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Essays about persistence
The pilgrim's progress
The pilgrim's progress
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Many people wonder what it would be like to go from a dangerous city where they live and journey to a plentiful heaven. This storyline is portrayed in John Bunyan’s allegorical book, Pilgrim’s Progress. This fascinating story describes the life of Christian, a married man living in the City of Destruction, who longs to travel to the Celestial City. As Christian struggles to stay on the right, though more difficult path, I fight to focus in school and not pay attention to distracting ideas. I also fight to get strong enough in dance to become a professional dancer, just as Christian has to climb the Hill of Difficulty to get to the Palace Beautiful. In order for Christian to arrive at the Celestial City without wasting away his life, he must be patient. In the same way, I must be patient to reach my life goal. Just as Christian struggled to get through his obstacles in his life, I must get stronger to dance, focus in school, and be patient in order to reach my life goal of becoming a faithful and patient person of God.
Christian encounters many people who try and lead him down a different path including Worldly Wiseman. Worldly Wiseman encourages Christian to take the get rid of his burden, and take the short, easy route to his destiny, instead of the long, hard route Christian is currently taking. Christian finds that even though the short route is described as ‘better’ by Wiseman, Christian knows that he needs to stay on his own route because he finds relief: “I don’t care what I meet in the way as long as I can also find deliverance from my burden” (Bunyan 16). Worldly Wiseman focuses his life on getting rid of all burdens, and focusing on worldly comforts. Christian, on the other hand, keeps his burden, and pushes th...
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...e, I struggled to get stronger to go on pointe, but in the end, my reward was actually being able to dance on the ends of my toes without getting injured. Also, I had to focus hard in school while missing the fun with friends, but my grades stayed high and it made school easier. At the time, I was not feeling very wise like Mr. Worldly Wiseman, but I soon learning that it also taught me to be patient. In all of my experiences in my own life, I learned to be more patient with myself and realized how much easier it will be to reach my life goal with new experiences. Even though I have not yet met my life goal, I still learn through my experiences just as Christian learned from his experiences going to the Celestial City.
Works Cited
Bunyan, John, and L. Edward. Hazelbaker. The Pilgrim's Progress in Modern English. Alachua, Florida: Bridge-Logos, 1998. Print.
...ind of the reader is what method or process was required for the pilgrim to acquire this self-abasing attitude. One key element appears to be the realization of his inability to survive without God's assistance. The failed attempt to climb Mount Purgatory serves as a moment of revelation. After being driven back by the embodiment of his faults, he receives divine assistance in the person of Virgil, who is the medium by which the grace granted by Our Lady is dispatched. The example of docility towards the divine will is a challenge to each reader to cry out in the words of the Psalmist "Not to us Lord, but to your name give the glory." (115:1) The reader is called to shift allegiance, as it were. In order to achieve the redemption promised "in the fullness of time," it is necessary to identify with the self-denying pilgrim rather than the self-edifying sinner.
Zuckerman, Michael “Pilgrims in the Wilderness: Community, Modernity, and the Maypole at Merry Mount”, The New England Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Jun., 1977), pp. 255-277. The New England Quarterly, Inc.
Through her many allegories, Hurnard echoes God’s call for His children to joyfully love, trust, and obey Him. She encourages her readers through the call of the Shepherd to strive after true satisfying love by forsaking thei...
Do not let your hands be weak, for you shall be rewarded.”– 2 Chronicles 15:7 John Muir and William Wordsworth both faced challenges to get to where they were going. As the verse above says “do not let your hands be weak…” do not give up on what you want to get up and keep pushing forward. “For you shall be rewarded.” Both authors faced an obstacle before reaching their reward. In any situation an obstacle will be placed in your path. Will you keep pushing or will you turn around and walk away? In Wordsworth’s poem “I wondered like a lonely cloud” Wordsworth was laying on his couch, depressed, alone then he remembers the beautiful scene once he walked up that hill and saw a field full of dancing daffodils, he once again was instantly filled with joy. John Muir’s main character found himself in a difficult and desperate situation. As night fell upon him and he had nowhere to lay his head for the night, and he began to fear that he would be stuck in a swap that was home to many that would consider him a wonderful dinner. William Wordsworth faced the obstacle of depression. While on a walk, he came upon a field of daffodils that brought him infamous joy. I think of the verse I used and how Muir and Wordsworth both had to face an obstacle no matter how small or big, however both pushed for moving forward and as they pushed forward to receive their reward just as the verse above states. Although many may see a different reason for Muir and Wordsworth being
Berube, Margery S., et all; The American Heritage Dictionary Second Edition; Houghton Mifflin Company; Boston, Mass, 1985
In the poem, The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims Point by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Browning based the poem on past experience due to the fact her family had owned slaves in Jamaica for several generations. Once these slaves were set free in 1833; sixteen years later abolitionist repudiated the “ unjust- power of the white slave owners.” ( Stephenson, 43). With Browning rejection of her once slave owning father’s irrational authority to refuse his children to marry and leave home, this poem empowered the rage she had suppressed by years.
