The Awakening Essays (Examples)

By realizing that she cannot share herself with anyone, Edna has to come to terms with her inability to maintain any true relationships; in this sense, she is destined to stand alone in the world (Ringe 586), a position which is suggested by the metaphor of the water. The final episode of the novel is represented by Edna's solitary swim into the emptiness of the Gulf.

The metaphor of the water is relevant to the theme of self-discovery and expression of self. Throughout the novel, the sea becomes a symbol of sexual desire (Spangler 251): "She could see the glint of the moon upon the bay, and could feel the soft, gusty beating of the hot south wind. A subtle current of desire passed through her body, weakening her hold upon the brushes and making her eyes bum" (Chopin 149). Also, water symbolizes freedom and escape; with its vastness and…

In service to this "religion," she is expected to offer her entire self. Ultimately, although unintentionally, she quite literally gives her life in this servitude.

In The Awakening, religion also plays an important role in the female self-concept. Adele for example specifically refers to the Bible when attempting to convince Edna of the merits of self-sacrifice for husband and children. However, it is also true that Adele has no concept of the inner self and therefore experiences no sense of sacrifice when denying her own desires in favor of those her family may have.

In this way, the religious force, and particularly Christianity, serves as an oppressive power, in contrast to the force of freedom it claims to be. eligion can also be seen from a wider point-of-view when considered in terms of the authors' intention in both respective cases. Jason Hartford (435) for example consider religion in terms of…

Edna develops an independence to the point that this final tug of society makes the two completely incompatible; Robert is gone when she returns, and Edna drowns herself, ignoring Adele's dying admonition to "Think of the children!'" (289). One woman dies in grace, the other in despair.

The two ways in which the women relate to their families are hugely important in defining the two characters and thus illustrating the theme of the novel. Madame Ratignolle is a born mother and wife; she dotes on her children and worships her husband, but does not seem at all vapid. Rather, she does these things because she truly enjoys them and finds them rewarding. The difference in the Pontellier household is made palpable when Adele suggests that Leonce and Edna might be more "united" if he stayed home more in the evenings, to which Edna reacts blankly, saying "e wouldn't have anything…

Chopin's The Awakening

Edna Pontellier's Quest for Freedom in Chopin's the Awakening

Kate Chopin's The Awakening revolves around Edna Pontellier and her quest for self-discovery. During the course of her journey, Edna breaks away from the socially acceptable behavior expected of women at the time. As a woman, Edna was expected to marry "and take part in [her] husband's interests and business" (Appell). Additionally, "women were not…allowed to be educated or gain knowledge outside of the home because it was a man's world" (Appell). Chopin's characterization of Edna's awakening is somewhat reminiscent of the freedoms she personally experienced while growing up alongside strong, independent, and trailblazing women who continuously defied conventions and did not let society dictate what they could or could not do (yatt). The Awakening takes part during the course of two consecutive summers in which Edna exhibits cyclical tendencies. Through her various rebellious, albeit unadvised actions, Edna…

protagonist of Kate Chopin's book, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, starts a one way voyage to find herself. A young wife and mother living in New Orleans at the end of the nineteenth century makes surprising discoveries about who she is, abut what is essential and what is not. As she explains to her friend, Mrs. Ratignolle, there are things that are far more important to someone than one's own life. The finding of her true self will cost Edna one "unessential" possession in the end: her life, but she proved the trip worth the cost. She chooses to distance herself from everything she knew before in order to gain the clarity and the objectivity she needed to explore the new world within.

Although, Edna's marriage to Leonce Pontellier was a conflict in itself, it was nothing out of the ordinary for the first six years. A young girl who dreams…

Color Purple- Film and Book

The Color Purple is a deeply through-provoking and highly engrossing tale of three black women who use their personal strength to transform their lives. Alice Walker's work was published in 1982 and it inspired Steven Spielberg so much that he began working on its film version as soon as the novel won accolades for its brilliant storyline and powerful narrative. However the movie, though it won eleven Oscar nominations, wasn't as compelling as the novel. The major difference lied in the presentation of the horrifying stories of three leading female characters. While Walker concentrated on accentuation of their bleak and ugly world, Spielberg focused more on the fairytale aspect of their tales and the fact that they eventually overpowered their helplessness. The opening scenes can serve as an excellent example of the difference of approach that set the book apart. The first few pages concentrate…

Awakenings - Dr. Oliver Sack Film

Based on a true story about Dr. Oliver Sack's work in the 1960s, Penny Marshall's film Awakenings elucidates the challenges of clinical experimental psychology. Dr. Sack's fictionalized character, Dr. Malcolm Sayer had worked as a laboratory researcher until he was forced to accept a new position treating catatonic patients at a Bronx mental institution. His relative inexperience in a clinical setting could be partly to blame for his somewhat idealistic approach to treating the patients under his care. In any case, Sayer attends a conference about new treatments for Parkinson's disease. When he hears about the revolutionary drug "L-Dopa," Sayer imagines it might offer a viable treatment for the catatonic patients on his ward, whose symptoms result from their having childhood encephalitis. After applying to the hospital medical board for approval, Sayer is permitted to test the drug on one patient. In addition to…

This suggests that it is an intellectual understanding of her friend's beatings and not a true emotional empathy that she is after. Though the scene is most definitely tragic, if it is approached with the same intellectual curiosity that the two adolescents bring to it can only be seen as an episode of horribly dark humor. The fact that endla can be so foolish as to desire an intellectual understanding of child abuse shows her complete lack of a true appreciation for the situation, and is thus a comic -- not necessarily humorous, but comical nonetheless -- situation.

