Throughout our lives, we 're told that knowledge is power. However, does knowledge alone achieve this? In the book, The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, the main character, Tony, gains knowledge. In the beginning, he learns through his dependency on Adrian, his classmate. However, as he moves into his twenties, his learning stagnates. He 's peaceable to a point he seems spiritless but also too stubborn to change his original beliefs. It 's not until he wants to understand why Sarah, his ex-girlfriend 's mother, left him money and Adrian 's diary, that he actively pursues knowledge, helping him realize that his life may not be as black and white as he had thought. The evolution of Tony shows that a person needs to have an open mind in …show more content…
Consequently, he feels a need to find someone to be his role model, someone from whom he can learn. Adrian, being the most intelligent person in his class, immediately fills this void. Anything Adrian says is law. Although one of Tony 's greatest fears is that "Life wouldn 't turn out to be like Literature," he immediately accepts that it won 't turn out like he hopes due to Adrian 's nonchalant attitude towards his own broken home (Barnes 16). When asked what history is, Tony responds that "history is the lies of the victors" (17) . Yet, after Adrian gives his response, Tony immediately replaces his answer with Adrian 's. While Tony 's childish nature does allow him to learn many valuable lessons from Adrian, it results in a dependency that becomes detrimental to Tony. He yearns for someone 's approval. When Tony goes off to college, he admits that he "wanted [Adrian 's] attention, his approval," despite the fact that Adrian wasn 't involved (18). After Tony introduces Veronica, his girlfriend, to his friends, Adrian asks Tony if he actually needs his approval which Tony replies with, "yes, why the fuck shouldn 't I," proving Tony 's need for a congratulation even if it doesn 't involve others (25). Although he gains knowledge from his dependency on Adrian, it prevents him from becoming independent. Anything he learns requires the approval of another for him to recognize it as accurate. He needs confirmation to feel …show more content…
While avoiding conflict isn 't something negative, he does it to a point where it seems as if he has no will. During his conversation with Veronica, she accuses him of being "quite cowardly" to which he responds that he thinks that "it 's more that [he 's] peaceable" (26). He doesn 't defend himself or ponder why he is accused of this. When he thinks about Annie, his ex-girlfriend, the most powerful memory he has of her is about how it was "easy come, easy go" (32). This relationship is the only one that Tony wishes he had pursued. Tony appears to be fine with doing anything as long as it doesn 't require a lot of effort. This lack of self-motivation causes him to never learn anything beyond what is directly presented to him and even then, he only retains the information. He doesn 't do anything to help himself view the world more clearly or become a better person. He only learns how to agree with someone in order to avoid
sick man of the curse. Tony’s father also tells him that “no greater magic can exist...but
At trying times, he "stood by Ultima" and "would have slashed out to protect Ultima" (138).Oftentimes, Tony's bravery reflects his curious and precocious nature. For example, he runs to the bridge where the criminal Lupito hides because he is curious about Lupito's situation (22). The first thing he wonders about when he witnesses Lupito's death is "where was Lupito's soul?" (26) , and this shows how deep Tony's thoughts are.
In Bless Me Ultima, Tony embarks on a rocky journey to discover who he is and what he believes. Tony must make the transition from a naïve six year old boy to a mature man. His experiences continually call his basic beliefs into question, and chip away at his innocence. For example, when he witnesses the brutal death of Lupito, he starts to question many ideas; sin, good and evil, punishment, and his faith. He begins to see the world of man as violent and sometimes ruthless, not the friendly, loving world where he had previously resided. He even becomes concerned about his own father's salvation because of Gabrielle's involvement in Lupito's death and begins to see his father as less than perfect. Death continues to haunt him when Narciso, a good man, is killed defending Ultima, while Tenorio, an apparently evil man, is spared. These outcomes are not what he believes should have occurred and yet again, a piece of his innocence is stripped away as he sees life is not always fair. He is beginning to realize that he must define his own beliefs.
Tony would ask him so many questions why didn’t he believe and florence would tell him “I don’t know...My mother died when I was three, my old man drank himself to death, and...And my sisters are whores working at Rosie’s place-”(Anaya 195). Tony’s friends didn’t want Florence to be pardoned for his sins, but either way Tony pardoned him and that caused Tony’s friends to beat him up. This caused Antonio to question god and go to confessional to be pardon for his sins but he had no answers. After this Florence’s death came about, he drowned in the river while he was swimming and Tony was there to see him already dead. Tony would ask himself, why didn’t Florence confess, he would have been pardoned for all his sins. Antonio would question god because he didn’t understand why there was so much evil in the
The group of Americans were very leery of Tony when he discussed the plan to get them out of Tehran. They wanted to know why they should trust him and how he can guarantee his plan would be successful. Source credibility has three elements of credibility: competence, trustworthiness, and goodwill. The group questioned Tony’s competence, when they asked him directly, “what are our chances”, in which he responded, “Chances are good”. (Affleck, 2012). This led to some tension as they questioned what the percentage of “good” was and brought up the capture of other Americans that attempted to escape. When they realized this was the first attempt of this type, trustworthiness was challenged and the fact that they are supposed to trust him with their lives. To try to ease the group; Tony explained what he does and his success rate. Tension increased amongst the six Americans and they tried to convince each other that this was their only option. The character “Joe” was the most skeptical and said it was suicide and that he did not trust Tony. Tony explained to Joe and his wife that he rescues people and promised he will get them out. This was an expression of goodwill, if the group was not convinced Tony cared about them, the plan would have never worked, as it took each one of them to stay in character in order for them to all get out alive. In a key pivoting scene Tony was asked, “Do you think your story is going to matter when there is a gun to our head?”, in which Tony responds, “I think my story is the only thing between you and a gun to your head.” (Affleck, 2012). All three components of Source Credibility were crucial in the movie; without the group having competence in Tony, along with trusting his plan and that his intentions were for their benefit, the plan would have
...lusion, the quest for more knowledge and power can only be perceived as bad if it twists and corrupts the mind. But in reality, it is indeed a good thing to gain more knowledge and the power that comes with it since development and human advancement cannot have come this far without it. Knowledge, a popular adage says, is power!