Christianity has its challenges. It places demands on us that set us apart from the rest of our world. The bible calls us a peculiar people, who navigate the challenge of living IN the world, without being OF the world. When we say ‘no’ to temptations that are enjoyed by the masses, we are labeled as self-righteous snobs, religious weirdoes, or worse. But we persevere, and we press toward that invisible line the Apostle Paul drew in the sands of time…for the high calling in Christ Jesus.
“There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will” (Shakespeare). In life we all have a route that we are supposed to follow to achieve our goal. Our attitude towards the path to achieve that goal is what will shape our ends. Our reactions to our obstacles we face are what are going to set us through the path. Shakespeare was trying to have an overall theme throughout his tragedies, to get through obstacles to keep continuing on the path to our overall achievement in life.
Great works of literature have been written throughout history. However, The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost have the inept ability to stir the soul and cause a person to examine and re-examine their life. The brilliant descriptions, use of imagery, metaphor and simile give a person a vivid picture of the creation of man and the possibilities for life in the hereafter. This is done, as a person is able to see, full circle, from the beginning of time to the end of time, the consequences of turning away from God. The ability to see a life full circle is apparent through the examination of both of these poems. Although written many years ago, the morals and principles that they convey ring very true for people in this century as well as times yet to come.
John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is an allegorical story about the Christian religion. It allegorizes the journey of a Christian into "the Celestial City, which represents heaven. Although Pilgrim's Progress may seem simple and straightforward, there are many deeper meanings throughout the whole story. Bunyan uses the names of his characters to signify whom the character represents in the story, for example, the character Hopeful represents hopefulness, Help represents people who are willing to help others in need of assistance, Faithful represents people who are faithful to whatever they are associated with, and the main character, Christian, represents all young Christians in the world. His journey to the Celestial City is a journey every Christian must face in their lifetime before allowed into heaven. Within his journey there are many obstacles such as temptations both tangible and intangible for instance, the merchandises sold at Vanity Fair and the shortcuts offered, illustrate temptations real Christians must face and overcome; finding an easy way into heaven, and being thrown off course by material things. The character Christian overcomes many obstacles before reaching his destination, the Celestial City. But during his journey he does not face all these obstacles alone. He meets a variety of people all through his journey to the Celestial City; some of these people mock his traveling to the Celestial City, some decide to follow him, and some help him along his way. Christian meets Faithful who decides to join him on his travels. Faithful is a character that faces many difficulties on his own journey to the Celestial City; his journey has many diff...
...s, 1882-1942. v.: ill.; 28 cm. Semiannual. Issue no. 33, 32, 1989. Vol. 1, no. 1, 1973; no.2, 1974. California State College, Sonoma, Dept. of English.
The author of The Pilgrim's Progress is well described by Coleridge's remark: "His piety was baffled by his genius; and Bunyan the dreamer overcame the Bunyan of the conventicle." This remark points out the difficulty that Bunyan faces when he attempts to write a religious piece of work in the style of allegory. The Pilgrim's Progress is "pious" because it is a piece written in dedication to God. It contains important religious teachings -- what a good Christian should do and what he should not do. What Coleridge means by Bunyan's "genius" is basically the story itself. The story is so well written that people become so interested in the story and forget the whole spiritual truth behind and this worry Bunyan. Coleridge also indicates in his remarks, the tension between "piety" and "dreaming". "Dreaming", as we know is unreal, and it can hardly be connected with "piety". But Bunyan, through his "genius", not only managed to bring these two things together, but in way that would be satisfiable to all.
In a multitude of tales written across time, both true and fiction, there lies an antagonist and a protagonist. Often times, it transpires that the protagonist pushes through whichever obstacles the malevolent antagonist decides to throw their way over the course of the story. Now, that simple baseline, the baseline of multitudinous stories, aims to demonstrate that the human soul pushes on. No matter what someone may encounter, sooner or later they’ll move past it, and their soul will prove stronger in spite of it. In order to corroborate my theory, I’m going to share some specific findings from stories including the “The Myth of Sisyphus”, Matthew 26 and 27 of the bible, and lastly, “The Crisis”.
This happened when I failed. My failure reveled to me several life-lessons. One lesson that it showed was to never give up. I was right on track to achieving success, until I stopped trying. If I had continued to try to reach my goal, I would have achieved success. Another life-lesson that my failure taught me was to set your goals high, to a point where you can’t stop trying until you have met your goal. During my freshman through junior year, I worked very hard to accomplish my goal. Then, during senior year, I stopped trying to achieve my goal, because I thought that I already met the goal. If I would have changed my goal to being the top of my class, I would have had to try very hard until the day of graduation. In turn, I would have become an honor graduate. My failure also taught me to never give up. I would have achieved success, if I hadn’t given up. Another aspect of life that my failure taught me was to never forget your goals. When “senior-it is” hit me, I completely forgot about my goals. Had I remembered my goal, I would have succeeded. One last life lesson that failure has revealed to me is to always try your hardest. No matter what the task is, always put all you have to overcome the obstacle. Failure is disappointing, but it is a necessary part of
Well, as I began to get older I started to achieve more and more. When was 8 I started washing dish. That was a great achievement to me back then, but now I regret it. Now my mother makes me wash dish all the time. When I go to other people house they want me to wash their dishes. Now I hate washing dish. After learning how to wash