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Thematic Essay on Identity There are many aspects of identity in the poem “Sex without Love,” by Sharon Olds. I can relate my own thoughts to how the author views the subject that she talks about in this poem. There has been a situation in my own life where I was thinking to myself, just as the author was, “How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?” (Olds 740). Having been raised as a well-rounded and disciplined person, as well as religious, I know the discouragement of having premarital sex. It’s not just the immorality that these characters are experiencing that the author is talking about, but they probably have personal issues that have to do with a their self worth and identity. These characters think they know what love is, but the truth is that they are in denial of what they are really doing. Even though religion is an issue to the characters, their identity pushes that concept to the side so that they can do what they desire most. I believe that the author is trying to stress the point that these people are not obeying the word of God and leading themselves into their own temptations. Olds compares the truly religious to the ‘lovers’ by introducing them as people who have sex without being in love by saying, “These are the true religious, the purist, the pros, the ones who will not accept a false Messiah, love the priest instead of the God” (Olds 740). Part of this poem is ironic because the author starts by questioning...
The setting of this story took place in a time where sex was becoming more and more publicized and less taboo. The 1960’s and early 1970’s are commonly associated with things like the hippie movement and the free love movement. These two went together and created a revolution of young people getting high and having casual and meaningless sex with no sort of consequences. In the story, the narrator experiences both of these countercultures. Her “lovers” are random men from her school or just people that she just happened to come across and decided to hook up with. Some of these hook ups were follow ups to some sort of drug usage. This just furthe...
"Sex without Love" is a poem by Sharon Old, who states in the opening line "How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?" It starts out with judging those, who have sex outside of having feeling for one another. It describes the sex in the third line as without feeling more as a techniques, which is describe "beautiful as dancers.. over each other like ice skaters." Sex without love to the author is described more as an act, which is performed instead of two people in love, who sex is in love not because of the act but instead of the love of the person. The author seems to climax in the literal sense at line nine : come to the Come to the … then God comes in picture after the act is done. Judgment and sin is the mood of this poem of how two people can commit an act of a heart and soul without disappointed God.
Our lives are defined by our experiences of growing up and of who people are when people are developing. Both, in their respective regards, are something that can be difficult to alter to the individual. Gender, race, classes, and other building blocks of our identity are always shifting to who anyone is and while a person can’t affect themselves, society can, and often does change their perspective towards their own identity and how they interact with the stimulation outside of their psyche.
Sharon Olds is not incredibly fond of those who have sex without love. This, one can easily figure by the first line in her poem, “How do they do it, the ones who make love/ without love?” Throughout the poem, we can see how she feels, such as in line five where she refers to those in the act as “steak”; she could be trying to make them out to be just a two pieces of meat; using one another for pleasure. She then uses a simile and says, “Wet as the/ children at birth whose mothers are going to/ give them away.” (Olds 6-8) In these lines, she is referring to the babies that can be conceived in the act of sex without love that mean little to these two people, so they are just given up right at birth. With this, the reader can also see that she thinks this act is irresponsible and can result in a mistake. When Sharon says, “How do they come to the/ come to the come to the God come to the/ still waters, and not love/ the one who came there with them”(8-11), one can see she is also
defined as a person X has a personal identity if and only if they have the same
Religion plays at the centre of the poem as Bradstreet creates an image of the harmonious relationship she shares with her husband. In Puritan culture ‘sex seems to be reduced to strictly a reproductive function’ with sexual passion never being addressed. Similarly, Bradstreet never discusses a physical relationship with her husband but focuses on the spirituality of their connection and thus follows the typical Puritan thinking that sexual connection is not the basis for marriage. ‘Then while we live, in love let’s so persevere/ That we live no more, we may live ever’ captures how religion and spirituality are at the centre of Bradstreet’s marriage. Echoing the typical Christian vows of commitment, Bradstreet finishes with the promise of their love eternal, ‘we may live ever’ through the belief that if they ‘persevere’ and remain true in their relationship it will survive past death. The promise of ‘ever’ is also a biblical reference to the belief that Jesus Christ was the key to ‘be with the Lord forever’ which incorporates the earthly commitment Bradstreet has made with the spiritual one she has made as well. This develops Bradstreet as a true representation of a Puritan as she centres her life and relationships around her religious beliefs rather than focusing on the
Sexuality is a theme that runs throughout the entire poem. It is not an uptight sexuality of the 1950's culture but a liberated one. And this sexual imagery, that mostly takes place in the first part of the poem, constantly refers to spirituality and the divine. The poem reads, "who let themselves be *censored*ed in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and/ screamed with joy, / who blew and were blown by those human seraphim, the sailors," (91-93). These two images contrast the common view of homosexuality in the 1950's. The sailors are "seraphim", and the motorcyclists are "saintly". They are not corrupt as the common view might see it. The combination of these images helps to uncover the true theme of the piece. The things that most people of the time would consider to be depraved, such as homosexuality, are actually divine.