As any rags to riches Gangster story we see Tony working his way up, a body guard for one of the big gangsters and quickly sees that to get ahead in this business you have to step over people, taking the saying ‘do what you have to, to get ahead’ to the extreme. As his character grows throughout the film we see Tony turn into a vicious greedy man, his saying “the world is yours” mantra showed that he wanted it all. He made his way to the top; looking back at all his former bosses now he had what they had and so much more.
The next major theory on how one obtains knowledge comes from David Hume’s Empiricism. Empiricism itself is the idea that all knowledge obtained is done so through senses or experiences throughout life. This theory itself clearly contrasts with rationalism as rationalists believe at no point that they should gain knowledge through senses/experiences. Furthermore, as an empiricist, he does not value anything that is not attained through experience. One of Hume’s beliefs is the idea that everyone is born with a mental “blank slate”. Because all knowledge we gain is thought to be gained through experience (which a newborn would have none at that point) the “slate” starts as blank and will filled in as the person learns through experiences. This
The foundation of valid knowledge depends on one’s personal understanding. To “know” means to understand or be aware. Everyone’s personal knowledge differs and the way we obtain and interpret our knowledge is usually through our spiritual beliefs. In order to gain knowledge I rely on the Word of God. The knowledge of God is the most valuable knowledge a human being can possess. The Word of God can be found in Scripture. Proverbs 2:6 tells us that the Lord gives us wisdom and that the wisdom of God results in knowledge and understanding. But it is also clear that simply being aware of God’s existence is not adequate; the knowledge of God must encompass the profound appreciation for Him and produce a loving and growing relationship with Him.
Knowledge helps people make conclusions, lets them be skillful, smart, and keeps them aware. People gather knowledge through experience, whether it's from school, mistakes, witnessing a situation, or trying new activities out. Including in “Fahrenheit 451”, the author, Ray Bradbury does an amazing job in explaining and describing to his audience of how society results in a setting without reasonable amounts of knowledge. People in the society of “Fahrenheit 451” begin to lose common sense after the books are prohibited to keep. In the novel 451 Ray Bradbury warns the audience that without knowledge people are manipulated easily. In reality knowledge is the key to surviving.
Knowledge can be defined as skills or expertise gained from books which is education or from experience. Individuals can be knowledgeable even if they didn’t go to school especially when they have some inborn skills and are employed to work in certain areas. Such people will gain self-knowledge from the experience (Cassidy, 2014). Basically, knowledge is a practical or a theoretical understanding of a concept, therefore knowledge can be gained through experience and books. However, most of the knowledge we gain is as a result of participation in real situations. We’ll start with the novel “The death of Evan llyich” to see how self-knowledge and outside knowledge relate and complement each other. Generally, this book is all about Ivan struggling
Tony could’ve averted his death. If Tony had not wandered around in an alley late at night, and worn a Royal’s jacket, he would not have been stabbed and would still be alive. He was stabbed because he was a Royal, not because of his identity. He tried to be something he is not. People refused to help him because he was a part of the Royals. Also, if he wasn’t out late at night in an alley, he wouldn’t have been in a position to get stabbed. He went out late to get cigarettes, but the cigarettes could have waited another day. Although we don’t know it yet, decisions we make in our lives can come back to haunt
If it cannot be experienced, then there is no real benefit of this knowledge. If there is no benefit, then logically, the knowledge is not valuable in terms of the individual purposes of any human. Therefore, the value of knowledge is diminished if it is not applied and it would be fair to say that the use with purpose is the only way to develop and maintain knowledge. Furthermore, how can any knowledge that cannot be used be useful? Indeed, if some information is not applicable to any aspects of a particular person’s life, then this person is extremely likely to forget it. This implies that the value of knowledge is relative to each individual knower and always depends on his/her own perspective. Therefore, the application does determine the value. Whereas, without application in the real world the knowledge is just a belief since it cannot be experienced and thus cannot be
When I think about knowledge the first thing that comes to my mind is education. I believe that knowledge comes to people by their experiences in life. In other words, life is an instrument that leads me to gain knowledge. Many people consider that old people are wise because they have learned from good and bad experiences throughout their lives. Education requires work, dedication and faith to gain knowledge. We acquired knowledge through the guidance of from parents, role models, college/University teachers and life experiences.
After a person is aware of their ignorance, they can seek knowledge by learning from others and discovering for themselves. Living a life where someone is constantly examining themselves is important because if they do not examine themselves, then they will not have knowledge about the things they do not know about themselves. Learning from others is a passive way of getting to know something because you are not trying to go out and experience it yourself and learn through experiences. Learning from others is crucial early on in a humans’ life. As humans grow up, they should start seeking more knowledge for themselves as opposed to learning from others because seeking knowledge for ourselves can help to get to the deeper truth about themselves or something else. In school, students often are learning from others instead of gaining knowledge themselves. When students start to discover knowledge themselves, they are trying to get to the truth and are interested in gaining knowledge about the