sense of brotherhood and community. In packs, the boys feel comforted by the numbers but with the zoot suit, the boys feel invincible. In the eyes of the police and the press, the zoot suit is seen as a symbol of misconduct and malice. After the police disperses the barrio dance and Sergeant Smith detains Henry and the rest of the boys who are main culprits of the Sleep Lagoon murder case, Smith interrogates the boys, and sarcastically comments, â€Å"you pachucos are regular tough guys† (Valdez 1.3.1). By sarcastically insulting the boys for being a bunch of tough guys, Smith is in actuality calling the boys weaklings and therefore, considers the zoot suit powerless and only a symbol of rebellion. Sergeant Smith believes that the zoot suit is just a mere ostentatious attire that makes the boys a target of discrimination. He goes further and declares, â€Å"I hear you pachas wear these monkey suits as a kind of armor. Is that right? How does it work? This is what you zooters need a little old-fashioned discipline (Valdez 1.4.41). Smith again uses name calling instead of properly addressing the boys. The à ¢â‚¬Å"zooter† signifies that Smith utterly shuns the zoot suit and thinks its so ridiculous that the boys wear them. He even goes as far as to question the secret powers of the zoot suit as if to play of the boys emotions and taunt the zoot suit further. Clearly, the police dont take the power of the zoot suit seriously. Even the headlines of the Los Angeles newspaper articles â€Å"Zoot-Suited Goons of Sleepy Lagoon† (Valdez 1.5.15) shows the yellow journalism uses zoot suit in a derogatory term and labeled all Mexicans as Zoot Suits. The press goes further and comments that, â€Å"the Zoot Suit Crime Wave is even beginning to push the war news off the front page† (Valdez 2.6.15) in order to reveal to the audience that wearing zoot suits and being seen in them was considered a crime and a rebellious action that cannot be ignored by even the news. The symbol of the zoot suit bring depth to the play as so many different individuals perceive the zoot suit in their own way. For the boys of the Thirty-eighth Street Gang, it defines their group and intentions. By wearing the suit, the boys make a single stance against the oppression and discrimination by the press and the police officials. However, for the press and police officials, the zoot suit only symbolizes the crime and wrongdoing. They believe that the zoot suit only affirms their beliefs that the boys are reckless. The zoot suit is truly a symbol of the disagreement of individuals within the Los Angeles community.

DB 3 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

DB 3 - Research Paper Example On the other hand, the power of virtual integration is the use of the internet or general technology to replace physical elements of a company with specific information. Ford Motor Company recorded 5.7 million motor sales worldwide last year, using a huge network of suppliers. As part of its objectives to create a competitive supply chain, the firm makes use of Six Sigma procedures through collaborating with Penske Logistics to improve and streamline supply chain activities. Before Ford sided with Penske Corp, its assembly plants in South America each took care of its logistics, an initiative that led to unexpected costs in transport and supplying materials as suppliers used to pick up light loads, carrying them from plant to plant. In an effort to solve this, the company established various Order Dispatch Centers (ODC) to merge shipments to plants (Chopra & Sodhi, 2012). Within a short time, it was noted that the majority of trucks have increased the capacity to 95% when distributing shipments to and from the ODC as well as a reduced plant inventory by 15%. New technology has been put in place to help in streamlining performance. Ford Motors has used Logistics Management System, order tracing software, and metric reporting system based on the internet to achieve this goal. This shows how technology can be used to enhance competitiveness as drivers in the company now carry an electronic log and PDA scanners to offer real-time updates and ensure that all carriers have satellite communications. Meanwhile, the supply chain is stabilized through scanners that are utilized in monitoring plants delivery (Austin, 1999). A vital facet of the strategies used in the supply chain is Ford’s emphasis on accountability at every level of supply. In order to reduce expenses and boost services, the company strengthened the car manufacturer’s bidding procedure for carriers, initiating higher specifications on technology, driver certification, safety, time

Difference between the mission and vision statement.strategic Essay

Difference between the mission and vision statement.strategic management - Essay Example The main difference between the mission and vision statement is that the mission statement provides a guidelines of what the company seeks to achieve in the present as an organization while the vision statement illustrates the goals of the firm for the future. A company I once work for had the most deceptive and fraudulent mission statement I had ever seen. The company claimed that one of its values was taking care of the employees in order to improve their quality of life and of their families. The reason that the company lied in this statement was because this company was very abusive towards its employees. The firm would steal hours from the workers payroll by paying them fewer hours than they worked, they would pay the workers two to three weeks late every pay cycle, and the firm did not honor a bonus system that offered to the employees when they started to work for the firm. The actions of the managers, administrative team, and owners of the company were opposite of what the mi ssion statement claimed. DQ2 I went to the corporate website of the global coffeehouse company Starbucks Cafe. The company has a corporate responsibility program in place that affected various aspects of their operations. One of the most intriguing aspects of the firm’s CSR plan was the sourcing of materials initiatives. The company in order to help our poor communities across the world only purchases fair trade coffee. Fair trade coffee is a system that guarantees poor farmers across the world a minimum price for coffee of $1.26 per pound which is twice the going rate for wholesale coffee across the world. Another aspect of the firm social responsibility commitment which I liked was their emphasis on hiring a diverse workforce. The firm also had good initiatives in place to protect the environment such as a recycling program. One aspect of their social responsibility initiatives that I did not like was the fact that the company does not have a mechanism in place to collect m oney for philanthropy causes. Considering the high profit margins the company enjoys the firm could easily donate 1% of their revenues or more to help fight hunger in places such as Africa, India, and South America. DQ3 The four major components of the strategic management process are environmental scanning, strategy formation, strategy implementation, and strategy evaluation. Environmental scanning is important because it allows the manager the opportunity to collect sufficient information in order to determine the relation between the company, the market, and its potential alternative solutions. I believe that the second step (strategy formation) is the most important step or component in the strategic management process. If a manager chooses the wrong strategy the subsequent steps won’t matter because the failure of the strategic initiative is inevitable. Take for example a company that decides after two years in business that the best strategic formation is too expand the company. The firm invests all the money it has on expanding without proper environmental scanning and without analyzing the financial consequences of the decision. Due to the bad plan the company realizes that now they are producing more goods than what the market seeks. Suddenly a firm that was doing well goes into financial troubles due to a bad strategic formation. 4. I agree with you that the mission statements of companies have a more detail description than the vision statement of a company. Based on the research that I made on the subject the reason that this occurs is because of the timeline perspective. The mission statement attempts to provide the people who read it an overview of the business as it is in the short term. People want to know what the company is all about and is seeking to do and realize. The visions statement is different because the vision statement provides an overview of what the company is seeking to achieve in the future. 5. I agree with a lot of the points you mentioned in your response. I believe that a people’