...undergraduate student studying sociology at UQ. My job here today is to talk to you about the comprehensive topic of love and in particular unrequited love in the 21st century. Love in all its splendour is complex. No one could ever doubt that the most empowering emotion is to be in love. To be embraced, accepted and wanted but with being in love comes the emotional risk that the person you want to spend the rest of your life with might not want the same. When that happens love is often conflicted with pain, suffering, and jealousy which are all second-hand emotions of love. So how exactly do you deal with loving someone who doesn’t love you back? Why is it so hard to get over it and come to grips with reality? What’s preventing us from healing from such a deep wound, knowing the pain can often be unbearable? Love hurts. Love stinks. Love is blind. At some point in life, we’ve all experienced the pain poets and songwriters have written about for ages. Usually, it’s because we’ve loved someone who hasn’t loved us back. Feeling so emotionally invested in something we’re being told doesn’t even exist is often the most excruciating pain.. Yet we endure it. Why is that? The purpose of this seminar is to investigate the connection between love and pain from before the year 2000 up until today. Three texts will be explored and used as examples to investigate the power of unrequited love and its second hand emotions. These are 500 days of summer (2009) written by Scott Neustadter, Directed by...
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...Mule Killers by Lydia Peelle This is a story about unrequited love and its consequences and the change from child to adult. Time changes and life goes on. Whether people accept the changes and might takes advantage of the possibilities given to them, but people make mistakes, especially when they are young and in love. Will it be a bump on the road or will it change the direction they are heading. These are some of the themes that the short story “Mule Killers” is dealing with. Mule Killers is told by a narrator, who is telling the story of his father meeting his mother. It is a son telling about his father telling his son what happened the year he was 18 and the mule killers came. So the story takes place in two times, the present where the father and the son are picking asparagus in the garden and the past where the life of the father was changed for good. It all takes place in a farming area in America at the time where modern machinery reached the farms in Nashville. Tractors started to take over the farm and were therefore setting mules out of work. The narrator’s grandfather “…goes to Nashville and buys two International Harvester tractors for eighteen hundred dollars, cash…” (Page 9, line 13-14) The father is in the sons telling an 18-year-old teenager meaning that he is a little uncertain and confused about growing up, and with small ability to express his feelings towards other people. The uncertainty and suppression of his feelings will later in the short story...
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...In Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, cruelty serves as a crucial motivator. When Heathcliff feels hurt because of Hindley Earnshaw's treatment of him, Heathcliff lashes out at Hindley and his child. When Catherine, Heathcliff’s childhood love, marries another man, Heathcliff becomes angry and hateful. He begins to become motivated by his hate and he becomes feared for his cruelness. In Wuthering Heights, jealousy and a need for revenge drives Heathcliff's feelings of love to turn into feelings of cruelty. Although several other characters in Wuthering Heights are described as cruel, Heathcliff's cruelty fiercely contrasts theirs because he willingly acts on it. Hindley's treatment of him and Catherine's decision to choose Edgar over himself directly cause...
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...In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the protagonist, Hamlet, leads an antic disposition that causes his downfall and leads him to insanity. The cause of his insanity was quickly developed at the beginning when the sudden death of his father, King Hamlet, was announced to him. The tragic Hamlet plotted to murder his father’s murderer, thus the act of madness was introduced. His antic disposition affects his judgment, destroys relationships and creates a belief that he is truly mad. Throughout the play, Hamlet is consumed with anger of his father’s death which causes him to act through emotion and without reason, thus affecting his judgement. Hamlet’s main goal is to avenge the death of his father. His actions to do so are hindered because of the irrational decisions he has made through the antic disposition he has put on that has finally led to his misguided judgement. Hamlet’s irrational decisions began after the death of his father. As any normal human being would be allowed to grieve, Hamlet was not, he was expected to accept the death of his father and move on. “Do not for ever with thy vailed lids, Seek for thy noble father in the dust. Thou know'st 'tis common. All that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity.” (Act 1, Scene 2. 69-74) These lines spoken by the Queen, Hamlet’s mother, are proof that Hamlet is obliged to accept his father’s death. With little time to grieve and a mother that seems to care less about her deceased husband, Hamlet’s mind was given the...
