The lumber-room Essay Example for Free

The lumber-room Essay She starts of in the story looking at the world in a nice light and talking about fantasy creatures, also how nice her life will be when she grows up, gets a job has kids and a beautiful loving husband the usual 13 15 year old female dream. Then she meets Kerry Stevenson and decides from things other people have said that he is not a very nice person. Then she meets Mrs Rutter and decides she is a innocent sweet old lady, she is in fact not very nice and leaves a German pilot in the woods for two days to die a slow pain full death. The story follows a stereotypical approach to looking at old and young people, these stereotypes soon change as you find more about the characters, as the story goes on Mrs Rutter describes how she left a pilot to die as an act of revenge and Kerry turns out to be quite humane and kind lad. At the end of this story, she is walking home and decides that everything is not as it seems and that not every one is stereotypical. I prefer the lumber-room because of its happier out look on life a carefree childish approach to life, also the way Nicolas out smarts his aunt is amusing and made me laugh. The book formed strong pictures in my mind and was enjoyable and easy to read I believe that the darkness out there uses to much symbolism to convey its point, also the lumber-room is much easier to read less description, more action and lets get down to the facts. In the lumber room the only really long descriptive part, is the part where the hunts man is hunting the stag and is himself being followed by some wolves he doesnt take this at face value and makes the story behind the tapestry much more complex than it actually is. I feel he can identify with the hunts man, as he has also hunted his aunty in his own childish way. I think this is an excellent piece of descriptive writing and describes a young Childs imagination very well, he looks at the tapestry and sees past the plane facts and even comes back to comment on it later saying that he thinks the wolves will eat the stag while the hunts man runs from the wolves. In addition the plot is nowhere as near sinister or riveting, as the darkness out there. This story uses lots of light, dark contrasts to show that things are either a bad or good memories, when she walks down by packers end theres a shadow that falls on her and it gets colder, using metaphors to describe her feelings as a physical feeling rather than a emotional one. The darkness and light story left me feeling sad miserable proving grown ups to be fallible and weak, where as the lumbar room story made me feel alive, excited and amused wanting to read more of his antics.

Existentialist Views on Death Essay -- Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Existentialist Views on Death What is Existentialism? Existentialism is a philosophy developed chiefly in the 20th century that attempts find meaning in a seemingly meaningless world. The central theme of existentialism is that an individual must assume all responsibilities for his or her acts of free will without any absolute knowledge of what is right or wrong. Existentialism analyzes this somewhat dismal situation mankind has been thrown into, and produces a model for how an individual should live his or her life. However, why should someone attempt to live a life of morals and meaning in a cold and indifferent world? An analysis of existentialist views on death may lead to an answer to this question. A Brief History of Existentialism Existentialism developed from the ideas of Rene Descartes and his contemporary Blaise Pascal. Pascal rejected the rationalist attempt of Descartes to explain God and humanity, seeing that a systematic philosophy presuming this knowledge was a form of pride. He instead described life, like later existentialist writers, in terms of paradoxes (Akram). Soren Kierkegaard, the first philosopher to refer to himself as existential, developed a philosophy in reaction to the absolute idealism of G. W. F. Hegel. Instead of claiming a rational understanding of the human situation, Kierkegaard stressed the ambiguity and absurdity of it. He asserted that the only way to survive in this situation is for an individual to lead a totally committed life, where this commitment could only be understood by the individual. A person must be prepared to defy social norms in order to serve the higher authority of a personally valid way of life. Being a Christian, Kierkegaard advocated that this commitment sh... ...s are lacking. One fears his or her inevitable finiteness for fear of being unable to transcend existence. These fears cause anxiety, which eventually leads to the reality that ultimate despair means necessary existence. This gives mankind courage to realize its finitude and mobilizes it into action. By fighting death, man will eventually find a satisfactory way to transcend it. Works Cited Akram, Tanweer. Existentialism. 18 January 1991. 6 March 2001. http://www.columbia.edu/~ta63/exist.htm. Green, Celia. The Human Evasion. 6 March 2001. http://www.deoxy.org/evasion/toc.htm. Kemerling, Garrth. Philosophy Pages. 1997-2001. 6 March 2001.http://www.philosophypages.com/. Koestenbaum, Peter. The Vitality of Death. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Company, 1971. Pratt, Alan. Nihilism. 1999. 6 March 2001. http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/n/nihilism.htm.

