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Aging as a vital process
Aging as a vital process
Aging as a vital process
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You are dying, please don’t panic. We all have this in common. It doesn’t matter who you are, whether you’re religious, vegan, athletic, have good music taste, or enjoy the arts a little too much. Our time is coming to an end. No matter what we do, we cannot simply elude the commitment of our deaths. Whether it’s by age or accident. By illness or yourself. By ordering the wrong food at an extremely run down restaurant or boarding the wrong plane at the wrong time. What you are now will eventually be reduced to nothing. We will make excuses and Death has heard them all. “I haven’t told my mom how much I loved her yet”. “I haven’t travelled the world”. “I wasn’t able to tell my husband how much of an asshole he was”. “I wasn’t able to
According to his biography, Ernest J. Gaines grew up in Oscar, Louisiana on a plantation in the 1930s. He worked picking potatoes for 50 cents a day, and in turn used his experiences to write six books, including A Lesson Before Dying. While the novel is fictional, it is based on the hardships faced by blacks in a post Civil War South, under Jim Crow and 'de jure' segregation. In A Lesson Before Dying, the main story line is a sad tale in which a young black man named Jefferson, is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, a teacher, is persuaded by Jefferson's grandmother Miss Emma to help Jefferson become a man before his execution. The struggle for Grant to get Jefferson to cooperate, and Grant's own internal development are the main plot-points; however, the background commentary on systems of racism is the main theme.
“I never found myself needing that piece of paper,” is a remark actor Johnny Depp made back in 2010 about his relationship with longtime partner Vanessa Paradis. Depp and Paradis have been in a relationship since 1998 and have two children together, Lily Rose and Jack. Another member of Hollywood’s elite, Latin singer Shakira, shares a similar view saying that marriage is like a contract, and that is unromantic. However, celebrities living like Shakira and Depp are also committing fornication and already view themselves as being married; the marriage is just not official. This draws comparisons to Ernest Gaines’ novel 'A Lesson Before Dying'. Two of the novel’s main characters, Grant and Vivian, have sex outside of marriage because they cannot be married since Vivian is still legally married to another man (Gaines 29). Even though of Vivian’s situation differs slightly from that of Depp’s, the act is still the same. These adults are conducting the act of sex outside of marriage; they are either ignoring what their religion teaches on the subject or do not care what religion has to say.
“As I Lay Dying, read as the dramatic confrontation of words and actions, presents Faulkner’s allegory of the limits of talent” (Jacobi). William Faulkner uses many different themes that make this novel a great book. Faulkner shows his talent by uses different scenarios, which makes the book not only comedic but informational on the human mind. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is a great book that illustrates great themes and examples. Faulkner illustrates different character and theme dynamics throughout the entire novel, which makes the book a humorous yet emotional roller coaster. Faulkner illustrates the sense of identity, alienation, and the results of physical and mental death to show what he thinks of the human mind.
After reading As I Lay Dying, I was unsettled by something. It wasn't the plot, although As I Lay Dying had a singularly bizarre storyline. During the action of the novel a mother dies, and her family embarks upon a disaster ridden journey in order to fulfill her last wishes. The eldest son breaks his leg, the family has to sell or mortgage practically all it's worldly goods, and Jewel risks his life twice in order to get his mother's body to Jefferson. Why has Disney not snatched up the film making rights to this singular testament to Bundren family's love and dedication? The answer, and the source of my discomfort, is that the Bundren family is awful. They are almost completely and totally defunct. The fact that there is next to no mourning following Addie's death, the most basic tribute a family can give, is only the tip of the iceberg of selfishness which seems to characterize the Bundren family.
While we all would agree that racism is immoral and has no place in a modern society, that was not the case in the U.S. in the 1940s. At the time African Americans were treated as second-class citizens, it was made near-impossible for them to vote, and they were discriminated in many ways including in education, socially and in employment. It was a time in which segregation and racism perforated the laws and society, a time in which African Americans were “separate but equal,” segregation was legal and in full force. Apartheid was also everywhere from the books to in society. Blacks were not truly seen as equal as they were seen the the lesser of the two and it very much felt that way. Blacks were oppressed in many ways including having unreachable requirements to vote, such regulations included literacy tests, poll taxes, and elaborate registration systems, but it only started there.
In his book, As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner pioneers new and interesting literary forms. His most obvious deviation from traditional novel writing was the new style of narration in which he used all the main characters as the narrator at one point or another. This allowed the reader to gain insight into the character’s thoughts, and also to prove very interesting and entertaining. Faulkner also ignores all boundaries that sane people have placed upon the English language to keep it readable. Faulkner forges his own set of rules for syntax that allow for a very choppy yet elegant stream of consciousness in the character’s narration. Lastly, Faulkner makes incredible leaps away from established textual formatting to again make his own way of doing things. He makes chapters of only one sentence, he makes lists of thoughts that were numbered; in other words he flexed the usual methods to fit his ideas of stream of consciousness and character development. Faulkner is quite revolutionary in all of his methods, especially for the time period in which he wrote it.