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...The Disney tale of the Little Mermaid ends happily ever after. Unfortunately, the actual story—the story girls have come to know and love—end in tragedy. The Little Mermaid falls deeply in love with this young, beautiful, black eyed prince, who seems delighted of her beauty and heart but, doesn’t get to see that she is the girl he could only love. She stands a life full pain in other to pursue and gain the love of her beautiful prince but she doesn’t get him. The Prince marries another woman. And Ariel sacrifices her life for her unrequited love and turns into foam in the sea. Just as Ariel ended in bubbles, my first love ended in the same way: instantly and unexpectedly. I tried to pursue that Disney fairytale, and when I finally thought I had it; I had no choice but dealt with this awful reality of heartbreak. It all happens in a pool party that my beautiful best friend Unabella was throwing off for the summer. It was really those events you really plan to just have a good time with your friends since summer vacations are long and boring.I went to have a pleasant time with my friends since I really dint k now how to swim As for my surprise, I saw my friend Derrick, who I thought wasn’t going to come ,but took me as a surprise. See derrick is very special; his is those kinds of guys you absolutely feel attached to because they are gentle and caring, and make up for amazing friend. However, he was not the only one there his “friends” arrived to. I decided to just ignore...
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...the one before it, so it was easy to notice when things began to seem different. Layla’s husband, Ahmad, began to act strangely and there were suddenly odd occurrences, like the telephone ringing twice and then stopping abruptly. Layla’s co-working, Suad, suggests that perhaps Ahmad is having an affair and that Layla should consider divorcing him. When Ahmad and Suad leave on simultaneous business trips, Layla learns the truth. Ahmad returns home with Suad’s golden comb in his travel bag. Layla is finally made aware that her husband and her co-working are having an affair. Upon her realization, Layla expresses, to the reader, her sorrow for her damaged marriage and her wish that her knowledge of the affair remain a secret. She offers, “…our love is like a cracked crystal vase, only the crack is etched deep within my heart. I only wish, from the bottom of my heart, that my husband never learns that I know his secret” (al-Shamlan, 40). In Muhammad al-Gharbi’s...
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...In society today movies are just something people watch for enjoyment but they never take a second and look at the real message behind the movie. Each movie has a different message and anyone can find it. If you fully analyze a film you can learn so much and see how much went in to making the film from the filming to the color and lighting and most importantly editing. As we move into the future and the technology advances I hope that people will look at movies as more than just something to do on a Saturday night and turn it into a learning experience that will last forever. In the filmmaking world there is always that someone that gets looked over and forgotten and that is the person behind the film known as the director. Directors are brilliant people who jobs are to create a film that people will enjoy while putting a meaning behind it. Roberto Benigni is an amazing director who not only directs his movies but writes and stars in them as well. Benigni has created masterpieces such as Life is Beautiful, Pinocchio and his most recent film The Tiger and the Snow, which have brought him such awards as an Oscar for Life is beautiful. Along with being a director Benigni prides himself on being a family man which is why his wife Nicoletta Braschi plays his love interest in most of his movies. Overall Benigni is a great director who blends comedy and romance in most of his movies. His movies might be a little out there but that’s just who Roberto Benigni is and I can’t...
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...“He is the wisest character in the play”. How far do you agree with this interpretation of Feste in Twelfth Night? This essay will explore the notion that Feste is the wisest character in the play. The definition of wise is “having or showing experience, knowledge, and good judgment: a wise precaution.” Feste is the epitome of irony, I think a modern day audience would the audience may believe a ‘fool’ to be purely someone to make you laugh and be an idiot. However Feste is very much the opposite; he fits the definition of wise, he speaks profoundly, questions high class characters such as Olivia and almost undermines her with his wit. He is very melancholic, especially about love whereas everybody else is almost controlled by it and the audience may see him to be wise because he avoids love to stay happy. Feste is a ‘licenced fool’ in “Twelfth Night” and this means that he is allowed to judge people whereas others would be punished for doing so therefore this gives him some power as he is allowed to speak the truth. Olivia, in Act 1, Scene 5, says “there is no slander in an allowed fool.” This suggests to me that Olivia doesn’t see him as a fool or a jester, she sees him as someone who will speak the truth because he is ‘allowed’ to judge people not to be cruel but to offer advice and this suggests that Olivia sees Feste as being wise otherwise she would not come to him to ask for his help or listen to what he says. Alan S. Downer of ‘College English’ says that ''Feste is...
