As I Lay Dying Novel †Literature Essay

As I Lay Dying Novel – Literature Essay Free Online Research Papers As I Lay Dying Novel Literature Essay Although the novel As I Lay Dying is a work which contains numerous universal lessons as well as countless personal applications, there are a number of these which cannot be ignored. One message that appears to be very important to both the plot and the central theme is that of love. Specifically, Faulkner makes the point that love can be expressed in many ways. This aspect of the book is a major lesson that can be learned from the actions of the various Bundren family members and their relationship to Addie Bundren. Often times, people in our society suppose that, because a person, be it a family member, romantic interest, or other relation, does not express their love to someone in literal terms, i.e. saying, â€Å"I love you,† that the person feels little or no love for them. Other people can see love when it is expressed not only in literal but in related ways, such as kindness and service. Nevertheless, as Faulkner shows in this novel, love for another can be expressed in various and extraordinary fashions. To begin with, one must examine the actual love the members of the family possess for Addie. Addie Bundren extracts a promise from her family, â€Å"when Darl was born I asked Anse to promise to take me back to Jefferson when I died†¦Ã¢â‚¬  When she indeed does die, all of the members of the family go on the trek to Jefferson, but each for different reasons. This displays the inherent love they have for their mother. Dewey Dell has no love for her mother, in fact, she is only glad to go on the trip because she needs an abortion. Darl says to her, â€Å"‘You want her to die so you can get to town: is that it?’† Darl himself has no specific reason expressed in the novel to want to go to Jefferson, and although he probably really loves Addie, despite his statement, â€Å"I cannot love my mother because I have no mother,† he accompanies the family centrally for respect of the promise she has left them with. The statement he makes shows how he apparently can feel the favoritism his mother has toward her â€Å"Jewel.† Jewel is truly the only character in the novel who clearly shows outward signs of love towards Addie. Although these signs are generally symbolic and very deep, they are there. The only way Jewel knows how to express himself is through anger and violence. This he displays countless times throughout the novel, with his physical actions and his verbal assaults, such as the one against the negroes and the white man. â€Å"I can see his [Jewel’s] ears taking on a still deeper tone of furious red†¦ When we pass the negroes their heads turn suddenly with that expression of shock and instinctive outrage. ‘Great God,’ one says; ‘what they got in that wagon?’ Jewel whirls. ‘Sons of bitches,’ he says.† This passage, for example, shows how defensive Jewel gets when normal people react to the obvious reeking stench of his deceased but beloved mother. Jewel is very violent and vulgar in his love. When he, concerning his mother’s gra ve, speaks, â€Å"Who the hell cant dig a damn hole in the ground?† His father, Anse, who apparently believes in only literal love, replies, â€Å"‘It aint respectful, talking that way about her grave,’ pa says. ‘You all dont know what it is. You never pure loved her, none of you.’† This statement is ironic in that Jewel is the one who loves his mother and Anse is traveling to Jefferson not for love or even respect, but for a selfish reason: â€Å"now I can get them teeth. That will be a comfort, it will.† Additionally, Jewel shows his love for his mother through a zoological conduit- his horse. The horse is a symbol of Jewel’s love for Addie as declared, â€Å"Jewel’s mother is a horse,† countless times throughout the novel. When they depart on their trip, Anse makes the comment that â€Å"I told him not to bring that horse out of respect for his dead ma, because it wouldn’t look right, him prancing along on a durn circus animal and her wanting us all to be in the wagon with her that sprung from her flesh and blood†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Again, this is another ironic statement by Jewel’s hypocritical and disrespectful father. In truth, to Jewel, his horse represents his mother, and so, by riding it, he is much closer to her than he could ever be in the wagon next to her dead body. When the Gillespie’s barn is burning, Jewel rushes in to save his mother from burning, it is of importance to note that he rescues the horses first. â€Å"he [Jewel] leaps toward the stall where the horse screams†¦ he appears, his back arched, the muscles ridged through his garment as he drags the horse out by its head†¦He drags it on, slowly, terrifically†¦ and beats the maddened horse on out of the door.† It is only after he has done this feat that he goes back in and grabs the coffin containing Addie’s dead body. â€Å"Jewel runs crouching to the far end of the coffin and stoops to it†¦ We see his shoulders strain as he upends the coffin and slides it single-handed from the saw-horses.† Vardaman, the youngest son, although he loves his mother, is too young and inexperienced with life to understand the scope of what has happened. He wants to go to town to look at a toy train in the toy store. He says, â€Å"We are going to town. Dewey Dell says it [the toy train] wont be sold because it belongs to Santa Claus and he taken it back with him until next Christmas. Then it will be behind the glass again, shining with waiting.† He, like Jewel, also symbolically transfers his mother’s spirit into an animal; in this case, a fish. Again, because of his youth and limited experience, he does not accept the fact that his mother is gone. Instead, as he sees her dead body, he consistently talks about how the body in the box is not his mother. â€Å"My mother is not in the box. My mother does not smell like that. My mother is a fish.† Vardaman loves his mother very much, and so cannot bear the thought of his mother being gone forever. Although he never literall y talks about how he loves his mother, he always expresses it in his own way. It is often difficult to tell, from actions or words, if one person loves another. However, one very moving point that Faulkner made in this novel is that love can be expressed in more ways than simply saying, â€Å"I love you.† Although these three words can be in themselves very moving and meaningful, to many it is very important and comforting to know that the human psyche is capable of deeper and more intense feelings than what is literally apparent. Such a concept can be learned and more greatly comprehended from reading this novel. Research Papers on As I Lay Dying Novel - Literature EssayWhere Wild and West MeetHonest Iagos Truth through DeceptionComparison: Letter from Birmingham and Crito19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyMind TravelTrailblazing by Eric AndersonThe Spring and AutumnEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Understanding International Relations Essays

