Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Superstitions and its effects on humanity
Superstitions and its effects on humanity
Superstitions and its effects on humanity
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Superstitions and its effects on humanity
Humans tend to believe that supreme super-natural forces explain what they don't understand or the impossible. An example is that a greater force or a more powerful being called a God or a Godess or the stars chooses people's life for them, we call this destiny. Other people seem to think that coincidences are supernatural also and Muslims believe that every human is born with a book that conotains all of thier future. These ideas all represent the meaning of life as seen by fate or destiny. In the novel "Holes| by Louis Eochar, the idea of fate is very important and the main character Stanley Yelnats experiences this in both a positve and a negative way.
Stanley's family has been cursed for generations ever since his Great Great Pig stealing Grandfather broke a promise to a gypsy. This legacy pulls Stanley through a negative chain of events. One of the most crucial moments in the story is when Stanley is hit in the head with a pair of stolen sneakers. This event of getting hit by the sneakers shows that the family curse is real, not only bad luck stories of his ancestors and this curse ruins Stanley's present situation. This negative event leads to a chain reaction of bad events: first Stanely is bullied at school, then because of this he misses his bus, so he must walk home, then he gets hit with the shoes, then he is excited so he runs home and the police notice him, then he is arrested, then he is convicted guilty, then he is sent to juvinile prision, then he has to endure bad guards, endure poisionous lizards and he has to work all day in the blazing hot sun. The family curse affected everyone in Stanley's family by giving them bad luck and negative life outcomes. Stanley's great grandfather Stanley Yelnats II ge...
... middle of paper ...
...arly shows that the curse affects many other people and events and even affects the weather negatively and then positively. In all, this curse seemed very bad for a very long time, but on the contrary it led to and allowed good things to happen at the end.
To wrap things up I will leave you with these two essential thoughts to understand this essay. These horrible, devistating, terifying, bad and awful series of events caused by the Yelnat's family curse caused numerous bad things to happen such as: bad events, bad weather, bad luck and in the end transformed into marvelous things that everyone profited from. Also the excruciating curse that for so long haunted the Yelnats family was finished and everything was allright for the characters in the story. Destiny in the form of bad luck or a family curse affected Stanley first in a bad way and then in a good way.
In conclusion, the story describes that life changes, and nothing stays the same throughout it. It is in the hands of the people to decide that how they want their life to be. They can make it as beautiful as they want to and they can also make it worse than it has ever been
Well there is always the fate aspect in everything that occurs in our lives but majority of the outcomes created from the individuals own decisions. It is up to the individual to determine what can occur, if they do one thing then something will be the outcome. A side from that, there is always the possibility of being at the wrong place at the wrong time which can have an affect of on the outcomes of life.
There are many beliefs on the concept of fate. Some philosophers believe everything is destined to happen, and others express the contradictory: that everything happens by random, and people cause everything that happens. In The Assault, Harry Mulisch uses symbolism, and the circular structure of symbols to show how Anton Steenwijk is confronted with the idea that there is no fate, and that his life was changed because of the actions of human beings.
The notion of poverty has a very expanded meaning. Although all three stories use poverty as their theme, each interprets it differently. Consequently, it does not necessarily mean the state of extreme misery that has been described in ?Everyday Use?. As Carver points out, poverty may refer to poverty of one?s mind, which is caused primarily by the lack of education and stereotyped personality. Finally, poverty may reflect the hopelessness of one?s mind. Realizing that no bright future awaits them, Harlem kids find no sense in their lives. Unfortunately, the satisfaction of realizing their full potential does not derive from achieving standards that are unachievable by others. Instead, it arises uniquely from denigrating others, as the only way to be higher than someone is to put this person lower than you.
Junior sometimes had to go to bed hungry, but that wasn’t the worst thing about being in poverty. He made a diary entry stating, “Poverty= empty refrigerator+empty stomach. And sure sometimes my family misses a meal…and hey, in a weird way, being hungry makes food taste better (8).” This really puts the diary reader in his shoes about how many times he had to go without food and starve while trying to go to sleep, simply because his family couldn’t afford it. But to Junior, being hungry wasn’t necessarily that bad. What he felt was the worst thing about his poverty was that there was no money to save his beloved animal Oscar. Oscar became really ill and Junior wanted to take the animal to the doctor, but the family couldn’t afford it. When it came down to it, his father had to put the dog out of misery, and decided to shoot him. Visualizing someone having to shoot your best animal friend is heart wrenching. Most people have been in Juniors shoes where they have a sick animal, however they never imagine having to shoot it. This comparison of being hungry and losing an animal, shows Junior’s great strength at a young age about going through poverty, and sometimes even hope...
