Literary “Drugs”
As the Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa, said on his book “The book of disquiet” “Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.” (116), literature has a lot of purposes in our lives, but to escape from reality the most interesting and beautiful way to use it. From myths to novels, authors have delighted us with stories that transport us to a whole other reality and act as an “hallucinogen” for people like us, simple mortals. This type of “drug” specifically called my attention, but what is the name for this category of literature some people are really addicted to? After taking Intro to Global Literature I know there is no simple answer for this
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His famous poem “I Am an Honest Man” (520) remarks his struggles in life and Cuba’s struggles. Jose Marti’s poem talks about himself, of what he has being through, his beloved ones, and his country. In his poem he talks about his sincerity and his desire to say what he has to say before he dies. He implies he has been in a lot of places (I come from a lot of places), and he plans to go to a lot of places too (And I am going toward everywhere). In his verse “Among the arts, I am art” I understand that he tries to say he is better than everyone; however, in his next verse “In the mountains, I am a mountain” he implies he is common as well, so it is contradictory. Then he writes “I know the strange names of herbs and flowers and of mortal deceits and sublime pains.” In which I understand he refers that he has already being through the pain and deceits, so that’s why he says he already knows his names He talks about his father who died and refers to a “she” who also died. He talks about war and death, but in the end he says that everything is beautiful and that the desire is more …show more content…
Throughout the poem he highlights the characteristics of the tiger as its eyes, its color, its heart, and its brain; moreover, he asks who dared to create him, whose hands, whose feet. With verses like “What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?” “When the stars threw down their spears, and watered heaven with their tears, did he smile his work to see?” he introduces God, the one who created the tiger. On the same stanza he also says “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” he addresses another poem of his called “the Lamb” (335), in which he asks the Lamb the same question he asks the tiger, who made you? The difference is that in The Lamb he answers the question and says “Little lamb God bless thee” so we can guide by his previous poem to say that he refers to God in the
José Martí, born in Havana, Cuba in 1853, experienced many hardships throughout his lifetime. All through his adolescence, José Martí struggled against poverty. He would not have attended primary or secondary education without the support of a famous Cuban writer, Rafael María de Mendive. This education, from both school and mentor, enabled him to express his thoughts on freedom and publish his first poems at fifteen. Due to his intellectual capabilities and brilliance with words, he was jailed for six years and exiled to Spain by the Cuban go...
Giants and Angels roam the pages of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s stories, “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings”, and “The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World”, creating the perfect scene for magical realism. Many of the elements within these stories coincide with each other; this has everything to do with the overall component of magical realism, which binds together similarities and sets apart differences. The theme of each story can be found within the other and can stand by itself to represent the story it belongs to, the settings are similar in location and the ability to change but different in their downsides and the writing style is so similar it is complicated to find any differences. Marquez is a master story-teller whose works of art can only be compared with each other.
In the library she would alternate what types of books they would read. Whenever she would read to him she would read in a way that made you cling to every word the author wrote. In times like these, Rodriguez would become engaged in these books. “I sat there and sensed for the very first time some possibility of fellowship between reader and writer, a communication, never intimate like that I heard spoken words at home convey, but nonetheless personal.” (Rodriguez 228). During this part of Rodriguez’s life, his view towards books changed.
Books are more than simple stories, they have a message to send, whether it be in a direct or indirect way. Books can also tell us about the author’s life, beliefs, inner ambitions and fears; Moreover, they often project the writer’s vision about their environment, reflecting their society in which they lived. Writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernesto Guevara were capable, not only of portraying the society in which they are immerse, but also to convey them in an exquisite social critique. Such literary pieces of art do not criticize in a direct way, nor to specific people or events. They, however, present the vision of the author’s concern with social issues of injustice, misguided values and loss of direction.
While “The Wish to Be a Red Indian” and “Rejection” are different in structure but similar in style, they convey the same desire for escape. The two vignette seem to belong in Franz Kafka’s “Meditation” because of they have this conception of escape. After all, to meditate is to escape the physical world in order to look within oneself. Entertainment in general, including the practice of reading novels for enjoyment, is a form of escapism that allows people to relieve themselves from the banal aspects of daily life.
There were two principle views concerning imagination, the Victorians and the Romantics, who didn’t accept each other’s ideas about imagination. But, despite their clashes on the status and views of imagination, the Romantics and Victorians share similar ideas through different angles of perspective, which we could assume are linked in part to their era. The long poem, named Goblin Market, written by Christina Rossetti shows the contrast between the ideas of Romanticism and the Victorian image of imagination while utilizing the same motifs. Goblin Market centralizes its theme on the Victorian approach towards Imagination as being a destructive, alien force that leads to grave and fatal consequences. Nature is seen as a demonic force that leads to death, as well as the clear distinction of the imaginative creatures, consisting of the goblins, being portrayed as satanic and evil. In addition, throughout this tale we see how the imagination is constantly blamed for leading to unfortunate situations, while the Romantics would consider the imagination to be doing the person good even if it leads the person astray on a path of death and destruction. Thus, Rossetti’s text demonstrates the Imagination having satanic nature, which portrays imagination as intoxicating and deadly. Also, the author displays her disapproval of nature by demonstrating Laura’s rejection of nature as her enlightenment, whereas the Romantics would do otherwise. The Romantics have different views of the imagination than the Victorians. They consider imagination as a divine force and a pathway to a higher experience and spiritual truth in any form. The Romantics consider that their perc...