Compare/Contrast Emily Rose Roderick Usher Essay

Edgar Allan Poe’s â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† and William Faulkner’s â€Å"A Rose for Emily† are two examples of Gothic literature. There are many characteristics of Gothic literature ghostly settings, glumness, and evil predominant over good. All of these traits exist in both stories. Gothic literature was more often than not set in an old building, house, or castle that depicted human decomposition, which formed a feeling of unknown and apprehension. William Faulkner’s â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, and Edgar Allen Poe’s â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher†, both use gothic elements of technique in relating the exterior in order to reflect the grimness these characters feel. The main characters of both stories, Emily, and Roderick both attribute similar characteristics since both stories are of similar Gothic literature. Although both main character deal with Gothic storyline and death there is a lot that the two do not have in common. The title â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† not only pertains to the collapse of the mansion but also to the lingering family members living within the building, and in this case mirrors the characteristics of Roderick. â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher,† starts off on a â€Å"†¦ dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year†¦. † The reader right off the bat is attentive of the grim sense of fester and death. Roderick’s childhood friend (the narrator) explains, â€Å"a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded spirit† as he came closer to the house. Many similarities link the character to the physical attributes of the gothic house throughout the story. On the other hand Emily, in â€Å"A Rose for Emily† had a â€Å"big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. † Throughout her seventy-five years Miss Emily’s house went from a beauty to â€Å"an eyesore among eyesores. † She along with Roderick by the end of their lives were living in old, dark, decaying mansion with spider webs and dust everywhere. Although both of these characters have very similar environments they had different views when it came to death. Roderick’s character is accepting the death of his sister, repenting and not mad, while Emily is not regretful and not in her right mind. ? Lady Madeline, Roderick’s sister by incest, becomes very ill and dies leaving Roderick as the last of the family. Roderick puts her into a tomb in his house and he later comes to find out that she is not dead. On the contrary, Emily, finds out that Homer, her lover was either homosexual or â€Å"not the marrying type† she uses arsenic, rat poison, to kill him so she wasn’t being abandoned by him. Therefore Roderick lost his lover due to illness, so he thinks, and Emily murders hers so she doesn’t have to be alone. Both characters have a skewed perception on love and relationships, which makes them similar. Roderick has unnatural relationships with his family. Him and his twin sister and the only two left of the Usher family and he is in love with her. Roderick doesn’t have a relationship to society he has no friends. He also does not have much of a relationship with nature; nature ceases to exist around his home. Black water, and decaying tree trucks surround it. He also has an unnatural relationship with his own mind. His mind and body are at war with each other. He is very sensitive to light, he can’t take noise and he only can eat very bland food. When a human being has no support system at all they go crazy. Emily had very unnatural relationships. She was controlled by her father, and was not allowed to go out with anyone. She didn’t know what love was so she clung to her father and held on to what she knew. When her father passed she searched for love and found Homer, she wanted him there all the time. This relationship was very twisted because when she found out he did not want her she killed him and slept with his corpse every night so she didn’t feel abandoned. After she passed many people came to her funeral â€Å"the men through a sort of respectful affliction†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The difference between Roderick and Emily was she had known by people in her town but had not seen them or spoken to them â€Å"in at least ten years. † Even with some similarities, there are many differences between the Roderick and Emily. One case in point is their madness level. It is apparent that neither Roderick nor Emily is in their right minds but it also very apparent that Emily is absolutely delusional. Roderick is alone since his sister â€Å"died† and has no one, like I stated before when you have no support system whatsoever it is only a matter of time before you loose your mind. Roderick does grieve over his sisters â€Å"death† and takes care of her body respectfully by putting her inside of the tomb. When Roderick finds out his sister is still alive he ends up dying with her in his arms from pure shock. †¦then with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in a violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated. † Emily on the other hand lives in a state of denial. She doesn’t pay bills or taxes, she doesn’t realize that colonel is dead, she refuses to number her house, her house is very old and doesn’t fit in the town, and she still has china paintings. She murders her â€Å"lover† and continues to sleep with his corpse and see’s nothing wrong with anything she is doing. She is down right insane. She was not seen as a monster because she had never seen love and she was just trying to hold on to what she perceived as love. Both of these characters were in extreme psychological states but in the â€Å"Fall of the House of Usher† Roderick states, â€Å"I have no abhorrence of dangers, except in its absolute effect—in terror. † By this he tries to explain himself as a frightened and misconstrued man, not a crazed lunatic. This confirms the conclusion of repentance. Emily shows no shame by keeping the man she murdered and continuously sleeping with his corpse. She believes she has done no wrong and that he was wrong for wanting to leave her. Roderick nonetheless feels saddened when he believes that his sister passed away and when he finds out that she was still alive he feels shocked, guilty, and shameful. His sister was all he had and he did not want her to leave him just like Emily did not want Homer to leave her but Roderick was not a murderer unlike Emily. Wrapping up, there are many comparisons between Roderick and Emily, as well as many, discrepancies between the two characters. They both had no sense of time, they both were in extreme psychological states, they both had skewed ideas of love, they both had very unnatural relationships, and they both lived in old Gothic mansions. The underlying meaning of both of these stories had to do with death and both of these characters ending up dying at the end of the story. In conclusion there were more similarities than differences but when you read more into the stories the characters were very different in many ways.

