...I grew up as a young man in Lagos Nigeria, learning the values of hard work, contentment, focus and integrity from my mum, who singlehandedly raised I and my two sisters, having lost our dad when she was just twenty eight and just as I neared my third birthday. However, as I grew up, it was discovered that I was a very absentminded and forgetful kid, who secretly hated schooling, but was very vocal, inquisitive, loved to read autobiographies write articles and debate with classmates and teachers and quite surprisingly, I did quite well in elementary School and even was best student in the entrance examination into secondary school. I learnt from childhood that to succeed in life I should study hard, graduate, get a good job and work at it till retirement and it became my ambition to get a good job after graduation and climb the pinnacle of success from there. However, that mindset had since changed. At the boarding house in secondary school, I became laissez-faire about schooling and was always in trouble with seniors and even the school principal and got suspended a few times. My mum withdrew me from the school in my penultimate year to a school nearer home for close monitoring. A close friend of the family decided to mentor me and amazingly, I became more studious and serious minded and studied hard for my final exams. However, I did not make the matriculation grade to study Mechanical Engineering at the University of Lagos. My mentor therefore chaperoned me into studying...
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...and it just gives me a sense of connection with her, and shes a Christian and that really helps to share the same life motivations, and other things to, in general were a good match. So I now have her help to get my health and fitness on track, and I decided to become a coach myself, because I know I can do what she does and I’d really enjoy it. I mean id do it for free, but why not get paid for it too. and ive made a few other friends through beachbody too, and its really helping my personal growth, and that is actually what inspired me to share with you today, my person growth journey, because I’m excited about it, and would nt mind some accountability with it and hope possibly might inspire you with something I share. My transformation story: I’ll try to be brief, lol. I was always active growing up, played soccer and softball since I was 7 and never worried about being in shape or healthy because I was for the most part. I went to college and was not very active any longer and ate as much and whatever I wanted. I usually had Taco Bell or Noble Romans bread stix for dinner. I don’t know how much I weighed but by looking at pictures I had to guess my 4’11” frame had gained 30 lbs. A year after graduating I was working 70+ hrs a week teaching kindergarten(!) and I had lost most of the extra weight by not eating enough and stress. :/ Then I changed jobs and started working out and got in shape and a little healthier, and was really enjoying taking care of myself and being...
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...STORY WATER A story is like water that you heat for your bath. It takes messages between the fire and your skin. It lets them meet, and it cleans you! Very few can sit down in the middle of the fire itself like a salamander or Abraham. We need intermediaries. A feeling of fullness comes, but usually it takes some bread to bring it. Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it. The body itself is a screen to shield and partially reveal the light that’s blazing inside your presence. Water, stories, the body, all the things we do, are mediums that hide and show what’s hidden. Study them, and enjoy this being washed with a secret we sometimes know, and then not. -Jalal ad-Dīn Muhammad Rumi STORY WATER A story is like water that you heat for your bath. It takes messages between the fire and your skin. It lets them meet, and it cleans you! Very few can sit down in the middle of the fire itself like a salamander or Abraham. We need intermediaries. A feeling of fullness comes, but usually it takes some bread to bring it. Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it. The body itself is a screen to shield and partially reveal the light that’s blazing inside your presence. Water, stories, the body, all the things we do, are mediums that hide and show what’s hidden. Study them, and enjoy this being washed with a secret we sometimes know, and then not. -Jalal ad-Dīn...
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...This essay is topic is about transformation and how it affects the story. Douglas Preston once said “We all have a monster within, the difference is the degree, not the kind.” This topic connects to the hook because usually characters are altered by events making then transform. Transformation scares the reader by introducing supernatural events, adding the unknown, and by confusing the reader with the afterlife.1 Supernatural transformation, such as a person or thing turning into a spirit or ghost affects the reader by bringing the barrier between life and death together. Possession affects the reader by adding supernatural transformation in the form of replacement of a good soul. The possession part is also the merging of the spiritual and...