The Perfect Failure: Kennedy, Eisenhower, and the CIA at the Bay of Pigs by Trumbull Higgins is a book that sheds light on the history and surrounding factors of the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. Having lived in Miami for seven years, I have always been curious about why Cubans seem to feel entitled and believe that the United States owes them something. When I asked about this, I was told that the United States failed them during the Bay of Pigs invasion by leading the Cuban exiles into a battle they could not win. They felt great resentment towards the United States for refusing to assist them once they were in Cuba, leaving them at the mercy of President Fidel Castro. After reading Higgins' book, I now understand the basis for this type of thinking and resentment.
Stanley repeatedly gets what he wants by using any means possible. In addition, the person whoever threatens the existence of his poker game receives a beating, in this case his wife. This scene demonstrates Stanley’s viscous animal-like traits with such violence. If what happened here was repeated in today’s society, he would find himself in a jail cell with a pending divorce.
Fate can be defined in many different ways. Webster's Dictionary defines fate as a power that supposedly predetermines events. Fate is synonymous with the word destiny, which suggests that events are unavoidable and unchangeable. Whatever happens in life is meant to be and cannot be changed by mankind. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, fate plays an important role in the lives of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and Banquo.
The theme of this book is that the human capacity to adapt to and find happiness in the most difficult circumstances. Each character in the novel shows this in their way. For instance, their family is randomly taken from their home and forced to work but they still remain a close nit family. In addition, they even manage to stick together after being separated for one of their own. These show how even in the darkest time they still manage to find a glimmer of hope and they pursued on.
...s to avoid fate, a chain of unexpected unfortunate events are unleashed and a divine master plan is fulfilled. Man must simply act according to his own convictions concerning the matter and hope that if Fate is indeed existent, there might be an even balance between her and the freedom of choice.
Destiny or fate is a controversially talked about subject that has arised for many years. ‘Destiny is referred to as a predetermined course of events.’ Many people, especially in Shakespearean times, believe that God has a life plan for every individual. A sense of destiny in its oldest human sense is the soldier’s fatalistic image of the ‘bullet that has your name on it’ or the moment when ‘your number comes up’ or a romance that was ‘meant to be.’ Many Greek legends and tales teach the futility or trying to outmanoeuvre an inexorable fate that has been correctly predicted. Today we have people that can ‘predict out future’ whether we nowadays still have the belief in the stars and the ability to read them is another controversial matter. Elizabethan astrology fascinated many prominent Elizabethans. The subject is mentioned in every single one of Shakespeare’s plays. At the time the play Romeo and Juliet was published Robert Burton was the astrologer of the era. In Shakespeare’s plays astrology was often critical to the plots when the actions and events surrounding characters are said to be ‘favoured’ or ‘hindered’ by the stars. In the tempest the main character is said to be based on John Dee, who was a famous astrologer and scholar in the Elizabethan era. Destiny is the idea of necessity ‘everything in the world is conditioned and takes place according to necessity.’ ‘Fatalism is based on the assumption that everything in the world and in peoples lives is predetermined by natural or super natural forces, that God set everything out.’ Destiny also mans ‘dragged by force.’ If Romeo would have stayed in his, not gone to the Capulet’s party, left the party when Capulet saw him would all this of happened? That is the idea of destiny...
The main theme which is presented throughout the novel is optimism. Out of every unfortunate situation in the story, Candide, the main character, has been advised by his philosopher-teacher that everything in the world happens for the better, because "Private misfortunes contribute to the general good, so that the more private misfortunes there are, the more we find that all is well" (Voltaire, p. 31). Pangloss, the philosopher, tries to defend his theories by determining the positive from the negative situations and by showing that misfortunes bring some privileges. As Candide grows up, whenever something unfortunate happens, Pangloss would turn the situation around, bringing out the good in it. Candide learns that optimism is "The passion for maintaining that all is right when all goes wrong " (Voltaire, p.86).
I read the book, and watch the movie Holes. It was in my opinion an outstanding book, I didn’t like it as much as I liked Huckleberry Finn but it was one of my favorites. In the essay I will compare and contrast both the book and the movie. The book was written by Louis Sachar, and the movie was produced by Walt Disney Pictures. My favorite character was Stanley, he was very smart, but also a young child still. I could relate to him because when I was in elementary school, I used to play pranks just like he did. The book and the movie have very few differences.
Humans enjoy choices. Whether the decision is putting on a coat in the morning or participating in an exhilarating activity like skydiving, every decision starts with the ability to make a choice. That ability to decide reflects a state of free will. Free will tells us we are essentially is in charge of our choices. Fate guides those who have no control over their choices. While the origin of fate and free will remain a mystery, these ideas can be traced back for centuries and found in our daily lives: in our code of ethics, politics, and religions. Kurt Vonnegut wrestles with the coexistence of fate and free will, ultimately arguing fate dominantes.
Webster defines fate as a “ a power thought to control all events and impossible to resist” “a persons destiny.” This would imply that fate has an over whelming power over the mind. This thing called fate is able to control a person and that person has no ability to change it.