Essay on Salvation Through Human Suffering in Crime and...

Salvation Through Human Suffering in Crime and Punishment â€Å"All men must suffer, and salvation can not be obtained unless this suffering is present† (Boland, p.4). All of the characters in the novel experience some sort of internal or external suffering. The main character, Raskolnikov, must grow and realize this in order to overcome his conflicts and reach the salvation of peace within. Dostoevsky’s concentration and focus is on why suffering must exist and how this suffering can be conquered. This is found to be true because in the six sections of the novel, only one is focused on the crime, and the remaining five are concentrated on Raskolnikov’s journey to overcome his suffering. This is the beginning of the punishment. By†¦show more content†¦Rodya believed that if he were extraordinary, he could commit any crime and walk away from it indifferent. One might find that Rodya’s ideas are somehow correlated to the beliefs of Soren Kierkegaard . Kierkegaard believed that truth is both power and suffering. â€Å"The existential man ‘believes’ that life has no meaning, no substance, and no path for happiness. He is the man who knows and accepts that all things good and evil exist, including suffering. This is why the existential man is indifferent toward the benefits and consequences of life (Hong, p. 67). What Rodya didn’t realize was that, â€Å"no matter what – man suffers† (Kierkegaard, p. 190). Rodya thought, because he was an extraordinary man, that he could avoid the truth which would also mean avoiding suffering. It is not until he confesses and is in Siberia serving his sentence that he finds some redemption from his suffering. There can be comparisons to the suffering of Svidrigailov and the suffering of life is suicide. Raskolnikov did not avoid suffering, he was able to conquer it. Before his crime he asked the question, â€Å"Will this crime serve a noble purpose†, (p. 75) he also asks â€Å"do I dare commit this murder and therefore prove myself to be a man by proving that my will is strong?† (p. 76) It is after this that he commits the crime that the suffering begins. Unlike Svidrigailov, Rodya overcomes his pain through salvation with the help of Sonia. Rodya suffers because he is notShow MoreRelated Guilt, Suffering, Confession and Redemption in Crime and Punishment2977 Words   |  12 PagesGuilt, Suffering, Confession and Redemption in Crime and Punishment  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   You keep lying! screamed Raskolnikov, no longer able to restrain himself. Youre lying, you damned clown! And he flung himself on Porfiry, who retired to the doorway, but without a trace of panic. I understand everything, everything! He approached Porfiry. 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The nature of good and evil can be seen on a day to day basis in the way people act towards others, the crimes they have committed or the lies they do or do not tell. In the book, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there is a recurring theme of the nature of good and e vil; this can be seen in the characters Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale and RogerRead More No Exit - Hell Essay842 Words   |  4 Pagesthroats of men and children alike; The images of suffering, flame pits and blood, the smell of burning flesh, the shrieking of those who have fallen from grace. For centuries man has sought out ways to cleanse his soul, to repent for his sins and possibly secure his passage into paradise, all evoked by the fear of eternal damnation and pain. The early 20th century philosopher and existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre saw life as an endless realm of suffering and a complete void of nothingness. His pessimistic