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...Transformation Transformation occurs in many stories. In the stories “fall of the house of usher”, “Frankenstein”, and the picture story “boy with the hooded figure” transformation takes place. For example, in the house of usher changes that occur are when ushers sister is sick and dies she changes for that fact that she dies. Also usher changes because when he gets sick and thinks that Madeline is coming up from the dead (in which she does). Also the house takes some transformation when in the beginning of the story the house only had a crack down the front and at the end the lake swallows the house up in the story “Frankenstein” transformation also takes place. In Frankenstein, there’s a few thing that transform. The first thing to transform is that when the monster had tried killing Frankenstein but towards the end he talks to him and ask him for a partner. Also, when he wanted to make a woman but at the end of making “her” she turned the monster into a guy. Lastly, when he wanted to make a monster and then as the monster came alive he had gotten into a fight with it and “killed” him....
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...Absurdity in Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” This title is in the reference of the novella “The Metamorphosis” (“Die Verwandlung”) by Franz Kafka (first published in 1915). One day Gregor Samsa woke up to find himself turned into a monstrous insect. And thus begins the story of the Samsa family. Wrapped in a very descriptive narration of Gregor Samsa as an insect and his family adjusting to their new lives, Kafka wove a tale that seem absurd and surrealistic in nature but is soberly realistic. It is the tragedy of Gregor Samsa in which everyone else lives happily ever after. The structure of this novella is a very unique than the standard structure of exposition, complication, climax, and unravelling as Kafka...
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...In Raymond Carver’s short story “ Cathedral” readers are introduced to a character that experiences change. The story draws readers into the life of a man who is seen as close-minded and selfish. Readers are to believe the narrator is closed off to the world until a certain interaction with a blind man changes his perceptive. Carver’s story uses irony to demonstrate that people don’t need their sight to see life and with this the narrator’s transformation holds a great importance. The story is based on the narrator’s relationship with his wife and how the two will be hostessing a blind man at their home. The wife’s close relationship with the blind man, Robert creates hostility for the narrator. As readers one can interpret that the hostility is derived early in the story towards Robert when the narrator states, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit, He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me”(1152) The narrator, before even meeting Robert, is already certain he does not care for Robert and he does not in any way feel remorse for him. The narrator is extremely judgmental and close-minded towards Robert’s presence. However, the narrator’s feelings and impression towards Robert drastically change throughout the story and with this the narrator experiences an epiphany. The narrator changes his close minded perceptive on life and allows his insights to open. Robert helps the narrator to undergo this transformation as the two are drawing Cathedrals together. This...
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...The Stories Ugly Duckling, “Daphne And Apollo” and Metamorphosis all share the theme of transformation. As seen in the present time appearance transformation change the way other views that person. In the Story the Ugly Duckling, the duckling is seen as ugly by the others only because of its appearance, but when everyone realizes it changes it is not a duck, but instead it is a Swan the view and feelings are changed. In Metamorphosis Gregor the main character goes through an appearance transformation overnight his family see him as different and sympathizing with him. In The myth “Daphne and Apollo” Daphne transforms and Apollo’s feelings change in a different way than in the other two stories. In real life there is no unconditional love and...
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...Practice of Theology My Life as a Theologian Adventurer The practice of theology from the perspective of the adventurer looks at conversion and transformation of a person towards a new perspective and understanding of reality. McIntosh outlines how a person moves away from reality, undertaking a journey of transformation from their current reality and return never being the same. The idea of ego is discussed as a way of distorting reality, and it is not until a person sees something that is simply amazing or truly beautiful that they may be forever trapped in a prison of small certainties. Suggesting that a person will begin to undergo a transformation once they see the world differently to their current view. Simon Weil looks at transformation...
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...1. I think Christopher Plummer played the role of Professor Vladimir Nabokov very well in this film. His lecture was a straightforward summary about the story “The Metamorphosis”. His lecture helped me understand the story better by retelling the story in details. The drawings of the “beetle” help me visualize what kind of insect Gregor was and how Gregor would look out the window. The professor brought life to this story because of the way he explained it. 2. When I read the first sentence to the story I had no idea what this story would be about. The first sentence described a striking image to me when Gregor wakes up and “he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect” (pg. 428). When I first read this I kept wondering why Gregor turned into an insect overnight. I think Kafka chose an insect because insect are not species that are loved or cared for which could relate to how Gregor’s family members behaved towards him after he was transformed. At first all of the family members act sympathetic towards Gregor after his transformation but their feeling of sympathy change to feelings of disgust and ashamed. Grete becomes his caregiver and tries to figure out what kind of food he favors since his transformation but she can barely stand to be in the same room with him because of his appearance. The mother hopes Gregor will change back into his human form but she faints every time she sees him. The father shows the least sympathy and even attacks Gregor twice...
