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The concept of suffering
Essay on challenges of human suffering
The concept of suffering
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Suffering is embedded in our daily lives. There are devastating things going on in our daily environments and yet, people seldom realize this as they occupy themselves with other tasks. W.H. Auden’s, Musée des Beaux Arts, is a statement on human perceptions and how we use them to observe, or block out human suffering. While we are doing ordinary things like eating, or opening a window, bad things can be happening to others and it is as easy as looking up, to see what is actually going on. Auden illustrates societies’ indifference to human suffering through the form of his poem and by alluding to artwork that compares human perceptions and juxtaposes ordinary images with images of suffering and tragedy.
The form of Musée des Beaux Arts plays an influential role in the way the poem’s content is conveyed. Auden’s poem appears to be divided into two separate parts. The first thirteen lines provide the reader with a general overview or introduction to humanities indifference to suffering. The second half, alluding to a Peter Breughel painting, provides an example of this indifference. A possible explanation as to why Auden may have separated the poem in this manner could be to first, make people stop and acknowledge humanities tendency to be indifferent to suffering. People are often so consumed with their own situations that they are ignorant to the indifference they are demonstrating. Once Auden has the reader thinking about the poem’s theme being a realistic image of the modern world he further extrapolates on this idea in the second half by providing an example of arts relationship to suffering. Without breaking the poem into sections people might remain indifferent to the point Auden is trying to make like they might miss Icarus’...
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...tention in the world, and the subjectivity of human suffering. Auden emphasizes that the reality of modern humanity is that people have learnt to be indifferent to the pain of other’s, like the ploughman and the ship attendants or uninformed like the children skating on the pond. Ultimately, Auden reminds us that tragedies and human suffering are a part of life; they can happen anywhere at anytime but when they do, life continues to go on.
Works Cited
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Musée Des Beaux Arts Theme of Choices." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. .
"W. H. Auden: Poems Summary and Analysis." W. H. Auden: Poems Study Guide: Summary and Analysis of "Musée Des Beaux Arts" N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. .
Millay is also capable of articulating the effect that knowledge of pain, suffering and death can cause on a child or young adult. And by the end of the poem Millay escapes, unharmed with her same thirst for knowledge. Most importantly Millay's readers feel as if they can sit down and live and learn from her poems without having to go through the agony of dissecting ancient language or multiple allusions to past works.
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Over the decades, art has been used as a weapon against the callousness of various social constructs - it has been used to challenge authority, to counter ideologies, to get a message across and to make a difference. In the same way, classical poetry and literature written by minds belonging to a different time, a different place and a different community have somehow found a way to transcend the boundaries set by time and space and have been carried through the ages to somehow seep into contemporary times and shape our society in ways we cannot fathom.
All of Camus' writings may be viewed as a quest for meaningful values in a world of spiritual aridity and emptiness. He begins with man's despair, estrangement, fear, suffering and hopelessness in a world where is neither God nor the promise that He will come- the fundamental absurdity of existence- but ultimately affirms the power of man to achieve spiritual regeneration and the measure of salvation possible in an absurd universe. This radical repudiation of despair and nihilism is closely bound up with his concept of an artist. Camus conceives of art as a way of embracing a consciousness of the absurdity of man's existential plight. But art becomes a means of negating that absurdity because the artist reconstructs the reality, endowing it with unity, endurance and perfection. By taking elements from reality that confirms the absurd existence, an artist attempts to correct the world by words and redistribution. Thus the artist never provides a radical transformation of reality but a fundamental reinterpretation of what already exists. He provides a new angle of vision of perceiving reality. That is why, for Camus, an artist is a recreator of myth. He teaches humanity that contemporary man must abandon the old myths that have become otiose, though once defined his existence. The artist liberates man to live in his world by redefining both man and the condition in which he exists. In this regard, it is important to point out that, for Camus, the traditional opposition between art and philosophy is arbitrary. It is because they together become most effective to create the redefinition: the philosophy awakens the consciousness and the art, propelled by such a radical discovery, ...
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Cooper, S. T., Hall, A. R. & Cooper, F. E., 2005. Los Angeles Art Deco. 2nd ed. Paris: Arcadia Publishing.
One pleasant afternoon, my classmates and I decided to visit the Houston Museum of Fine Arts to begin on our museum assignment in world literature class. According to Houston Museum of Fine Art’s staff, MFAH considers as one of the largest museums in the nation and it contains many variety forms of art with more than several thousand years of unique history. Also, I have never been in a museum in a very long time especially as big as MFAH, and my experience about the museum was unique and pleasant. Although I have observed many great types and forms of art in the museum, there were few that interested me the most.
When first approaching this work, one feels immediately attracted to its sense of wonder and awe. The bright colors used in the sun draws a viewer in, but the astonishment, fascination, and emotion depicted in the expression on the young woman keeps them intrigued in the painting. It reaches out to those who have worked hard in their life and who look forward to a better future. Even a small event such as a song of a lark gives them hope that there will be a better tomorrow, a thought that can be seen though the countenance by this girl. Although just a collection of oils on a canvas, she is someone who reaches out to people and inspires them to appreciate the small things that, even if only for a short moment, can make the road ahead seem brighter.
Pain and suffering is an inevitable part of the human condition; feelings of empathy and sympathy the benchmark of human decency. However, with the mass production of shocking images, we may become desensitized and lose our sense of humanity. This idea is explained in David Axelrod’s lyric poem “Once in a While a Protest Poem”, using specific word choice as well as repetition to express the changes in the constitution of humanity.
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In Anton Chekov’s story Gooseberries, two men are caught in a rainstorm and seek shelter at a friend’s home nearby. While at the home, one of the men, Ivan Ivanich, tells a story about the immoral acts his brother committed to become a landowner. After Ivan’s brother achieved his career goal, he lived life blissfully. Ivan finds his brother’s happiness selfish as he believes a happy man “neither sees nor hears others.” Chekov’s story suggests that happy people are indifferent towards the suffering of others. This human position of suffering is also explored in W.H. Auden’s poem “Musee des Beaux Arts” and Scott Carney’s article Cash on Delivery. The respective texts and Chekhov’s quote are bound by their mentioning of individuals as self-interested beings concerned solely about personal happiness. Nevertheless, there is more to life than happiness and one must be aware of the suffering of his/her fellow human-beings.
Auden, W. H. The Collected Poetry of W. H. Auden. New York: Random House. 1945.
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