...A compilation of essays, The Labyrinth of Solitude mostly reflects on political history, while a few others tackle the experience of solitude in a direct manner. The author Octavio Paz holds to the belief that genres of solitude in society derive from a psychological fixation of defeat. For example, the Aztec’s humiliation begins with the harshly commanding leaders who are ousted and superseded by the Spanish fighters, which occurs during the independence period. In addition, the Aztec people grow intimidated by the North Americans. The outcome of these outside influences creates an oscillation between harsh treatment and aloofness. However, Paz elaborates that the feeling of being oppressed did not develop out of a sense of inferiority....
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...From the moment she learned to write, she began to compose poems, which blew the minds of her high school professors, parents and neighbors. By the age of 8 she wrote her first poem and at the age of 14, her first poem was published. Wilcox also wrote an autobiography entitled ‘The Worlds and I’, which was published a year before her death in 1919. She also had the honor to be a member of the first supreme council of the American Rosicrucian Movement. Furthermore, Wilcox had a positive and optimistic mind set and was a strong believer in the idea of reincarnation. She had a credence that hope would triumph over despair and that good would overcome evil. This concept became a recurring theme in many of her poems. Her poems gave people who were suffering from a death a spark of hope, reassurance and strength. In Ella Wheeler Wilcox’s most famous poem “Solitude”, her poetic choices contribute to the theme that people isolate themselves from the world when they...
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...Gabriel Garcia Marquez In my essay I want to talk about Gabriel Garcia Marquez two famous works “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and “Love in the Time of Cholera”. Gabriel García Márquez was born in 1928, in the small town of Aracataca, Colombia. He started his career as a journalist. When One Hundred Years of Solitude was published in his native Spanish in 1967, as Cien años de soledad, García Márquez achieved true international fame; he went on to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. One Hundred Years of Solitude is perhaps the most important, and the most widely read, text to emerge from that period. It is also a central and pioneering work in the movement that has become known as magical realism, which was characterized by the dreamlike and fantastic elements woven into the fabric of its fiction. Even as it draws from García Márquez’s provincial experiences, One Hundred Years of Solitude also reflects political ideas that apply to Latin America as a whole. Latin America once had a thriving population of native Aztecs and Incas (of the many complex civilizations to arise in the ancient Americas, the Aztecs, the last ancient Mexican civilization, known for their huge city-on-a-lake of Tenochtitlan and for the practice of mass human sacrifice; and the Incas of Peru, whose rigid state structure and many golden treasures so amazed the Spanish invaders.) but, slowly, as European explorers arrived, the native population had to adjust to the technology and capitalism...
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...spiritual movements in the Christian life. Each one proceeding from the previous one to make a simple but profound process for the reader to understand. Explained first as the spectrum of loneliness to solitude. Next, hostility to hospitality, and finally illusion to prayer. The needs of loneliness manifest its in the quest for messianic completeness in other things to fill the void. This has many implications as violence, resentment, and other reactions to having such flawed idols are being used to fill the gap. On the other hand, the author presents Christ as the point of wholeness that we as humans long for. Our innermost selves are filled by this to become receptive to inner talk, the world and others. The immovable wholeness in Christ is the axiom in which the heart solitude provides loving faith filled responses. Going further into solitude is an process of inner stability in Christ, that plants seeds of hospitality instead of the natural hostility our world has created. Hospitality is defined as a biblical term of open freedom of space so that strangers can be invited as friends. Balanced in heart solitude and freedom from attachment to things either material or immaterial makes the space for a good host. In a world of anxiety about impending danger, a heart of solitude provides the means to live compassionate towards others sufferings, as well own our inner disposition of the human sinful condition. Hospitality is referenced in three interpersonal realms of child-parent...
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...displays Chris McCandless’s life as a journey from his younger years to his adult years until he passes away. It is a life of wanting freedom of solitude once events awaken his perspective on life. The author, Krakauer identifies his slow but prominent sliding into solitude. Krakauer develops this theme by explaining the characteristics of Chris and the many events that lead up to his venture in the wilderness. Krakauer establishes the theme of freedom of solitude by displaying Chris’s troubles with his family, settling and resettling, and his...
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...Part one, childhood and adolescence, part two, love and marriage, part three, death and regret. A life loved in a robotic structure, going by what is “meant to be.” Relinquishing your hopes and dreams to please your community. In Thornton Wilder’s, Our Town, Individuals perceive the Grover’s Corners as a “true community,” yet others, like myself, believe it is just the illusion of a perfect society. Wilder is optical illusionist, M. C. Escher, and Our Town is the painting Three Worlds. A place viewed in various perspectives. The characters in the play all ostensible relationships. In The End of Solitude author William Deresiewicz states, “Technology is taking away our privacy and our concentration, but it is also taking away our ability...
