Carly Scott
Mrs. Piersol
English 175
16 May 2014
Pondering Humanity
Humans live constantly in flux between vulnerability and invincibility. The change in the state of being is so fluid that it has blurred together into the medium of the human experience. The fact that the feeling self-consciousness is what develops the character of people has become lost on the masses. However, Michael Chabon’s “The Lost World”, uncovers this deeply buried secret. “The Lost World” directly supports the fact that vulnerability is the key to the human condition and a more perfect life. Life is about tradeoffs- with all disappointments come surprise and with all joys come disappointments.
Chabon’s “The Lost World” follows teenager Nathan Shapiro in what is, more than anything, a coming of age story. At the age of sixteen, Nathan (and friends) become drunk and go out for a drive around their quaint suburbia. Eventually ending up at the house of the “easy” Chaya Feldman, he is persuaded to go up to her room, buck naked. Once there, she gives him a letter, which he, through various unfortunate circumstances will not read for several months. Upon reading this letter, Nathan has a revelation about life and the human condition.
However, the most important aspects of this story that will be explored in more detail are as follows. First and foremost, Nathan’s intoxication and nudity is perhaps most important. Secondly it is important to note that his parents are divorced, and his father has a new child on the way. Nathan Shapiro also believes himself to be completely in love with Chaya Feldman after their counter. Last, but certainly not least, Nathan is looking for an excuse to feel angry and nostalgic.
To begin with, it is important to have a somewhat...
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...hat humans take for granted.
Vulnerability is found is the incessant hope of humans for a better world. The key to the human condition is the desperation for all problems to be resolved. Nathan embodies that perfectly. A teenager, coming of age, in an ever changing world, Nathan’s confusion leaves him raw to the influence of a brutal world. He is unknowingly in the perpetual flux of the human condition. The tradeoffs of life leave humans in anticipation for the next disappointment, as we wired negatively. The inability of people to feel their own worth is the biggest key to their insecurity, yet the ability of people to feel loved is the key to their invincibility. Nathan exemplifies both of these traits through his development in “The Lost World.” Everyone experiences the state of vulnerability like Nathan Shapiro, the teenager trying to find his invincibility.
George Bernard Shaw has said that “a happy family is but an earlier heaven “and though this may be true it is reasonable for one to question whether being alone is better than staying with people that love you and accept you for you who you are. In the play Afterimage, adapted by Canadian author Robert Chafe, originally written by Michael Crummey, it exhibits the significance of being able to fit into a society rather than being isolated and all alone. The play makes an effort at answering the question that surrounds the strength of family affiliations and its ability to carry on with the influences of societies affecting it. Through the use of tropology and character, the strength of relationships within families, and how it is on top of everything else is shown from start to finish in the play.
When individuals face obstacles in life, there is often two ways to respond to those hardships: some people choose to escape from the reality and live in an illusive world. Others choose to fight against the adversities and find a solution to solve the problems. These two ways may lead the individuals to a whole new perception. Those people who decide to escape may find themselves trapped into a worse or even disastrous situation and eventually lose all of their perceptions and hops to the world, and those who choose to fight against the obstacles may find themselves a good solution to the tragic world and turn their hopelessness into hopes. Margaret Laurence in her short story Horses of the Night discusses the idea of how individual’s responses
Nathan was poor man but quite intelligent and he respect his own quiet nature. According to the narrator, was a main character describe as "striking figure" but also later describe as called "Ruin of a man." These words symbolize two major characteristics that becomes disagreeing in Nathan's facts or conditions. Ethan Frome's characteristics presents the socials and morals decisions that we make in a boring way has results according rules of life.
As we read in the book, Nathan is easily influenced by his surroundings. I said that the novel is about being pressure because when you do not know who you are as a person you tend to try and find yourself by doing things that does not pertain to you. Teenagers in particular tend to get influenced by the lifestyle of their peers. However, some teens have the courage to resist the pressure and be themselves rather than being the one amongst a group. In the novel McCall was the teen who got influenced by Jerome Gary also known as Scobie-D. Everyone feared and esteemed Jerome, but Nathan respected the respect that Scobie-D demanded. According to Arnold King “ McCall like many other black men felt the weight of a nation on his shoulders because any sense of failure reflected not only on himself, but also on his family and his entire race”. This quote refers back to the book when black parents focus their children to behave in public and if they did not they would get in trouble because the child behavior was the reflection of how their parent raised them. Although, pressure can be harmful and detrimental it can also be beneficial as well. Nathan McCall is an example of that because he came from being a trouble juvenile to a professional
Nathan Detroit is also a protagonist because he starts the journey of Sky and Sarah by starting the bet with Sky in an attempt to get $1000 for his crap game. During the play the audience also follows the story of Nathan's fourteen year engagement with Miss Adelaide, who desperately wants to marry Nathan and has already wrote her mother that the two are married and have several children. In the end, Nathan is no longer able to escape from marrying Adelaide after she overhears him sayin...
