Body and Nature as Metaphor in A Thousand Acres
Most issues on a farm return to the issue of keeping up appearances. (Smiley p.199)
[T]he female body is a reservoir, a virgin patch of still, pooled water where the fetus comes to term. (Paglia p.27)
[A] fetus is a benign tumor, a vampire who steals in order to live. (Paglia p.11)
The epigraph to this novel is from "The Ancient People and the Newly Come":
The body repeats the landscape. They are the source of each other and create each other. We were marked by the seasonal body of earth, by the terrible migrations of people, by the swift turn of a century, verging on change never before experienced on this greening planet.
This encompasses much of what the novel is about, every phrase having some significance for its project. Human bodies, as well as the "body of earth", are subject to both seasonal and social change. I argue elsewhere how Ginny's body becomes a signifying system for social intercourse, as does the scenery surrounding her. Here, I would like to explore the multiplex meanings of the motif of the tiles.
When Ginny's ancestors arrived, their land was marshy, wet, impossible to farm. Laying down tiles drained the water and became the basis for their wealth- "magically, tile produced prosperity"(15). This signifies the control that capitalist industrial farming exerts toward nature, a control that ultimately becomes destructive. As Jess tells Ginny, the way Larry farms has poisoned the land and its people: "People have known for ten years or more that nitrates in well water cause miscarriages and death of infants. Don't you know that the fertilizer runoff drains into the aquifer?" (165).
The surface richness and the treacherous, wet p...
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...y to turn the destructive forces to her advantage. The important difference, bringing together issues of body and nature in the novel, is that her poison is not chemical, but natural: the root of water hemlock. Ginny envisions her poisoning of Rose's body as the inevitable result of the incest of Rose, but it is indirectly also the result of the abuse of her: "I thought [...] of that cell dividing in the dark and then living rather than dying, subdividing, multiplying, growing, Rose's real third child [...]. Her dark child, the child of her union with Daddy."(323)
When she destroys the jar of poison, the only remaining object of her past life and the metaphoric container of that life's destructive path, she stops the spreading of social and filial poison, hindering its influence on the lives of the future generation: Pammy and Linda. That is the hope of the future.
A Fine Balance, written by Rohinton Mistry’s, illustrates the path to wisdom and humility before a calamitous end. The novel, A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley parallels a lot of similar themes and ideas depicted in A Fine Balance. As the story develops, a connection forms between the improbable household in both books and they generate an unbelievably uneven dysfunctional family, to either protect or torment one another through the experiences they encounter. Both novels develop the themes of, concern and compromise through the use of characters, conflict through appearance versus reality, and the position of a woman in a male-controlled society.
In 1919, farmers from thirty states, including Missouri, saw a need. They gathered in Chicago and formed the American Farm Bureau Federation. In 1919, they had one goal, they wanted to speak for themselves with the help of their own national organization. Since 1919, Farm Bureau has operated by a philosophy that states: “analyze the problem of farmers and develop a plan of action for these problems” (Missouri). In the past 94 years, the A...
Augustine was educated as a lecturer in the former North African cities of Tagaste, Madaura, and Carthage. The philosophical works of Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman speaker and politician, inspired Augustine to become a seeker after truth. Augustine engaged restlessly in philosophical studies, and passed from one phase of thought to another, unable to find satisfaction. From 373 until 382, in Carthage, he conformed to Manichaeism, a dualistic philosophy dealing with the conflict between good and evil. This seemed to be the answer to the confusion in his own heart. It solved the mysteries that confused him in his own experience. After realizing that this philosophy wouldn’t make a great ethical system, he abandoned this philosophy. After being educated throughout North Africa, he left Carthage and in 384 found himself in Milan where he would pursue his career of a professor in rhetoric. Also, in Milan he met and was influenced by the bishop, Ambrose. With this, Augustine was attracted again to Christianity and was baptized by Ambrose in 387. Augustine was also influenced by Platonism. He than returned to North Africa where he became the bishop of Hippo in 391, a title he held until he died.
The short stories “Medicine” by Lu Xun and “Death by Landscape” by Margaret Atwood both have a mysterious forces in the stories. This means that there are similar forces in both, however, the forces in each do have different effects. These invisible powers will either give someone a sense of hope or a sense of fear. Even though these effects could be good or bad, the forces impact one another and some forces give strong emotions towards someone. While one may see a force having a positive effect another may see the side of it being a negative effect.
Augustine’s Confessions is in itself a rather contradictory autobiography. It reveals the inner workings of St. Augustine’s mind, particularly the arduous mental obstacles he faces on his spiritual journey. Readers are exposed to an almost cyclical routine of behaviour in which Augustine descends into a whirlpool of sin, reaches an epiphany and emerges vigorously with newfound motivation. We begin to question whether St. Augustine is aware of how contradictory his own actions play out, and if so, how such contradictions may reveal deeper truths about human nature.