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...Gregor’s transformation from human to a giant cockroach is certainly a metamorphosis, but it is only physical and rather simple. But this event triggered a series of more complicated metamorphosis amount all family members. And these transformations of personality and humanity are what the book title really refers to. Before Gregor’s transformation, he is the only financial support for the entire family. The rest family take it as granted without any appreciation. Dispirited and lifeless, Gregor’s family lived like insects, dwelling around without any purpose. After Gregor’s transformation, realize their only financial support is now a giant bug, the rest family were forced to take control of their own life. Learning their full potentials in the process of become self-sufficient individuals, the family awakens with brighter future after Gregor’s death. Using Samsa family's metamorphosis,...
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...1968 short story, “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”, Gabriel Garcia Márquez depicts a small beach village’s encounter with a man of grand stature who washes up on the shore. The community expresses great admiration for the man they choose to call “’Estaban” and during the process of properly disposing of his remains, the town endures an important transformation that may have not otherwise taken place. Like much of Marquez’s renowned work, the reader is lead to consider the realities of our surroundings by placing magical occurrences in more realistic contexts. In this story, themes such as imagination, admiration and transformation are examined as the village endures a major shift in mindset during their experience with the drowned man....
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...Hannah Radney Professor Andrew J. DiNicola English 1102 July 22, 2014 Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”: Character Analysis of Louise Mallard Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” (1894) is a fictional short story presumably set in America in the late 19th century. Chopin’s story is a description of an hour in the life of Louise Mallard, the protagonist in the story. The subject of the story is the transformation of Louise Mallard after she learns about the supposed death of her husband, Brently Mallard; what she thinks and how she feels as she is alone and contemplates self-assertion for the first time. (Koloski) Chopin first introduces the reader to the main character as only Mrs. Mallard. Given the time period of the story, Chopin directs the reader to the conclusion that Mrs. Mallard has no identity of her own. This reference to her as only by her husband’s last name foreshadows how marriage represses Mrs. Mallard and realistically like many women of this time in history. The virtuous wife, in Mrs. Mallard’s world, accepts the idea that her husband has a right to impose a private will upon her. (Jamil) During the time period in which the story takes place, married women are in a subservient role to their husbands under the “femme covert laws.” “Covert refers to a woman’s legal status after marriage: legally upon marriage, the husband and wife were treated as one entity. In essence, the wife’s separate legal existence disappeared as far as property.” (Lewis 1) A married...
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...The hero myth is the root of all stories in all cultures, the elements of this myth can be found all over the world in any movie, book, or play. These hero myths are so successful because one connects to it, at one point or another one wanted to be a hero or had the desire to find a fortune. A respectable model of the hero myth is Katince Everdeen from “The Hunger Games” this character embraces everything for the hero myth from the humble beginnings to the catalyst and even the transformation. The hero myth has a unique place in the heart of the world, it links people to a part of their society. In most hero myths, it all begins modest and humble where the hero is just an average person with no unusual significance. Katince Everdeen was nothing special, she was just a member of her society living as she was taught. The way she has a standard family and lives a customary life, such as everyone in her society. This helps the reader associate to her, the reader finds comfort in the fact that she has a sister similar to anyone and that she woke up that day not thinking anything of it. This allows the reader to fantasize that this could happen to anyone, this is why the hero myth was created in the first place to let...
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...People can be transformed by the experience of discovery, whether it’s physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual or creative. This is reflected in Ivan O’Mahoney’s documentary Go Back to Where You Came From where six Australians are forced to confront the emotional and provocative issue of asylum seekers. Comparatively in Ernest Hemmingway’s short story Indian Camp we follow the adventure of a young boy named Nick who accompanies his father to a Native American camp to assist him in the delivery of a child, while there he experiences both life and death and through this discovery develops a new perception about the damaging impact of fear on the human spirit. In “Go Back to Where You Came From”, Raye, Racquel and Roderick visit the Masudi...
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