Personal Narrative – Atheist I didn't ask for the pastor to come over. I would have much rather been left alone to watch daytime TV. True, I was beginning to feel I little isolated, but some sissy-voiced holy man I hardly knew wasn't going to make me feel any better. But it was standard policy to notify the church when one of its fold has been hospitalized, for prayer requests and all that mush, and when the pastor heard that I was already home, he felt obligated to visit, as if seeing my swollen, drooling face was somehow doing me a favor. If only I could have had the surgery a year ago, when I still believed in God, but the surgeon made me wear these braces first, buying me plenty of time to attend my freshman year of college. The first class I took was a religion course, Literature of the Old and New Testament. Although I'd always considered myself a Christian, I had never taken time to read the Bible, partly out of apathy and partly out of fear, until that class. During the semester, with my bliss of ignorance lifted, I discovered how barbaric the Christian faith was. I learned of the scores of men sent to die by David's hand so he could learn a lesson about lechery, of the Egyptian corpses floating in the Red Sea. There was also the famous "sacrifice Issac" prank God pulled on Abraham, and the office pool between God and His Accuser to see how long Job could be toyed with before he snapped. Worst of all, a brief tour of Revelations revealed that the Devil might have been the product of a fever dream taken too seriously and that the only real Evil in the world sprang from the hands of an arrogant, pissy God. Mom was busy tidying up the room, dusting this and that so the church didn't think we were total slobs. She s... ... middle of paper ... ...dren's Motrin. God may have crushed Jacob's nuts, but a warrior God was still the only god worth praying to. The prayer began with a brief request for the Lord to watch over me, which turned my thoughts once again to the little brass Jesus in the recovery room. I had secretly missed the little Jesus since the day I checked out, but as the pastor was praying the same old Christian rhetoric, I realized that I didn't need him anymore. The real Jesus was watching over me. Don't ask me how I knew, but I knew. Jesus was watching over the entire world, protecting it as if it were His younger brother. Protecting it from an abusive Father. As the pastor left I flicked on the TV, more to have something to stare at than something to watch, and to the low, lulling drone of newscasters covering a political scandal, I silently wondered about the last time I attended church.
“ And I kept sincerely waiting for Jesus, waiting and waiting but he didn’t come. I wanted to see him, but nothing happened to me. Nothing! I wanted something to happen to me!” (Pa...
When Hughes was thirteen he attended a revival with his Aunt it was his turn to "see Jesus," his entire community and church all waiting expectantly for the moment when he was finally saved from sin. Unfortunately for Hughes, salvation did not occur. His fellow peers that he would be delivered, to Jesus convinced him. He was so caught up in the idea that when it did not happen, and when it did not, he felt like an outcast amongst his religious community. People crying, and praying for him at his feet, Hughes did not want to be the reason for all the madness happening around him. He stood up and acted as if his salvation had come to him, although deep within he knew it had not. "My aunt came and knelt at my knees and cried, while prayers and songs swirled all around me in the little church. The whole congregation prayed for me alone, in a mighty wail of moans and voices” (Hughes 111-112). Influenced by the wales and the cries, Hughes started to feel as if he was the problem, that something was wrong and it was up to him to fix it. As the congregation prayed for him alone, and his aunt cried and prayed by his feet, a wave of social pressure came to him at once. To stop the crying, and the constant praying there was only one thing to be done, although he knew he was never actually saved, he stood to his feet, and the religious community and church all rejoiced as they
The end. Absolute in its finality, the end provides at once both a tempting and alluring topic of discussion. Attributable to this fact is the popularity of literary works which discuss the resolution of humanity. Examples of so called apocalyptic literature predate the Old Testament, however, the most controversial biblical example is John’s The Book of Revelation. The work is controversial because it falls to the subjective application of qualifying elements to determine Revelation’s in- or exclusion from the apocalyptic genre. Notwithstanding, while “revelation” is a translation of the word “apocalypse,” this fact does not appear to be enough for Northrop Frye or David Chilton to classify the text as definitively apocalyptic. Chilton argues that Revelation represents such a significant divergence form earlier apocalyptic works that it is beyond inclusion in the genre, whereas Frye perceived the final book as nothing more than a succinct end to the biblical story. In this way, both fail to recognize a third option, that of Bernard McGinn, who instead suggests that The Book of Revelation represents an evolution in the apocalyptic genre.
The corset was found rigid and compressing in the 1700s. Early 1800s brought some enlightening change: Mantua dresses were m...
(30)” Members of the third estate began to adopt materials worn by nobles. “Fashion must be conceptualized as an instrument for the equality of conditions. It disrupted the principle of inequality in dress…” (31) Once fashion disseminated into the middle and lower classes, it disrupted the class distinctions it was meant to define; it generated social ambiguity and it permitted the citizen to violate the natural order. The role of fashion changed between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the fourteenth century, there were styles based on gender: fitted for men and long and close to the body for women.(20)Then there was a gradual shift in tastes and novelties. Women’s fashion shifted from one type of dress to different dresses depending on time if day. There were a variety of fabrics and laces, and then there were dresses in different lengths. Susceptibility to fashion trends was clearly rooted in gender; women fell prey to fashion and then exposed their husbands and sons.