The end of a play is also one way to determine if a particular work is a comedy or a tragedy. The fact that Moritz and endla are both unnecessarily dead at the end of the play at first seems to suggest a tragedy, as does Melchior's expulsion. hen the characters end…

The wildly prolific Joyce Carol Oates also delves into the role of modern women in her fiction writing, although a quick review of her works spanning the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, suggests it is more difficult to draw as direct a connection between Oates' major works and biography than it is with Chopin. However, like Mrs. Mallard of "The Story of an Hour" briefly delights in a fantasy coming to life, only to find her hopes dashed when the promise of freedom is taken away, the heroine Connie of "here are you going, where have you been," finds her fantasy of being seductive and more beautiful than her conventional mother and sister to be far different than she realizes in reality. In Oates, much more explicitly than in Chopin, the trap of femininity 'used' as a vehicle of liberation for the teenage Connie becomes a lie, as…

Papyri

Awakening Osiris: The Egyptian ook of the Dead

The Egyptian ook of the Dead is a western title for an ancient collection of Egyptian manuscripts, the majority of which were funerary in nature. These collected writings have also been referred to as the Egyptian ible or identified by the names of the scribes who penned them. The Papyrus of Ani comprises the most significant contribution to these texts, though there are some other minor sources which are often included. In the original languages, these works were more accurately entitled the ooks of Coming Forth y Day. One of the greatest challenges to English-language speakers when confronting all the great scriptures is the language gap. Unless one has the time and inclination to learn Arabic, Hindi, Hebrew, Greek -- or in this case, Egyptian Heiroglyphs -- it becomes necessary to read the scriptures in translation. The farther removed one's own…

olves: The sexual awakening of Little Red

"The Company of olves" by Angela Carter depicts the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood as a sexual awakening for the young woman, Little Red. [THESIS]. This can be seen in how the wolf is sexualized and depicted as a vibrant, attractive man in the eyes of Little Red

"He strips off his shirt. His skin is the color and texture of vellum. A crisp strip of hair runs down his belly, his nipples are ripe and dark as poison fruit but he's so thin you could count the ribs under his skin if only he'd give you the time…His genitals, huge. Ah! Huge!" (Carter 317). The story retains the general structure of the fairy tale until the end, but the descriptions of Little Red and the wolf give the story an additional sexual relevance.

For example, in the above-cited quotation, the…

Nora's Awakening #2

Lori D'Angelo

Nora's Awakening

A Doll's House by Henrick Ibsen is a 1879 play that provides insight into the life of a women during the 19th century. While the play takes place over a short period time, it is during this time that Nora Helmer realizes that she is unhappy, and she needs to break away from her husband. Nora feels as though she was never given the opportunity to live the life she wanted, and after seeing what her husband, Torvald, thinks of Krogstad, a man who has committed the same crimes Nora has in order to save Torvald, she can no longer keep her thoughts to herself and resolves to stop being objectified by all the men in her life. In the play, the turning point comes in Act III when Nora compares herself to a doll and explains how she has always been treated…

We must be willing to fail, to falter, to suffer, in order to become greater versions of ourselves. Sometimes, being shown lesser versions of ourselves can be the key to this personal evolution.

And perhaps most importantly, we must recognize that this personal evolution does not occur in a vacuum. To the contrary, we improve ourselves only if we improve the value we represent for the whole of humanity, in whatever modest capacity this may be possible. Here, we are driven by the idea that "a human being is a part of a whole, called by us the 'universe', a part limited in time and space."

This is perhaps the unifying principle in our discussion. The openness which is a recurrent theme here denotes especially the imperative to remain open to one's fellow man. Nothing that we do occurs independently of the needs and wishes of family, friends, communities, societies,…

Nursing Theory

Application of Orem's Self-Care Deficit Theory to Awakenings

There are several grand theories of nursing, and among them is Dorothea Orem's Self-Care Deficit Theory (SCDT). This theory has established a set of assumptions, including that people are distinct individuals, that they should be self-reliant, that a person's knowledge of potential health problem is necessary for promoting self-care behaviors, and that nursing is a form of action (CurrentNursing.com, 2012). The movie Awakenings (Parkes, Lasker & Marshall, 1990) can be used as an example of how this theory can be applied even to the most difficult of nurse-patient interactions. The focus here will be on the scene where the patients awakened. Dr. Sayer was present, as was the nurse manager and a staff nurse. At this point, there is a transition in the type of care that needs to be provided to the patients from wholly compensatory to partially compensatory.…

Orem's Self-Care Deficit Theory

There are several grand theories of nursing, and among them is Orem's self-care deficit theory. This theory is predicated a set of assumptions, including that people are distinct individuals, that they should be self-reliant, that a person's knowledge of potential health problems is necessary for promoting self-care behaviors, and that nursing is a form of action. The movie Awakenings can be used as an example of how this can be applied even to the most difficult of nurse-patient interactions.