Growth is inevitable and the most anticipated quest of man. It is a never-ending quest to evolve, fuelled by the constant hope for survival. Once natural growth halts, man’s focus shifts to the growth within. The coming of age, associates itself with this transformation from child to man, the step of letting go of childish ways and moving on to more mature things. The need for such a dramatic transformation is questioned by Miguel de Cervantes and Lewis Carroll in their texts, Don Quixote and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. While the texts follow two contrasting characters, they are brought together by the theme of fantasy. Cervantes’ Don Quixote is an old gentleman of noble lineage who becomes tired of the monotony and the lack of meaning in his life. Through his maddening and compulsive taste in books of chivalry, he concludes that the ideal life is that which is undertaken by a knight-errant. He chooses to leave his home and ensue the path of knight-errantry. Carroll’s Alice, on the other hand, is a young girl who cannot fully comprehend the world of adults but still adheres to the etiquette drawn out by society. She is transported to the land of Wonderland where the surreal is real, and where whatever she thought she knew, now becomes nothing at all. The importance of fantasy in the lives of their protagonists is shown by Cervantes and Carroll through the impact it has on the growth of the protagonists. This becomes evident through their placement in phantasmagorical settings, their interactions with the surrounding characters, and their final detachment from fantasy.
L’Engle, L'Engle. “Focus On The Story, Not Readers…” Writer Apr 2010: p. 24-25. MAS Ultra-School Edition. EBSCOhost. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Being different can sometimes be somewhat scary because one may be considered an outcast. Being an outcast can be quite difficult especially when people can be cruel. In the short story “The Salamander,” the narrator is considered an outcast because she is different and does not follow society’s norms. The author from this short story, Mercè Rodoreda, can be compared to the narrator because she too did not follow the norms. Rodoreda’s short story includes some aspects that can be compared to her life, yet many other aspects in her story are inexplicable. “The Salamander” by Mercè Rodoreda can be described as a fantastic story because of the fantastic elements it contains, such as hesitation and liminality. The short story fits well into Todorov’s definition of the fantastic because it creates hesitation for the readers when the narrator experiences rebirth and it includes several examples of liminality. Liminality can be seen when the defined lines between human and animal, and life and death are blurred.
In conclusion Haruki Murakami exposes an insight to a world never heard of a mind blowing novel with hard to miss signs. This story unfolds in such a way that keeps the readers in suspense and finally leaving them an idea that can make them appreciate the world they leave in and the people in it. Fiction does fall into reality and expands the idea of what is really out there.
Leer la poesía de Julia de Burgos es abrirse paso a un mundo de emociones, luchas y temas múltiples. En sus tres poemarios, la poeta inaugura un estilo y unas temáticas que en ocasiones coinciden y en otras se apartan de los poetas entre los que convivió (López Jiménez, "Julia de Burgos” 141). Julia buscó abrirse paso hacia nuevas formas de escritura y trazar rutas alternas a los cánones establecidos, tanto por sus contemporáneos como por la tradición literaria. Poema en veinte surcos, su primer libro publicado en 1938, representa ese anhelo de trazar múltiples rutas mediante las cuales pueda realizar una búsqueda de nuevas voces, perspectivas y temáticas. Precisamente, en la poesía de Julia, sobre todo la de su primer poemario, se advierte un deseo de definirse y afirmar sus principios poéticos y políticos. Según Ivette López Jiménez, muchos poemas de su primer libro se destacan porque “se alejan de las fórmulas de la poesía criollista” y porque en ellos “la voz se afirma como una ‘rama desprendida’ o como ‘brote de todos los suelos de la tierra... de todos los hombres y de todas las épocas” (“Julia de Burgos” 143). Hay pues, un intento por alejarse de los discursos autorizados, lo que la lleva a identificarse con los espacios y los sujetos marginados. Desde esta perspectiva, Julia de Burgos pasa a ocupar el rol de “poeta cívico” y su discurso a ser uno de denuncia y protesta. Por ello, propone una reconsideración de los espacios marginales, del “otro” con el objetivo de traerlos a primer plano. Con esto, establece una “actitud a la avanzada del pensamiento y de las costumbres, sobre todo lo relacionado con los cambios necesarios en la sociedad”, en palabras de Manuel de la Puebla (16).
In conclusion, I would say that the power of literature is connoted exactly in this unparalleled symbolic order of language that can never produce or pin down a definite meaning but nevertheless passes on "the desire and curse of meaning”. It is what the transcendent signification of the text that leaves the reader always anticipating and curious and at the same time delighted from the pleasure this play of the authors brings to her/him. On the other hand there is always this uncanny component of meaning that cannot be clarified or rationalized but nevertheless is an intrinsic part to our reading experience.
Literature plays an important role as a part of the cultural heritage. Thus, literature is the soul of our civilization, the center of our religion, and the machine we can travel back in the time of our old civilizations. In addition, literary works are able to take the readers beyond the limited experiences of readers’ lives. They show the lives of others. The literary works covey the social, political, and cultural backgrounds of the time when the stories or novels were written. The author of the book, “The Death of the Author,” Roland Barthes expresses that authors are always the agents of their times. According to the statement conducted by Roland, to get the fully understanding of the text, he recommends
" The poem is enveloped in a sea of naivety as well as humor as the speaker is. directly speaking with an animal seeking profound philosophical clarification concerning similar questions that all humans have. contemplated at one point in their life and have been unable to answer. I will be able to answer. The child's question: "Who made thee," is relatively simple.
Literary masterpieces are a reflection of society that helps educate by using spiritual, intellectual, and political themes. According to Woolf (2014), “…masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice” (para. 12). This paper will explore the powerful literary masterpieces from different cultures where their lessons are still relevant today. The characters and their interactions make the story entertaining, while the lesson to be learned from the characters makes it a masterpiece. Societies come and go, but the lessons from these stories never change. The purpose of this paper is to define what a masterpiece is, how it reflects on society, the qualities it contains, and how they are still relevant today.