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...Leslie Haggard CMLT- C 110 Final Draft October 3, 2014 Solitude is Bliss In the poem, Shannon, Campbell McGrath gives voice to George Shannon’s agonizing journey during the sixteen days he spends wandering lost and alone on the prairies of the Western frontier. Shannon comes to face a number of trials throughout the duration of his journey, as he wanders the land half-starved with lost hope of ever being found again. Oddly enough, his biggest battle is not his fight to survive but rather this war with himself, questioning what is supposed to become of his life and perhaps who he is supposed to be. Therefore, Shannon’s journey becomes something much larger than just his discoveries and observations of the land. Instead, his journey becomes more about self-discovery as he begins to uncover what he thought he had already found, his true identity. It would be no exaggeration to say that the Shannon that first sets out into the wilderness is not the same Shannon who comes out. In the beginning of his journey, he is full of wonder and excitement for “It is a fine & open country in every aspect hereabouts.” (McGrath 9) Also, he is fully confident in himself and his abilities at the start of the expedition. He states, “I am a better hunter than most back home & this is a newer land” (McGrath 10). However, it is not too far into the journey when he begins to recognize the “pure foolishness” of setting out alone. As the days progress, he starts to give up hope as he...
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...2015 T4 Ella Wheeler Wilcox In the poems Solitude and It might have been by Ella Wheeler Wilcox there are strong comparisons that can be made between the two by using both the style used in each poem and the substance. The poems are almost complete opposites, yet are very similar, Solitude is about being alone in the world or feeling isolated, while It might have been is meant to be empowering because the author encourages the readers to not regret anything or to not let chances slip by. Ella Wheeler Wilcox was born November 5, 1850 in Johnstown, Wisconsin. She began writing poetry at a very young age and was a recognized poet before she had even graduated high school. She was constantly compared to Walt Whitman because of their way of writing; her poetry was sentimental and romantic. Something that set them apart though was their form; Ella Wheeler Wilcox maintained a very traditional form unlike Walt Whitman. Her most famous work was the Poems of Passion. She married Robert Wilcox in 1884. Soon after her husband’s passing in 1916, Ella passed away due to cancer on October 30, 1919. Her autobiography, The Worlds and I, was published in 1918, a year before her death. The poem Solitude talks about being isolated from the world when you are feeling down and enjoying everything around you when you are feeling happy. Laugh and the world laughs with you; / Weep and you weep alone (Solitude. Lines 1 and 2) these two lines in the poem, I believe, show...
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...harshest natural conditions can the most splendid part of human spirits like love, perseverance and braveness be revealed. The short story Love of Life is one of the most prestigious works that Jack London wrote during the gold rush years. The story is about two men’s expedition of gold searching to the North. On the way, the central character in the novel was abandoned by his companion but he continued his journey and never gave up, overcoming countless difficulties and experiencing all types of torture until he was saved. Under the most severe conditions of food shortage, he solely relied on himself for survival in wilderness. Even at the most critical moment of facing imminent death due to extremely serious physical exhaustion, he had to compete for survival with a dying wolf and finally choked it to death and lived on by sucking the wolf’s blood. Jack lavished his appreciation of and praise for such struggle against life as well as all the implicit love and persistence of life. Love of life is a good example to show the various profound meanings of life. And never has Jack London expressed his view of life so intensively and significantly in his previous literary works. In this...
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...Without sympathizing someone's emotions it could lead to solitude, which could linger devastating ones being. In both novels Beowulf, by Seamus Heaney, and Grendel, by John Gardner, it primarily focuses on the malicious conflict between the human civilization and creatures out of the ordinary, considered to be monsters. The main discrepancy was a monster named Grendel and Beowulf a hero from a kingdom terrorized for years, by Grendel himself. The monster was said to have killed many people, however, his reasoning was unsure. Without remorse the warrior slain the monster to stop the terror in which Grendel created; however, the reason the beast killed so many people was because of the lack of understanding between him and the society, this in...
