Experiences influence the way we see ourselves and our lives. While some people perceive their world in a different way, others accept the world presented to them. There are people who dream and see the world as fantasy; while the realists do not sugarcoat the truth, they do not experience the world like dreamers do. The dreamers are the people who bring the world to life. Everyone has different personality traits because of experience; thus, this makes it difficult to understand whether being a realist is better than a dreamer, or vice versa. Within each story, the author exposes the difference between reality and fantasy through the experiences or settings presented. Thus, the stories A Shark in the Mind of One Contemplating Wilderness, A …show more content…
Stick of Green Candy, and A Hunger Artist explore the difference between fantasy and reality. Terry Tempest William’s essay, A Shark in the Mind of One Contemplating Wilderness, compares his confusion to seeing a shark in an aquarium versus seeing one in a museum.
He illustrates how context and personal experience greatly influence how we understand the world. For example, with the shark in the aquarium, the narrator …show more content…
describes the shark as “not hungry” and swimming past him “in a kelp forest that sways back and forth (William 211).” In the American Museum of Natural History, the author explains how the shark is “biting and tearing, thrashing and chomping on flesh, the teeth constantly being replaced by something akin to a conveyor-belt system (William 211).” The narrator illustrates the shark in the aquarium as calm, not violent. In the approximation of its natural habitat, even though the shark has the ability to eat other fish, he does not. On the other hand, the shark as a taxidermy represents a fearful creature who is deadly and violent. When the shark is not in the aquarium, the narrator notices their artificial and imaginative acts. Therefore, since the shark is mounted in the museum, the narrator misrepresents the shark as he sees the taxidermy. Although Terry William shows the difference between reality and fantasy, the narrator’s constant experience of the shark causes him to believe the shark is deadly, instead of art. Similar to art, the shark is appreciated through his beauty and naturalness while in his natural habitat. However, being “a naturalist who has worked in a museum of natural history for more than fifteen years, how am I to think about a shark in the context of art, not science (William 212)?” For a great portion of the narrator’s life, he has seen this monstrous creature mounted up in the museum. As in the museum, it portrays the marine creature in a dangerous way; therefore, this causes the main character to stereotype sharks are vicious. While the narrator wants to change his perception of the shark, he cannot because of the experiences he encountered. Based on the writer’s experience as a worker, he created an image of the shark in his mind. No matter how much he wants to alter the image, he cannot change his fantasy. While in William’s essay, the narrator cannot change his fantasy image of the shark, this is different in A Stick of Green Candy.
Jane Bowles repeatedly uses setting to illustrate the difference between fantasy and reality. Instead of Mary, the main character, playing in the playground, she prefers to play in the clay pit, located a mile away. “The playground Mary dislikes intensely is called the Kinsey Memorial Grounds…Mary’s perception describes a place where the fantasy that sustains her is likely to be buried under the squealing of children who play with little apparent design or imagination (Comprehensive Guide to Short Stories 1).” The world sustained by the clay pit is where Mary imagines the barracks for her troops of soldiers she commands. While Mary feels powerless in the real world, the pit - her fantasy world - is where she conflates the soldiers with children. Nevertheless, while Mary is in Franklin’s house, she sees the box Franklin’s mom uses is the same box her mother uses. Franklin’s and Mary’s mother perceive the world as a realist. They understand life is difficult. Though, Mary’s perception of reality only changes after she sees the orange tea box, decorated with seated women and temples; inside is filled with sticks of green candy. After seeing this, Mary understands growing up requires a loss of imagination. When leaving Franklin’s house, her understanding of the real world breaks through. She is stripped of her imaginative side and slowly enters
adulthood. Mary begins to understand the world is more complicated than she believed. When she states, “We can’t climb those stairs up there (Bowles 192),” which is where Franklin’s house was, this illustrates her fantasy world is cracking and reality is bleeding in. Thus, Bowles shows the difference between Mary’s fantasy and reality world through the playground and Franklin’s home. In Franz Kafka’s A Hunger Artist, the perception of reality and fantasy is shown through the beliefs and the experiences of the characters. To a hunger artist, “a sideshow performer who fasted publicly (Dictionary Central 1),” starvation is a form of art. He attempted on starving and experienced starvation. Before making an assumption, he decided to make a decision for himself whether he liked starving. Since the hunger artist experienced starvation, this makes his perception of starvation a reality. Therefore, the hunger artist is a realist who is able to see life in a whole new perspective. After the narrator experiences the beauty of starving, this causes his mind to believe starvation is a form of art. The more he starves himself, the more beautiful the hunger artists feels about himself. Instead of accepting the fact humans should eat, the hunger artist made a decision to starve himself for art. However, to the onlookers and the guards, they do not believe a person starving themselves is art; the crowd’s idea of starvation is a fantasy. For the onlookers, they find starving themselves difficult, especially for art. Without attempting