Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Their Eyes Were Watching God - 1494 Words

Topic 2: Compare/contrast Janie in Hurston s Their Eyes Were Watching God Edna in Chopin s The Awakening in terms of conformity within a male-dominated society. (four page minimum) Overtime, no matter what kind of circumstance set up towards the term superiority, the meaning of it being expressed has not changed. It has not been expressed differently between any kind of man, even during the early 1900s era where they claimed their dominance over women. Women were put through the same overwhelming motive of repression that man (regardless of the race) had attempted to suffocate them with. It is in the hands of a women on how they take the repression that has been brought upon them by man. Portrayed in Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie is an African American women who endures the superiority of man. As an African American women she is brought up to know when she is allowed to do as she wants and when she is not. She exemplifies the standard view that society has set up for a male to have the last word in the way a female must live their life. Unlike a women who has been pampered her whole life to do as she wants whenev er she wants as brought to us by Edna in The Awakening by Kate Chopin. The two must try to coexist within the superiority brought by man. Janie was raised by her grandmother who she calls Nanny that had previously lived the life as a slave. The young sixteen year old girl was brought to us as a product ofShow MoreRelatedTheir Eyes Were Watching God1064 Words   |  5 Pagessignificant than death. In Zora Neale Hurston’s famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character Janie Crawford is plagued by the deaths of loved ones. Janie moves from caregiver to caregiver searching for true love and happiness, only to have it stripped away from her once she finds it in her third husband Tea Cake. At the end of the novel, having realized true love and loss, Janie is a whole woman. Their Eyes Were Watching God portrays the growth of the human spirit through both the emotionalRead MoreTheir Eyes Were Watching God1780 Words   |  8 Pagesshort story â€Å"Sweat† and novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the focus is on women who want better lives but face difficult struggles before gaining them. The difficulties involving men which Janie and Delia incur result from or are exacerbated by the intersection of their class, race, and gender, which restrict each woman for a large part of her life from gaining her independence. Throughout a fair part of Zora Neal Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie’s low class create problemsRead MoreTheir Eyes Were Watching God932 Words   |  4 PagesJanie Crawford: The Woman Whose Clothing Conveys Her Relationships In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the protagonist, Janie, endures two marriages before finding true love. In each of Janie’s marriages, a particular article of clothing is used to symbolically reflect, not only her attitude at different phases in her life, but how she is treated in each relationship. In Janie’s first marriage with Logan Killicks, an apron is used to symbolize the obligation in her marriage. â€Å"Read MoreAnalysis Of Their Eyes Were Watching God 1061 Words   |  5 PagesDivision: Janie Crawford in Their Eyes Were Watching God Their Eyes Were Watching God was written in 1937 by Zora Neale Hurston. This story follows a young girl by the name of Janie Crawford. Janie Crawford lived with her grandmother in Eatonville, Florida. Janie was 16 Years old when her grandmother caught her kissing a boy out in the yard. After seeing this her grandmother told her she was old enough to get married, and tells her she has found her a husband by the name of Logan. Logan was a muchRead More Eyes Were Watching God Essay711 Words   |  3 Pages Their Eyes Were Watching God provides an enlightening look at the journey of a quot;complete, complex, undiminished human beingquot;, Janie Crawford. Her story, based on self-exploration, self-empowerment, and self-liberation, details her loss and attainment of her innocence and freedom as she constantly learns and grows from her experiences with gender issues, racism, and life. The story centers around an important theme; that personal discoveries and life experiences help a person findRead More Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay1757 Words   |  8 Pages Their Eyes Were Watching God Book Report 1. Title: Their Eyes Were Watching God 2. Author/Date Written: Zora Neale Hurston/1937 3. Country of Author: 4. Characters Janie Mae Crawford- The book’s main character. She is a very strong willed, independent person. She is able to defy a low class, unhappy life because of these factors, even though the environment that she grew up and lived in was never on her side. Pheoby Watson – Janie’s best friend in Eatonville. Pheoby is the only towns person whoRead MoreWhose eyes were watching God?1400 Words   |  6 PagesWhose eyes were watching God? In the movie Their Eyes Were Watching God, Oprah Winfrey manipulates events that happened in the book by Zora Neale Hurston. Oprah morphs many relationships in the movie Their Eyes Were Watching God. She changes the role of gender, and also makes changes in Janie’s character strength. Oprah also changes the symbolism in the movie to where some important symbols in the book change to less important roles. Oprah changes many important events in the book Their Eyes WereRead MoreTheir Eyes Were Watching God Essay724 Words   |  3 PagesTHEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD ESSAY  ¬Ã‚ ¬ Janie Crawford is surrounded by outward influences that contradict her independence and personal development. These outward influences from society, her grandma, and even significant others contribute to her curiosity. Tension builds between outward conformity and inward questioning, allowing Zora Neal Hurston to illustrate the challenge of choice and accountability that Janie faces throughout the novel. Janie’s Grandma plays an important outward influenceRead MoreEssay on Their Eyes Were Watching God921 Words   |  4 PagesTheir Eyes Were Watching God An Analysis So many people in modern society have lost their voices. Laryngitis is not the cause of this sad situation-- they silence themselves, and have been doing so for decades. For many, not having a voice is acceptable socially and internally, because it frees them from the responsibility of having to maintain opinions. For Janie Crawford, it was not: she finds her voice among those lost within the pages of Zora Neale Hurston’s famed novel, Their Eyes Were WatchingRead MoreTheir Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Hurston Essay1233 Words   |  5 PagesHurston In the novel â€Å"Their Eyes Were Watching God† by Zora Neal Hurston is about a young woman named Janie Crawford who goes on a journey of self discovery to find her independence. The book touches on many themes like gender roles, relations, independence and racism however racism isn’t mainly focused upon in the book which some writers felt should have been. Some felt that the representation of black characters should have been better role models. Zora Hurston’s novel wasn’t like other black literature

Sunday, December 15, 2019

The defining feature of Modern culture Free Essays

Modern culture is a direct derivative of and at the same time antithesis of co-existence with nature. The defining feature of Modern culture (adopting the Herder’s definition as â€Å"the practices and beliefs which form the self-identity of a tribe† and not the Humboldt’s version of distinguishing common and high cultures)(Scruton 2) is its increasing distance from the nature and its attempts to understand and divulge the secrets or facets of nature, hither to left unappreciated or not understood. In the history of human civilization (ironically, Civilization means the history of city dwelling population) the pace at which technology improved has grown exponentially since the late 19th century. We will write a custom essay sample on The defining feature of Modern culture or any similar topic only for you Order Now This growth in technology has spurred the redefining of central values attached to human life. The beneficiaries of the technological advances, the huge sections of societies, seldom bother themselves with the philosophical depths of questions that the increasing use of technology and the alienation form nature poses to their central core. However, the tension that resonates between nature and technology is a legacy of inherited historical human values pitted against the negation of the basis of these values in technology. Technology seeks to explore and lay bare while a co-existence with nature demands a certain amount of surrender. Since these two approaches have to be combined in the modern life, there is ambivalence in the approach people are forced to take to their existence. As George Simmel mentions in his work â€Å"The Metropolis and Mental Life†, the deepest problems of modern life are because of the attempts of man to maintain his individuality in the face of changing historic and technological perspectives. (Simmel 11) One basic shift in the modern life to the other forms of society which had a greater correlation with nature is the change in approach to Life in general. Modern life, with it increasing use of technology aims to quantify everything while co-existence with nature left a lot of qualitative and subjective parameters in place. The resultant void is generally seen as the force that generates the tension between nature and technology. (The dismantling of the religious structure by socialist countries without placing an alternate belief system in place, which saw a huge spurt in religious activity once the socialist structures themselves, crumbled, is an example of a void based on qualitative beliefs and necessity of such beliefs). Modern culture instills a sense of measurement to everything involved in daily life, while co-existence with nature demands suspension of reason to a certain extent. There is an Indian Proverb which roughly translates to â€Å"Plucking the petals of the Rose will not reveal where its beauty lies†. Same is the case with the stimuli caused by nature where suspension of reason is a primary requisite to respond to them. A magnificient sunset is a visual pleasure accorded by nature which cannot be deciphered by any technological quantification measures. â€Å"Whilst Man involuntarily moulds his Life according to the notions he has gathered from his arbitrary views of Nature, and embalms their intuitive expression in Religion: these notions become for him in Science the subject of conscious, intentional review and scrutiny. † (Richard Wagner, 73). In trying to explain the basic differences between Nature and technology Wagner also indicates almost accurately at the reasons for conflict. When viewed in the light of Simmel’s description of man’s emotional responses as he says â€Å"Man is a creature whose existence is dependent on differences, i. e. his mind is stimulated by the difference between present impressions and those that have preceded. † (Simmel 