Vancil initiates the criticism of A lesson Before Dying in an old-fashioned, excessive religious genre of attitudes. He claims that Grant Wiggins is reluctant to atonement for guilt to uphold the Christian faith belief system within the Quarters, the small community of Wiggins’ residence. Wiggins has just evolved into the Diaspora of African-American people whose adapted a new way of thought and forever changing lifestyle alterations ranging from the southern to western regions in America. It may not be in complete agreement and acceptance by the matriarchs and patriarchs of the community but it progresses into a unique character identification tool for oneself. Black Americans were unwillingly detached from the true African tribal culture and therefore must attempt to gain a bountiful knowledge on one’s own heritage, current, and future life expectancies for the average home grown man or woman.
William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, with its multiple narrators and hickish language, can sometimes prove to be convoluted and rather confusing. The narrators, unfortunately, are no less confusing. Their language aside, each individual personality serves to put a spin on the bias that the information is delivered with, and, in speaking to each other, they further confuse the reader, as their individual motives are, generally speaking, unmentioned. However, there is one character who manages to cut through the fog of individuality and communicate to us what is happening in this novel. Vardaman, who is the youngest narrator, gives us insight into the goings-on of the Bundren family with a much lesser degree of confusion. He also gives us a look into the characters of the other narrators in this novel; his childish attempts at emulation reveal the actions of characters that we may not otherwise see. It is his childish mind that provides us with this viewpoint; he is innocent and unbiased. Although this is never directly said by Faulkner, we can infer it from Vardaman’s dialogue, which is the revealing aspect of all of the characters in this book.
Social identity, a powerful driving force in human beings, develops early in life and strengthens throughout adulthood based on chosen roles. In the short story “You, Disappearing” by Alexandra Kleeman, the main character struggles to understand her former boyfriend’s need to maintain his social identity while struggling to find hers in a new reality. As things start to disappear in the apocalypse, her former boyfriend chooses the consistency and predictability of maintaining his position as an architect. However, she regresses and has become depressed trying to live her life without structure. This conflict within the main character seems to distract her from making a plan for when the end arrives. By giving the main character a real human emotion to a disaster scenario, can this help relate the story to readers on a personal level?
First, social justice is a terms of the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society, opportunities, and support by the wealth. Jefferson family was very simple living style because they were not rich that much. According to the A Lesson before Dying “You go’n see Mr. Henri with me and Emma, there” (Gainess 14). Grant was keep saying to Miss Emma that he cannot help in this situation. Mr. Henri is an owner of the plantation and Miss Emma and Tante Lou were working at Mr. Henri house as cook and housekeeper. “I can’t change what has been handed down by the court” (Pichot 20). Grant and Miss Emma went to Mr. Henri to talk about Jefferson situation if he can do something about it; however, Mr. Henri said I will do something then,
Everyone makes mistakes, yet even the smallest of mistakes can change the entire course of history given a time machine and a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Learn to cherish the life on this Earth, and don’t let poor choices dictate the future ahead. Making the right decision is key to success, and only we can choose what successes we want to
When in high school, the glory days of being the shining star of athletics is such a sweet victory. The crowd chants your name and the state knows the skills you can display. Your body is still growing and gaining muscle; a new exciting discovery to unfold every new season. The feeling of setting records could not be replicated in any other shape or form. No one could take it away from you, other than yourself. Could death itself shatter those dreams, or allow the name to ring on forever? In A. E. Housman’s To an Athlete Dying Young, Houseman portrays that death is a good thing in a young athlete’s life as they will never have to see their records broken, earth would not be allowed to limit abilities with age, and their name will never be forgotten while they are still living.
In Lewis Thomas’s short story “On Natural Death” he talks about mouse being killed by a cat and how the mouse really feels no pain during his process of dying because of the hormones being released into his body. He then quotes Montaigne and what he had to say about his own personal experience with death and how death should not be worried about.
The theme of rebirth is a widely-varying one. It can be a sad, dark rebirth or a beautiful and bright one. Whichever path it takes, this theme follows along a general guideline. It first shows how someone or something is in the beginning, an event that occurs, and how this event changes them. They are reborn into someone or something new. The short stories “Young Goodman Brown,” “Cathedral,” and “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” all share the theme of rebirth. While “Young Goodman Brown” is a dark rebirth, “Cathedral” and “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” have beautiful, bright rebirths. “Young Goodman Brown” follows the story of a devout religious man that undergoes an awful experience and becomes a dark, miserable man. “Cathedral” is about the rebirth of a narrow-minded, negative man into an enlightened, freed man. “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” is about a gloomy, desolate village being reborn into a place of beauty and hope.
Everyone, at some point in their life, has made a mistake. Sometimes we get lucky and only falter a little, making it through the problem relatively intact. Other times, we mess up a lot and have to fix what was damaged over a long period of time. However, the same is true for most, if not all cases—those who make the mistake learn from it. Often times, our failures teach us valuable lessons that we only gained because of the experience we gathered after messing up. I have personally achieved a wealth of knowledge and experience just from all of my own little mishaps, and a few major ones.