«Temptation preys upon what we wish for and what we dream for. Want a flashy car: a cherry red, nitrous infused Lamborghini with leather seats, a thumping sound system and a set of wicked hydraulics? Sure it sounds good, but how possible is that on...» Document abstract
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SummaryTemptation preys upon what we wish for and what we dream for. Want a flashy car: a cherry red, nitrous infused Lamborghini with leather seats, a thumping sound system and a set of wicked hydraulics? Sure it sounds good, but how possible is that on such a measly salary? Maybe, but only after working 60 hour work weeks and cutting your budget so that you’re surviving on toast and ramen noodles. Do this for the next decade or more, working to the break point and sacrificing everything comfortable, and only then would you be able to afford your dream car. But that is why your dream car is still a dream; the plausibility of purchasing it is so far out of your reach that you can only imagine it and dream about one day owning it. You continue to dream and hope, thinking about your fantasy becoming true, but you are positive the closest you will get to owning a Lamborghini is when you ogle it at the dealership as you drive by. What would happen if a person just offered a Lamborghini to you? That mysterious new guy from accounting approaches you and tells you he can grant you anything you want…all you have to do, is wish for it. Would you do it? Of course you would! If someone could offer you your dream car for doing no work at all, automatically, your first response would be “yes!”, but after a minute, you would remember nobody offers anything for free and you would ask: “Ok, what’s the catch?”
Table of Contents- Temptation preys upon what we wish for and what we dream for. Want a flashy car:
- There is never a free lunch; there is a consequence for every action, however direct or indirect it may be.
- Dr. Faustus knew the power of temptation all too well.
- The monkey's paw may hold the power to fulfill wishes, but it is Sergeant-Major Morris, the visitor to the White's house, that enlightens the family about the power of the paw.
- . The Sergeant could have brushed aside the story behind the monkey paw, but that would mean he would have to die with the power of the paw dying with him as well.
- Despite the subconscious thought that the paw brought about the death of her son, Mrs. White cannot resist the temptation to cheat death.
- One night, Charles walks to the playground and is greeted by a solemn little boy that is in fact the son of his friend Thomas Marshall.
- In both The Monkey's Paw and The Playground it is a person that offers a Faustian-Bargain to the character or characters.
- As if the lake could hear the fearful sounds of Hugh's wishes, it responded by forming into a familiar shape. And a shape began to emerge.
- The devil tempts a person with an unattainable wish being granted, but the consequences of dealing with evil usually cost that person his life.
«With experience comes knowledge. Sometimes, the experience might not make sense, and it helps to have a guiding hand. No, this is not the introduction to Chicken Soup for the Soul, but more like an intro for Chicken Soup for the Soulless. The...» Document abstract
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SummaryWith experience comes knowledge. Sometimes, the experience might not make sense, and it helps to have a guiding hand. No, this is not the introduction to Chicken Soup for the Soul, but more like an intro for Chicken Soup for the Soulless. The spiritual world is difficult for the hardened realist to understand, there are many questions but few answers. In particular horror stories, there is a character that helps as a “Dark-Forces Mentor”, someone to explain and inform characters about the mysterious, sometimes evil, ways of spirituality. In Pet Sematary by Stephen King, the character Jud Crandall fulfills this role by teaching his neighbor, Louis Creed, about the power of the Micmac burial ground. However, this is just one aspect of Jud, as mentoring is just one aspect of being a father. He represents a father figure for Louis Creed, a man who grew up without a father. Jud is a source of information, he is wise beyond his years, and can explain things that Louis cannot possibly fathom. Although Jud knows and understands the dark ways of spirituality, he is a good man, whose character is more concerned with helping Louis than acting as an agent of the dark forces.
Table of Contents- With experience comes knowledge. Sometimes, the experience might not make sense, and it helps to have a guiding hand.
- In a novel, the first line is crucial to the rest of the book.
- Jud believes that it is fine to bring an animal back to life.
- Power is intoxicating. Jud is confessing he had to bring Louis to the burial ground
- The resurrected dead come back changed. It's like a mild-retardation.
- To loose a child is devastating. Despite all of Jud's fatherly-like benevolence and advice, how could Louis follow his neighbor's words' Jud had not lost a child. d
- As a father-figure would, Jud teaches Louis about life and the supernatural aspects of it.
