Never Give In
As Babe Ruth, a famous baseball player once said, “It is hard to beat a person who never gives up.” When facing a challenge that requires an immense amount of perseverance or let alone, any obstacle in life, the person that sticks to it eventually comes out with an answer or solution. With morale very close to this, the Greeks were determined to outwork the Nazis in World War II in order to reclaim their country. Modern Greek authors such as Ileana Karafilly and other anonymous poets like those translated by Wislawa Szymbroska portray characters in their works that exemplify the concept of having the drive to pursue what you want by hard work and a strong willed attitude of putting personal needs ahead of others. Being trapped in Greece’s Nazi invaded society that was stuck in an “every-man for them self” perspective, no one could trust one another. Once the people realized that they would have to fight for what they wanted, the citizens and characters were able to achieve anything they set their minds to as long as they were willing to work for it. This fight to regain their home country began on April 6, 1941 when Germany invaded Greece and the conflict began. With the country no longer in control of Greeks, but rather in foreign control, pandemonium spread within the country(Livanos 15-16). While Nazis were in control people lived in resistance, wanting to fight the Nazis in order to regain their freedom(Livanos 1-3). Finally on October of 1944 Greece was liberated, however with Greece left in bad shape, its economy failed and has remained weak still to this present day (Shiller 15-18).
The struggle to survive theses conflicts are portrayed in the literary works of authors such as Irena Karafilly, who wrote the n...
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...ography in Context. Web. 28 Mar. 2014
Karafilly, Irena. The captive sun. Sydney: Pan Macmillan, 2012. Print.
Livanos, Dimitris. “After the War was Over: Reconstructing the Family, Nation, and the State of Greece, 1943-1960. (Shorter Notices).” The English Historical Review 116.469 (2001): 1306+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Shiller, Robert J. “A Large Debt Ratio Is Not Necessarily a Problem.” Government Spending. Wed. Noel merino. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. From “Debt and Delusion.” www.project-syndicate.org. 2011. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 28 Mar. 2014
Szymborska, Wis, and Stanis czak. View with a grain of sand: selected poems. New York: Harcourt Brace and Co., 1995. Print
Walker, Richard.” Taki’s flippancy.” Spectator 18 July 2009:22 Literature Resource Center. Web.28 Mar. 2014
Investigating Athens' Treatment of Her Allies During the period of 478-431, Athens’ treatment of her allies changed dramatically as she rose to become the leader of an empire. The establishment of the Delian League marked the beginning of a significant series of events, which lead to Athens’ rise to extreme power. From the evidence of Thucydides and the inscriptions, it is possible to track the progress of these events and the rapidly changing treatment that Athens enforced upon her allies. The Delian League was an establishment formed in 478 BC. A large number of Greek cities formed an alliance under this league and together aimed to provide a strong defence against Persia, under the leadership of Athens.
Being a culture under pressure from both sides of the contact zone, there needs to be passion and emotion or else the culture might disappear into history. Anzaldua’s text makes great use of passion and emotion while merging the ideas of multiple cultures together through the tough experiences in her life. Autoethnographic texts give perspective to outsiders on how a culture functions from the inside point of view. Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” excellently portrays her culture’s plight and creates a fiery passionate entrance for her culture in their uprising through the contact zone.
The author targets the emotions of parents who are forced to think about losing their children as result of the war. Moreover, readers are overcome with sadness due to their emotional bond established with the character in the previous chapters. The passage relates to the author’s purpose in that particular chapter by providing a window into the hours after the Khost tragedy.
The causes of the Peloponnesian War proved to be too great between the tension-filled stubborn Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta. As Thucydides says in Karl Walling’s article, “Never had so many human beings been exiled, or so much human blood been shed” (4). The three phases of the war, which again, are the Archidamian war, the Sicilian Expedition and the Decelean war, show the events that followed the causes of the war, while also showing the forthcoming detrimental effects that eventually consumed both Athens and eventually Sparta effectively reshaping Greece.
The Peloponnesian War is the conflict between the pelopoponesians league led by Sparta and the Delian league, led by Athens. Much of our knowledge on the causes and events of the Peloponnesian War, depends on the Athenian Thucydides 460-400 BC, writer of the History of the Peloponessian War. He servd as an Athenian commander in Northern Greece during the early years of the war until the assembly exiled him as he lost an outpost to the enemy. During this exile, he was able to interview witnesses on both sides of the conflicted. Unlike Heredotus he concentrated on contemporary history and presented his account of the war in an annalistic framework that only occasionally diverts from chronological order. In his account, he discuses the precursors to the war, including the 30 years truce and revolutions, such as the stasis in Corcyra. When looking at wars, the primary focus is normally the fighting itself, such as what we see for World War II. However, it is important to look at the anatomy of war, meaning what effect the war has on the people who are experiencing it first hand, and the consquences that the conflict has on the rest of the world. Therefore in this essay I shall discuss, drawing directly from Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, how the civilians reacted to the war, their involvement and socio economic factors. Furthermore, the first section of my essay shall focus on the direct effect of war on the people, regarding the plague, and violence and hopelessness that was experienced. Then I shall go on to discuss more general effects of the war and how it affected the Greek world, discussing the social and economic losses that occurred such as the cost of the war in attica, the coup d’etat that occurred in gove...
