...environmental contrasts in nature in Mesopotamia, it is evident that the inhabitants of this region were both in a state of astonishment and angst. Thus, this was reflected in their tales and stories. The Mesopotamians were humbled people who stressed importance in the afterlife, and devotion to their gods. Their culture emerged from the persistent change and methodological affairs they were accustomed to. In the epic of Gilgamesh, the story follows the heroic journey of a man who is “two-thirds divine and one-third human” to his road to attaining wisdom and piety (Gilgamesh, 71). It is characterized by hope and forgiveness rather than the presumed pessimistic attitude of the Mesopotamians. The story begins with an introduction to Gilgamesh, the main character, who is a ruler over his people and seen as and “unvanquished leader, hero in the front lines, beloved by his soldiers” (Gilgamesh, 71). Although at first his people are unhappy with Gilgamesh as their king, the story follows through with transformation of this character from a despicable, violent ruler to a hopeful, wiser individual. The prevalence of violence in Gilgamesh’s personality is a reflection of the destruction the Mesopotamians encountered in their nature. There are various occurrences in this poem where Gilgamesh allows his anger to result in a destruction of some sort. Nonetheless, he presents an anticipating attitude toward the hereafter rather than a pessimistic one, which is presented at the end of the narration...
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...emotion that is recollected in tranquility. The recollections of emotions enable the poet to ‘see’ the object which evoke the emotions. Imagination enables the poet to look deep into the heart and soul of things. It is through the imaginative faculty that poet arrives at the general truths basic to human nature. Through the imaginative power, the poet is able to present emotions which he has not directly experienced. But he presents them in such a way that they seem personally experienced. Imagination is always associated with the created power and is a poetic principle. It is a transforming power as it has the ability to change the usual and ordinary in an unusual and uncommon way. Poetry is a modified "image of man and nature”. The poet is able to impart "the glory and freshness of a dream" to ordinary things of nature. He can present in his poetry the light that never was on land and sea. He is able to do so to the creative faculty of imagination. It is thus an active power. Poet is not a passive reflector of images formed from nature. He is a man who not only feels strongly but also thinks long and deeply. He is able to treat absent things as if they are present. Here Canterbury tales present an example of this imaginative power to visualize objects which are not present before poet’s eyes in their concrete forms but he presents them before us that they seem real. 29 pilgrims of Chaucer are his imaginative characters, all their qualities, merits and demerits are his own creations...
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...very different than the protagonist in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Changez. Although both take the unofficial titles of narrators in the novels that they are encompassed in, the values of the two greatly differ. Milkman Dead is an egotistical, sheltered, and privileged African American living up in an unnamed Michigan town. Throughout the majority of the book, Milkman is the embodiment of an immature young man indiscriminately drifting through life. Milkman is caught up in the materialistic ways that he perhaps inherited through the ways of his father. Additionally, Milkman lacks compassion for those perceived as inferior to him and lacks a sense of commitment to his family. Changez, on the other hand, is an intelligent and reserved Pakistani man in his mid-twenties who graduated at the top of his class from Princeton. Unlike many of his wealthy acquaintances at Princeton, Changez had little money and was attending the school on financial aid. To the cost of tuition, he worked three off-campus jobs, studied tirelessly, and cooked his own meals in his dormitory....
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...the magic realist mode. In ‘In Evil Hour’ (1961) or ‘The General in His Labyrinth” (1989) there are hardly any magic realist elements. On the other hand, ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ still functions as the main and most eminent example of magic realism in the world literature, and the one best recognised by an average reader, too. As to ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’, it seems to lie somewhere in between a purely magic realist fiction and a realistic one, with some supernatural elements present in the text, but seeming not to be of fundamental importance. To interpret the novel in the context of magic realism, some definitions of that writing technique (or of that literary movement, as some critics prefer to call it) should be shortly presented hereon. The notion...
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...The Open Window - Analysis "The Open Window" is Saki's most popular short story. It was first collected in Beasts and SuperBeasts in 1914. Saki's wit is at the height of its power in this story of a spontaneous practical joke played upon a visiting stranger. The [pic]practical joke recurs In many of Saki's stories, but "The Open Window" is perhaps his most successful and best known example of the type. Saki dramatizes here the conflict between reality and imagination, demonstrating how difficult it can be to distinguish between them. Not only does the unfortunate Mr. Nuttel fall victim to the story's joke, but so does the reader. The reader is at first inclined to laugh at Nuttel for being so gullible. However, the reader, too, has been taken in by Saki's story and must come to the realization that he or she is also inclined to believe a well-told and interesting tale. Style “The Open Window” is the story of a deception, perpetrated on an unsuspecting, and constitutionally nervous man, by a young lady whose motivations for lying remain unclear. Structure The most remarkable of Saki’s devices in “The Open Window” is his construction of the story’s narrative. The structure of the story is actually that of a story-within-a-story. The larger “frame” narrative is that of Mr. Nuttel’s arrival at Mrs. Sappleton’s house for the purpose of introducing himself to her. Within this narrative frame is the second story, that told by Mrs. Sappleton’s niece. Symbolism The most important...
