Imagine standing in the snow looking out onto the frozen lake just north of the Arctic Circle. The gentle breeze flows through the calm wintery night. The leaves hum as the wind plays through the trees. Above the trees are millions of bright orbs scattered across the dark sky. Then, slowly along the horizon, a shimmer of color starts to overcome above the lake. It begins to materialize than eventually manifests into dancing star rods of glimmering green light that skip across the darkness of the atmosphere. Of course, some are already aware that these are the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis. However, many people see these as a much more complex reasoning instead of the simplistic explanation for why these lights exist. The Aurora Borealis, …show more content…
Back when one did not know the scientific explanation to the Northern Lights, many postulations were made to accompany a persons’ beliefs. Even though scientists have studied the Northern Lights and given people the real explanation towards why they exist, many cannot avoid applying their opinion towards something they see. It is very natural for a human being to put their own thoughts into the Northern Lights. Not surprisingly, the Aurora Borealis is based primarily on the mythology and legend of most indigenous people living in countries within the Aurora Oval. Over many years of the Northern Lights existing, people have put their own spin on what these lights mean to them based on their beliefs. Some mythology went as far as the ancient Greeks and Romans. The Greeks had believed that Aurora was the sister of Helios and Seline, the sun and moon gods, and that she would race across the sky in her chariot to alert her siblings the coming of a new day. …show more content…
Numerous places and religions have suggested a reasoning around the Northern Lights to give some sort of explanation. However, it could be that people just needed another entity that guided their beliefs in some way. As time went on scientists clarified what the Northern Lights really are, “The Northern Lights are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere.” (Northern Lights Center). This interaction between the sun and Earth cause a display of many different colors. They include shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and violet. However, pale green and pink are the most common colors seen. The Northern Lights and sunspot activity has been around since about the 1880’s, but people did not fully know of the reason for these lights until the 1950’s. The different gases in our atmosphere are the reason for the colors produce in the sky. Oxygen molecules cause the yellowish-green color that is seen a lot, while nitrogen produces a blue or purplish-red color. “The temperature above the surface of the sun is millions of degrees Celsius. At this temperature, collisions between gas molecules are frequent and explosive. Free electrons and protons are thrown from the sun's atmosphere by the
As Edna swims further and further out, the water behind her “assumed the aspect of a barrier which her unaided strength would never be able to overcome.” The vision of a barrier symbolizes Edna’s growing sense of a blockade between herself and the world. She is the only entity on the other side because she feels isolated and alone with herself. Furthermore, the words “her unaided strength would never be able to overcome” foreshadow Edna’s death. Foreshadowing frequently occurs through this passage. When Mrs. Pontellier reaches out for the unlimited “in which to lose herself,” it is hinted that she will bring about her own demise. Perhaps the most obvious indication is in the last paragraph when “a quick vision of death smote her soul.” Edna manages to regain land, but only with a struggle. Perhaps the next time she will not be so lucky.
Alphonse Gabriel Capone was the most notorious bootlegger in American History. He was born on January 17, 1899 and died of a heart attack on January 25, 1947. Capone grew up in Brooklyn and became a member of the Five Points Gang. During a street fight he had received a scar on his face that gave him the nickname “Scarface”. Capone quickly moves up the ranks in the mafia world, often noticed for his toughness, in 1919 he grabbed the attention of mobster John Torrio of Chicago. Capone was promoted to bodyguard of the mob boss James Colosimo. When Capone moved to Chicago, bootlegging was just starting to blow up. These bootleggers pounced on the opportunity to completely control the business of making, importing, and distributing alcohol and all alcohol products. Alcohol wasn't the only flourishing industry for the the mob, they also did trade in
Larry Watson, in “Montana 1948”, uses the motif of light and silence in many ways to develop, clarify and reinforce ideas about truth and injustice, and portray the nature of some characters. He illustrates the injustice in Bentrock through the motif of light and then demonstrates to the reader the occurrence of something wrong through the motif of silence. The motif of light also sometimes assists the motif of silence to emphasize the significance of the event.
