"They (Indians) are not to blame, they have not a dog's chance--we should be like them if we settled here" (184)
- Mr. McBryde, A Passage to India, 1912
During the early 1900s, the British people had been living among the Indian culture for an extended period of time. Several discrepancies had been established between these two groups due to stereotypes, prejudices, and ignorance. E.M. Forster implied his deepest aspirations for accord to ameliorate this quandary in his erudite novel, A Passage to India, written in 1912. Through specific usage of certain landscape features, a sound, and animals, the omniscient narrator explores the idea of an all-encompassing unity and its beneficial and corrosive possibilities.
Forster gives a very detailed description of each location throughout the novel. When describing the neighborhood near the Ganges River, he shows how harmony is exists with both tragedy and joy.
The narrator describes the area as:
."..so abased, so monotonous is everything that meets the eye, that when the Ganges comes down it might be expected to wash the excrescence back into the soil. Houses do fall, people are drowned and left rotting, but the general outline of the town persists, welling here, shrinking there, like some low, but indestructible form of life" (2).
The statement constantly juxtaposes good outcomes with bad outcomes. The river washing out the outgrowth had been a good thing for the landscape. It, however, had destroyed several villages. The destruction, fortunately, allows the village's people to unite and rebuild their community, making their relationships with each other "indestructible." The speaker continues to describe Chandrapore. He illustrates a simple, yet exotic t...
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...en if it only exists for a split second. However, when her curiosity is satisfied with one observation, then disturbed by another, she returns to confusion. Perplexity gives birth to ignorance. Ignorance gives birth to hate.
Chauvinism. Biased dispositions. Bigotry. Unity could be a solution to effect an end to these ideals, however, it begets both advantageous and unfavorable aftermaths. One cannot exist without the other. The speaker presents this item through his vivid description of the landscape, an omnipresent reverberation, and the symbols creatures of the earth represent. The reader realizes that the world encompasses both the good and the bad and that the two entities modulate each other. Forster's main objective had been to tell the reader to focus on the good, and learn to adjust to the bad; living by such a way will result in true harmony.
The author warns us in the foreword that the book is not neutral and fair-minded study of the removal of the Indians which in its self would make historians pass judgment. The author has predetermined that white Americans were at fault and that the Indian were faultless. W...
“Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race.”
Karma comes in two ways, good karma or bad karma. However Miss Strangeworth got the worst kind ever, revenge karma. In the short story, The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson, it is clear that judging others can result to bad karma, because she judges her town, and consequences return the favor. She is shallow and has too much power, however it starts with judgement. The Possibility of Evil takes us through a journey of a selfish woman and her consequences.
The ancient philosopher Plotinus once said,“those inquiring whence Evil enters into beings, or rather into a certain order of beings, would be making the best beginning if they established, first of all, what precisely Evil is…” (Enneads, I, 8, 1). What does it mean to be incomprehensible? Is it to simply not understand it, or is it to not comprehend its magnitude? This is a problem that is rarely prevalent in our lives, most of the time everyday things are comprehensible; but, what if there is something in our lives that we hear casually thrown around and said in an everyday conversation. This word is “evil”. A word someone hears to describe a certain character from a book, movie, or videogame. “That Darth Vader is such an evil character!
When I found myself on my Feet, I looked about me, and must confess I never beheld a more entertaining Prospect. The Country round appeared like a continued Garden, and the inclosed Fields, which were generally Forty Foot square, resembled so many Beds of flowers. These Fields were intermingled with Woods of half a Stang, and the tallest Trees, as I could judge, appeared to be seven Foot high. I viewed the Town on my left Hand, which looked like the painted Scene of a City in a Theatre.
“…And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:9-13) As it says in the Bible, we wish to be led astray from evil. However, evil is a very curious subject. For most intensive purposes, evil can be described as cruel, heinous, and unnecessary punishment. Evil is a relatively accepted concept in the world today, although it is not completely understood. Evil is supposedly all around us, and at all times. It is more often than not associated with a figure we deem Satan. Satan is said to be a fallen angel, at one point God’s favorite. Supposedly Satan tries to spite God by influencing our choices, and therefore our lives. However, this presents a problem: The Problem of Evil. This argues against the existence of God. Can God and evil coexist?