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...City of Glass Story by Paul Auster Essay by Vanessa Jagna Hoff Levinsen In this essay, we will be working with Paul Auster’s novel “City of Glass”. In the story, we follow the character Daniel Quinn, whose occupation is writing literature. This novel works with different themes that are related to mental health. The first theme we will be talking about is a question of identity; who am I, and who are you? We will follow this with describing human contact’s connection with the sanity of mankind. Social life and its influence on our mentality will lead us to the question of the masks of mankind; who is the real personality among the many faces of a single human. We will also discuss the theme of deciding. What crucial decisions have lead to the life we now live, and what could have been, if our stories had taken place just a tiny bit differently. Last but not least we will go into depth with Quinn’s mental disorder and how it is related to the other characters in the novel. Can a single, presumably random incident change the entire course of our lives? We all have one or more events that changed the entire direction of our own personal tales of existence. It can be a moment of clarity, where we realised we had lived our lives wrong the entire time. It could be the moment we bumped into that special someone, and fell in love. Or maybe it was that day when you received a rather odd phone call; let us say that perhaps you got a phone call from someone who looked for a detective...
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...Advancement), I have also indicated the place in the text by markers common to all editions -- book number, chapter, section, aphorism, essay number. The page number in the cited edition follows a comma where such information is helpful. AL The Advancement of Learning DA de Dignitate et Augmentis Scientarum Essays Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral (1625) GI The Great Instauration ;NA New Atlantis NO Novum Organum PFB Philosophy of Francis Bacon Preface Preface to the Great Instauration PW Plan of the Work (in Weinberger 1989) WA Of the Wisdom of the Ancients INTRODUCTION Understanding political judgment in Baconian terms necessitates an investigation of the question of who rules in Bensalem, Bacon’s island “utopia” presented in his New Atlantis. Only by answering this question might one know where to look for one who either possesses or is in a position to exercise such judgment. By locating the individual(s) who exercise political power, one might begin to come to an understanding of the qualities, disposition, and capacity – both moral and intellectual – of one who exercises judgment as well as, perhaps, the political framework within which the ruler operates. Even if a particular ruler is unable to be located, the investigation may prove fruitful for seeing what a ruler must be – the principles behind any rule as such, regardless of personage. The question of who rules in Bensalem is not a new idea. Indeed, it is among the most common questions asked by...
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...time in which the perspective was formed and documented, the side of the border at which the writer resided, the views of the resultant states and how they portrayed these views, the personal experiences of the literary writers, and so on and so forth. With a vast number of variables, it becomes an impossible task to present an unbiased and accurate depiction of the historical events that occurred during this period. The sheer scale of the event was such that it encompassed people residing in an assortment of areas, with varying lifestyles, ethnicities, religions and socio-economic statuses. The exodus of people from both sides of the border was, and remains, incomprehensible. The breakout of violence in previously peaceful communities, the horrifying tales of tragedies of all parties involved and the politicized character of the event were of such multifaceted natures that a uniform historical account can not be formed. With this consideration, the literary writings provide a different insight, from a different perspective so as to study the partition with a holistic approach. There are many different perspectives, and these perspectives, whether political or literary, may have inherent biases. Therefore, this paper aims to present how the historical accounts vary due to political reasons in the states of Pakistan and India, and how revisionist thinkers have attempted to...
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...A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens This eBook is designed and published by Planet PDF. For more free eBooks visit our Web site at http://www.planetpdf.com A Tale of Two Cities Book the First—Recalled to Life 2 of 670 eBook brought to you by A Tale of Two Cities Create, view, and edit PDF. Download the free trial version. I The Period It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever. It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. 3 of 670 A Tale of Two Cities ...
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...history as a result of the development of human thought. In literature, the idea of heroism appears on a large scale. It has been dealt with by different writers in different periods. As far as terminology is concerned, the terms of heroism and sacrifice are interchangeable. The hero must be a sacrificer and the one who sacrifices himself must be a hero, for this reason these two terms (hero and sacrificer) cannot be separated. Thus, both of them go hand in hand in so many works of literature. Heroism and sacrifice are not confined to human beings only. Some writers present their heroes as gods as in mythology, and some of them present animals as in fables. 809 0202 / مجلة ديالى العدد الرابع و االربعون The idea of having an animal as a sacrificial hero is shown in many of Oscar Wilde’s short stories. He developed this theme as a reaction towards his age which lacked, in his view, moral as well as human values. For this reason, he chooses a bird to be his tragic hero. He epitomizes this idea in such short stories like “The Nightingale and the Rose” and “The Happy Prince”. The heroes in these two short stories are birds: a swallow in “The Happy prince” and a nightingale in “The Nightingale and the Rose”. These creatures are usually known of their delicacy and frailty. But in these stories they function as sacrificial heroes for the sake of others and tolerate horrible conditions of death just to please people. “The Nightingale and the Rose” is one of Wilde’s best...