«Influence comes in many forms – religion, music, books, and authors. By experiencing different people’s views, we gain a sense of understanding the world through their eyes. We take cues from others, how they think, act and do in the world, and...» Document abstract
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SummaryInfluence comes in many forms – religion, music, books, and authors. By experiencing different people’s views, we gain a sense of understanding the world through their eyes. We take cues from others, how they think, act and do in the world, and internalize their beliefs. The religious zealot thinks Jesus’ way of life is best – they try to internalize his lessons. The new age musician looks to his contemporaries – he believes certain groups play music more in-tune to the way he thinks of the world. Authors are also influenced by their contemporaries. Where would Roddy Doyle be without James Joyce? Where would Toni Morrison be without Faulkner? Would Virgil’s the Aeneid be the same story if it wasn’t influenced by Homer’s Odyssey? Influence has us accept the influential person’s beliefs, but we may not agree with all of those beliefs. Homer was a great poet in Virgil’s mind, but Odysseus was a bastard Achaean. Homer detailed the hero’s win in battle while Virgil wondered more about the victim. The Aeneid echoes a similar plot line in The Odyssey – a sea-farer wandering from land to land after the Trojan War in hope of going home. Virgil, however, differed in some of his episodes. In Book VI of The Odyssey, Odysseus meets Princess Nausikaa, who, by the gods’ will, falls in love with him so that she may give him aid. Odysseus eventually leaves, and Nausikaa is left alone. Virgil proffered a question to the encounter: what if Odysseus had stayed in Skheria with Nausikaa? The poet answers his own question in Book IV of The Aeneid with the passionate Queen Dido (Nausikaa) and the main character Aeneas (Odysseus). The love of Dido for Aeneas is tragic and a hindrance in The Aeneid, but in The Odyssey love is a helpful tool for Odysseus to finally go home.
Table of Contents- Influence comes in many forms – religion, music, books, and authors.
- Although both Virgil and Homer believed love to be caused by the god's will, it is the reason of the god's use of love that differs in The Aeneid and The Odyssey.
- Odysseus is a favorite of the goddess Athena. Although Odysseus must wander for ten years, she gets him out of danger countless times, and her presence in Nausikaa's room to press her in the form of a dream to embark on a linen washing expedition.
- Juno wants her plan to take action. She knows that causing Dido and Aeneas to fall in love will in-fact stall Aeneas in his journey to Italy.
- While Dido pines for the love of Aeneas, the city's construction lies 'half-built' and 'projects were broken off?.
- Without influence, Virgil would never have posed the question: What if Odysseus had stayed in Skheria with Nausikaa?
«William Shakespeare’s extensive investigation into social life in his earlier plays allowed him to instead focus on the more complex topic of human consciousness, which he pursues through magical inhuman characters, in his final play The Tempest. ...» Document abstract
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SummaryWilliam Shakespeare’s extensive investigation into social life in his earlier plays allowed him to instead focus on the more complex topic of human consciousness, which he pursues through magical inhuman characters, in his final play The Tempest. In his book The Feeling of What Happens, Antonio Damasio expresses the different states of consciousness and selves from the autonomic proto-self, to the constantly changing core self, to the memory-based autobiographical self, and finally to the far-reaching extended consciousness. Shakespeare investigates consciousness through his magical character Ariel, who exhibits all the levels of consciousness to varying degrees. Ariel’s hyper active proto and extended consciousnesses allow him to control his shape and visibility and think of many creative ways to manipulate the other characters, but his core and autobiographical selves remain underdeveloped as they hinge on Prospero’s motivations for his actions.
Table of Contents- William Shakespeare's extensive investigation into social life in his earlier plays allowed him to instead focus on the more complex topic of human consciousness, which he pursues through magical inhuman characters, in his final play The Tempest.
- Ariel's superhuman abilities extend from manipulating his body to make himself invisible to some people and visible to others, to transforming from an airy spirit to a nymph to a harpy
- Prospero demands that Ariel change his body's shape to that of a nymph and make it visible only to some people.
- Prospero commanded Ariel to create the illusion of a storm that wracked the king's ship and to leave the passengers in various groups scattered about the island.