Orem's Self-Care Deficit Theory

Dorothea Orem was a staff nurse, and later moved onto educational positions within nursing. She developed her concept of self-care deficit theory to explain nursing in terms of a key interpersonal relationship between nurse and patient, where the nurse helps the patient to take care of him/herself. The underlying assumptions are that the patient is a distinct individual, and should be self-reliant. It…

Similarly, Mademoiselle Reisz fascinates and inspires Edna beyond words, yet Edna cannot possibly duplicate her life. Adele, kind and sympathetic as she is, in conversation with Edna, still cannot even begin to understand Edna's deep yearnings for freedom and independence; for she shares none of them. Even the longed-for Robert, upon returning from a protracted trip to Mexico, tells Edna that his own view of their future life together (should they ever have one) would be heartbreakingly similar to her present life with her husband.

Within Kate Chopin's the Awakening, noises, conversations (pleasant and unpleasant) laughter, sobbing, and sounds associated with eating and drinking, fill the novel. Symbolically, many of these, such as Edna's breaking of the glass vase in frustration near the beginning of the story, underscore the essential action, as well as the feelings of the main character. Other sounds, such as party chatter at various Creole gatherings…

As such, she fails to address the central problem of feminism in the Pontellier perspective, namely the impossibility of female individuality and independence in a patriarchal world. It is only in isolation that Edna can find any happiness, and she must make this isolation more and more complete in order to maintain her happiness, as the patriarchy has a means of encroaching on all populated areas, and Wollstonecraft's feminism does not offer an alternative to this need to escape humanity.

A final snort of disgust might be distinctly heard from Edna Pontellier upon her reading of this line of Wollstonecraft's, afterwards she might likely have flung the text aside (or into the fireplace, depending on the season): "Pleasure is the business of woman's life, according to the present modification of society" (ch. 4, par. 10). What Wollstonecraft means is that women are thought to be so fragile, so emotional, and…

Here, we see that Edna realizes what is happening to her and why. She sees Robert as a catalyst for her awakening but not the answer to her yearnings for a more fulfilled life. It is also important to note how Edna refers to her life being a stupid dream. This remark illustrates the intensity of what she is going through - in essence; it pinpoints the reason behind her awakening.

Another character responsible Edna's awakening is the doctor. As we have mentioned, Edna is living in a day and age where women are supposed to be happy fulfilling the role of wife and mother. hen Edna seeks out the doctor for advice, his words are difficult to hear. hile he may empathize with her, he is also being pragmatic when he tells says, "Youth is given up to illusions" (147). His words reinforce what she already knows and Edna…

Lover" and "The Awakening"

Both Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Marguerite Duras' The Lover address what happens when a woman searches for a way to leave her present life behind and seek a new one that may, or may not, be any better. In The Awakening, 28-year-old Edna Pontellier struggles for selfhood but does not have the strength to accept the ramifications of this possibility. In The Lover, the 15-year-old female narrator embraces self-awareness and uses her acquired strength to widen life's possibilities.

The Awakening takes place at the end of the 19th century, when the Western world was beginning to undergo major changes due to the Industrial evolution and increased urbanization. Although women were beginning to envision a less-restrained future, they were still, for the most part, bound by tradition to be subservient to their husbands. Middle- and upper-class women were expected to stay at home as idle, decorative…

Deyo's commentary represents the type of attitude that forced women to conform to standards that while they are not demeaning, they are not for every female. Chopin knew that some women were not designed to be mothers and wives and she knew that there was absolutely nothing wrong with this assertion. Chopin and Edna were women out of time, living with others that could not accept the fact that a woman could be single and happy. Edna's death is seen as pathetic but what critics fail to understand about her death is that it proved to be the only acceptable way of life for Edna. All other options had been exhausted and the duty of wife and mother was simply unacceptable because it created more anxiety than anyone on the Pontellier family could bear. Edna knew that her future was bleak and she knew that a depressed, disassociated mother was…

Edna needed more than what family life could offer her but she was living in a time where women did not seek an independent life outside the home. Edna was a woman out of her time and society made sure of that.

Another aspect that leads to the breakup of Edna's marriage was the relationship she had with men other than her husband. Edna and Robert are not doubt in love but even Robert's love could not satisfy Edna. She knew this and Robert's love, romantic as it was, could never be enough. Edna needed Robert but not completely. However, Robert is significant because he brings Edna "out of a life-long stupid dream" (143). She valued their relationship but knew that it would not last. She tells him that he is a foolish man because he:

wastes his time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting…

Her various lovers' beauty seems consistent with her love of beautiful material things and her admiration of herself as a beautiful object. For Emma, having an affair is another celebration of material goods -- her lover is an object that marks her as worthy, just like having the best clothing and furniture that money can buy (or can be borrowed). Her love is not for Leon or Rodolphe anymore than her love of her clothing is for the piece of cloth -- she seeks out men for what they can do for her, so she can engage in an enactment of her fantasy of herself as a star of a romance. Flaubert underlines this fact by having Emma fall in love during various representations of provincial life that represent consumerism or superficiality, such as a local agricultural fair or watching an opera.

Edna, in contrast, seeks to find love below…

Analysis

The Baby Boomer Revival assumed shapes and forms different than the former ones with programs Charismatic movement, the East Timor Indonesian Revivals, the 'Jesus People', the Asbury College Revival; and the Saskatoon Revival representing the spirits of the times in order to woo people to the mission movement and get them interested in the Church. At oen time, the church would have prohibited these charismatic programs and many, indeed, were controversial when they first appeared and still are today. Nonetheless, their impression and effects have been enduring and in a time when traditional programs were falling flat with the church losing members per day, innovative programs were the only ones that succeeded.