Working-class families are anything but lazy. Fifty plus hours a week with an average of two to three mouths to feed and backs to cloth, doesn't leave much time left for sleep let alone family bonding. As a young child, Nathan understood one thing for sure - work equaled money and that you need money to survive, especially in the "white man's world." At age thirteen, Nathan was too young, innocent, and ignorant to the fact that racism existed anywhere and everywhere he went. Working to him at this stage in his life was just that...working.
"In "Lost in the Land of Oz", Madonna Kolbenschlag explores the way old societal myths, which are created from the metaphors in our life, are no longer useful in today's society. The author believes we need to embrace the ego archetype of the orphan, the most influential metaphor for the self, in order to become a whole and complete person. Madonna Kolbenschlag discusses how our society is particularly hostile towards women, resulting in an acute feeling of self-loathing, doubt, loneliness, and guilt. Today, women as the orphan feel a complete sense of powerlessness and abandonment, not only by everyone around her but also by God. Instead of suppressing our anxiety, Kolbenschlag advises that we should deal with it and remove the hidden layers of denial. We need to befriend the orphan within us and through all of this we will grasp a new insight and develop new spiritual consciousness.
Brene Brown’s TED Talk brought the audience through her realization that vulnerability is a necessity. Her talk was a perfect reminder of why vulnerability even exists and how it is incorporated differently in everyone’s life. The ability to access vulnerability is difficult as it a test of one’s eagerness to put themselves out their in the world. While it may seem impossible at the moment to expose themselves to the truth, it is even more rewarding than one expects. During a Skype session with Jeanine Minge she expressed that people’s lack of vulnerability, specifically during ethnography, there might be an attempt to hide from the world. Vulnerability, as Brene Brown says, is the key to joy, creativity, and love. If so, what are people so
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
The pain from the childhood, the betraying of lover, countless secrets are settling during the period of life, which can absolutely not be shared and understood by others. Are we gradually becoming the dead man? To be kind of people who are rather sensitive especially, the only way to encourage them remain on the world is to kill some of their nerve and pretend to be as happy as others. Nevertheless, when the secret sorrows are so many to hide, the sea of sorrow will drown them, but they always pretend to be happy.
In life there are times when things go wrong and you are out of fortune. The only way to evaluate your self-identity and character is to get back up on your feet and turn your problems around. In this memoir, A Place to Stand, Jimmy Santiago Baca (2001), demonstrates his adversities throughout his life. Baca’s parent was a big influence in process of creating his own identity. He encounters many obstacles as well as meeting a wide range of different people in society in positive and negative ways. At times in his life, he feels, the world is his worst antagonist. However, Jimmy has overcome the challenges he faces. Baca experiences challenges and difficulties during his youth and prison; However, he managed to overcome
Many people in the world get into an almost unbreakable routine, shielding themselves from the real world. We wake up, brush our teeth, go to school with the same people, go home, and do it all over again. Once there is a roadblock in the way, it forces us to step outside our shell and look at others views for a change. American mythologist, writer, and lecturer,Joseph Campbell once said,”We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.” It is the act of noticing others words and actions that will reshape our lives for the better. In “Secret Samantha” and “Sol Painting, Inc.” the authors suggest that observing someone else’s perspective and taking the time to understand others can be mankind's greatest
Loneliness is usually a common and unharmful feeling, however, when a child is isolated his whole life, loneliness can have a much more morbid effect. This theme, prevalent throughout Ron Rash’s short story, The Ascent, is demonstrated through Jared, a young boy who is neglected by his parents. In the story, Jared escapes his miserable home life to a plane wreck he discovers while roaming the wilderness. Through the use of detached imagery and the emotional characterization of Jared as self-isolating, Rash argues that escaping too far from reality can be very harmful to the stability of one’s emotional being.
“Into The Wild” by John Krakauer is a non-fiction biographical novel which is based on the life of a young man, Christopher McCandless. Many readers view Christopher’s journey as an escape from his family and his old life. The setting of a book often has a significant impact on the story itself. The various settings in the book contribute to the main characters’ actions and to the theme as a whole. This can be proven by examining the impact the setting has on the theme of young manhood, the theme of survival and the theme of independent happiness.
looking view of the self and the world (Wadensten, 2007) (Tornstam, 2011). This new view is a