The Strength of Dedication Lies in Actions
“Death and The King’s Horseman” by Wole Soyinka tells the story of a man in Nigeria who must fulfill his obligation to follow the king into the afterlife in order to guide the king’s spirit and avoid complete chaos. The visitors from England hold no understanding toward the traditions of the locals and spoil the sacredness of many of their traditions, shedding light on Europe’s ignorance of traditions. They ruin the Horseman’s suicide, and the Horseman’s son has to step up to complete the ritual. In reality, it was due to the selfishness of the king’s horseman that led to the failed ritual, and the horseman is completely distraught. One of the main themes of the play is individual duty, and how each character understands the concept and how they act in accordance to their duty. Although Elesin,
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He illustrates this through his song of the Not-I bird, a representation of death. In his story, the Not-I bird travels to many people, and they shoo it away, exclaiming that they are not ready or that it is not their time. Elesin claims that when he sees the Not-I bird perched, “bade him seek his nest again, safe, without care or fear. I unrolled my welcome mat for him to see” (1055). He continues, saying “I am a master of my Fate. When the hour comes Watch me dance along the narrowing path… My soul is eager, I shall not turn aside” (1056). Elesin seems like he understands his fate and what will become of him. Yet he is almost too eager to leave. He does not express enough sobriety when dealing with the idea of his own suicide. In the beginning of the play, Elesin enjoys life too much, and shows an over eagerness and joking attitude. The gifts and women granted to him because of his sacrifice has gone to his head and affected him. He may understand his individual duty, but has not shown all that much dedication to it through his
When individuals face obstacles in life, there is often two ways to respond to those hardships: some people choose to escape from the reality and live in an illusive world. Others choose to fight against the adversities and find a solution to solve the problems. These two ways may lead the individuals to a whole new perception. Those people who decide to escape may find themselves trapped into a worse or even disastrous situation and eventually lose all of their perceptions and hops to the world, and those who choose to fight against the obstacles may find themselves a good solution to the tragic world and turn their hopelessness into hopes. Margaret Laurence in her short story Horses of the Night discusses the idea of how individual’s responses
Indian Horse is a novel by Richard Wagamese that beautifully explores the idea of family, and what it means to have people around you that make you feel at home. The reader is bombarded with an overwhelming sense of family and betrayal in the first few pages of the novel. As Richard Wagamese continues to write, one is able to see how safe Saul Indian Horse felt with his biological family, and he also shows how lost he felt without their love when he was taken to the Residential School. The school he was brought to was drained of all consensual love the moment it was open, and continued to fill the children with horrible feelings the entire time they were there. Indian Horse was unable to really feel as though he still had family while he was in the
All people wish to avoid suffering, and those with wealth usually take too long to realize that they cannot avert it. In the short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe tells the readers of death, and how the upper class deals with it. In this story, Prince Prospero and his wealthy friends hide away in a castle to evade death. This obviously does not work, as death is inevitable, but of course, they attempt to save themselves anyways. In “The Masque of the Red Death”, Poe uses the courtiers, Prince Prospero, and the stranger to symbolize the members of the influential upper class and their habit of using their power to postpone their own impending doom.
Millay’s poem “Thou famished grave” explores death’s inevitable success and the speaker’s resistance against it to gain victory within loss. The first way Millay achieves this is through the animalization of death. The poem describes death throughout with words such as, “roar” (2) and “jaws” (7), which leads to a portrayal of death as a predatory animal. A further description in the poem of the speaker as “prey” (9), helps to strengthen this portrayal. As a result, this animalistic depiction of predator and prey shows death’s advantage and dominance over life. In addition, it shows that the speaker is like a gazelle being hunted by a lion. They will not stand motionless and be defeated, but will run away to survive death and “aim not to be
According to Alan Loy McGinnis, “there is no more noble occupation in the world than to assist another human being - to help someone succeed.” Piers Anthony, the author of the book On a Pale Horse, seems to agree with that statement when he writes the book series called Incarnations of Immortality, of which On a Pale Horse is the first. This book is a fascinating work of fiction that relates science to magic and expresses that human beings might need a little more help than they expect. The potentially disconcerting view of the world Anthony takes is that there are people assigned to job titles that exist outside of our Earth, and they are the ones who watch over the Earth and its inhabitants to make sure human life goes as it should. In this book, an average man named Zane happens upon a job offer to act as Death, takes the opportunity, and adds more meaning to his life than he has ever had before. Zane encounters a struggle when he has to face Satan, the Incarnation of Evil, and through his work learns that everyone should do what is morally right because it affects us more than we know. On a Pale Horse is an allegorical piece of fiction that uses Greek and Christian beliefs, possibly along with others, in an attempt to teach that everything you do matters, so always do what is right.