What I have learned

Sometimes, dramatic changes -- a shift in perspective and a change of habits -- are necessary for end-goals and objective to be reached.

The Pre-Reformation Revival, 1300-1500

Summary

Corruption of the church lowered…

Intellectual development is reflected in the creation, development and eventual preference for a specific type of government or representation in the society. Consequently, this period of intellectual development helped promote the freedom and social order, as more forms of representation and governance were developed and implemented in American society. Republicanism's eventual dominance over other governments and political ideologies, however, reflects the society's need to preserve and champion their individual freedoms and at the same time, maintain social order despite people's political differences and beliefs.

The Great Awakening emerged as an ideology, a religious movement that embodied social order and served as a precursor to the American Revolution (declared in the late 18th century). This revivalist religious movement in American history paved the way for an "open and undisguised Unitarianism" among different Christian sects and churches in America. While there was still diversity among churches and sects, the Great Awakening improved…

She is not asking Adele for permission and Adele does not try to force her to do or not do anything. She does kindly ask her to think of her children but she does not attack her. Adele does not understand Edna when she tells her that she would give her money and her life for her children but not herself. Her belief system is too different from Edna's but the woman can still connect on a female level. ithout this bond, Edna would have never been able to reach out to other people in hopes of forming a connection.

Adele is necessary for us to see how Edna has evolved over the course of time. This is easily demonstrated in her relationship and her feelings toward Adele. Edna's development can be seen in stages throughout the story. One way in which her change manifests itself is how she begins…

Teaching, I believe, is a vocation that should be pursued by those who can help students to not just master required subject matter but develop skills for critical thinking, so that, they in turn, will be able to contribute to and further build on the accumulated body of knowledge in their chosen fields. To successfully achieve the aforesaid objective requires personal commitment; mastery of the subject being taught; originality and creativity; and the ability to make students relate to the subject matter.

Given my own views on 'teaching,' I was naturally pleased to find that the objectives of my course had been carefully structured and defined to meet precisely the above-mentioned requisites. This has been particularly meaningful for me as both a student today, and hopefully, as a teacher of high schools students tomorrow.

The personal importance of successfully achieving the stated goals of the English program led to my…

Great Awakening: The eginning of Evangelicalism

The evangelicals started a new movement in the 1950s called new evangelicalism with a basis on human experiences that downplayed the role of doctrine and turned back on external church relations which in a way made it hard to differentiate evangelicalism from the mainstream Christendom. This movement has experienced several transformations since the Reformation from pietistic evangelism, fundamentalist evangelism, and classic evangelism to the more modern form known as evangelistic fundamentalism. Within the movement, the emergent church is increasingly growing to influence the postmodern culture. y advocating for diversity and pluralism, postmodernism in no way lays claim to any absolute principles in the new cultural dispensation. And so the new church primarily focuses on the younger generation. y attempting to reverse the church to the practices of the middle ages, it can only be possible to take a critical look at the spokespeople because…

In fact, rather than approve her
action, the man who first awakens her new-found sexuality, Robert Lebrun,
rejects Edna. As an idealized object of desire from far away, Edna was
attractive to Robert. hen Edna makes himself available to him, in real,
physical terms, Robert's superego dominates his id-driven desire for
pleasure. Although he desires Edna as an object of fantasy, because of his
intense sense of guilt, she also comes to embody all he fears, namely the
complete liberation of his desires from all societal constraints. Edna thus
becomes Robert's scapegoat, or shadow, rather than an object of fantasy.
For a number of persons in the novel, Edna functions as a shadow. For
example, Ad?le Ratignolle, a devoted wife and mother, willfully conforms to
what society demands of a woman. Edna's eventual outsider status is what
all Adele fears-solitude, loss of family, and the pursuit of sexual
conquest. Yet…

relationships of Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's book, the Awakening. The writer of this paper uses examples from the book to take the reader on a journey through Pontellier's relationships and how they impacted her life and actions.

Awakening ith Help

Often times when someone does something like commit suicide the world turns a cold and blind eye to what may have contributed to that person's downward spiral. Authors of literature can take the time to explore this dark side of the person's life, which is exactly what Kate Chopin did in her classic tale The Awakening. Chopin shocked the literary world when she penned the story of Edna Pontellier and her desire to be free of a loveless marriage and boring children. It was written in a time when women were often trapped in such marriages and they had been born and raised to accept such a fate and…

In conclusion, these works all illustrate the changing role of women in 19th century society. At the beginning of the century, women's work was inside the home and raising a family. By the end of the century, Victorian women were attempting to add meaning and fulfillment to their lives. Women in this country were attempting to gain the right to vote, they were forming women's groups and societies, and women like Gilman, Chopin, Wollstonecraft Shelley, and others, were attempting to create their own writing careers, allowing them to be at least partially autonomous and independent. They write of women's struggles for equality and understanding with great knowledge, skill, and perception. They also write of the realities of being a woman in the 19th century. For the most part, women's lives were unfulfilled and controlled by the men around them.

eferences

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening, and Other Stories. Ed. Knights, Pamela.…

She begins to let her own creativity flow and through her art takes a closer view of her own father, who has controlled her since she was a young child. With her pen in hand, Edna realizes that she need not be caged in and just copy what she sees. Instead, she can draw freehand with her own interpretations. She starts to recognize the power that she has as an artist and creator of her own life.

