Emerson concepts in ‘Kite Runner’ and ‘Giovanni’s Room’ Essay Example for Free

Emerson concepts in ‘Kite Runner’ and ‘Giovanni’s Room’ Essay â€Å"Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. † (Emerson. 2) Thus we live in a world, where in order to fit we must ‘conform’ but Emerson believes that â€Å"whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist,† (2) and that â€Å"nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. † (2) Self reliance and independence of thought, which are fundamental to Emerson’s perspective, are integral to the understanding and analysis of the characters in ‘The Kite Runner’ (Hosseini, 2003) and ‘Giovanni’s Room’ (Baldwin, 1956). ‘The Kite Runner,’ is a tale of two boys in 1970’s Kabul; growing up amidst discrimination, bigotry and class structure in society – in this case Afghan society Hassan, a Hazara – a minority group of Afghanis who follow Islamic beliefs called Shi’a – although a friend and half-brother, is a lower-class servant to Amir. Amir, a Pushtun – the majority, who believe they are a better class than the Hazara and who follow the Sunn sect of Islam although raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse as Hassan, lives in a different sphere of existence. Amir is the legitimate son of Baba, a prominent and wealthy man, whereas Hassan is the illegitimate one and raised by Baba’s servant. Both lost their mothers – Amir at birth and Hassan a week after birth, when she ran â€Å"off with a clan of singers and dancers. † (Hosseini 4) â€Å"For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure,† (Emerson 4) and thus Baba, rather than be subjected to the displeasures of his society, opts to conform to its rules and customs that â€Å"loves not realities and creators, but names and customs,† (Emerson 2) and not reveal that Hassan is his son by a Hazara woman. His justice, or what Emerson characterizes as ‘compensation’ (The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) is the loss of Hassan and his love. This same class difference between Amir and Hassan, largely dictates and limits their relationship. â€Å"It is easy enough for a firm man who knows the world to brook the rage of the cultivated classes,† (Emerson 4) and Hassan, the victim of such discrimination and class structure, remains completely devoted and loyal to Amir, both as his servant and as his friend. He shows his loyalty when he and Amir are terrorized by Assef, â€Å" a word for the creature that Assef was †¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢sociopath’ (Hosseini 25-26) who admires Hitler for eliminating the Jews and with whom he aims to emulate by destroying the Hazaras. Hassan stands up to Assef and his friends. Although frightened, he holds â€Å"the slingshot pointed directly at Assef’s face† (Hosseini 28) and shouts â€Å"if you move, they’ll have to change your nickname from Assef the ‘Ear Eater’ to ‘One-Eyed Assef. † (Hosseini 29) Assef, never forgetting a slight, plots revenge. Just as Hassan makes Amirs breakfast, folds his clothes, and cleans his room, so does he cater to Amir in kite tournaments. Even though Hassan shares in the excitement of kite fighting, he does not actually have control over the kite. Hassan may help the kite lift-and-dive, but Amir is the one who claims a victory. Hassan may catch a cherished rival kite and hold it in his arms, but always to bring it back to Amir, to whom it then belongs. His joy is explicit, special, and secondary just like his experience of wealth and privilege while living in Babas household. So it is that Hassan is subjected to rape because of his nonconformity to his position as a Hazara and he relies on himself to â€Å"go alone; to refuse the good models. † (Emerson 5) Assef and his friends attack Hassan after he runs for the ‘blue kite’ but although terrified of what is going to happen to him he claims â€Å"Amir agha won the tournament and I ran this kite for him. I ran it fairly, this is his kite. † â€Å"Amir agha and I are friends. † (Hosseini 50) Hassan is brutely raped by Assef but never gives up the kite and brings it back for Amir. Later, when the Taliban came to â€Å"investigate and interrogated Hassan† (Hosseini 149) and ordered him to leave the house Amir’s father’s house – he again shows his loyalty to Amir by protesting. The Taliban â€Å"ordered him to kneel †¦ and shot him in the back of the head. † (Hosseini 150) Hassan dies because he â€Å"accepted the divine place that providence had† found for him; (Emerson 1) he had violated the social expectations of conformity by favouring â€Å"self reliance †¦ its aversion† (Emerson 2) by standing up to his aggressors in loyalty to Amir. Amir, contrary to Hassan, lacks self trust and conforms totally to society, and although enjoying time spent with Hassan, never really calls him his friend. When confronted with Assef the first time he shows his cowardice by wanting to tell Assef that Hassan is â€Å"not my friend,† â€Å"he’s my servant. † (Hosseini 28) It is ironic that when Hassan stands up for Amir against Assef, and calls him ‘Agha,’ Amir â€Å"wondered briefly what it might be like to live with such an ingrained sense of one’s place in a hierarchy. † (Hosseini 28) Yet he himself lives in such a way as to lose himself – his self worth and reliance by conforming to society and its customs. For many years, Amir feels as though he and Hassan are adversaries for Babas love and he is envious of this, together with Hassan’s abilities: â€Å"Hassan made his stone skip eight times. The most I managed was five†¦ Baba †¦patted Hassan on the back. Even put his arm around his shoulder. † (Hosseini 8-9) Amir greatly desires his father’s acceptance and approval and very seldom receives it. He overhears his father say that â€Å"there’s something missing in that boy† and that he believes â€Å"a boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything. † (Hosseini 15) Amir decides â€Å"there was no other viable option† than to â€Å"win that winter’s tournament,† and ‘run that last kite. † (Hosseini 38) He believes that his â€Å"life as a ghost in this house would finally be over† and that he would show Baba