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Media as a factor influencing public perception
Media as a factor influencing public perception
Media as a factor influencing public perception
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Everyday, human being takes part in actions that are indicative of the past. It is due to evolution and history that humans are the way they are, and act the way they act. In On Human Nature, a novel by Edward O. Wilson, it explores the every day actions of human beings and how they are relative to evolution. Sociobiology, a strong theory that Wilson believed in, is the social behavior that has resulted from evolution and attempts to examine and explain social behavior. This theory means that there is reasoning and a line of history for the reason why we do things. On Human Nature explores human heredity, dilemma, development, and emergence. Other topics include aggression and sex which can be explained by Wilson's theory of sociobiology. …show more content…
According to Wilson, “…the forms of their [un-married couples] social life still resemble the classical marriage bond, and many eventually go on to raise children by conventional methods” (Wilson, 137). This shows that new age couples and individuals are choosing not to go the traditional route of marriage and children. They are breaking the cycle. These individuals have learned from the past and evolution and choose to be …show more content…
They know how to catch footballs, apprehend the bad guy, run a country, and make incredible athletic plays. These actions can be attributed to people such as OJ Simpson, Pat Tillman, Bill Clinton, and Tiger Woods. These men were once individuals who were regarded so highly by people of their community. They were praised as kings and treated as royalty. It was not until these men got into position of power that they began to act out and felt untouchable. In the case of Oedipus, his story is very similar. He was a confident individual who became king after solving the Sphinx’s riddle. Instantly, he become an overnight success after he was crowned King of Thebes. This was the start to Oedipus’ tyrannous rule as king. He became cruel and oppressive after he realized the power that he know possess as a
As tragic hero Oedipus displays all of the usual canon; power, arrogance, and pride. Oedipus manifests himself in a position of confidence, which he derives from his success at solving the riddle of the Sphinx and marrying a queen.“It was you who came / and released Cadmus’ Town from the tribute / we paid to the cruel songstress…” (Sophocles, 33-35) , “CREON: Then tell me this - / are you not married to my sister?” (Sophocles, 696-697). In turn, it also enabled him to make rash decisions, such as slaying his father, without personal recompense. “I was to slay my father. And he dies, / And the grave hide...
In this era we live in, we are brought up to think divorce is bound to happen. According to The American Psychological Association, “about 40 to 50 percent of married couples in the United States divorce” and “the divorce rate for subsequent marriages is even higher.” Many adults decide that it is less messy to just live with one another rather than actually get married. This is beginning to drive the rates of marriage down. Many have speculated that relationships will continue to evolve, especially if the human lifespan continues expand. Fiction writers such as Drew Magary and real world scientists such as Aubrey de Grey have explored this very topic of relationships.
Oedipus was a man of power and high social status. This was due to his position as King
Oedipus the King conveys many lessons that are relevant to people living today despite the fact that it was written by Sophocles twenty four centuries ago. Oedipus is a child destined to kill his father and marry his mother. During his life, he makes many mistakes trying to avoid his fate. These mistakes teach us about the nature of humans under certain circumstances. Oedipus possesses personality traits which causes him to make wrong decisions. Attributes like arrogance and his inability to make calm decisions in certain scenarios due to his anger causes his downfall. Oedipus’ excessive pride, like many people today, was an important factor that brought him grief. Oedipus’ lack of patience caused him to make hasty decisions which lead him to his greatest agony. Oedipus’ massive ego turned into excessive vanity, this was the first step to his downfall. Oedipus talks to Creon about the murderer of Laius. He declares, “Then I’ll go back and drag that shadowed past to light… but by myself and for myself I’ll break this plague” (Sophocles, 11). Oedipus is saying that he will be the on...
across all of our written history have discovered the importance of knowing human nature. Human nature is responsible for our definitions of abstract concepts that are surprisingly universal across the western world like justice, equity, and law. Human nature must also be carefully studied in an effort to understand, obtain, or maintain power within society. Finally, human nature must also be carefully understood so as to protect it from being manipulated and to understand its place in society.
Even the best leaders have a few flaws. In the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles, he showed that having flaws does not mean a person is a bad leader, it just means they are human and will make mistakes. Oedipus had received a prophecy when he was younger that he would harm his father and sleep with his mother. He left the city of Corinth, to avoid the prophecy and save his parents, and went to rule Thebes. Thebes King had just been murdered and Oedipus was determined to find the prior King’s murderer, but he soon found out he was the murderer. Even though Oedipus may have made mistakes, he was still a great leader. Oedipus would rather hurt himself before he ever hurt his people. When Oedipus realized his wrongful acts,
Oedipus is a ‘good king,’ a father of his people, an honest and great ruler, while at the same time an outstanding intellect. . . . He even shares the thro...
In Sophocles' "Oedipus the King" which is a tragic play, which discusses the tragic discovery that Oedipus has killed his father and married his mother. Oedipus is the embodiment of the perfect Athenian. He is self-confident, intelligent, and strong willed. Ironically these are the very traits which bring about his tragic discovery. Oedipus gained the rule of Thebes by answering the riddle of The Sphinx. Sophocles used the riddle of The Sphinx as a metaphor for the 3 phases of Oedipus' life and to further characterized him as a tragic hero.