Likewise, Edna begins to understand her sexual power. She is not only free to feel with her artwork, but also with her sensuality and sexual awareness. Now she recognizes the power with both her art and body and is ready to attempt things that once were impossible. For example, she fully experiences her physical power when learning how to swim. At first, she feels "a certain ungovernable dread hung about her when in…

Country of the Pointed Firs," by Sarah Orne Jewett, "The Awakening," by Kate Chopin and "My Antonia," by Willa Cather. Specifically, it will show the development of the complexity, or the straightforwardness, of the point-of-view. Point-of-view is often as difficult to pinpoint as the characters of great novels. Sometimes, the point-of-view in a novel can shift and change, but the bottom line is -- point-of-view is a compelling way to keep the reader interested in the story, while telling more about the characters. Thus, point-of-view is a central part of the telling of a tale, and that is one of the most important techniques a writer can use to get their point across to the reader.

Point-of-View in Three Works

Point-of-view is one of the devices used to make or break a novel, and these three pieces all use point-of-view effectively and quite differently to set the stage, tell the…

Gender Identity/Male-Female Roles and Power Relationship. In a discussionof characters from "The Awakening" by Despite the fact that there are numerous differences existent in the novels The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Light in August by illiam Faulkner, and Their Eyes ere atching God by Zora Neale Hurston, there are some poignant similarities between these three works of literature. They were all written in the years directly preceding or occurring subsequent to the arrival of the 20th century, and they all deal with issues related to race (albeit extremely indirectly in Chopin's book). Moreover, all of these pieces chronicle definite challenges presented to women due to notions of gender and society that were pressing during this historical epoch. Some of the more salient issues affecting women during this time period, such as marriage and motherhood and the degree of autonomy (or dearth thereof) women had in living their lives is explored…

Society looks at women's bodies to define their happiness or unhappiness, but Chopin suggests that women must look deeper into their psyche to find the cause of their personal difficulties.

omen become scapegoats for what is wrong with society. omen are eternally 'misread' by those who claim to love them because they are only seen in terms of their physical or married life. Mrs. Mallard dies of horror when she sees that her husband is alive but his apparent resurrection from the dead is assumed to have stopped her heart with "the joy that kills" by the doctors who examine her body. They cannot conceive of the idea that a lack of freedom, rather than a lack of a man might make a woman miserable. Although Armand is himself of mixed race, as is revealed at the end of the story, it is Desiree who must suffer and is blamed…

William Penn, a Quaker whose father had been an Admiral in the King's oyal Navy, was given a large piece of land as payment for a debt owed by the Crown to his father. Penn had suggested naming the new territory Sylvania, meaning wood, but the King added his surname, Penn, as a tribute to William's father (Uden). Penn considered his venture a "Holy Experiment" and sought to establish a society based on religious freedom and separation between religious and governmental authorities,

Under Penn's governorship, Pennsylvania became a safe haven for all persecuted religious groups like the Quakers. He instituted a ballot system that intended to allow all members of Pennsylvania to have an equal say in their own governance. Some of the provisions of equality and religious tolerance in the charter that he drafted for Pennsylvania would eventually be incorporated into other charters, including the U.S.

Constitution (Uden). Perhaps…

The fact that a novel in the sentimental and seduction genre attained such heights of popularity is, in the first instance, evidence its impact and effect on the psyche and minds of the female readers of the novel. As one critic cogently notes:

hy a book which barely climbs above the lower limits of literacy, and which handles, without psychological acuteness or dramatic power, a handful of stereotyped characters in a situation already hopelessly banal by 1790, should have had more than two hundred editions and have survived among certain readers for a hundred and fifty years is a question that cannot be ignored.

(Fiedler 94)

The initial question that obviously arises therefore is what made this book so popular and in what way does this novel speak to the feelings and aspirations of the readers to make it such a perennial favorite. As Fudge ( 1996) notes,

It is…

Freud and Surrealism

Art and science are strongly interrelated fields. It has been through the recognition of the compatibility between art and science that some of the greatest achievements in both areas have been created. It was Michaelangelo, the artist, that made revolutionary anatomical discoveries in the pursuit of art, discoveries which would become an integral part of the development of medicine. The early mapmakers were the first to create mathematical grids, and those principles would be translated into perspective and proportion for artists recreating three-dimensional objects in two-dimensional art. Along this same vein, the scientific study of the mind, psychology, has had a significant impact on art. The father of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud, discovered the metaphysical "psyche" in his search to understand the symptoms of his patients, opening up science and medicine to the world beyond the physical. Artists latched onto his theories about the importance of the…

Nirvana

Religious doctrine usually includes some form of salvation as a reward for good behavior and for keeping to the tenets of the religion. Each religion treats this general idea in its own way. For the Christian, right behavior lead to salvation from permanent death and promises an afterlife in heaven. In uddhism, the promise is not of an afterlife but of a reward in this world, a reward in the form of perfect peace through a mind free of craving and unwanted emotion. Nirvana is a state of mind and an achievement in itself, for nirvana is that state of mind to which the adherent aspires. It is considered the highest form of happiness and is achieved only by the most dedicated follower of the uddha.

