Gargantua and Pantagruel
The story of Gargantua and Pantagruel is basically a satirical story of the french writer Francois Rabelais. Francois tells of the adventures of two giants, father and son, Gargantua and Pantagruel. They make fun of the vices and foolishness of the people and institutions of Rabelais's time. His humor is at times so dark and his criticism of the Roman Catholic Church so telling that it is difficult to believe that for most of his life he was a priest. I believe that the sole intention of this work is to poke and dig at the people and intrest's that Rabelais disliked, which you can tell by him bringing real people into the story. I don't feel that there is any deep meaning to this work other than to express his dislikes for his world's ideals. In the next few paragraphs I will try to pick apart the work of Francois Rabelais and express my ideas on the meaning of the work, Gargantua and Pantagruel.
The reading starts off with the education of a giant humanist, Gargantua. The word humanist used to describe the giant is a word or feeling of the authors dislike with the culture he lives among. Humanist people are ones that are devoted to the humanities, literary culture, they only focus on the world in which they live in, not the world of the supernatural, such as heaven. I believe this secular kind of ideals the French had during the renaissance bothered Rabelais to the point of exposing it and making fun of it in this work. I also feel this must be the case because of the author's background of being in the church, he felt that people were more concerned with the material world rather than the worship of the lord. The chapter goes on to tell of Gargantua studying moral quatrai...
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... class) and the old man in his great big mouth. This to me symbolizes how big and important the upper class was compared to a small farmer. Eventually the narrator crawls out of the giant's mouth and they confront each other. The giant asks where did you *censored* while inside of my mouth. And with his final dig of the story he answers, "In your throat, sir".
After reading the story I feel the meaning is only to express the authors dislike for French society. The story attempts to dissect and embarrass the upper class of the society. Rabelais seems to cover all the bases by including his thoughts on the church, education, and French fashion. He goes about insulting these categories with such care and passion it gets his point across with dark humor. I feel that the author definitely accomplished everything he wanted with Gargantua and Pantagruel.
This is my personal reflection about this book. First and foremost, I would like to say that this book is very thick and long to read. There are about nineteen chapters and 278 pages altogether. As a slow reader, it is a quite hard for me to finish reading it within time. It took me weeks to finish reading it as a whole. Furthermore, it is written in English version. My English is just in average so sometimes I need to refer to dictionary for certain words. Sometimes I use google translate and ask my friends to explain the meaning of certain terms.
In order to understand the religious imagery in The Great Gatsby, one must first understand Fitzgerald's own ideas on religion. Fitzgerald was a troubled man much of his life, and was a victim of psychological and emotional turmoil. Fitzgerald's friend, John Peale Bishop once remarked he had "the rare faculty...
Hence, upon analyzing the story, one can conclude the certain themes that parallel through the pages. Firstly, a theme of unity and trust is present at the end of the play. This is supported by the image of the cathedral, which is a place of unity. Most importantly, the notion of equality among people is the main theme within this story. The narrator starts as a biased, idiot, who dislikes all people that are not like himself. He even at times is rude to his wife. Ironically, it takes a blind man to change the man that can literally see, to rule out the prejudices and to teach him that all men are created equal.
This passage is set before Meursault’s execution with the chaplain entering the scene, and telling Meursault that his “heart is blind”, leading to Meursault to yell and delve into his rant, and moment of consciousness. The passage has a calm in the beginning as if Meursault catches his breath from yelling previously, and he starts to reassure himself that he is not wrong for expressing his views as it went against the public’s religious beliefs, and states that this moment was so important to him that it was if his life was merely leading up to it. Why this particular scene is important to Meursault is that this is an instance where he successfully detaches himself from the world, and begins to deconstruct the world’s ideals as his rant shifts on to focusing on how nothing in life mattered. Meursault describes his gripes with the chaplain’s words as he explains his reasoning as to why the concept of a god is flawed as Meursault saw that everyone was inherently the same, with equal privileges just how often people could express them separated them. The passage continues with Meursault arguing that everyone would be faced with judgment or punishment one day, and explains why his own situation was not significant as it was no different. After that explanation the passage ends with Meursault posing the concept of everything in the world being equal both in wrongdoing and life in general, evident in his example of saying “Sala¬mano's dog was worth just as much as his wife.” Although the passage shows Meursault challenging the ethics and morals that the world around him follows, it does have instances like the end in which we see that the rant is still expression of Meursault's complex emotions, as it is unclear whether it is fear or a...
Since the first storytellers, religion has played an important part in developing both character and plot. From Ancient Greece to Egypt to Judaism to Christianity, the basic stories of human origins have stood the test of time. Classic books such as The Great Gatsby, The Stranger, and Lord of the Flies are full of religious parallels and imagery. Conceptually, main characters of each work--Gatsby, The Stranger’s Meursault, and Lord of the Flies’ schoolboys attempt to be Christ-like figures, but whose demise is ironically brought about by their own sins.
...hed everything he had ever dreamt of, only to die tragically in the end, with no one by his side. Good things only last so long, The Great Gatsby showed the darker side of the 1920’s, which was hidden behind false identity, and fake smiles. The corruption, the affairs, the abuse that most got away with, just so long as they could pay off their dues with their riches. The poignant, yet hopeful tone is about life and how it almost always ends in heartbreak or death. Life, no matter your accomplishments, ends in a depression, it sucks you down, and you either fight it or it kills you. The world is a dog eat dog world. You fight to stay alive, to make something of yourself, to survive, and in the end you usually always end up dead in a ditch somewhere, because the world took everything you had and so much more, and you have been drained of your ability to fight back.