While the entire plot to this point, leads up to us believing that Oedipus is a brutal tyrant. As the text continues on, he is exposed as the true-born Basileus. The throne he sits upon is his late fathers, who he killed. A tyrannical leader who was elected as a Basileus, which sounds like quite the contradiction. Through a sick twist of incest, slaughter, and pure fate, Oedipus is a perplexity in himself. It is not until later that we find out that Oedipus is truly tyrannically by destiny and nature itself. He may of done his best to be revered as just and appeasing to the people, destiny had other plans for him. We see this in the fact that Oedipus believes that he would serve his people the best by being blind instead of dead, even though all of the citizens found out about his wrong doings, and the pain that he has brought upon his city. He believed that he could still be the Basileus to his people, even after his status as tyrant was justified by the actions that carried him into the position as their
The king was someone who the people of Thebes turned to when they needed help, "find us strength, rescue!" p. 161. Oedipus had set himself high social expectations after helping free Thebes "from the sphinx". Oedipus was admired as being "best of men" p. 161, and therefore socially the citizens would have expected him to help them when they needed it. Oedipus was kinder to the citizens and more open with them than was generally expected from a king, "my children" p. 162. He spoke to them directly and not through a messenger, showing the closeness between the people and their king, "Here I am myself..." p. 159.
In conclusion, Oedipus was not your normal king. For he was adopted, killed his own father and slept and fathered kids with his birth mother. This is a prime example of the statement “Appearances are not always what they seem”. He was a good king who saved the city of Thebes “You came and by your coming saved our city, 40 freed us from the tribute which we paid of old to the Sphinx”. However he slept with his mother who had many kids, and killed his father. He may have been a great king who saved a city however he also did things unimaginable and horrific, and didn’t stand for what a King should
Oedipus is a very smart man who some how sees what his people need before they need it. In fact that is a main reason he became king, because of his intuition. He also rescues his people by solving the riddle of the sphinx. But while he is a very smart man he comes across as careless in some situations. Anticipation may be a good thing but, there are always risks or consequences to acting reckless. With this combination it is hard to tell if Oedipus is a good leader or if he is a tyrant. Another reason why Oedipus would be considered a tyrant is because he is very unstable. “For he removed from her garment the golden brooches which she was wearing; he lifted them and struck the sockets of his own eyes, shouting that they would not see either the evils he had suffered or the evils he had done, now only in darkness could they see those whom they must not see, in darkness could they mistake those whom they wanted to recognize.” His reaction to finding out the truth about marrying his mother was rather odd. He stabs out his own eyes! That seems rather rash and very insane. This shows that Oedipus lets his emotions get the best of him. While Oedipus is a very smart ruler, he does seem to not be in the right mental
It is not a new thought that today’s young Americans are facing issues, problems and difficult decisions that past generations never had to question. In a world of technology, media, and a rough economy, many young adults in America are influenced by a tidal wave of opinions and life choices without much relevant advice from older generations. The Generation Y, or Millennial, group are coming of age in a confusing and mixed-message society. One of these messages that bombard young Americans is the choice of premarital cohabitation. Premarital cohabitation, or living together without being married (Jose, O’Leary & Moyer, 2010), has increased significantly in the past couple of decades and is now a “natural” life choice before taking the plunge into marriage. Kennedy and Bumpass (2008) state that, “The increase in cohabitation is well documented,such that nearly two thirds of newlyweds have cohabited prior to their first marriage”(as cited in Harvey, 2011, p. 10), this is a striking contrast compared with statistics of our grandparents, or even parents, generations. It is such an increasing social behavior that people in society consider cohabitation “necessary” before entering into marriage. Even more, young Americans who choose not to cohabitate, for many different reasons, are looked upon as being “old-fashioned”, “naive”, or “unintelligent”. This pressure for young people to cohabitate before marriage is a serious “modern-day” challenge; especially when given research that states, “... most empirical studies find that couples who cohabited prior to marriage experience significantly higher odds of marital dissolution than their counterparts who did not cohabit before marriage”, stated by Jose (2010) and colleagues (as c...
The understanding of human nature is the concept that there is a set of inherent distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that all humans tend to possess (Winkler, 1996). My basic view of human nature correlates with Charles Darwin’s nature vs. nurture theory. Human nature is influenced by both nature and nurture. Nature is all that a man brings with himself into the world, and nurture is every influence that affects him after his birth. An individual’s morals, values, and beliefs are developed from the nurturing aspect of their life. The environment that an individual is raised in creates their human nature. Then they go through life developing more upon their own morals, values, and beliefs. The nature vs. nurture theory is an every changing concept, and I believe that human nature changes for each individual based on their life experiences.
David Hall also writes in the New Critical style of criticism, but his article differs from Stutman’s in that he focuses more on how the story’s contrast is what develops its plot and theme. Several critics believe that Wolfe rarely incorporates the devices of literature in his stories and say that his use of language is what makes his stories so successful, but Hall argues against them that “contrasts of imagery, character, action and point of view are the strongest literary devices in the story working to emphasize Wolfe’s point about the two-sided nature of man” (1). Like Stutman, Hall also presents a significant amount of imagery found throughout the story. He points first of the imager of snow before the murders, which sets up the calm