American novelist Willa Cather believed “ there are only two or three human stories and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; Like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years.” However, I believe her statement is only partially true. Objective experiences are repetitive, observable, and concrete. They oscillate through time. However, our subjective experience as individuals is unique. Philosophers Kierkegaard, Descartes, and Socrates all acknowledged that each person’s self is different, and therefore not repeating. Objective reality, like the ‘“human stories,” Cather writes of, are constant. Through the study of history, one can predict human
Inevitably on his metaphoric passage to heroism, Robert has many turning points in relation to Marxism that change his outlook on the world and war around him like the class division, the oppressors and the oppressed and, the mini revolutions that take place in a struggle for power. Findley presents the reader with a story that challenges the conceptions and truths that humans believe of human nature. Through the plot of Robert, Findley begins to convey the message that life goes on and as humans the only truth is that we are becoming. This is similarly seen in Marxism as it believes the cycle is ongoing but slowly and surely society is becoming. In one way Robert's journey itself is a reflection of society and the path that it continues to take.
Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case,” displays the conflict between conformity and individuality through the main character, Paul. On a number of occasions, Paul is forced to lie and steal to escape the conformists who wish to control him and stifle his unique imagination. However, his lying, stealing, and attempts to escape the conformists, only force Paul into isolation, depression, and feeling a sense of shame for his individuality. Throughout the story one might see Cather’s constant contrast of individuality versus conformity, as well as Paul’s lying and stealing. Cather seems to draw the conclusion that extreme individuals, much like Paul are simply misunderstood, and not offered the acceptance they desire from conformist society.
The Storytelling Animal is an expository non-fiction book by Jonathan Gottschall analyzing the history of stories and human’s attraction to them. It was published in 2012 and thus contains many up-to-date references and comparisons. I believe Gottschall’s main objective in writing this book is to bring us all to the conclusion that he has reached in his research. Throughout the entirety of his book, Gottschall effectively pulls us back to main ideas he wants us to understand and accept, that we are innately storytelling animals, that are addicted to stories ourselves, have always been and will always be, by using topics that build upon one another, using relatable examples, and supporting arguments with research and studies.
The human experience is a special one; The conscious human ability to observe and perceive the world in ways beyond simple or primary observation was brought upon by the rapid evolution of humans, and has helped us grow into the modern beings we are: complex; layered; empathetic, and thoughtful. With these uncommon and advanced qualities comes the realization that there are many ways of viewing our world (man’s world), for all humans develop consciousness; and each individual is shaped by the experiences, knowledge and wisdom of both themselves and others. This quarter we analyzed the theme: a different view of man’s world, through various forms of literature including: Lord of the Flies by William Golding, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka,
Many can remember a point in their life when they were a small child, carefree and happy with dirt on their knees and a smile on their face, but how can one know that he is the same person now as he was then? This is a question concerning personal identity; which addresses why someone at one point in life is identical with someone later in life. When it comes to personal identity and it’s persistence through time, many theories exist to explain what makes a person a person. One view is John Locke’s theory of personal identity. He stated that identity was not dependent on any material substance, such as one’s body, instead Locke maintained that personal identity is tied to consciousness and perceptions.
1. Growing up we all heard stories. Different types of stories, some so realistic, we cling onto them farther into our lives. Stories let us see and even feel the world in different prespectives, and this is becuase of the writter or story teller. We learn, survive and entertain our selves using past experiences, which are in present shared as stories. This is why Roger Rosenblatt said, "We are a narrative species."
Galen Strawson argues against narrativity by describing the way he sees his life – episodically. I argue that he is not neutral in his description of narrativity and episodicity and that this weakens his claim. Narrativity, according to Galen, is when one sees one’s life as a story or a narrative. Contrarily, episodicity is when one sees one’s life in episodes and does not construe these episodes to form a narrative . Strawson specifically claims that not everyone lives his or her life as a narrative, and he is against the idea that “a richly Narrative outlook is essential to a well-lived life” . In order for his claim to be supported, he must give both sides of each argument and, therefore, remain neutral.
In life, people experience different situations and live different realities. It is not illogical to say that the different journeys in life sometimes give us different ways of viewing the world. This was evident upon a closer examination and analysis of Wu Cheng’en’s “The Journey to the West”, and Mary Shelly “Frankenstein”, where the two main characters of the book, a Monkey and a creature, each have a different way of viewing life. The monkey see’s life as a journey that should be explored, while the creature has no way of exploring and sees life as something he cannot enjoy. In the end, what can be taken away from the works of literature is that no matter the journey taken, it is important to remember that one’s subjectivity, built on our experiences, determines reality.
Many of our today as “normal” considered values are everything but self-evident. One of the most striking aspects in the novel is time; and our relationship towards it. “ We yearned for the future. How did we learn it that talent for insatiability. ” In this particu...
Autobiography is about self-reflection, expressing a personal distinctive view which, in a broader context, can be a commentary on the human condition and a statement on the morality and ethics of one’s personal history. It is about the recounting of selective experiences as seen through the eyes of the author, and although events of certain autobiographies may have been embellished and others not taken place at all, this style of writing is supposed to be sensitive to what actually happens. The sum of events represent the complex value-laden perceptions of a world filled with extremes of both good and evil.
In her novel O Pioneers!, Cather incorporates all three philosophies; romanticism, realism, and naturalism. I would describe the novel as mainly naturalistic and I personally believe she adheres to naturalism as she took the title from a romantic poem and wrote a naturalistic book. I personally do not like novels written from the naturalistic philosophy because of the cruelness of the view.
In the simplest form, there is a basic structural pattern to narratives, as expressed through Tzvetan Todorov’s explanation of narrative movement between two equilibriums. A narrative begins in a stable position until something causes disequilibrium, however, by the end of the story, the equilibrium is re-established, though it is different than the beginning (O’Shaughnessy 1999: 268). Joseph Cam...
“It was a new discovery to find that these stories were, after all, about our own lives, were not distant, that there was no past or future that all time is now-time, centred in the being.” (Pp39.)
Narrative therapy (NT) is a therapeutic technique that guides the client through a process of identifying and deconstructing the narratives they hold true, and reconstructing or re-authoring (Epston & White, 1990) new and empowering narratives. It is based on the idea that people understand their lives through their narration of lived experience (DiLollo, Neimeyer & Manning, 2002). “As narrators, the significance of our lives is dictated by the stories that we live and that we tell — that is, by the ways that we link events in meaningful sequences and thereby constitute a sense of self as the protagonist of our own autobiography” (Neimeyer, 1995). Narrative therapists tend to look for metaphors that have powerful connotations in a person’s
I support the notion that our experiences are what makes us who we are and shapes the person our future selves will be. It is challenging to claim that both the West Coast being and East Coast being are the same if they are experiencing different things due to their environmental variances. Since we are products of our experiences, the different circumstances that the West Coast and East Coast persons are put in would result in dissimilar memories and may produce skewed thoughts, opinions, and actions that contrast the other person’s. The moment the West Coast person is created, they become their own being because they are experiencing something completely different from the person on the East Coast at that particular moment. Despite starting off with the same mental basis at the time of creation as the East Coast person, the being on the West Coast is immediately shaped in a different way by their experiences on the West Coast, which leads to the conclusion that both beings cannot be the same if they are experiencing different