The Diamond Necklace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

The Diamond Necklace - Essay Example Even though she lives in their humble home she desperately longs for a rich life. One day her husband, Loisel, gets an invitation to a ball. Mathilde pleads and manages to get her husband to part with the money he had been saving for himself and buys a dress for her to wear to the ball. She is still not satisfied and complains that she does not have any ornaments to wear that would go well with the dress. Acting upon her husband’s suggestion she goes to her friend Madame Forestier and borrows a beautiful necklace from her. Mathilde feels happy throughout the evening and for once in her life feels at par with the ladies that she had been envious of ever since she could remember. However she finds out after reaching home after the ball that the necklace was missing. Both husband and wife search high and low but can’t find the ornament. They decide to replace it with another necklace. They borrow money from many sources and even use up the money that Loisel’s father had left him and buy the necklace for a huge sum, and return it to Madame Forestier without letting her know what actually happened. A ten year period of extreme hardship follows as they repay the debt that they incurred to buy the necklace. By the end of that difficult period Mathilde comes across Madame Forestier and confesses all that happened. Madame Forestier then reveals that the original necklace Mathilde had borrowed was a clever imitation and worth only a few hundred francs. One can’t help but feel sorry for Mathilde. She had been yearning all her life to be a part of the elite. The one evening that happened proved to be too expensive and deprived her of her peace of mind for ten long years. Even though the story has the moral that one has to be happy with what one has and the greed leads to eventual destruction. The plight that Mathilde went through could have been avoided if she had dealt with the situation in a different manner. As soon as she found out that the necklace was

Kantian and Utilitarian Theories and the Nestle Moral Issue Term Paper

Kantian and Utilitarian Theories and the Nestle Moral Issue - Term Paper Example o new mothers, free or low cost products, improper labels) allegedly designed for the adoption of bottle-feeding instead of breast-feeding by mothers. Outrage against Nestle came to a high point when a Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute attested that millions of infants suffered ailments or death due to bottle-feeding. The institute, however, did not clarify whether the cause was the infant formula or improper sterilization-and-storage of baby bottles and feed. Heightened indignation against Nestle resulted in a campaign led by the Infant Formula Action Coalition (INFACT) to boycott Nestle products globally. Subsequently, the World Health Organization (WHO) imposed a Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes to prohibit advertising which discourages breastfeeding. After years in which Nestle seemed to comply with the Code, the Action for Corporate Accountability charged Nestle with non-compliance. Boycott of Nestle was again instigated, bolstered by the United Methodist Churchà ¢â‚¬â„¢s study that Nestle’s advertising practices (free supplies to hospitals, stepped up donation to counter Ivory Coast government’s promotion of breastfeeding) were designed solely to increase sales, thus violating the WHO code. KANTIAN AND UTILITARIAN THEORIES 3 Today, the issue is unresolved due to data issued by UNICEF that 1.5 million infants, who are not breast-fed, die each year. This study was used by the International Baby Food Action Network and its affiliates by accusing Nestle and other infant-formula companies of violating the WHO marketing code. The situation aggravated when a 2003 British Medical Journal reported that 90 percent of health providers were ignorant of the WHO code, while two-thirds of mothers using infant-feed formula were not advised on the benefits of... Kantian and Utilitarian Ethics have similarities in their common aim to provide guidance on moral conduct amid 18th century modernizing times in which nationalism and industrialization were emerging. Both theories need not be seen simply as speculative principles since the Kantian categorical imperative will have an impact after his death on the subsequent 19th century German idealism in which: â€Å"The state had a will, a consciousness and a moral end of its own, on a higher level than that of any individual. Neither internally nor externally was the state limited by moral laws, since it was itself the fount of such laws†. On the other hand, utilitarianism will be the foundation of the American principle of American capitalism and free enterprise, expressed by Adam Smiths’ insight â€Å"in which a free market system could combine the freedom of individuals to pursue their own objectives†. The Utilitarian philosophy is also well entrenched in the Declaration of Independence as drafted by Thomas Jefferson: â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness†.