The conception of salvation usually relates to the idea of some ultimate value or being, and it can be thought of as an…

Federalist Papers, the U.S. Constitution was ratified in the late 1780's by the original 13 states. But this new nation would experience a myriad of other changes by the turn of the century. With a new political system, westward expansionism and manifest destiny would guide the new American spirit. Of the most significant transformations on the American landscape of the late 18th and early 19th centuries were the parallel phenomena of the Industrial Revolution and the Second Great Awakening. One an unbridled attempt to expand the material world, the other a fanatical endeavor to revive religious sentiment, these movements were uniquely positioned in time. They would also pull the American psyche in two opposing directions.

The Second Great Awakening was a never-before seen Protestant revival movement that swept through the new nation. Preachers sought converts and converts sought church membership in record numbers. On the other side of the equation,…

Jude the Obscure," by Thomas Hardy, "The Awakening," by Kate Chopin, and "The Odd Women" by George Gissing. Specifically, it will show the Victorian women's struggle for emancipation, even if it meant dying for it. Victorian women had to live under many societal constraints which kept them subservient and shackled to their relationships. When women struck out for independence and vitality, they were crushed by an unbending Victorian society whose mores did not encourage personal growth and transformation for women.

VICTORIAN WOMEN

Each of these novels portray a different facet of Victorian women, however, ultimately the females in these three works all suffer from the constraints of Victorian society, and each one struggles for emancipation and equality in her own way. Each woman lives outside the "norm" of Victorian society and works to become self-actualized long before it was a recognized or accepted concept.

In "Jude the Obscure," Arabella typifies…

Kingdom of Matthias

n the early nineteenth-century America went through a phase of religious revival with many people turning to the religious beliefs in Christendom following the religious instability that took place in the seventeenth-century in England for the reformation of Christians and the community. The most notable event amongst all the momentous events was called the Second Great Awakening, which lasted one year and began in 1830. This year holds a lot of history for a country like America because it was the same year that Americans reached the highest level of consumption of alcoholic drinks, with an average of four gallons per person. This was not only the highest for all the years of American history but also one of the highest in the world. t was in the year that came to be known as 'the spirit-soaked year' when the evangelical preacher Charles Grandison Finney came to…

On June 27, 1844, hundreds swarmed the jail and brutally murdered the Smith brothers, leading their followers to conclude that they were martyred (Sisk).

At Joseph's death, righam Young was president of the Twelve Apostles of their church and became the leader of the largest faction within (Sisk 1992). Some who separated from Young's group formed their own, called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, under the leadership of one of the brothers of Joseph Smith. In 1846, Young's group declared that the "saints" would leave Nauvoo and they settled in Utah the following year and, for the next 20 or so years, many moved to Salt Lake Valley to join those "saints (Sisk)." The growth was so tremendous that many ascribe greater magnetism to Young than to Joseph himself in attracting followers. It is noted that the current-day Mormon Church has millions of such followers…

In McTeague, Norris applied the caged bird motif to illustrate the protagonist's chained existence that was at the mercy of naturalistic forces. As the canary is moved from place to place, so is the protagonist forced to move from one experience to another until he dies. It symbolizes the protagonist's life and death experiences. When McTeague finally dies near the end as he is handcuffed with a corpse, we see the canary also breathing her last: "McTeague remained stupidly looking around him, now at the distant horizon, now at the ground, now at the half-dead canary chittering feebly in its little gilt prison." (Chapter 22)

In Three Lives by Gertrude Stein, we have three important characters Lena, Anna and Melanctha whose lives are succinctly discussed. In this novel, it is Anna's character that can be closely associated with a caged bird. She is a German immigrant who works ceaselessly with…

Hawthorne

Hooper suddenly dons a mysterious black veil "which entirely concealed his features, except the mouth and chin, but probably did not intercept his sight, further than to give a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things," (Hawthorne). This "gloomy" veil is the central symbol of Hawthorne's short story, "The Minister's Black Veil." As with other Hawthorne stories, "The Minister's Black Veil" offers a poignant critique against hyper-religiosity in ultra-Puritan New England. Hawthorne shows that a Christian obsession with the theme of sin has been taken to an extreme, evident in Hooper's mentally deranged methodology. By wearing the veil continuously in her personal and public affairs, Hooper alienates himself from those who care about him, including the community members who used to count on him. On the other hand, guilt-ridden members of the community view Hooper's veil as a sign that the minister is ultra-pious and therefore capable of…

Siddhartha a Buddhist?