Throughout the short story “The Masque of the Red Death,” Edgar Allan Poe uses vivid symbolism, structure, and reoccurring details to paint a powerful image regarding the finality and inescapable reaches of death itself. “The ‘Red Death’ has long devastated the country,” yet the Prince Prospero continues to hold extravagant parties for his fellow elite members of society. Rather than merely telling a series of events, Poe carries his readers throughout the many rooms and scenes that hold the Prince’s masquerade, up until the clock strikes midnight and the partygoers can no longer hide behind their façade, and death comes in to take those that thought themselves invincible (Poe 438-442).
In Kurt Vonnegut’s two short stories, ‘All the Kings Horses’ and ‘Manned Missiles’, he tried to reflect on the actual international backdrops of the time the stories were based on, in two different ways. While both stories reflected on the events that took place during the Cold War, the author managed to portray the actors involved the United States and Russia, in different ways in order to show the historical implications the stories had, and how it could be related back to that time period. Even though the stories had certain similarities like the actors involved and the time period it was based on, it also differed in the way the actors were portrayed and how they impacted the Cold war.
History has a strange way of coming back around when it comes to human civilization. It has been said repeatedly that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. However, just because there is a potential for danger in the future, this does not mean that humanity must ignore what once was. History is normally remembered through what is known as a memorial. When a memorial is put into a physical representation, it is then known as a monument.The need to memorialize events or people is complex; in some cases, monuments honor moments of great achievement, while in other cases, monuments pay homage to deep sacrifice. A monument's size, location, and materials are all considerations in planning and creating a memorial to the past. Examples of such feats are the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and even Mount Rushmore. For the latter of the
Horse Slaughter from Another Perspective When you first hear the term slaughter, often the first thing that comes to mind is how “horrible” the facilities are said to be. However, most of these statements are ignorant and the people are unaware of what really happens in a slaughterhouse. Slaughter of most animals is usually very humane and safe. Although when it comes to horses, not so much.
Beowulf starts with the death of Shield a great king in the eyes of the Geats, it also ends with the death of Beowulf. These funerals are similar in many ways. These funerals can be a reflection of the lives these kings lived because each king had his own way he wanted to be remembered. These funerals both involve huge amounts of treasures being loaded on to ships or back in to the ground and how the Geat people mourned for the loss of the kings.
Death and the King’s Horseman provokes many thoughts about the outcome and why these events took place in the play. I believe that the play is more about the destruction of the culture rather than just the destruction of an individual. Elesin had a very big decision to make during the play and he made his decision too late. As the king’s horseman, his choice was either to kill himself so he could serve his king in the afterlife, as the ancient native tradition was, or stay alive and live out life as a normal person. He ended up killing himself while in chains but it was too late because Olunde, Elesin’s son, sacrificed himself for the king and so Elesin’s suicide had no meaning.
The speaker beseeches death to allow him to be laid to rest. Similarly in Yeats’s poem, the awareness of death is expressed in the opening lines of the poem ‘I know that I shall meet my fate | Somewhere among the clouds above;’ (1,2). However, as opposed to Shakespeare’s poem, Yeats’s speaker accepts death at the hands of war. ‘Somewhere among the clouds above’ (2) is a metaphor for death in battle in the sky. This idyllic description is in contrast to what it is referencing, which is a brutal death in war.
He is almost sleeping while doing this. This creates a very powerful visual image. It epitomizes how the people left to grieve act. Many people stricken by death want to be left alone and bottle themselves up. The first few lines of the poem illustrate how deeply in sorrow the man is. This image should affect everyone. It should make the reader sympathize or even empathize with the man. Another main way he uses imagery is through the black bird or the raven. The presence of the bird is a bad omen. It is supposed to be followed by maleficent things. The bird is used to symbolize death figuratively and literally. The bird only says one word the entire poem. It repeats “nevermore.” This word can be interpreted multiple ways each time it is said. It is also possible that the bird is not talking. It is possible that the bird is an image created by
Suicide is no exception to this examination; it must be seen in the conflicting light that Soyinka gives us: British vs. Yoruban, physical vs. metaphysical, personal vs. social; and an expression of failure vs. a form of redemption. In examining how the play divides suicide so completely through these lenses, we can better understand the actions of Elesin and Olunde. In the Yoruban world, it is clear that everything exists in a large backdrop of history and awareness of the gods and the universe. While living is a personal experience, everyone is a fragment of reality. Thus, every action has an impact on everything.
In Beloved and Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Toni Morrison and Gabriel Garcia Marquez discuss how the events that go on in each book fall under the category of magical realism, which is when and the supernatural coexists with ordinary events throughout the day, leading to people accepting the strangest things are just something normal, and how it shapes the conflicts of each story and how the people react to these unique occurrences.