- Despite Ariel's strong sense of his physical self and his well-developed extended consciousness, his core self remains weak. Damasio states that the core self 'provides the organism with a sense of self about one moment?
- Through his character Ariel, Shakespeare shows that, even though Damasio's levels of consciousness build on one another, one can exhibit varying quantities of each level of consciousness.
- In this way, Shakespeare shows that all power comes at a price, making one amazing in some areas and deficient in others.
«The Iraqw of Tanzania, by Katherine Snyder, is a detailed ethnographic account of the affects of Maendeleo (progress and development) on the Iraqw people of northern Tanzania, shaped partially by the struggle between the young and the old to capture...» Document abstract
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SummaryThe Iraqw of Tanzania, by Katherine Snyder, is a detailed ethnographic account of the affects of Maendeleo (progress and development) on the Iraqw people of northern Tanzania, shaped partially by the struggle between the young and the old to capture the true essence of Iraqw culture. However, she argues that they are not squarely against modernization in their area instead they adapt and often take an active role in the process while questioning what modernization means to them.
Table of Contents- Snyder supplements her claims about Maendeleo among the Iraqw people of Tanzania with some typical ethnographic background.
- Snyder claims that regardless of all these changes many traditional practices remain rooted inside the culture.
- Katherine Snyder's ethnographic research on the Iraqw was fascinating to read through, partly because of the personal stories told throughout, but it was also slightly predictable.
- With all of that said, I very much enjoyed the combination of facts and analysis that Snyder provides especially the comparison of religions, old and new.
- This new cash economy also brought with it a large and ever growing income disparity, still small by our standards with the rich receiving up to 15,000 a year and the poor living on as little as 300 a year, but very demoralizing for the people.
- Hunger and Shame approaches the subject of malnutrition from an interesting and personal point of view, not blaming any particular system and denying the existence of a single solution to the immense problem.
«Irreverence in comedy has been at the forefront of recent comedic performances. In one television show, ‘The Office’, depicts supervisor David Brent, performed by Ricky Gervais, as an irreverent ‘funny man’. In one episode, while orienting a new...» Document abstract
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SummaryIrreverence in comedy has been at the forefront of recent comedic performances. In one television show, ‘The Office’, depicts supervisor David Brent, performed by Ricky Gervais, as an irreverent ‘funny man’. In one episode, while orienting a new employee around the office, he listens to his phone messages, and after the last one, pretends to pick up the phone and throw it out of the window - all in effort for a laugh. The new employee looks on, not even feigning a laugh. But the audience does, because of the irony at work. Brent is a self-proclaimed ‘comedian’ – a person who lightens up the typically drab idea of ‘work.’ However, nobody in the office finds his irreverent humour funny – he is less comedic, and more annoyingly loathsome. The audience laughs at the awkward situation between someone trying too hard for a laugh and not receiving it. The audience and the employees laugh more at Brent than with him. Well, the employees laugh behind his back. However, the irreverent comedic episodes elucidate the character of David Brent. The episodes depict a person concerned with assuming a comic role rather than that of a supervisor who runs a productive office. Irreverence has a point to make. Furthermore, the irreverence of David Brent makes the audience laugh before they cry at the threat of the Wernham Slough office being closed. They suddenly stop and want Brent to put aside his obsession with acting the fool, but it is a character fault Brent will never overcome. ‘The Office’ is a modern example of what Shakespeare utilized in his varied body of work – in tragedy, historic or comic plays. For there are numerous instances of Shakespeare’s application of comedic irreverence, and like ‘The Office,’ Shakespeare used it for an intended significance toward the total effect of the play. For such tragedies as Romeo and Juliet, one might conclude that the comic irreverence of the Nurse in Scene two, Act five seems out of place. However, upon further investigation the comic episode proves integral to the tragic plot of the play: the comic episode allows the audience to laugh before they start to cry, and that the Nurse’s character is revealed as one comprised of vanity –inherent vanity in her speech, and vanity in her thoughts about love, which in a later scene proves detrimental to Juliet.
Table of Contents- Irreverence in comedy has been at the forefront of recent comedic performances.