to starve, they make a presumptuous belief that starvation is unbearable, making their perception of starving a fantasy. Based upon the crowd’s understanding about fasting, they accept what life presented to them. They cannot accept starving themselves because they have never experienced it for themselves. Even though the public never attempted to starve themselves, they created an image in their mind about starvation, which is repugnant and disturbing. Since the public does not understand the concept of fasting, they soon get bored with the idea of a hunger artist. “The narrator often expresses the yearnings and frustrations of the hunger artist: ‘Just try to explain to anyone the art of fasting! Anyone has feeling for it cannot be made to understand it (Comprehensive Guide to Short Stories 1).’” While the hunger artist is showing his version of art, the onlookers cannot accept what is thought to be “creepy.” “The closing image of the public’s admiration of the panther is a disturbing reminder that even a person’s death by slow starvation is not sufficient to [change] the placidity of the self-indulgent world (Comprehensive Guide to Short Stories 2).” The hunger artist’s open-mindedness allows the audience to understand a reality world can be just as remarkable as fantasy. As a result, Kafka distinguished the difference between reality and fantasy by introducing the hunger artist and the public. The authors of the stories demonstrate reality and fantasy through the experiences of the narrators. In A Shark in the Mind of One’s Contemplating Wilderness, the author distinguishes the different perception of reality and fantasy through the shark in the aquarium and the museum. In A Stick of Green Candy, Mary’s idea of fantasy changes as she enters Franklin’s house, thus, making her enter adulthood. The perception of reality and fantasy is shown through A Hunger Artist by the hunger’s artist experience of fasting versus the audience’s understanding of fasting. Although the authors do not state which perception of life is better, fantasy or reality, they do provide an idea of each. It is our decision to determine whether being a realist or a dreamer is better. The idea of a fantasy world might be nerve wrecking because we cannot control our imagination, yet, reality is not always great, either. The idea of reality threatens society and takes away our hope that life can get better. The authors do not identify which perception of life is greater because both are vital for survival.
life, and in it he attempts to explain that which has evaded and mystified even
By breaking the terms down, hes gives clear images of what he wants to show the reader, and he personifies actions a nonliving organism does, and he uses metaphoric language as well as
"The Loss of the Creature" starts off with the definition of beautiful, which is a key point throughout his essay. Next, he moves in to his example of a family of tourists, and their experience (through his eyes) at the Grand Canyon. He describes his theory of the sightseer, and the discoverer; "Does a single sightseer, receive the value of P, or only a millionth part of value P" (pg 1) Value P, being the experience, and the beauty in which that person collected. Following the sightseers was a couple who stumbled upon an undisturbed Mexican Village. The couple thoroughly enjoyed their first experience, but could not wait to return with their friend the ethnologist. When they did return with him, they were so caught up in what his reaction would be; there was a total loss of sovereignty. Due to their differences of interest in the village, the couples return trip was a waste. The second part of the essay includes a Falkland Islander who comes across a dead dogfish lying on the beach. Furthermore, he explains how a student with a Shakespeare sonnet, has no chance of being absorbed by a student due to the surrounding's or package of the class room. The two students are receiving the wrong messages, on one hand we have the biology student with his "magic wand" of a scalpel, and on the other hand the English student with his sonnet in its "many-tissued package". Both students are unaware of the real experience they could undergo, and the teacher might as well give the dogfish to the English student and the sonnet to the biology student because they will be able to explore and learn more within the different setting, and without the surroundings and expectations (pg 6).
In this poem called “Creatures” by the author Billy Collins there are three examples of figurative language helps convey the meaning that the author Billy Collins is conveying. The three examples of figurative language that the author Billy Collins uses are a metaphor, enjambment, and imagery. These three examples of figurative language help illustrate Billy Collins” theme in this poem called “Creatures” that he is writing because these three examples of figurative language help emphasize the theme of the poem. These three examples help emphasize this poem called “Creatures” meaning because it makes the theme of this poem have a deeper meaning. The theme of the author Billy Collins poem called “Creatures” is that the reader has to imagine
...He is still anchored to his past and transmits the message that one makes their own choices and should be satisfied with their lives. Moreover, the story shows that one should not be extremely rigid and refuse to change their beliefs and that people should be willing to adapt to new customs in order to prevent isolation. Lastly, reader is able to understand that sacrifice is an important part of life and that nothing can be achieved without it. Boats are often used as symbols to represent a journey through life, and like a captain of a boat which is setting sail, the narrator feels that his journey is only just beginning and realizes that everyone is in charge of their own life. Despite the wind that can sometimes blow feverishly and the waves that may slow the journey, the boat should not change its course and is ultimately responsible for completing its voyage.