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...In Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, unstable teenager Holden Caulfield recounts his experiences navigating New York while meeting new people after being kicked out of many schools. Holden, after experiencing tragedy with the death of his brother, isolates himself from the world around him, which he believes is filled with “phonies”. Holden’s thoughts and actions along his journey prove Jodi Picoult’s assertion that “if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it’s not because they enjoy solitude. It’s because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.” Picoult’s claims are correct because those who pull away from the world do so after failed attempts at reaching out; they instead adjust...
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... A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, and even Acquainted with the night by Robert Frost. These four works of literature all carry the theme of loneliness and isolation, whether it is Bartleby refusing to interact with anyone and shutting himself away from the rest of the world, Emily who seemed to isolate herself from the rest of her village after her father’s death, the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper having to spend all her time in the a room she hates because of her disease, or the narrator of Acquainted with the Night strolling through the nightly city all by herself in solitude. All of these stories contain the very popular theme of loneliness and isolation,which are shown using various literary devices of each author’s choosing. Throughout the whole story of A Rose for Emily, the setting seemed to be very eerie and unnatural; the author gave the readers a feeling that made them almost sense the loneliness emanating from the protagonist, Miss Emily:“That was two years after her father’s death and a short time after her sweetheart-the one we believed would marry her-had deserted her. After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all” (53 Faulkner). This made it known right...
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...blessing from Allah SWT as it tells us that our hearts are intended for purity. People act upon guilt because unless they fix their mistakes, the feeling won't go away. Grief: Grief gives one contemporary feelings of sorrow. However, it may come to one's realization that the deceased requires to be prayed for; in order for the people to meet their loved ones once again, they will have to start utilizing their time for the better. Although death allows for a painful feeling, it also allows for an impactful feeling--for which, in the long run, leads to beneficence. As shown in the picture, a woman longs for her deceased loved ones...but it is to her knowledge that she may benefit them and herself by performing worship and dua. Solitude: Solitude is a force that makes one more conscious about one's self and one's environment. In the case of the photograph, strong forces can be felt towards the person as he becomes more conscious about his surroundings and ultimately learns a moral from his loneliness. One may think that living in solitude can be a bad thing...however, it is actually one of the most important moments people will ever get. Perseverance: Perseverance is the ability to withstand obstacles, for the sake of a goal. In the case of the photograph, a man is praying in the intense environment of a desert. The heat serves as a difficulty for the man, however the man remains persistent in the course of his action. It is clear that the man's belief in his faith is firm and...
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...an essay that will analyze two important works of ancient art. They will be analyzed in terms of their form, subject matter and content. It will explain how these two art works fit into the time period they were made. Using the terminology and concepts of evaluating art, this paper will compare the two pieces of art in consideration with their style, symbolism and meaning of them. The first work of ancient art chosen for this assignment is The House with the Cracked Walls by Paul Cézanne (1839–1906). It was painted between the years of 1892 and 1894 with oil on a canvas. It is a painting of a house scenario surrounded by trees, rocks and grass. The house looks abandoned or not lived in. Some will say that it is a romantic scenery of solitude and intensity. It is a painting of deep imagination and creativity: the sky is intense and empty, the ground is unstable and steep, the horizon is irregular, and the trees seem agitated as well as the rising appearance of the ground. The balance of the painting starts with the cracked house because this effect leads down to the rocks, the ground and the lines and cracks on the trees. The shadows and dark colors create balance as well: earthly colors of greens, greys, tans, blues and browns. The vertical shape of the entire painting gives it a pressed together look with the ground rising up to the house and trees that are rising up to the sky. Symbolism, in my opinion, is greatly used in this oil painting as well; the cracks in the house...
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...Robert Frost, writing as the narrator in the poems “Birches” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is comfortable in the countryside and portrays an enjoyment of nature on the surface. When these poems are examined more in depth the narrator becomes much more complex, showing that there is a deeper and darker undertone to the pleasant words and cadences of the poems. The narrator has experienced pain and sorrow during his life and finds that his suffering makes the contemplation of death both fascinating and tempting. Also, the narrator has considered the peacefulness of death but has decided to pursue life and the choices that one faces along the path of life. Initially the poems “Birches” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” show the narrator as a simple man of the countryside. “Birches” is set “too far from town to learn baseball” (25). This suggests a place far from town and set deep in the country. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is set in a remote woods, far from any homes. Each location in the settings of the poems is remote and far from city life. This suggests that the narrator is accustomed to the countryside and its way of life and that he most likely enjoys this type of life. The narrator also has an appreciation of nature. This is immediately evident in the fact that each poem is centered on nature and uses the themes of nature to establish the narrator’s points. Each poem involves an interaction with nature, such as a ride in the woods...
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