...fine tragedy by examining some of its major features as they appeared in Othello, it was notable that it largely engaged desperation and loss. Even though ‘pessimism’ is an attitude and ‘tragedy’ is a genre of the arts, the latter resembles definition of the former by its negative take on life, human affairs and relations. It is a genre in which pessimistic expectations are set into practice, becoming reality for the characters. Tragedy’s harshness is due to the notions of innocent characters getting hurt, and of the extent which the misfortune reaches. As was evident in Othello, it concentrates on the personal scale of human catastrophe – the misfortune of individuals. The purpose of such extreme portrayal of sorrow is to evoke emotional responses in the audience. Tragedy aimed to convey to the audience an understanding of the misery of others, which is compassion.
In the play “Othello” by William Shakespeare love, jealousy, and conspiracy defined the tone of the play. Desdemona’s beauty makes two men fall desperate in love with her, but their differences make Othello the tragic hero of the play and Iago the despicable villain. Othello is a "tragic hero" because of his self-centered nature and his gullibility. Othello also has a noble stature and a high position in his culture. Othello is great and an honest solder but not perfect He also allows himself to be manipulated by other people for instance, Iago instead of trusting his own heart Othello easily believe other people or his friends. Othello is a tragic hero because he is noble, he suffers from a fatal tragic events and he goes through a tragic downfall. Iago is an envious and resentful men whose ambition is to have everything that belongs to Othello. Iago’s ambition is to obtain Othello’s position, love, and fortune. Although, Othello kills his wife Desdemona, Iago is responsible for her death, and the downfall of Othello and himself.
There are several essential elements that must be presented in a Shakespearean play in order to classify the piece as a true tragedy. Most importantly the tragedy must have a virtuous, noble protagonist who possesses a flaw, not a character defect, which will ultimately lead to his downfall or death. Another important detail is that the audience will have an emotional catharsis of pity and terror as the events of the play unfold. The work must also embellish language, and the tragedy will be presented as an action with a realistic plot. Shakespeare's Othello brilliantly encompasses all of these essential elements and introduces the world to perhaps the greatest tragic hero of all time, Othello, the Moor of Venice.
"Who Is God To Me" God means many different things to many different people. There are a lot of people who believe that there is no such thing as a God. There are people who believe that there is no God because no one has ever seen him. I personally believe that there is a God because of my faith. I have faith in God and I feel that God is real. I have many reasons why I believe in God and who God is to me. But I have three reasons that stand out for me about who God is to me. They are the following: God is always there for me, God is my friend, and God is my creator. These are my three most important reasons of who God is and what God means to me. God has never let me down in my life. Sometimes I feel that God has let me down or that He did not answer my prayers in times that I most needed Him. But I have to realize that everything that God does is for a reason. God has taken a few friends of mine from this Earth at a very young age. I have prayed to God and asked Him why? But I have never seemed to fully understand why. I have come to the conclusion that God works in mysterious ways. I do not think that anyone can fully understand why God does what He does. So for this, I do not feel that God has ever let me down. He just does these things for a reason and if you believe in Him, He will never let you down either. God is the longest lasting friend I have ever had in my life. He was there for me before I was born and He will be there for me after I leave this Earth. God is the best listener also. I can talk to God anywhere at anytime. Every time I want to talk to Him or ask Him a question, He is there for me. Most of my other friends are at least a phone call away, but not God. He has always been there in time of need, even though sometimes I feel like He is not. Even when I do something wrong, He is there to forgive me and set me straight.
The people there were all extremely nice and would try to help me understand. They understood and accepted the fact that I wasn’t religious, but was showing interest in their faith. There were not as much people there as I had expected, but that might have been because it was a smaller church. It also wasn’t as racially diverse as I had expected. I thought that because it is the world’s biggest religion, that it
Throughout time, the tragedy has been seen as the most emotionally pleasing form of drama, because of its ability to bring the viewer into the drama and feel for the characters, especially the tragic hero. This analysis of tragedy was formed by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, and also noted in his Poetics (guidelines to drama). As a playwright, Shakespeare used Aristotle’s guidelines to tragedy when writing Othello. The play that was created revolved around the tragic hero, Othello, whose tragic flaw transformed him from a nobleman, into a destructive creature, which would inevitably bring him to his downfall. This transformation follows an organic movement of the complex plot from the beginning, middle, to the end of the drama while keeping the tragic hero consistent and also real. As the play moves on the audience feels pity for the tragic hero as well as fear for themselves as they watch the event taking place on stage. Othello can be seen as one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, because it follows the guidelines set up by Aristotle’s Poetics.
Today's Gospel reading shows us that the Lord is with us through times of trial… or when the storms of life get to be too much to handle. Whether He calms the storm as he did for the disciples, or asks us to let him walk through the storm with us, as Paul talks of in 2 Corinthians, or gives us the strength to fight against it, as He did for David while up against Goliath; he is always with us. He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.
During the beginning of the 18th century, men and women wore different clothes than they did at the end. The monarch was the trendsetter of fashion. Clothing later developed as people looked up at both country and nature for inspirations. Men wore clothes that looked similar to the previous century. Wealthy men wore white linen or cotton shirt with laced edged or tie topped with sleeveless and many other rich designs. The working men wore simple garments and less made clothes out of cotton and wool. At the middle of the century, wealthy men wore similar clothing but it changed in both fitness and decoration in style. Also at the beginning of this century,men wore jus...
Laver, James. Costume and Fashion: A Concise History. New York, NY: Thames and Hudson Inc., 1985. Print
One of the reasons why banks adopted this new system, was the ‘boom’ in online shopping and the need for an online payment platform. For the bank themselves, online banking reduces customer service staffing levels, as well as improving speed and flexibility of business transactions. (Shih and Fang, 2004)