- ‘Irreverence' is such a strong word; it evokes bad connotations, and just looking at the word, one would skim over it because, well, it is irreverent.
- So then, what is it about Act two, Scene five that makes the audience laugh?
- Second, the Nurse is a minimal character; Shakespeare didn't even provide her with a proper name, simply, ‘the Nurse.?
- In Act three, Scene five, after Capulet argues with Juliet over the arranged marriage with County Paris, Juliet is in despair and desperately in need of a sympathetic heart.
- Watch David Brent's funny, irreverent humour, but keep in mind, there is still something of importance inside the irreverence.
«Gender and sexuality are very difficult concepts to define in our post-modern age. To begin with, the term is outdated to fit the social norms of today: attraction lies anywhere and is not confined to ‘heterosexual love’ between a man and a woman....» Document abstract
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SummaryGender and sexuality are very difficult concepts to define in our post-modern age. To begin with, the term is outdated to fit the social norms of today: attraction lies anywhere and is not confined to ‘heterosexual love’ between a man and a woman. Gay, lesbian and bi-sexual are terms used to describe the previously neglected aspects of sexuality. Gender bending sexual androgyny used to be thought of as repulsive, but as Baz Luhrmann tells us, is all the more coveted in our liberalism of the present. As well, the more androgynous you are – in how you look and how you love – the more attractive you are; a signature of sexuality in the forever reviving pop-culture. As Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet uses every aspect of pop-culture, from music to fashion to actors to create a post-modern Verona, he also utilizes androgynous sexuality in various characters. Yet, not to alienate any audience member, Luhrmann elucidates all varied counterparts of gender and sexuality: from femininity to masculinity; from heterosexuality to homosexuality and homosociality. He throws everything that is pop-culture at us in the film, and as he shows in the varied characters, gender-bending sexuality is integral to our time and age.
Table of Contents- Gender and sexuality are very difficult concepts to define in our post-modern age.
- Before tackling the more difficult aspects of Luhrmann's film, it is important to examine the heterosexual aspects to provide a picture of comparison and contrast.
- If Benvolio personifies heterosexual masculinity, then Juliet and her mother, Lady Capulet, depict that of heterosexual femininity.
- On the opposite end of the spectrum lies Lady Capulet. If Juliet depicts feminine chastity, then Lady Capulet depicts that of a whore.
- So far there seems to be a majority of heterosexual content in Luhrmann's film.
- Sycamore Grove, before the Capulet party, is the scene that puts an inquisitive twist to Romeo and Mercutio's relationship.
- Gender and sexuality exist as one. For you cannot represent one without the other.
- Pop-culture is everywhere in the film, and instead of resting a cheap thesis on the modern generation showcasing pop-culture familiarity, Luhrmann expresses an intimate understanding of what gender and sexuality mean in this day and age.
«Paul Laurence Dunbar and Edwin Arlington Robinson created “We Wear the Mask” and “Richard Cory” during the literary renaissance after World War I. Society was targeted and critiqued by authors who wanted to describe the “spiritual problems and...» Document abstract
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SummaryPaul Laurence Dunbar and Edwin Arlington Robinson created “We Wear the Mask” and “Richard Cory” during the literary renaissance after World War I. Society was targeted and critiqued by authors who wanted to describe the “spiritual problems and disillusionments” (p 765). Dunbar and Robinson described the feeling of alienation, or estrangement from society and its ideals. The insightful theme of alienation critiqued society as being false; ideals of money, power, and social politics were corrupting the modern minds.
Table of Contents- Paul Laurence Dunbar and Edwin Arlington Robinson created 'We Wear the Mask' and 'Richard Cory' during the literary renaissance after World War I.
- Alienation is very subtle and personal; something not easily observed just by a person's appearance.
- Paul Laurence Dunbar intimates the inner feelings by the alienated person in 'We Wear the Mask?.
- The different texts about alienation are so similar that they should be read and interpreted together.
- The literary renaissance after the First World War detailed the spiritual disillusionment many people experienced.