Originally published in 1922 by German writer Hermann Hesse, the classic novel of personal discovery Siddhartha has since become one of the most widely read works of religious fiction ever written. By presenting the tale of a young man named Siddhartha coming of age in ancient India, the European-born and Christian-raised Hesse manages to portray mankind's collective yearning for spiritual satisfaction through a highly readable and relatable narrative. hile the novel focuses on the age of Gautama Buddha, whose teachings attracted millions of followers and eventually formed the foundations of modern Buddhism, Siddhartha himself is the son of a respected Hindu Brahmin and has trouble identifying with any particular system of belief. Embarking on an epic journey of reflection and awakening, Siddhartha experiences both self-sacrifice and the temptation of worldly pleasures as he grows into manhood, before eventually encountering Gautama Buddha in the flesh. After gaining firsthand…

Representations of omen

The concept of slavery in America has engendered a great deal of scholarship. During the four decades following reconstruction, despite the hopes of the liberals in the North, the position of the Negro in America declined. After President Lincoln's assassination and the resulting malaise and economic awakening of war costs, much of the political and social control in the South was returned to the white supremacists. Blacks were left at the mercy of ex-slaveholders and former Confederates, as the United States government adopted a laissez-faire policy regarding the "Negro problem" in the South. The era of Jim Crow brought to the American Negro disfranchisement, social, educational and occupational discrimination, mass mob violence, murder, and lynching. Under a sort of peonage, black people were deprived of their civil and human rights and reduced to a status of quasi-slavery or "second-class" citizenship (Foner). Strict legal segregation of public facilities…

Kingdom of Matthias. There are three references used for this paper.

From the Quakers to the Great Awakening to Nat Turner, we have examined numerous variations of where a belief in the 'inner light' or the 'priesthood of all believers' could lead. It is important to examine the cult of Matthias to understand why he was popular, the factors which could have led to his revelations, the social and religious climates and the needs of his followers. It is also important to explore whether the cult was due to the transhistorical appeal or if it offers deeper lessons about early American religious experiences.

Matthias

Robert Matthews was "a carpenter from upstate New York who, after a lifetime of finding God everywhere and economic success nowhere, rode his half-starved horse into Manhattan in 1832, proclaiming his own divinity. He presented himself as not a Christian at all, but as Matthias, the…

Stanton's Solitude Of Self

Elizabeth Cady Stanton's speech before the United States Senate in 1892 was the first major awakening of women receiving the right to vote, thus validating the equal rights for all people as written in the United States Constitution. The actual seed for the first omen's Rights Convention was actually planted when Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a well-known anti-slave and equal rights activist, met Lucretia Mott at the orld Anti-Slavery Convention in London; the conference that refused to allow Mott and other women delegates from the United States because of their gender. This refusal only infuriated the cause, many finding extreme commonality in anti-slavery and omen's Suffrage Movement (DuBois). In 1851, Stanton met temperance advocate Susan B. Anthony around 1851, found that they had a great deal in common and joined together in a three pronged approach to repeal or limit the sale of alcohol, emancipate the slaves,…

representation of Death and the impermanence in the short story "A Father's Story" by Andre Dubus, and the poem "Because I could not stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson. These two works were chosen because both speak of Death and impermanence, yet these authors employ different literary forms, characters, settings and plots. "A Father's Story" follows the format of a short story, being prose written in concise paragraphs with a main point or moral and portraying its characters by the way they speak. "Because I could not stop for Death" follows the form of poetry, being structured in shifted lines and using language to evoke imagination or emotion in the reader. In addition, the two writers substantively approach Death very differently. Comparison of these distinct forms shows how writers can make very different styles and statements about Death and impermanence through different devices, including but not limited to the short…

Dogen's Great Doubt

Both exoteric and esoteric Buddhism teach the primal Buddha-nature [or harma-nature] and the original self-awakening of all sentient beings. If this is the case, why have the buddhas of all ages had to awaken the longing for and seek enlightenment by engaging in ascetic practice? [Masao Abe, A Study of Dogen, 19]

How did Dogen's "Great Doubt" influence his approach to the philosophy and practice of Zen? How is this approach reflected in his conception of zazen (seated meditation) as "just sitting" (shikan taza)? Contrast Dogen's "just sitting" with the koan style of zazen that developed in the Rinzai school of Zen.

To understand his primal Buddha-nature, the Buddha of all ages paradoxically had to stand outside of the material world of suffering. Through meditation, he was able to break within himself the chain of infinite actions or desires that make up the material world. Dogen's great…

religion shaped development of colonial society in 1740s New England, Chesapeake, and the Mid-Atlantic. eligion shaped development in these areas in a wide variety of ways, and the most important religious development during this time was the "Great Awakening." The "Great Awakening" was an important event in American history and religious history. It was the first real step away from the organized, strict religions that had followed the settlers here from England.

The "father" of the Great Awakening was Jonathan Edwards. He wrote a sermon called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," which became very famous. A religious historian writes, "In that sermon he used the image of a spider dangling by a web over a hot fire to describe the human predicament. His point was that at any moment, our hold on life could break and we'd be plunged into fires of eternal damnation" (Matthews). While many…

Jesus' Teachings, Prayer, & Christian Life

"He (Jesus) Took the Bread. Giving Thanks Broke it. And gave it to his Disciples, saying, 'This is my Body, which is given to you.'" At Elevation time, during Catholic Mass, the priest establishes a mandate for Christian Living. Historically, at the Last Supper, Christ used bread and wine as a supreme metaphor for the rest of our lives. Jesus was in turmoil. He was aware of what was about to befall him -- namely, suffering and death. This was the last major lesson he would teach before his arrest following Judas' betrayal. Eschatologically speaking, the above set the stage for the Christian ministry of the apostles, evangelists and priests. Indeed, every Christian is called to give of him or herself for the Glory of God and the Glory of Mankind. The message at the Last Supper was powerful. People have put themselves through…