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...Do Hoon Kim Professor Dr. McKowen ENGL 106 21 September 2011 Film Paper : (500) Days of Summer Have you ever fallen in love or dated someone? If so (500) Days of Summer will appeal to you. It is a Fox Searchlight Pictures production, Marc Webb is the name of the chief director, and the cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom Hansen and Zooey Deschanel as Summer Finn. The film was released on 7th August 2009. For some people who have not watched the film, I would strongly recommend them to watch. Regardless of gender, I am sure that anyone who has had an experience of a relationship or love could sincerely sympathize with the story of the film. As the movie progresses, the audience can see emotional growth in Tom, disbelief about destined events, and a change of mind in Summer Finn about love and relationship. The movie starts with the narrator’s saying “this is a story that a boy meets a girl.”, and a scene shows Summer is putting her hand over Tom’s hand and smiling. According to the narrator, Summer is just another girl of average except she wasn’t. Tom meets Summer on January 8th, finding her from 400,000 office buildings, 91,000 commercial buildings and 3.8 million which can be explained by a word, “fate”. When Tom meets Summer on the first day, he feels that Summer is the one who he has been looking for. On the 4th day, Tom meets Summer in elevator and Summer shows an interest in music, she likes Smiths which Tom was listening. On the 8th day, during the company...
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...of times in this book, referring to some of the ideas that he incorporates in his work. Johnson separates her book into three main sections; “A New Light on Love,” “Seven Transforming Conversations,” and “The Power of Hold Me Tight.” Each section focuses on a different area, but they all contribute to the main theme of the important things to remember in order to create a happy relationship. The first section, “A New Light on Love,” begins by describing the type of research and work that Johnson does. Johnson focuses on a certain type of therapy that she calls EFT; or, Emotionally Focused Therapy, a therapy based on studying the emotional moments that define a relationship (Johnson 5). Johnson strongly believes that romantic love is all about the attachment and emotional bonding within a relationship (6). The main thing that people look for while trying to find a suitable mate, is, although it is normally subconsciously, is someone that they can depend on. Everyone wants to find someone who they can share an emotional connection with, and someone that they can feel comfortable around. As opposed to Gottman, who says that there are many reasons for fights, both large and small, Johnson claims that the majority of fights are actually just protests over emotional disconnection (30). The emotional starvation that can result causes a “demand-withdraw pattern,” due to one partner feeling deprived and desperate to regain the feelings that they once were having (34). In Gottman’s...
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...In society today, one barely has any time to take care of one’s children. They are left alone and uncared for which often causes them to either react badly in every day life or to become accustomed to their solitude and learn to fend for themselves. Such realities can also be portrayed in works of fiction such as The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies, two stories that may seem very different in content, but are based on very similar ideas. In these two stories, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there are two main characters by the names of Katniss and Ralph who both go through their life journeys isolated from society and in each story, their situations becomes a disadvantage for them. Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games are novels that portray an abuse of power as a result of leadership roles in society, an absence of identity used as camouflage, and finally, a loss of innocence among the characters as a result of living in a corrupted and chaotic environment. In both stories, there is an abuse of power, which destroys the main characters’ lives. In Golding’s Lord of the Flies, once Jack had decided to run the island the way he sees fit, things started to go downhill for Ralph. When Ralph was chief of the island, the children tried to stay as civilized as they could, and even started establishing rules and tasks for each person to accomplish. When Jack started to take control of the island, however, everything was completely ruined...