Pullman used the concept dust in Northern Lights. Dust is a convention for human physically inspired by God's judgement. It is not just the ending and the beginning of human physical existence and the origins of universe. Pullman was influenced by John Milton the paradise lost and his concept dust. Pullman used the word to connect everything with everything and the parallel worlds. The church considers dust as the original sin. The oblation board wants to cut and sever the daemons of the children to prevent the dust from setting on the child and to prevent daemons to settle when children become adult. The church thinks that dust may threaten its absolute power. The individuals that go through cutting their daemons operation will be subject
There are two real conflicts in Jean Toomer's "Blood-Burning Moon." The first is racial, which can be referenced in the very first sentence, and the second is a gender conflict, that subtly unfolds with the main characters' development. In this essay, I will show how Toomer uses vivid descriptions and comparisons of nature to establish these conflicts, and also to offer an explanation of their origin. He writes to argue that these roles, like the earth, are natural and therefore irrefutable. A close reading of the opening paragraph will reveal the sharp contrast between white and black, as it is described in a metaphor of wood and stone.
I was born with an inherent fascination for all things celestial. Ever since I was young, I have been staring at the night sky trying to find constellations, or using my juvenile imagination to create my own. My efforts to find, view, and mentally catalogue everything the heavenly bodies have to offer has led me to employ some over-the-top measures, but the most extreme of them all might be the night I stayed awake through the wee hours of the morning to catch a glimpse of a meteor shower. Over the course of an entire year, the memory of this stupefying event is still as lucent and vivid as it was that very night so long ago.
Hope has the incredible ability to make or break someone. People are always told to make large goals in school and employment, and try to reach those ambitions no matter how far they are. Hope is the motivation behind accomplishing dreams, but it also has the ability to break people who have hoped for something so desperately, yet never came to fruition. Only determination and personal situations can persuade hope to fly or fall. A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly highlights this ambiguous hope we depend on through the use of symbolism, characterization, and inner conflict.
Is there life out there in the great beyond? It is a question that many of us have asked, but there is no real answer, no tangible evidence to validate the existence of other intelligent beings. All we have are so-called experiences that earthly people have had with these beings, like me. I remember, as a child, I stayed awake late one night. I was lying in bed admiring the stars outside my window when I saw a bright light in the distance. It moved in impossible ways I could not explain, even to this day. It was only for a moment, but the memory of this unexplainable phenomena has stayed with me ever since. If there are other intelligent beings like us living in distant worlds, how do we explain their standing in religious history? Are they gods or angels? Are they our creators? In decades past, people who claim to have had ufological experiences have banded together to create religious societies in their quest to become closer to extraterrestrial life. While all of these societies support different views on UFOs and religion, all have one common belief – there is life out there and they are real and powerful beings far more advanced than humans in technology and psychic abilities. Throughout this research paper, I will establish how some of these religious societies were formed, and describe in detail how their belief system works and why they are considered religious in nature.
Lightning is an interesting form in the earth's atmosphere. People will always have their own beliefs and theories of how lightning forms and why it approaches land and people the way it does. However, there is much research that explains how lightening is formed and why it happens when it does.
Ancient Egyptians tried to understand their place in the universe. This is why their mythology is centered on nature such as the earth, sky, moon, sun, stars, and the Nile River. There are many Egyptian myths of creation, but the Heliopolitan Tradition, Hermopolitan Ogdoad, and the Memphite Theology are the most commonly used. They all have some common elements and gods. For example, many of t...
In the poem “Song of the Sky Loom,” the author refers to the earth as a mother to them and the sky as a father to them, and to these indigenous people, those things were their gods. These things were personified and they then worshipped them. The same logic applies to the other poem “Sun, My Relative.” Another appearance of spirits or gods can be found in “The Navajo Origin Legend.” The gods or spirits came down from the heavens to create human beings. They set up the objects to make human beings and set the whole thing into action. “When Grizzlies Walked Upright” centers around the story of the daughter of the Chief of the Sky Spirits. A huge influence on the outcome is when she pokes her head out of the top of the mountain and the wind spirit blows her away. Then, she marries a grizzly bear and creates the first human beings with their
Northern Lights deals with the forces of love, betrayal, religion and science; all of these themes spur from one source, power. Each character in the novel experiences these topics, because each character is powerful. Northern Lights shows us that all individuals must either choose to use or be overcome these forces.
The Doldrums symbolized that even through pain and suffering you can also experience great beauty and peace. Which was a big thing for Louie after all the plane crash and being stranded for so long, seeing that brought him so ease and peace.
they get a sense of who they are and have the ability to reason and
often seen at night because of the many lights that people claim to see illuminating from these