The world that Homer shows in the Iliad is a violent one, where war is not only a means of gaining wealth, but also the arena in which a man demonstrates his worth. The Greek army gathered in front of the walls of Troy exhibits the weaknesses and strengths of the Homeric world. Greece is not one nation, and the army of Greeks mirrors this. It is a collection of small city-states with a common culture and a common language, capable of coming together for a great enterprise, but also capable of being driven apart by petty squabbling. The common culture is based on acceptance of characteristics seen as virtuous: xeineia, or hospitality; agathos, the successful warrior; oikos, which means from noble birth; keleos, glory; pine, honor, which is a central motif throughout the Iliad; and finally, the ultimate virtue of arête, which stands for goodness or excellence and encompasses the other virtues. For Homer, a good man must be of noble family, strong, brave in battle, and wealthy. Earthly possessions show that a man has initiative and has the esteem of others. But the most important qualification to be considered a good man is honor, because honor is gained, not born into.
No one knows what will happen in his or her life whether it is a trivial family dispute or a civil war. Ishmael Beah and Mariatu Kamara are both child victims of war with extremely different life stories. Both of them are authors who have written about their first-hand experience of the truth of the war in order to voice out to the world to be aware of what is happening. Beah wrote A Long Way Gone while Kamara wrote The Bite of the Mango. However, their autobiographies give different information to their readers because of different points of view. Since the overall story of Ishmael Beah includes many psychological and physical aspects of war, his book is more influential and informative to the world than Kamara’s book.
Through the examination of these two texts it is evidently clear that in order for heroes to face their enemies it is vital that they first overcome personal hardships. This is true of the characters in both novels, as we examine their journey toward hero status. Whether their circumstances come from a manipulative external source or from an uncontrollable string of events, they both will undergo a similar process of development.
Greek history has shown many tragic events over the course of time. One of the most tragic and important time periods in Greek History was known as the Dark Ages. During the Dark Ages the tribe of Mycenaeans took over Greece (“Origins”). Under the rule of the Mycenaeans almost all the Greek’s written language was lost along with other cultural values (“Archaic”). Over the course of the Mycenaeans rule many wars were fought and many people fled Greece to get away from the tragedies occurring (“Origins”). Several poets and writers during the Dark Ages began writing about the tragic events and wars going on (“Origins”). These poems and writings were what helped bring back the Greek culture back in during the Archaic Period. When the Mycenaeans were overthrown the ancient Greek civilizations regained power and were able to bring back Greece's culture and enhance it to make it better than before (“Origins”). The Dark Ages brought many tragedies but at the end it strengthened Greek history, religion, and mythology (“Archaic”).
In a nation brimming with discrimination, violence and fear, a multitudinous number of hearts will become malevolent and unemotional. However, people will rebel. In the eye-opening novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns written by Khaled Hosseini, the country of Afghanistan is exposed to possess cruel, treacherous and sexist law and people. The women are classified as something lower than human, and men have the jurisdiction over the women. At the same time, the most horrible treatment can bring out some of the best traits in victims, such as consideration, boldness, and protectiveness. Although, living in an inconsiderate world, women can still carry aspiration and benevolence. Mariam and Laila (the main characters of A Thousand Splendid Suns) are able to retain their consideration, boldness and protectiveness, as sufferers in their atrocious world.
Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns features at the most basic level the compelling life story of a two women, Mariam and Laila, and their lives. However, the true heart of this work lies in a much broader issue through all of the characters and the events that took place in Afghanistan around the time of this novels story.Hosseini writes characters into his novel as characters in themselves on the surface, but can be seen as representations of a much larger population of Afghanistan. Hosseini uses individual characters as a window into the larger scene of the entire country of Afghanistan, and the many facets of its people, in order to illustrate the political issue in a new light so as to demonstrate to the audience Hosseini’s hope for the future of Afghanistan.
What is Ancient Greek? Ancient Greek is a Helladic period that became a larger empire in 800 B.C. to 500 B.C. During the Greek period, Greek cultural developed the useful materials and valuable rulesthat could be helpful to the modernworld. Greek has the greatest influence on American institution by using Greek political ideas, to create a good economic, education, types of gods and the relationship with different nations and countries.
Because of the tranquil times, the civilization’s society had more time to focus on writing, math, astronomy, and artistic fields, as well as trade and metallurgy. Out of all the city-states of Greece, two excelled over all the rest, Sparta and Athens. Even though they were the most advanced and strong civilizations, they were bitter enemies. While Athens focused mainly on the people’s democracy and citizen rights, Sparta were ferocious and enslaved its original inhabitants, making them unable to leave and kept under a close eye to prevent insurgence (History of Greece:The Golden Age of Greece). Additionally, Sparta had strict and trained soldiers that underwent intense physical exercising and instruction.
Perhaps the main reason I liked this book was the unfaltering courage of the author in the face of such torture as hurts one even to read, let alone have to experience first-hand. Where men give in, this woman perseveres, and, eventually, emerges a stronger person, if that is even possible. The book’s main appeal is emotional, although sound logical arguments are also used. This book is also interesting as it shows us another face of Nasir – the so-called “champion of Arab nationalism” – who is also the enemy of pan-Islamism. The book is also proof of history repeating itself in modern-day Egypt.
The diorama depicted is the Greek Civil War as fought between Communist guerillas, and the legitimate democratically elected government of the monarch of Greece. The conflict raged from 1946 to 1949, which eventually culminated in a victory for the democratic forces, due in no small part to aid provided by the United States, whose international policy as specified by the Truman Doctrine opposed the spread of Marxism across the globe.