The Subconscious in Characters in Gordimers Essay Example for Free

The Subconscious in Characters in Gordimers Essay She feels bewitched and cut off from reality. Marlow experiences a similar sense of insecurity as he travels up the Congo, a journey he describes as a timeless voyage back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings (30). He feels lost and insignificant in his surroundings, which irritates his pressure of being European. Marlow refers to himself and his boatload of pilgrims as wanderers who could have fancied ourselves the first men taking possession of an accursed inheritance We could not understand because we were too far and could not remember, because we were traveling in the night of the first ages, of those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign and no memories (44). Bam and Maureen also experience this psychological transportation from one reality to another. This would explain their unconsciously developed habit of speaking about life outside of the village in the past tense: Whites in the pass offices and labor bureau who used to have to seal with blacks all the time across the counter-speaking an African language was simply a qualification, so far as they were concerned, thats all. Something you had to have to get the job. What are you lecturing about? -But he hadnt noticed he had spoken of back there in past tense (Gordimer, 44). Nature provides an important influence the development of the subconscious in both novels. Conrad depicts Europe as the conquered earth, whereas Africa is described as monstrous and free. The unfamiliarity and immensity of Africas nature to the Europeans heightens their sense of insecurity. Maureen often stares into the wild expanse of the bush, the borders of her freedom, feeling lost and pathetic, a cat at a mouse-hole, before that immensity (Gordimer, 43). During the night, she feels that even the moon and stars had been stifled and the dense bush that hid everything was itself hidden (Gordimer, 47). Marlow also remarks on how the vastness of nature causes him to feel small and lost: Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive, immense, running up high; and at their foot, hugging the bank against the stream, crept the little begrimed steamboat, like a sluggish beetle crawling on the floor of a lofty portico. It made you feel very small, very lost (Conrad, 104). As Marlow is recounting a spiritual voyage of self-discovery, the Smales, particularly Maureen, also take a journey into the hidden self. For Maureen, the end result of having to live a life on mere necessity uncovers the selfishness and darkness within. Eventually, she becomes less and less of a wife and mother and drifts apart from the family. When the helicopter is heard at the end of the story, Maureen is more vibrant and happy than shes ever been since she arrived in the village, and runs for the helicopter, forgetting her family whom she no longer loves or feels obligated to. Little consideration is taken into the consequences she might bring upon her family or to Julys people. Marlows deep psychological journey into his own darkness leads him to the confrontation of the impulsive savagery in his unconsciousness he had never acknowledged while in the deceptive milieu of a civilized existence. Much of this reflection is based upon Marlows final meeting with the power-hungry egomaniac Kurtz, in which he describes him as lack[ing] restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him (Conrad, 133). The modern odyssey the characters take toward the center of the Self within the primitive wilderness of Africa uncovered much of the characters personality the personality that had been hidden under the influence and pressure of being European. The African experience stirred the unconscious forces within the self, bringing out all the true, repressed dark aspects of the personality. Word Count: 1,490 Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness, New York: Dover, 1990. Gordimer, Nadine. Julys People, London: Penguin Books, 1981. McLynn, Frank. Hearts of Darkness: The European Exploration of Africa. New York: Carol Gey, 1992. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Joseph Conrad section.

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The mobility paradigm proposed by John Urry (2000) brought a significant shift into the way of researching in social sciences. According to BÃ ¼scher and Urry (2009: 100), this shift allows theorize the social from the perspective of economic, social and political practices, ideologies and infrastructures. These, as reported by authors (2009: 100), engage the mobility of people, things and information. However, this radical shift in theory goes hand in hand with an inevitable need of new methods to gather sociological knowledge. We can see this need on the example of cycling as a practice of mobility. As Spinney and Brown (2009: 132) stated, the dissatisfaction with such a small range of methods that could help to explain various aspects of cycling has been rising lately. Thus, how to research on this practice of mobility to gain as much sociological knowledge as possible? The answer might be hidden within developing methodologies of sociology with emphasis on visual and sensory app roach. In this essay I will demonstrate how might be cycling investigated with the assistance of new methods that include video. Firstly, the mobility paradigm will be briefly introduced and connected with the realm of cycling. Subsequently, I will show in which ways can be video used for researching. Ultimately, the most important part of this paper will be dedicated to practice shown on examples of two different but in many ways similar investigations. The mobility paradigm, turn from analysing society to analysing mobility, was pioneered by John Urry (2000) in his book Sociology beyond Societies: Mobilities for the Twenty-First Century. The author (2000, 2007) laid the foundations of mobility paradigm and proposed a shift from research on society to ... ...nvestigation. These are participatory video, videography and video elicitation. Accordingly, on an example of video use in sociological research practice we have demonstrated benefits and tried to find drawbacks of this methodology. When researching on cycling, we might encounter various obstacles. For instance, the terrain will not let the researcher to follow the participant and conduct uninterrupted interview in real time. By using of mobile video camera enables to experience and understand various practices (In our case cycling.) that would not be possible to approach and brings a new perspective into contemporary research. Moreover, use of representations allows researchers to produce knowledges that are hard to describe with language. Finally, we can clearly see from our evidence that video bridges the gap between the embodiment of practice and the language.