â€Å"once and for all that his son was worthy. † (Hosseini 38) On winning the race, he experiences the â€Å"greatest moment of [his] twelve years of life, seeing Baba on that roof, proud of [him] at last. † (Hosseini 45) Following Hassan, who has gone running for the kite, Amir wants â€Å"to make a grand entrance, a hero, prized trophy in [his] bloodied hands. †(Hosseini 46) He finds Hassan â€Å"standing at the end of a blind alley† (Hosseini 49) blocked by Assef and his two friends. But rather than help Hassan, even after seeing the â€Å"look of the lamb† (Hosseini 53) on Hassan’s face Amir runs, telling himself that â€Å"I was a coward† â€Å"afraid of Assef and what he would do† â€Å"afraid of getting hurt† (Hosseini 53) but in reality it is â€Å"the price [he] had to pay, the lamb [he] had to slay, to win Baba. His reasoning â€Å"He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he? † (Hosseini 54) After the rape, Hassans very existence infuriates and irritates Amir because it reminds him of his cowardice – his guilt. He tries to forget what he has done to Hassan and treats him like a servant instead of a friend; he lies about him being ill â€Å"he’s got a cold or something,† (Hosseini 56) he hits him with ripe pomegranates, he asks his father â€Å"have you ever thought about getting new servants? ’ (Hosseini 61) Finally he frames Hassan for theft and Hassan again takes the blame rather than reveal Amir for what he is. Nothing works however, because he cannot discard his guilt as easily as he can discard Hassan himself. Even after later leaving Afghanistan for America with his father, he is never really able to forget and later he realizes you can bury the past but that it â€Å"claws its way out. † He realizes that he has been â€Å"peeking into that deserted alley† where Hassan was raped â€Å"for the last twenty six years. † (Hosseini 2) After returning to Afghanistan and learning of Hassan’s death and his orphaned son Sohrab, Amir endeavours to right his wrongs – â€Å"there is a way to be good again† (Hosseini 2) by locating Sohrab, who is in fact his nephew. He finds Sohrab in the hands of Assef, now a Talib, and being used as a sexual plaything. This illustration of man’s inhumanity to man, gives evidence to Emerson’s belief, that â€Å"the differences among the members of a race are greater than the differences between races. † (The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) Amir must fight and defeat Assef if he is to redeem himself and his past; thus Amir finds his strength of character, the inner strength that he had all along, but believed was somehow missing Emerson’s ‘self reliance’ and ‘trust in himself. ’ Ironically however, it is Sohrab who saves Amir in just the same way as his father Hassan had saved him before – with his slingshot. Amir’s lack of self-acceptance, his desire to win his father’s heart and his envy of Hassan causes him to live his life conforming to an unjust and class conscious society. He places blame on Hassan for the lack of his father’s love and blame on himself for his conformity and the terrible injustice he has caused on Hassan. According to Emerson, one must be able to find a â€Å"blameless living† if they are to be a â€Å"whole man,† (The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) and Amir clearly illustrates his lack of living blamelessly. Just as Hassan was socially alienated, so to is David, in ‘Giovanni’s Room,’ wherein he is faced with a choice between his American fiancee (value set) and his European boyfriend, so ultimately he must grapple with being alienated by the culture that produced him. In other words, does he conform or does he not? Does he be honest with his true self and be reliant on himself? David, unlike Hassan, takes the easy way out and marries Hella. David has been running from himself since his first sexual encounter as a teenager, with Joey, and although he has a profound connection with Joey, he deserts him and spurns his friendship afterwards. In other words, like Amir he conforms rather than live with â€Å"the integrity of his own mind. † (Emerson 2). He becomes what Emerson terms as an ‘imitator’ and lives a life of deceit and denial. Although mixing with the gay crowd, he proclaims his heterosexuality. Later he meets Giovanni and they fall in love. Afraid to commit to Giovanni he has a one night stand with Sue, another American lost in Paris. As with Joey, David deserts Giovanni, whereupon Giovanni goes into a downward spiral and because of lies, false promises, abuse and humiliation he eventually kills and is sentence to death by the guillotine. Giovanni dies because of the people around him; they are envious of his beauty, openness and inward freedom; they pretend to be what they are not ‘imitators’. David remains forever trapped in his own ‘room’, closet, or hell of his irreconcilable identity. (Zaborowska, M. J. 1) He fails in his journey of self-discovery within a society where gender, race and sexuality impacts on national identity. David remains loyal to America, the land of the free but never finds happiness, becoming emotionally dead and hollow, unable to love others, but mostly himself. In summary, we can recognize the lack of Emerson’s concept of self-reliance in the pivotal characters of Amir and Baba in ‘The Kite Runner’ and David in â€Å"Giovanni’s Room,† while at the same time we see evidence of nonconformity to social standards by Hassan and Giovanni. â€Å"High be his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law, to himself. † (Emerson 10) References Baldwin, J. Giovanni’s Room. Dell Publishing, NY. 1956 Emerson, R. W. Essay II Self Reliance 1841 As published on http://www. emersoncentral. com/selfreliance. htm Hosseini, Khaled The Kite Runner courtesy of Shahid Riaz, 2003 http://esnips. com/UserProfileAction. ns? id+ebdaae62-b650-4f30-99a4-376c0a084226 The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Ralhp Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) http://www. iep. utm. edu/e/emerson. htm December 6, 2008 Zaborowska, Magdalena J. University of Michigan. 2003 http://www. litencyc. com/php/sworks. php? rec=trueUID=4964