325). But the rapidity with which a person part of the modern culture is accosted by such stimuli is what differentiates his responses. The increasing proximity to his species and in a way that would not have been possible to any of his preceding generations creates a sense of detachment from most stimuli and prevents him from reacting with the same intensity compared to only a few generations earlier. In short, modern culture forces man to react with his head than his heart. This, Simmel argues creates a blase attitude – a defining characteristic of modern culture. â€Å"†¦incapacity to react to new stimulations with the required amount of energy constitutes in fact that blase attitude which every child of a large city evinces hen compared with the products of the more peaceful and more stable milieu† Simmel 14 Advancement in technology creates increased urbanization where people are removed from nature and so closely compressed with one another that their nervous stimulation is hyper excited to become blase. This leads to a state of denial to all other impulses accorded by nature, which are inherently non-quantifiable. Wagner articulates this alienation of Science and nature in more vocal and less scientific terms. Technology, as mentioned earlier is a result of efforts to understand and harness the energies available in nature, acquires arrogance through its practitioners that it tries to rob the soul of all human interactions with nature. â€Å"And truly Science, in her overweening arrogance, has dreamed of such a triumph; as witness our tight-reined State and modern Art, the sexless, barren children of this dream. † This tension between nature and its instincts as expressed in human emotions and the increasing needs of rational responses conditioned by a technology-driven society are reflected in the probing questions of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century literature and art forms. Kafkaesque depictions of society not recognizing its traditional pains and bonds due to the demands of the modern culture are common in most art forms. To drive the point home, in his novella â€Å"Metamorphosis† Kafka paints a picture of the emptiness of modern existence. Seen by many as the gateway to modern literature, it justifies Simmel’s views that the values of modern culture create certain bluntness to responses to stimuli. While it is important to acknowledge the tension between technology (or the changes in life due to technology) and nature as an essential part of the modern cultural set up, it is a learning to understand how this disparity or tension is dealt with. The creation of the modern idiom is largely an effect of the interplay between nature and technology. Additionally, the increased integration of technology has made people more used to viewing their renewed values in a different light. In fact most surviving sensibilities are modern in nature and the exotic feel accorded to romantic art of the previous generations is precisely the result of the contrast. Besides, modern art does adopt the modern life and especially urban living aspect of modern life more readily than was anticipated by the early proponents of modernism. As Wagner argues, Art as an expression of man’s interaction with nature and the resultant emotions – awe or aversion, hope or despair, love or revulsion, harmony or agitation- has in fact been aided by the modern culture. In his typically poetic prose Wagner describes, â€Å" This did the life-force, the life-need, of telluric Nature nurture once those baleful forces – or rather the potentiality of those alliances and, offspring of the elements – which blocked her way in giving true and fitting utterance to the fullness of her vital energy†(Wagner 9) He also seems to say that the potential for abundance brought on by the revolutionary availability of technology affords the luxury of pursuing art for art’s sake for people pf the modern era – all the while remembering that art is the truest form of depicting or connecting with Nature, both internal and external. Besides, a fuller and more complete appreciation of Nature as a separate entity and an ally has blossomed after the initial years of tension with Technology. Though initial years of modern culture and civilization were alarming in the fact that the alienation with nature was at once complete and seemingly irreparable, yet the situation has changed. As with everything and as Darwin would have proudly pointed out, mankind has adapted quite well to this dichotomy of Nature and Technology and has realized the necessity to keep both these aspects of his existence in good humor – all the time. Though it can be argued that most ailments of modern society, like the environmental degradation, lack of trust in human interactions, increasing and pointless violence, or the break down of civilized society in some pockets are essentially the manifestations of the tension between a nature-embracing living and Technology dependent living, it is the way forward. As Man has learnt continuously from all his endeavors both successful and perilously unsuccessful, modern culture has given a unique perspective to watch Nature in all its glory and make it an ally in pursuing higher spiritual goals. Works Cited Wagner, Richard. The Art Work of the Future. Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 2004. Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 2004 Simmel, Georg Kurt Wolff. The sociology of Georg Simmel. Translated by kurt Wolff Washington DC: Free Press, 1950 Scruton, Roger. Modern Culture. NewYork: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2007 How to cite The defining feature of Modern culture, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Power of Persuasion free essay sample