...conclusion, the characters ambitions that I described show how their ambitions can both lead to great harm to oneself and to the people around them and great success to themselves. Furthermore, the characters of Great Gatsby that I described went beyond what a normal person could do, in both cruelty and judgment towards one another and towards themselves. A good example of this would be how Gatsby, ruined his life by chasing a girl that was already married and seeking perfection in the real world, so that it could match his dreams. Furthermore, in the book it showed that the characters that followed their ambitions that I described ended up being heart broken and devastated at the end of the book. The ambitions of a person, can lead them to act in complete dispersion, which ends up hurting the ones around them, and themselves.
The French Revolution is a war between the peasants and the aristocrats. A Tale of Two Cities is by Charles Dickens and is set in England and France from 1775-1793. The French Revolution is starting to come about because the French peasants are trying to model their revolution after the American Revolution. King Louis XVI of France supported the colonists in the American Revolution; therefore, it is ironic that he does not help the poor, distressed, and oppressed peasants in France. The peasants are trying to rise against the oppressive aristocrats because the rich are unfeeling and mean towards the poor serfs. In A Tale of Two Cities, the symbols help represent the theme of man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man because the symbol of the scarecrows and birds of fine song and feather is helpful in understanding the differences between the poor and the rich, the Gorgon’s head is meaningful because it shows that change needs to occur, and the knitting is insightful because one learns that evil can come out of good intentions.
1. Charles Baudelaire, The Parisian Prowler, 2nd ed. trans. Edward K. Kaplan (Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1997),
He begins by mentioning on himself, telling us that he learnt from his father to reserve judgment about other people, because if he compares them up to his own moral standards, he will misunderstand them. He portrays himself as both highly moral and highly open-minded. He also momentarily mentions the ‘idol’ of his story, Gatsby, saying that Gatsby represented everything he scorns, but that he exempts Gatsby completely from his usual judgments. Gatsby’s personality was nothing short of “gorgeous.”
Marie De France’s Lanval is a remarkable short narrative that engages the reader into a world filled with unrealistic elements, but enhances on the true meaning of romance, chivalry and nature during the years that King Arthur reigned. “Sir Gawain and The Green Knight” unfortunately does not have an author that can be recognized but this epic poem demonstrates the ghastly adventure of a knight who decides to defend the honor of young King Arthur against a supernatural being in this malicious game of cat and mouse. Both of these pieces of literature have enchanting characteristics that define them as a masterpiece of their era and that’s why they both are easily compared and contrasted. In addition, both Lanval and “Sir Gawain and The Green Knight” can be classified as similar through their themes, style and plots, although they are different through their language and diction. Even though both of these literatures can be viewed as similar as well as contrasting, in the end, each of these tales have illuminated the realm of fantasy throughout the court of King Arthur.
He walks the reader through the mess of political strife and bloodshed and he is very detailed in the inner workings of the Committee of Public Safety. He also writes as if the reader knows nothing about the French Revolution. This is a very helpful aspect of the book. Another strong point in this particular story is that there is a map of The First French Republic in the front of the book. There is also a key for the titles of the months according to the French Republican Calendar. This calendar is useful in the reading because depending on the time of year as well as the situation he is writing about, he uses month names such as Ventôse which, in current translation is around the twentieth of
...ne would have probably read about Rieux hating Paneloux. It is the exact same with Paneloux and if he was the narrator. The novel would have been all about God and how to pray for help.
Renaissance humanists shared a common philosophical core. Humanists were characterized by their interest in grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and philosophy from the fifteenth century onward. The most mainstream humanist goal was the perfection of classical Latin in the art of persuasive speaking and writing as well as grammar. With this, an ideal humanist educators aimed for was that of Latin being like a native tongue to the student. Going on, passages were interpreted by Renaissance humanists with the belief that the work was a product of a living man who was part of a particular time period, whose opinions and views were connected to their biographies and histories. With all this in mind, the Renaissance humanist used the literary and historical context of a piece to interpret it. Moreover, the movement is often characterized by a widely supported interpretation of the humanist movement during t...
The study of the Greeks and Romans, was evident here when artist became more realistic because of Neo-Platonist. It was a school of thought that believed that reflection of nature can lead to the ascension of to God. Art evolved from being crude and obvious, to being beautiful and clear. Saints were no longer just bigger, but the art allows them to still be the center. Math was added to the process with people like Alberti and Da Vinci commented on how math gave value to their works of arts. The process to reach the end now mattered, just like how Francesco Guicciardini, paved way for context to matter when evaluating history. This was an exceedingly important change from the Middle Ages. This ultimately made understanding easier and less oppressive. To learn and to fulfilling one’s potential was one of the great humanistic ideal. Many scholars commented on how being learned and well-rounded in all aspects was the ultimate goal. Francios Rabelias believed in the being trained in all area matters from language to science of utmost importance. Pico della Mirandola, talks of the limitless human potential to create and ability to do anything. These humanist reject the folly of the Middle Ages, and through the infinite potential and knowledge, humans can do