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...Table of Contents I Introduction 2 II II.1 II.2 II.3 Jake Barnes Jake Barnes - Character Description Jake‘s Male Identity Relevance of Female Characters 3 4 5 III Robert Cohn 6 7 9 III.1 Robert Cohn - Character Description III.2 Cohn‘s Male Identity III.3 Relevance of Female Characters IV IV.1 IV.2 IV.3 Pedro Romero Pedro Romero - Character Description Romero‘s Male Identity Relevance of Female Characters 10 11 12 V Conclusion 13 VI Works Cited 14 1 I Introduction While North American literature up to the 20th century clearly defines gender roles, there is a shift in thinking after World War I. Not only are gender stereotypes and boundaries between the sexes gradually dissolving within the course of the history of literature and culture in general, but also the topic of gender itself is addressed more openly. This holds especially true for Ernest Hemingway‘s writings. Hemingway did not only make gender and gender identification a topic, but his writings often also contain elements of deconstruction of gender stereotypes, an example being The Garden of Eden, which is partially devoted to the conflict of reversed gender roles. Unsurprisingly, Hemingway was also preoccupied with the mutual influence and effect of the two sexes, male and female, on each other. One piece of literature which underlines this change towards thinking more freely across fixed gender boundaries but which also stands out as a case study on how gender...
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...The Great Gatsby: Summary: Nick Carraway, a young man from Minnesota, moves to New York in the summer of 1922 to learn about the bond business. He rents a house in the West Egg, Long Island, a wealthy area populated by the new rich, people who made their fortunes due to the economic upswing of the Roaring Twenties. Nick’s next-door neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, who lives in a huge mansion and throws extravagant parties on the weekends. Nick is unlike the other inhabitants of West Egg—he was educated at Yale and has social connections in East Egg, a fashionable area of Long Island and the home of the upper class. Nick drives out to East Egg one evening to have dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, a former classmate of Nick during his time at Yale. Daisy and Tom introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, a beautiful, cynical young woman with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship. Nick also learns a bit about Daisy and Tom’s marriage: Jordan tells him that Tom has a lover, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the valley of ashes, a gray industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City. Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle. At a random, vulgar party in the apartment that Tom bought because of his affair, Myrtle begins to taunt Tom about Daisy, and Tom responds by breaking her nose. As the summer progresses, Nick eventually gets an invitation to one of Gatsby’s legendary parties. He encounters...
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...PHILIPPINE LITERATURE Philippine literature is the body of works, both oral and written, that Filipinos, whether native, naturalized, or foreign born, have created about the experience of people living in or relating to Philippine society. It is composed or written in any of the Philippine languages, in Spanish and in English, and in Chinese as well. Philippine literature may be produced in the capital city of Manila and in the different urban centers and rural outposts, even in foreign lands where descendants of Filipino migrants use English or any of the languages of the Philippines to create works that tell about their lives and aspirations. The forms used by Filipino authors may be indigenous or borrowed from other cultures, and these may range from popular pieces addressed to mass audiences to highly sophisticated works intended for the intellectual elite. Having gone through two colonial regimes, the Philippines has manifested the cultural influences of the Spanish and American colonial powers in its literary production. Works may be grouped according to the dominant tradition or traditions operative in them. The first grouping belongs to the ethnic tradition, which comprises oral lore identifiably precolonial in provenance and works that circulate within contemporary communities of tribal Filipinos, or among lowland Filipinos that have maintained their links with the culture of their non-Islamic or non-Christian ancestors. The second grouping consists of works that show...
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...Rui Cao English 150 Dec 12 Portfolio reflection paper I have wrote five papers in total during this semester. Each papers I spent a lot of time and I put efforts worked on them a lot. I also did some in-class activities and I did learned something and gained some experiences. Except the activities I did in class, I also went outside and got involved with social community. The first paper I wrote was to analysis a kind of text. I chose a painting draw by Da Vinci. I opened the picture on the website by searching it on Google. When I looking at the picture, and when I described the picture, I included the story and history of this painting in order to understand the picture better. The second paper was museum walkthrough guide. This paper was what I liked the most since it was so interesting and fun to write this paper. I went to the museum on the campus and spent about three hours for observation and taking notes. I walked around the museum and visited the museum from the first floor to the third floor. I brought my notebook and draw a map of this museum. Then I go back home and composed this paper by presenting what I seen and how these exhibitions displayed in the museum. The third paper that I wrote was the investigative journalism. The topic I chose was the green space on the campus. I knew that the green space is not big enough for students to use on the campus thus I decided to asked the mower who works on the lawn area. After I asked him and got the information that...
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