- By exploring 'We Wear the Mask', the intimately private critique of an alienated speaker point to clues of how desperate life is in a society that deflects his personal beliefs
«The author of either a novel or a short story has one main purpose: to dazzle the reader. However, dazzling the reader is a difficult process because we don’t all have the same attention spans, or have the same interests, or even enjoy the same...» Document abstract
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SummaryThe author of either a novel or a short story has one main purpose: to dazzle the reader. However, dazzling the reader is a difficult process because we don’t all have the same attention spans, or have the same interests, or even enjoy the same words on the pages that other reader’s find enjoyable. It’s a phenomenon of sorts, when an author attains such remarkable success in the eyes of the reading public; one has to remark to oneself: ‘Why does everyone want to read this particular author’s work?’ In short, the reader’s were dazzled by the presentation of characters, the situation, the consequence, the author’s careful manipulation of certain details to provide those nearly elusive underlying themes. Such authors as Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle enjoyed staggering success with populations across the world – but how did these detective-story writers do it? What was it that these author’s possessed for them to seemingly somehow conjure millions of people to read their body of work? In such stories as Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, they convey the author’s mastery of tension. In a detective story, it is important for the author to pique the reader’s interest, and then lure them along with the correct amount of tension that doesn’t reveal too much, but just enough to move the story along. In both stories by Christie and Doyle, the author’s use a specific setting of the isolated country-house to create the effects of tension. The country-house is inherently thought of as being inhabited by noble, wealthy aristocrats, who have a staff of servants to run the household.
Table of Contents- The author of either a novel or a short story has one main purpose: to dazzle the reader.
- Isolation is one of the advantages a detective-story writer gains by setting the action in a country-house.
- Loyalty and faithfulness to the household can go so far; however, there lies another advantage for the detective-story writer in setting the action in a country-house – the servants always have a motive for committing a crime.
- For a family sect to own a large country-house and to employ a staff of servants to run the household, it assumes that there is a decent, if not bountiful sum of money running through the owner's blue blood.
- What Doyle shows is a country-house estate, one that has fallen from grace, and needs to have its good name restored to the glory that it once possessed.
- The detective-story writer gains several advantages to setting the action of the story in a country-house:
- Perhaps the setting of a country-house has become cliché over the years, but both Christie and Conan Doyle established the country-house setting as one that is beneficial to the advantage of the detective-story writer.
«“A manifestation of any of these qualities: bravery, courtesy, honor.” This is the definition of the world chivalry as found in the dictionary. Though it was first coined during the Medieval Age, the idea still hold true today. One of the greatest...» Document abstract
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Summary“A manifestation of any of these qualities: bravery, courtesy, honor.” This is the definition of the world chivalry as found in the dictionary. Though it was first coined during the Medieval Age, the idea still hold true today. One of the greatest books of chivalry is Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote. The hero of the story, Don Quixote, rides into the world to correct the evils that have befallen society. Over the course of his journeys, he routinely mistakes situations and tries to help where his assistance is not needed, usually resulting in creating more problems for the victim. He is driven by the idea of chivalry and idea that had been imbedded in his mind from the books he has read about knights of old. By showing different instances how Quixote makes things worse and not better, Cervantes both glorifies and pokes fun at the notion of chivalry. However, as a reader, one can not admire a man who leaves behind is home to help others in the world. Even if he creates and imaginary problem out of nothing, the reader still recognizes that he genuinely tries and help, as opposed to just sitting back and watching the world go by. In today’s society, Quixote would feel out of place, not only for his dress and manner of speaking, but also because the world today lacks the kind of people who would go out of their way to help someone else. It appears that many people today or so wrapped up in their own lives that they do not take the time to help others. Thought Cervantes’ book was written centuries ago, the chivalric qualities of honor, courtesy, and bravery displayed by Quixote are ones that are lacking in today’s society.
Table of Contents- 'A manifestation of any of these qualities: bravery, courtesy, honor.' This is the definition of the world chivalry as found in the dictionary.
- Don Quixote is a man of considerable wealth. He comes from a small village in La Mancha, where he lives by himself with servants.
- The adventures that the two encounter are not world wars that would alter the course of history, but are rather small situations where Cervantes is able to comment on Quixote's actions.
- Though these are only two small adventures in the whole story, they highlight a key point in the novel.
- Simple courtesy is something that is very lacking in today's world.
- The character of Don Quixote can teach us a lot about ourselves.
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