He says, “The cities swept about me like dead leaves..” This description does not sound as though it comes from a traveller who is ecstatic about visiting different parts of the world. Cities are anything but dead; on the contrary, they are vibrant and full of life, and persons who are artistically inclined tend to be attracted to bustling cities. By categorising all the cities as dead leaves, Tom classifies them as similar entities in which he notices no individuality, uniqueness or excitement. He cannot relish in the beau... ...
In the chapter titled Rebellion (or his book title), Feodor Dostoevski’s character, Ivan Karamazov, demonstrates that his angry and resentful attitude is the by-product of his very choosing. The fundamental principal of our own humanity is God’s acknowledgment of our expression of free will. Found between the boundaries of man’s ownership of worldly acts and thoughts, which can lead him to an eternity of joy or damnation, is that critical choice of what attitude we will wrap ourselves in for our finite time here. The extreme, and perhaps somewhat all too common, result of this human choice between simple joy and compounding suffering is presented in Ivan. As highlighted in Genesis account of Gods’ pure joy and pleasure of man, and His authoritative command for man’s dominion over all of His creations, it is impossible to imagine our Creator desiring our willing choice for suffering.
According to a recent study conducted by the FBI, in the US, it is estimated that there has
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (Lewis, 1994, p. 91). Throughout history man has had to struggle with the problem of evil. It is one of the greatest problems of the world. Unquestionably, there is no greater challenge to man’s faith then the existence of evil and a suffering world. The problem can be stated simply: If God is an all-knowing and all-loving God, how can He allow evil? If God is so good, how can He allow such bad things to happen?Why does He allow bad things to happen to good people? These are fundamental questions that many Christians and non-Christians set out to answer.
Evil exists. This bizarre conundrum has perplexed philosophers since the dawn of civilization, and remains in hot debate today because of the theological implications inherent in the statement. To many on this planet, the source of life is an all-loving, all-powerful, omniscient god who created the universe – and all the laws therein – in seven days, as described in the Bible. And yet still, evil exists. How can these two premises be simultaneously true? Surely, an all-loving god would want to do something about this problem, and an all-powerful god could absolutely remedy a situation if it so desired. It seems as though the common perception of the Bible’s god is inaccurate. However, it could be argued that the Bible’s god is accurate, and that said perception is somewhat skewed, considering that on numerous occasions, God claims responsibility for evil. “I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7). The Greek philosopher Epicurus put the Good God’s Evil puzzle in a very clear logical progression:
What draws the line between good and evil? Individuals have the power to choose either one in their actions. Do factors such as a situation, the environment, or a learned behavior have an influence on human behavior? Individuals are influenced by situations which make them behave differently than normal. Individuals have the need to be accepted in society. What causes individuals to have the feeling of being accepted in society in order to fit in? The hypothesis suggests everyone is influenced by their environment and by certain situations. Society has painted the image that individuals need to be accepted by others and are willing to forget themselves in order to get accepted.
Before one understands why there is evil in the world one must ask two important questions. First, who is God and what is His personality/characteristics, and second, what is sin and how does it affect humans and their relationship with God? By understanding these two different types of questions, one will understand the implications of evil and therefore be able to establish if God truly is evil or if sin truly is the root of all the evil in the world. Sin is defined by Erickson when he refers to the work of Satan, saying, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is likeness of God.” 1 Consequently,
Theodicy What do you consider to be good and evil? I know for some this may come down to a question of morality which will have varying answers. For others it will be a question of religion where good may be considered a God who is just and fair and evil is represented by many forms in which one example would be the devil. With the issue of good and evil existing one can’t help but wonder what is the purpose of having both of these in our daily life and culture.
E.M. Forster implements such literary techniques to express the importance or insignificance of a situation and to emphasize an impression of realism and enigma in Chandrapore, India, in which Forster’s novel, A Passage to India, takes place. Forster has a tendency to suddenly switch narratives from one point of view to another, contrasting points of view. This emphasizes another modernist outlook that suggests that there is not only one truth, and rather that there are multiple points of view.... ... middle of paper ...