Oedipus the King: Unrealistic or Realistic Essay -- Oedipus the King

Oedipus Rex – Unrealistic or Realistic  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚   Let’s explore the traces of realsim and its opposite in Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus Rex.    The first obvious question is: How can this drama possibly be considered realistic since it relies so heavily on predetermination and fate in the life of the protagonist, Oedipus? As Jocasta recounts to Oedipus:    An oracle Once came to Laius (I will not say 'Twas from the Delphic god himself, but from His ministers) declaring he was doomed To perish by the hand of his own son, A child that should be born to him by me.    Charles Segal in Oedipus Tyrannus has a solid rebuttal to what appears predestination:    The issues of destiny, predetermination, and foreknowledge are raised as problems, not as dogma. How much control do we have over the shape of our lives? How much of what happens to us is due to heredity, to accidents, to sheer luck. . . . These are the questions that the play raises, and it raises them as questions. It shows us men and women who are both powerful and helpless, often at the same moment. Oedipus embodies the human condition. . . . (75-76).    If this critic is correct that Oedipus embodies the human condition as it really is, then he is totally representative of reality, and not unrealistic as it might appear on first reading. Victor Ehrenberg in â€Å"Sophoclean Rulers: Oedipus† analyzes the protagonist of the tragedy and finds a balanced, realistic type who possesses the qualities of a king, including the human, realistic desire for more:    Oedipus is a ‘good king,’ a father of his people, an honest and great ruler, while at the same time an outstanding intellect. . . . He even shares the thro... ...Sophoclean Rulers: Oedipus.† In Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex, edited by Michael J. O’Brien. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968.    Herodotus.   The Histories. Translated by Aubrey de Selincourt. England: Penguin Books, 1972.    Segal, Charles. Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993.    â€Å"Sophocles† In Literature of the Western World, edited by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. NewYork: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984.    Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. Transl. by F. Storr. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed new?tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0&id=SopOedi    Bowra, C. M.   â€Å"Sophocles’ Use of Mythology.† In Readings on Sophocles, edited by Don Nardo. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1997.         