For the vast majority of his years Augustine was confused regarding sinful nature. Even as an infant, Augustine was not free from sin. Observing an infant, even though he is too weak to cause any harm, he shows the first steps of sinning if he doesn’t get what he wants. Later on he concludes that teenagers desire to do evil things because they do not understand the nature of beauty or goodness, which is God. What later troubles him the most, is that his main motive was the desire to sin and do wrong. He proceeds that the sinful nature, along with certain situations and people in his life lead him, and brought him closer to God.
The very fact that philosophers such as Descartes, Kant, Malcolm have been intrigued by the ontological argument strongly shows that it is a very important and complex argument which is in favour of the existence of God. Although a final and ultimate answer to the question of God’s existence has yet to be attained, it is still considered to be a remarkable argument.
As doubts of economic possibilities of farming and ranching continue to decline, the true farmer still respects their land and practices. The general stereotype of farmers and ranchers is poor stewardship. Historically, hunters and farmers were more interested environmentalists than compared with the liberal, urban vegetarians of today. However both share the same conditions for living and breathing. This creates confusion between needing and wanting within a typical household (Kingsolver, 2003).
Francis of Assisi was a poor man who astounded and inspired the Church by taking the gospel literally—not in a narrow fundamentalist sense, but by actually following all that Jesus said and did, joyfully, without limit and without a mite of self-importance. Francis was famous for his love of all creation. He called for simplicity of life, poverty, and humility before God. He worked to care for the poor. Thousands were drawn to his sincerity, piety, and joy. In all his actions, Francis sought to follow fully and literally the way of life demonstrated by Christ in the Gospels. My report is going to discuss the life and contributions of St. Francis of Assisi.
In this discussion of Eliot’s poem I will examine the content through the optic of eco-poetics. Eco- poetics is a literary theory which favours the rhizomatic over the arborescent approach to critical analysis. The characteristics of the rhizome will provide the overarching structure for this essay. Firstly rhizomes can map in any direction from any starting point. This will guide the study of significant motifs in ‘The Waste Land.’ Secondly they grow and spread, via experimentation within a context. This will be reflected in the study of the voice and the language with which the poem opens. Thirdly rhizomes grow and spread regardless of breakage. This will allow for an eco-poetical reading of the final eight lines of the poem. Fourthly rhizomes grow via subterranean networks and this provides a framework to study reference and allusion within the poem. Aware that this already sounds prescriptive and thereby against the spirit of what Deleuze and Guattari propose in their rhizomatic approach I will, fifthly, use the definition of a rhizome to try and capture what is germane if elusive to this approach- a lack of stasis. A rhizome can sprout roots or shoots from any part of its surface,’ which suggests the unpredictable connections, variation, and expansion, possible in poetry read rhizomatically.
The existence of god has always been an arguable topic. How does one justify their faith to a non-believer? The textbook The Philosophers Way described five separate rational proofs for the existence of god. One argument that stood out to me was the Ontological argument. The ontological argument is an argument based on theory, and was created by the medieval thinker Saint Anselm. The arguments attempt to prove God's existence from the meaning of the word God. Anselm of Canterbury introduced the ontological argument in his book Proslogion. While opinions concerning the ontological argument differ widely, it is generally agreed that the argument is most convincing to Anselm's intended audience: Christian believers seeking a rational basis for their belief in God.
What hindered Augustine's conversion was that he was disillusioned in his pursuit of hedonism, paganism, Manicheanism, worldly power and ambition. He entertained the notion that ultimate truth might be simply unknowable or unattainable. He became impressed with the philosophical skepticism that had become prominent in Plato’s old school, the Academy. It was at this point that a number of factors began to come together that would lead Augustine to reassess the religion of his youth.
There are various types of ontological arguments for the existence of God. The ontological argument was first formulate Descartes. Some contend, however, that there can be no dialectically effective ontological argument. In other words, the belief in God cannot, according to many, be established as reasonable. Never-the-less, arguments attempting to disprove the existence of God cannot be proved reasonable either. Because of this standoff, it is sometimes contended that ontological arguments are in fact completely worthless in their attempts to either prove or disprove the existence of God. Despite this criticism, however, these arguments are of considerable
The parts of the moral dispute on the status of unborn life… solidly bolster the conclusion that this unborn bit of humankind has a benefit not to be killed, in any occasion. Without laying out all the affirmation here, it is sensible to complete up from arrangement that the humanity of the life creating in a mother's womb is sure and, in itself, a serious clarification behind drawing closer the unborn with concession.
We human beings can not separate from nature. No nature, no human beings. As far as poetry is concerned, nature plays a great important role on it, for uncountable poets have been writing lots and lots of great poems on it along the history of human beings. America is not an exceptional. My paper is right to deal with nature in American poetry.