In today’s society there are many words that are used or said without giving it complete thought. For example, the word “identity” is something to which I have never really given much thought or even considered how I identify myself.
Am I Yaman Hussayni or a Syrian? A question that has been stuck in the halls of my brain for the past week. As it seems to be the issue of identity is a complicated one. Do we choose our identity or it chooses us? And what is identity exactly? According to common idea in society identity is a very general word as it has several branches, cultural identity, personal identity, or even educational one are only some of them. To me, identity is the state of mind by which someone is directly recognized as character in public. It is the fragments of our life that will always remain with us, the permanently unchanging parts of us. Our looks, our beliefs, our culture, the places and things
When thinking about Identity, it might be easy to just say that is “who we are”, or it’s just me. An identity is much more than that though. I like to think of it as a living puzzle. There are hundreds or thousands of pieces that come together to form the complete identity, or the complete “you”. I say living because an identity grows throughout the years and even changes depending on the situation. There is a multitude of influences that goes into forming a person’s identity some of which a person chooses and others they don’t. Family members and guardians are a primary source of learning when a child is young. As a person grows, the sphere of influence broadens to include mentors, media, and school. This identity is then a lens through which
When it is time for me to fill out any form that asks me to check my ethnicity I become confused. My confusion comes from the difficulty of not finding my ethnicity on one of the boxes and the assumption of others who sees me differently. The assumption of me being either from India or Bangladesh becomes an astonishing revelation when I say that I am not from either country. I identify myself as Guyanese Indian. I was born in Guyana by native Guyanese parents. However, my grandparents and great grandparents originated from Kolkata India. They were slaves who worked on sugar plantations in India and then transported to European colonies to continue their work.
The view of identity seems to be defined by facial features and social constructed views. Depending on the recent look of someone it may just be more then just color but also background. In this essay I will explain how I relate to some recent views based on philosophers I may agree and disagree with in order to describe my identity. Identity is much more then just being labeled as a race, it can be based on much more.
The identity theory of mind holds that states and processes of the mind are identical to states and processes of the brain thus particular psychological states are identical with particular type of physical state. Many objections have been lay out by philosophers who have evaluated this theory one objection that is particularly strong is the Martian and octopus criticism which state that if identity theory is true, than these species should not feel pain, but if they do feel pain than identity theory is not true.
Zora Neal Hurston’s book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, reveals one of life’s most relevant purposes that stretches across cultures and relates to every aspect of enlightenment. The novel examines the life of the strong-willed Janie Crawford, as she goes down the path of self-discovery by way of her past relationships. Ideas regarding the path of liberation date all the way back to the teachings of Siddhartha. Yet, its concept is still recycled in the twenty-first century, as it inspires all humanity to look beyond the “horizon,” as Janie explains. Self-identification, or self-fulfillment, is a theme that persists throughout the book, remaining a quest for Janie Crawford to discover, from the time she begins to tell the story to her best friend, Pheoby Watson. Hurston makes a point at the beginning of the novel to separate the male and female identities from one another. This is important for the reader to note. The theme for identity, as it relates to Janie, carefully unfolds as the story goes on to expand the depths of the female interior.
The fifth stage, according to Erik Erikson psychoanalytic theory of development is the Identity Vs Identity confusion. The stage occurs during adolescence in the ages between 12 to 18 years. At this stage, the adolescents try to find a sense of personal and self-identity by intensely exploring their personal goals, beliefs, and values (McLeod, 2017). Notably, the adolescence is between childhood and adulthood. Thus, their mind is between the morality learned during childhood and the ethics they are trying to develop into adulthood. The transitioning from childhood to adulthood is the most important development for a person because the individual is becoming independent and is focusing on the future regarding career, relationships, families