Difference Between Korea and America

Recently Weston-McEwen High School has added a new foreign-exchange student. Her name is Soyeong Lee and she is 16 years of age with a birth date of April 7th who came from Yongin, Korea which is an urban area and has a similar climate to Athena, Oregon. This decision was made because her school teacher and parents recommended Soyeong to expand her knowledge by experiencing the American culture.The main reason for the decision was her ambition to learn the language while being here in which she studied for years in Korea; she said,† I struggled with the language at first, but now that I’m here it is a lot easier. † Soyeong has made many friends while attending Weston-McEwen High School, and stated,† The students are very kind. † One of Soyeong’s scariest or weirdest memories here was having a dream where American people she met here spoke Korean.The Froese family chose Soyeong to be her hosts while she’s in America. There are many differen ces between the United States and Korea. Some of the biggest differences include: students in Korea attending school from eight in the morning to ten-o’clock at night, having almost no transportation except riding a lot of busses and taxis, teenagers not being able to drive until they are 20 years old, not being able to own a separate house (unless one is really wealthy) and living in apartments due to population.Soyeong said that the schooling is very different and is taken more seriously. They also have to wear school uniforms and are not allowed to dye their hair or wear make-up. Being away from Korea may sound better to Americans, but Soyeong misses the food, family, and friends as she stated, â€Å"The food here is saltier and greasy†. Obviously this is a huge change for Soyeong, but she likes it here too. Most public schools in the United States allow students to wear make-up and dye their hair.Koreans attend school seven more hours than Weston-McEwen High School and that is Soyeong’s favorite part about being here is having time to actually do activities. Soyeong’s main goal is to learn the full English language and make her understanding of the country better. Soyeong Lee will be attending Weston-McEwen High School until December of 2013 and plans on coming back as an adult to attend a private school in Los Angeles. We all hope your experience is great!

Surrealism Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo And Gustav Klimt

The human brain has a way of personifying concepts that would by most means be considered to posses no human qualities. Surrealism is a product of such a brain function, while surrealist art varies in theme and style, all surrealist artwork is characterized as an attempt to capture the unconscious aspects of creativity through juxtaposing of symbol. One common theme among all movements of art is the concept of death and the afterlife. As Surrealism began to take form in the 20th century artist such as Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, and Gustav Klimt began to use surrealist ideas to describe complying themes as death. Surrealism is a practically powerful style to represent death as it relies primarily on the views interpretation over the†¦show more content†¦Dali’s decision to name the piece the Persistence of Memory in some ways can also be interrupted to be related to death as Dali can be quoted in stating â€Å"[I] believe in general death but in the death of Dali abso lutely not. [i] believe in my death becoming almost impossible† in this quote he is referring to himself in the third person to refer to his memory. Just as his work in suggest, memory is much more persistent than out mortal existence. Death is an ideal that is intercity intertwined with our idea of self. Frida Kahlo was a Mexican surrealist painter who painted primarily emotional works that were often self-portraits depicting herself among motifs of nature. In her painting The Wounded Deer Kahlo depicts many arrows puckering the skin of a deer’s body while the head is an expressionless self-portrait with the antlers of a stag. Kahlo’s natural motif. According to Christopher Muscato of the University of Northern Colorado â€Å"Kahlos right foot and leg had been crushed in a bus accident, â€Å" and as a result Kahlo constantly referenced this incident, in the Wounded Deer many believe that Kahlo is referring to when â€Å"[she] returned to Mexico in greater pa in than before, and suffering from emotional depression† (Muscato). This is further indicated as in the lower left corner of the painting the word â€Å"Carma† is written as to refer to Kahlo’s inability to escape her destiny. In her painting Autorretrato con Changuito Kahlo depicts herself surrounded by a monkey, her