The ocean is mysterious to mankind. The unfathomable vastness of the ocean intrigues humanity into exploring it. In life, the immense possibilities that lie in the future compel us to reach for the stars. In the poem “The Story” by Karen Connelly, an individual willingly swims into deep waters even though they are fearful of what may exist in the waters. The swimmer later finds out that their fears were foolish, which illustrates the human tendency to venture into the unknown. The theme conveyed in this poem is that life is like a rough, uncertain, uncontrollable ocean that we must find get through with experience.
William Faulkner overwhelms his audience with the visual perceptions that the characters experience, making the reader feel utterly attached to nature and using imagery how a human out of despair can make accusations. "If I jump off the porch I will be where the fish was, and it all cut up into a not-fish now. I can hear the bed and her face and them and I can...
Throughout the story, the reader comes across several things that he or she will question. In the beginning of the story, a young boy goes to the aquarium to see the axolotls. He soon becomes obsessed with them and goes everyday to watch them. At the
He teaches the kid what to do in order to successfully reel in a large, beautiful fish. Ironically, the narrator is the one who learns from the kid in the end. At the beginning of the story, everything is described negatively, from the description of the kid as a “lumpy little guy with baggy shorts” to his “stupid-looking ’50s-style wrap-around sunglasses” and “beat-up rod”(152). Through his encounter with the boy, the narrator is able to see life in a different way, most notable from how he describes the caught tarpon as heavy, silvery white, and how it also has beautiful red fins (154). Through the course of the story, the narrator’s pessimistic attitude changes to an optimistic one, and this change reveals how inspiring this exchange between two strangers is. This story as a whole reveals that learning also revolves around interactions between other people, not only between people and their natural surroundings and
Every Sunday, Miss Brill looked forward to a wonderful day in the park. There, she would secretly dive into the lives of the surrounding human beings, taking in each of their words and actions and creating a fantasy world all of her own that she was sure she belonged in, but she was mistaken. Her fantasy world does crumble, and Miss Brill, the protagonist in the short story, “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield, soon finds herself in reality. Miss Brill can be clearly seen as a flat, yet dynamic character, as can be portrayed through her thought transformation.
“The Swimmer” is an allegory that is narrated in third person point of view as someone who is observing Neddy’s journey. This enables the reader to discover the reactions of friends and neighbors as Neddy arrives at their homes while still revealing the shift of the round character’s own attitude and feelings as his journey through life continues. Cheever wisely tells the story from a perspective in which the reader can still be connected to Neddy from the beginning to the end of the story while learning how his actions have disappointed others and not just himself. It also uncovers the involvement of each character and their relationship with Neddy before and after his mid-life crisis. If this story was told from any other point of view then the reader would only be obtaining one sided, in a sense a close minded, version whereas with a third person point of view the reader is approached to the entire situation given all perspectives. It guides the reader from one meaningful piece to another on an even level without any bias impressions while the story is being delivered.
The characters also are involved in the belief of the anti-transcendental philosophy. The story shows how each character acts with nature and each other. Many of the whalers must protect the boat and each other as they trek through the wild tides and horrible weather conditions. They try their hardest to fight these conditions, but sadly the narrator is the only survivor. These men exemplify the philosophy by fighting the animals; especially the whales ...
Abercrombie states that the human brain plays an active role in shaping the information presented to us, based on one’s past experiences. Kahneman claims that the human mind uses two systems of thinking, System 1 and System 2, where System 2 is more active and effortful than System 1. I attempt to illustrate how Abercrombie and Kahneman's ideal concepts of the perception of reality are applicable to real situations, by referring to the following three readings: Jung’s “The Personal and the Collective Unconscious,” Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” and Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The three readings relate to Abercrombie and Kahneman, considering the overlapping concepts of reality, that words and metaphors structure our understanding of what is real, reality can be altered from different perspectives, and that ignorance can actually be bliss.
I believe we each perceive things differently, and the combination of all our perceptions creates how we view the world, creates our reality.
When a person lives a life with no dreams or wishes accomplished that person would die knowing they lived a dissatisfied life full of regret. In the book, Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, the author conveys an argument of living a life with no regret throughout the literature. The argument presented by Krakauer is conveyed by character relationships, character actions, and references to an images.