Colonial Culture efore the American Revolution

The Great Awakening and Religious Change

The Impact of Education

When discussing causes of the American Revolution, most historians cite growing taxation, lack of representation in the national government, attempts by the King and Parliament to curb the power of colonial legislatures, and restrictions on trade as some of the primary causes. Often ignored as a cause are the changes in American colonial society that occurred in the decades before the revolution. Americans began to develop a cultural identity separate from that of Great ritain. Attitudes toward religion underwent sweeping modifications as a result of the Great Awakening. Landed aristocracy was unable to dominate society in the same way that it did in England. Education became more prevalent. New ideas concerning the nature and rights of people were debated and gradually accepted. All of these factors played a part in propelling Americans toward independence.…

The Great Awakening brought people together (though it did also divide them), but its influence on what the United States would later become is great. First of all, it forced people to have their own religious experience and it decreased the heavy hands of the clergy; new denominations also would come to be because of the Great Awakening as a direct result of the importance that was put on personal faith and views on salvation. The Great Awakening also brought the American colonies together and though there was also some division, there was more unification than ever before in the colonies.

The Great Awakening is so significant in the shaping of American and what it would later become because it gave individuals the freedom to find their own peace with life and God as it pertained to their earthly life -- and also to their later salvation. The United States…

Buddha-Nature and Enlightenment

Buddhism is a unique religion: it doesn't worship any deity nor does it require any individual to live their lives through divine will. Approximately 2,500 years ago, when Buddha achieved enlightenment he spent the next forty-five years teaching others that personal growth and awakening is possible through finding the truth within themselves. This concept is very alien in comparison to Western religions. There are many aspects of Buddhism, but what is essential is that personal awakening is possible personal experience and that suffering can be ceased through changing behavior, meditation, and transcendent wisdom. We are grateful to Siddartha Gautama for institutionalizing the practices we call Buddhism today so that we may better understand what Buddha experienced, and what he taught to the people along the Ganges River. Two essential understandings in the teachings of Buddhism are Buddha-nature and Enlightenment.

To understand Buddha-nature we must first to come…

Purple is the color of dusk and twilight, a time in-between day and night, night and day. As such, purple symbolizes transition and transformation. Color is often a mystical symbol for Dickinson in her poetry. Silver and gold make frequent appearances; Dickinson writes about "An everywhere of silver," whereas gold is used in relation to sunlight in "Nature, the gentlest mother." In "Nature rarer uses yellow," Dickinson admires the sparing use of the hue in the natural world. For Dickinson, each color conveys a mood or meaning; its appearance in nature is never arbitrary. Her liberal use of color imagery suggests a deep contemplation of color as an interface between the mundane and mystical worlds.

Spiritual themes in the poetry of Emily Dickinson usually centers on religious awakenings, revivalism, and on personal relationships with God. In "ill there really be a morning?" The narrator is a "little pilgrim" crying out…

She married, and was content, but when given her freedom, she chose to keep it and expand on it. She urged other women to do the same thing, and find their own version of happiness and contentment.

Chopin also was raised by a family of strong women, and in turn, grew to be a strong, independent woman herself. She wanted to create the same feelings in her own daughter, and in other women. She was sure of herself, something that many women of her time were not, and she served as a role model for women who wanted to be like her. While she was heavily criticized for many of her works, but when she died in 1904, most critics praised at least some of her work, and called her a "remarkably talented woman" (Toth 239). Today, she is seen as a feminist ahead of her time, who recognized the…

As one performs their dharma, they earn karma, which is the cause and effect aspect of Hinduism. Karma explains good actions bring good results, and by obeying this principle and dharma, one can experience rebirth into a "better" life that puts one in a stronger position to achieve moksha. The ultimate goal for any Hindu soul is to achieve moksha, which is the liberation from samsara, the cycle of life and death (Chidester: 85). The critical aspect of Hinduism is realizing when the body dies, the Self (Atman) does not die. The Self is carried from life to life, through reincarnation, and the secret to death is to realize the Supreme Self hidden in the heart through meditation and grace (Kramer: 30). Realizing Self in Hindu customs is required to achieve moksha, and be liberated from the endless round of birth, death, and rebirth of samsara. Only when the Self…

Plight of omen in Chopin's orks

Kate Chopin was master at creating female characters that lived out of their own time. Chopin was not what we may truly call a feminist by modern standards but she did attempt to give the women in her fiction the freedom they did not have in her time. Two stories that emphasize the female character and her lack are "The Story of an Hour" and "The Awakening." Louise and Edna are victims of society and, in the end, they never seek the freedom they deserve. These women are portraits of a time gone by that we would do well to remember lest we repeat similar mistakes.

Chopin knew what women went through and she used fiction to bring attention to it. She was writing to an audience that was not quite ready to read what she wanted to say but her message was important…

However, at the same time the onset of what many scholars regard as the first truly national event within the history of the fledgling United States of America took place throughout the 1740's, and indicated that the traditional religious beliefs that mandated a strict following of God would not so easily be overturned. The Great Awakening largely begin when George Whitefield, an Oxford-trained Anglican minster who came to Georgia in 1738, began touring through the lands pronouncing that people had limited time to repent before they were consumed by the fires of hell. This perspective certainly adhered to that which was shared by many of the pilgrims and puritans who initially began the colonies in the 17th century. Jonathan Edwards was another influential factor in this movement, and delivered a number of influential sermons during the early years of the 1740s in which he claimed damnation awaited anyone who would…