Understanding International Relations Essays Understanding International Relations Essay Understanding International Relations Essay Additionally, globalisation has not been experienced everywhere to the same extent. In fact, it is probably only applicable to a small percentage of humankind. For instance, only a small minority of the worlds population can connect to the WWW and most people probably never even made a telephone phone call in their lives. Phenomenon such as electronic mail has been mainly concentrated in the so-called North of the world. It could even be argued that globalisation only applies to the developed world. It is very easy to overestimate the scope of globalisation.In the famous book World On Fire by Amy Chua, she notes that in several countries, there are market-dominant minorities- small ethnic groups which control the wealth and the economy. These include the Chinese in the Philippines, the Indians in east Africa, or whites in South Africa. Too often, free market reforms in these countries simply allow the market-dominant minorities to accumulate even more wealth, widening the poverty gap. Anti-globalisation movement claims that integration leads to growing inequality within countries, with no benefits going to the poor.Some see it as the latest manifestation of Western imperialism and capitalism. The forces that are being globalised are conveniently those found in the Western world. Thus, globalisation creates losers, allowing the more efficient exploitation of less well-off nations, all in the name of openness. Contemporary capitalism, driven by Western countries in Europe and North America, has established rules of trade and business relations that do not serve the interests of the poorer people in the world.Ecologically, globalisation has caused phenomena such as global warming, greenhouse effect, ozone depletion and a decline in Earths biological diversity. Rises in carbon dioxide emissions caused mainly by industry is expected to rise ten per cent every twenty years. This owes largely to globalisation. If it indeed does make lives better, how can one explain for the widespread poverty that still exist today? The per-capita income in the richest twenty countries is 37 times greater than that in the 20 poorest7. Accordingly, globalisation cannot, and does not, serve interests of all countries in the world.To conclude, globalization refers to a process in which the world is in many respects becoming a single place. It has in one way or another encompassed every sphere of social life. It brings people together as well as promoting higher economic growth and lower cost goods and provides much wider opportunities and choices at the same time. The advocates say globalization brings the first real chance of prosperity to the impoverished corners of the world whilst the opponents say globalization is the cause of growing poverty and inequality on the planet.However, globalization definitely is not a panacea. It does not hold the answer to universal equality, prosperity, peace and freedom as some had presumed. Poverty is still rampant in the contemporary globalizing world. Human-induced ecological degradation has never been worse. Numerous major armed conflicts were underway and globalization has not provided a formula for increased democracy either. Yet, it lowers costs, broadens choices, delivers more capital and opens more markets, giving the individual more power to control his or her destiny.As the Asian economies demonstrate, globalization can build economies through trade and investment and spur development in even the worlds poorest nations, but it can also bring economies down overnight. Namely, used properly it can be used to massively reduce poverty worldwide and to reduce global inequality. In this light, it seems that globalization itself is neither good nor bad. However, used properly it can bring about many benefits; used hastily it can seriously damage an economy. It must be seen as something to mold, shape and manage. The reality is that globalization is here to stay whether we like it or not.With 1. 2 billion people still living below the poverty line, the foremost challenge is to encourage greater global cooperation in order to provide g collaboration and coalitions to handle the risks emerging from this connected world. There is a need to balance local forces with international forces. A country must carefully choose a combination of policies that best enables it to take the opportunity while avoiding the pitfalls.BIBLIOGRAPHYBaylis, J. and Smith, S. , (2001) The Globalization of World Politics (3rd edn), Oxford University Press Brown, C. (2001) Understanding International Relations (2nd edn), Palgrave.

Nietzsche and The Meaningful Life Philosophy Essay

Nietzsche and The Meaningful Life Philosophy - Essay Example During the industrial revolution, the Western world engendered the new problem of individual existence in the world. This was based on the absurdity and alienation as portrayed in the sufferings of Etienne and Gervaise. People are still disturbed by the question of reasons of living and to find solutions on reasons of suffering. According to Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher meaning of human suffering lies on ‘styling’ through ‘becoming’. He believes that people suffer because they are under a delusion that there exists inherent meaning in themselves and the world. He believes that life is based on contingency and only individuals can instil meanings to their lives. He disagrees with persons following a ‘herd’ and a standard moral conduct. In a pursuit to find meaning in life, one must be courageous and avoid indoctrination of social morals and values. Individuals should then go out to decide on what they want to become because there are no societal intrinsic morals that are permanently embedded in us.( Gravil, 72). Nietzsche in understanding this creates a theoretical argument called ‘eternal recurrence’. This is where individuals live there life in an exact manner over and over again. Having such life demands aesthetic, ones desire harmony and experiences. Through this concept, our life is nothingness and it’s our responsibility to assert meaning to it. For styling to take place, everyone must be contended and build their lives from that. He holds that those who are dissatisfied with life will never find happiness as they will always resent who they are. Nietzsche also proposes the argument that God is dead in his book ‘The Gay Science’. He believes that God remains dead and humans have killed him and no longer aides the survival of species instead he kills them. Nietzsche believes that he is the first to have discovered the death of God. He states that the idea of God lost its fu ll power and creative force.