Historical and Personal Background of the Divine Comedy Essay

This essay is to accompany Between Fortune and Providence: Astrology and the Universe in Dante’s Divine Comedy. What follows is the overview and timeline I wish I had when I first started reading the Divine Comedy. Many commentaries of the Divine Comedy give background historical information, usually consisting of a general introduction and brief explanations when specific characters and events come up within the poem. Here I will proceed sequentially, beginning centuries before Dante’s birth and concluding in the year of his death. When I first mention a historical person whose character appears in the Divine Comedy, the name will be in bold, followed by page references from Between Fortune and Providence. Because this section gives an overview specific to the Divine Comedy, Italy and the city-states of northern Italy, especially Florence, is our focus. This essay is partly organized according to the modern astrological practice that uses cycles of the modern planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. When relevant, we will look at outer planet configurations when they form conjunctions, opening squares, oppositions, and closing squares that correspond to New, First Quarter, and Full, and Third Quarter Moons. Since many readers of Between Fortune and Providence are astrologers or are interested in modern astrology, this will be useful for them. Those who are not astrologers can pass over this material. Here’s a preliminary summary of some the interacting themes of Church, politics, and economics that provide some background for the Divine Comedy. Religion: Understanding the medieval Church takes a special leap of the imagination. The Church had a dominant role in organizing and giving cohesiveness to Europe over a very long time. Yet the Church had its ups and downs, politically and spiritually. Because of its wealth and political power, the Church was also vulnerable to being abducted by strong secular rulers, and this is the case throughout the medieval era. In this essay we first encounter the Church as largely controlled by secular authorities, but reform movements were afoot that would help give it greater independence and spiritual authority over time. As the Church grew stronger, however, it would become more empire than religion and at times was unbelievably worldly. Over the centuries the papacy sometimes inaugurated some attempts to reform the Church. There were also reform movements from the monastic side. Other Church reform2 movements, like the orders of the Franciscans and Dominicans, began with charismatic leaders. There were also some failed attempts that have come down to us as â€Å"heresies.† Two centuries after Dante’s death, one heretical preacher, Martin Luther, would help launch the Protestant Reformation. Politics: In Dante’s lifetime, the Italian peninsula was comprised of many autonomous and economically diverse regions. In the south were the vulnerable but cosmopolitan kingdoms of Sicily and Naples. The central region was governed by the Pope. In the wealthier and more urbanized north, including Florence, there were many independent and prosperous city-states that were frequently at war with each other and with the larger political entities around them. Beginning around the time of Dante’s birth, the â€Å"Holy Roman Empire† was a loose confederation of warring German princes and their territories that were governed by an Emperor – at least in theory. In the centuries before Dante, the Holy Roman Empire was more dominant in Italian affairs. Just before and during the poet’s lifetime, however, the French monarchy had become a major player in European affairs. Dante resented this greatly. He was nostalgic for a renewed Roman Empire, but the reality was the perpetually disappointing contemporary â€Å"Holy Roman Empire.† Dante did not know that Europe’s future would favor not empires but nations like France, England, and Spain. Economics: The monetary and banking systems of Dante’s world would be more familiar to us than its religious and political institutions. Unlike the more rural and feudal Europe to its north and west, northern Italy contained commercial and banking institutions similar to ours. Italy benefited from its proximity to major trade routes and, with the Crusades, more traffic that moved back and forth across the Mediterranean. Toward Dante’s lifetime, Florence was a prosperous banking center and was also known for its textile industry. Dante loathed the commercialization of Florence and northern Italy in general. Yet this commercial activity would help bankroll Italy’s greatest eras in the centuries to come. In short, Dante’s conceptions of the flow of history into the future turned out to be completely wrong. He longed for a renewal of times that would never return.

Critique on Fat and Happy Essay - 875 Words

Savannah Masters Mrs. Williamson W131 23 September, 2014 Fat and Happy? Critique In the article â€Å"Fat and Happy?†, Hillel Schwartz questions why society views fat people as pathetic and unacceptable. He argues that if it were not for â€Å"fellow citizens† (179) mocking and scorning them for being fat, they would be perfectly content with themselves. As well as stating that many people discriminate toward fat people, Schwartz also points out that physicians are giving facts about obesity that are deceptive. Although Schwartz has a strong claim regarding acceptance of the overweight, the absence of support and the lack of writing techniques used in his article defeat the purpose of his argument. Schwartz goes in depth with how society†¦show more content†¦Therefore, this argument is unrealistic and does not break the cycle unless society stops judging altogether. Schwartz proceeds to write an argument about the habit of dieting and how it can affect one’s body. He states that losing and gaining weight rep eatedly can make people become fatter than they originally were (180). Since Schwartz does not have reasonable evidence and fails to include a necessary amount of quotes or statistics on the rate of failed diets, his argument cannot be considered reasonable. Schwarts also claims that dieting resembles a form of cannibalism as a result of eating your own body fat (185). Dieting restricts oneself to eat a certain kind or amount of food. Dieting is not equivalent to starving oneself, or as Schwartz refers to as â€Å"eating your own body fat† (185), thus, this statement is illogical. Along with Schwartz frowning upon dieting, he also believes the world should be a fat place. He believes children will be fed well, not one person will feel self-conscious, and children will not struggle with eating disorders (183). Although Schwartz makes some valid points, Schwartz becomes stereotypical with his â€Å"fantasy†. â€Å"People will wear horizontal stripes and bold colors† is one of the examples of being stereotypical. Fat people do not retain themselves from wearing a design just because it makes them look more wide, but because they simply do not like the pattern (184). WhenShow MoreRelatedCritique Of Fat And Happy917 Words   |  4 PagesCritique of â€Å"Fat and Happy: In Defense of Fat Acceptance† The pressure to lose weight in today’s society constrains the personality and health of overweight people while essentially increasing the weight of those who experience these pressures (Worley 163-167). 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