11 April 2012 The Power of Persuasion Manipulation and persuasion, two of the major themes in Shakespeares Othello that ultimately lead to Othellos downfall. The power of words and persuasion can cause people to go crazy and do things they normally wouldnt do. Shakespeares character development and background of Othello, Rodrigo and Iago early on in the play gives the reader somewhat of a foreshadowing of the characters that are going to manipulate and be manipulated. The play according to Shakespearean Criticism is a character driven domestic tragedy of Jealousy and deception. The power of persuasion and manipulation is seen by Othello, Emelia and Desdemona, but mainly Iago. Iago uses persuasion to manipulate others in order to protect themselves, lead another down a path of destruction, and lastly out of greed. Iago seems to have all the answers to everyones problems and is the ultimate manipulator in the play. The main manipulation and persuasion seen in the play is by Iago, lagds consummate, strategic manipulation of an unstable language tempts Othello to his doom (Christofldes). Iago targets the other characters weaknesses in order to manipulate them. The first act of persuasion is seen when Iago realizes how easy it will be for him to manipulate the love-struck Rodrigo into being his puppet. The second Iago realizes that Rodrigo is in love with Desdemona he knows as long as long he promises to get Desdemona to fall in love with him, hell do nearly anything for Iago. The fact that Rodrigo is in love makes him easily persuadable. Next Iago targets Cassio, using Cassios weakness of alcohol to make him get drunk and get in a fght causing him to loose his Job. Iago acts as Cassios friend and tells him that its okay to drink, the wars over they need to celebrate. Everything seems to go lagds way and he ends up at his final target, Othello. Iago uses the fact that Othello is black and much older than Desdemona to manipulate his emotions. Iago says these things in order to make Othello question if Desdemona is really in love with him or not. Once Othello begins to question his relationship Iago continues to use Desdemona against Othello because Iago realizes the power her beautiful frame has over Othello is a weapon he can utilize to seek his Jealous revenge (Ancona). This entire persuasion technique goes back to Iago setting Casio up to lose his Job. Iago tells Cassio that Desdemona is his best hope for getting his Job back so Iago uses the communication between the two to set Desdemona up and convince Othello that it is Cassio that Desdemona is cheating on him with. Iago also uses the same scenario to convince Rodrigo to kill Cassio. Iago sets the characters up so that he can persuade them and then uses their downfalls to manipulate them in order for him to seek revenge on Othello. In the end he gets his revenge by convincing Othello he needs to strangle his un-faithful wife, which Othello does because he has driven himself crazy from lagds convincing ords. Iago is not the only character given the power of persuasion by Shakespeare. Early on in the play Desdemona and Othello have to convince Desdemonas father, Barbantio, that witchcraft was not why Desdemona fell in love with Othello. Othello has to persuade the council that he in fact did not use witchcraft, but stories to make the truth. The two lovers get their motivation from the fact that their marriage would be annulled if Othello had used witchcraft on Desdemona. The only reason the council was open to persuasion was because of Desdemonas word. In order to save is marriage and Job both Othello and Desdemona had to use persuasive techniques. Last we see persuasion by Emelia to Desdemona. Emilia isnt necessarily persuading Desdemona but Just using the power of words and the truth. Emilia and Desdemona are complete opposites but Desdemona comes to Emilia for advice. Desdemona is confused as to why anyone would cheat on her husbands or why any husband would accuse his wife of cheating. Emilia then begins to persuade Desdemona that cheating is a perfectly normal thing and wives do it all the time. She says if men do it why cant we? At this point Emelia is acting as a female Iago onvincing Desdemona that she should be in charge of her and Othellos relationship. The fact that Desdemona finds out that cheating is okay her personality somewhat changes, causing Othello to become more and more convinced that shes cheating. In conclusion Shakespeares Othello is full of characters open to manipulation and persuasion. Nearly all the main characters are easily persuaded and have some sort of weakness that leaves them vulnerable. Everything seems to lead back to Iago in someway as he is the ultimate antagonist in the play. The power of words and persuasion is a powerful technique that can lead people on to doing hings they normally wouldnt do, Just like in Othello. The play Just goes to show that jealousy and power can cause honest friends to turn evil and manipulative, Just like Iago. Works Cited Ancona, Francesco Aristide. Honest Iago and the evil nature of words. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 26. 1-2(2005):44+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. Othello. Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Micheal L. LaBlanc. Vol. 79. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. Christofides, R. M. Othello. Early Modern Literary Studies. 15. 1 Jan. 2010. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Apr. 2012