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...an author uses to convey meaning. An author’s use of a literary technique usually occurs with a single word or phrase, or a particular group of words or phrases, at one single point in a text. Unlike literary elements, literary techniques are not necessarily present in every text. Literary terms refers to the words themselves with which we identify and describe literary elements and techniques. They are not found in literature and they are not “used” by authors. Allegory: Where every aspect of a story is representative, usually symbolic, of something else, usually a larger abstract concept or important historical/geopolitical event. Lord of the Flies provides a compelling allegory of human nature, illustrating the three sides of the psyche through its sharply-defined main characters. Antagonist: Counterpart to the main character...
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...Chris Clarke on how Disney's treatment of animals has altered our sense of the wild and cleared the way for environmental decline. As the close of the twentieth century approaches and our world becomes more and more urban our knowledge of nature is increasingly second-hand. Those of us in cities, whose non-human neighbors tend toward rats, pigeons and dandelions, are dependent on the media for our understanding of the natural world – or at least that part of it not adapted to urban life. It is from movies, television and packaged tourism that we derive our sense of nature. For the last half century, it has been Walt Disney and his corporate estate that have provided that sense. In doing so Disney has instilled an appreciation of nature in generations of media consumers. Many environmentalists and animal-rights activists credit Disney with awaking their concern for the environment. But this appreciation has not been delivered in a value-free package. From the outset Disney’s nature films have supported the notion that the natural world’s chief value lies in the profit that industrial society can extract from it. At first this support took the form of simple paeans to the righteousness of logging, mining and urban development. Now, amidst the increasing commodification of everything from tribal myth to basmati rice, the value extracted from nature is the right to define nature. Disney covets that right and will gain it at our peril. Not much besides hindsight distinguishes...
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...'The hazards presented by volcanic and seismic events have the greatest impact on the world’s poorest people'. To what extent do you agree with this view? Firstly I believe that this statement is true but only to a partial extent. Hazards presented by tectonic activity can be managed and controlled so their impacts are lessened and even not felt. However such management involves planning, prediction and action, all of which may cost considerable amounts of money, unavailable to the poorest people. For example, ever since its primary eruption in 1968 Mount Etna has been constantly erupting every year. Though these eruptions are not always violent sometime volcanic bombs can be fired from the composite volcano and since its eruption in 1968 it has killed around 77 people, most of these unwitting tourists who did not take enough care. However due to the volcano being located in the fairly rich area of Sicily the impacts of its hazards have been managed and fairly efficiently. For example, explosives were first used to relocate the andesitic lava flows away from settlements, protecting people’s housing and property. More recently, Sicily has had the funds to construct artificial lava tunnels to conveniently drain the lava away when Etna erupts. Moreover Sicily has managed to accurately predict the size and frequency of the eruptions of Etna by using remote sensors which measure the bulge of the volcano, a tell tale sign of the imminent eruption. In combination to this, they sample...
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...injuries to his spinal cord. On April 21, 2015, pending an investigation of incident, six Baltimore police officers were temporarily suspended with pay. On May 1, 2015, state prosecutors in Baltimore received a medical examiner’s report ruling Gray’s death as a homicide. Was it foul play that was intentional, gross negligence, or inflicted self harm by the prisoner? We identified “Rae’s first step in making a moral decision is to gather the facts.” Much of the other information had conflicting reports and statements. So what are the “ethical issues that Rae has for level two” in the model for making moral decisions? The formal charge filed by Office Garrett Miller accused Gray of violating statute 19 59 22, “unlawfully carry, possess, and sell a knife commonly called a switch blade knife, with an automatic spring or other device for opening and/or closing the blade within the limits of Baltimore City.” The prosecutor alleged that Gray’s arrest was unlawful because the switchblade the arresting officers reported he had in his possession was actually a spring-assisted pocket knife that is legal under Maryland state-law. The prosecutors stated that they had probable cause to file criminal charges against the six police officers who were believed to be involved in his death.’ Did Freddie Gray break the law to warrant this arrest that led to his...
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...“Her good nature wore out/ like a fan belt./ So she cut off her nose and her legs/ and offered them up.” This quote from “Barbie Doll”, by Marge Piercy, refers to a young girl who wishes to change her character and her appearance in order to live up to society’s expectations. In fact, instead of being complimented or admired for whom she truly is, people would rather criticize and condemn her for whom she isn’t. As a result of endlessly trying to alter her portrait, the “girlchild” eventually “wore herself out”. This poem suggests that unrealistic societal demands are destructive for a woman’s self-esteem and well-being. When comparing oneself to an idealistic notion of female beauty and behaviour, one can only expect to feel demoralized, discouraged and devalued. Indeed, "Barbie Doll," the title of the poem, symbolizes society’s view of a perfect woman; the way society expects every woman to be. In fact, by using “Barbie Doll” as the title to her poem, Marge Piercy wants the reader to compare and contrast the adolescent’s appearance to that of a Barbie doll. Stereotypically, Mattel’s Barbie dolls have tall, thin yet curvy bodies, with symmetrical, perfect facial features, blonde hair and blue eyes. This, in turn, leads to the protagonist’s void of self-confidence. Additionally, living up to such standards - all the while being a housewife who must clean the house, raise the children and please her husband - is very demanding on the female gender. Moreover, the doll is symbolic...
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