Chaucer’s “The Parliament of Fowls” and “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” both explore order and disorder in an animal society. By using animals rather than human beings, Chaucer is able to approach with a dichotomy, simultaneously emulating and parodying human society. Chaucer seeks to show the necessary co-dependent relationship between order and disorder. Disorder is characterized as compulsory for order to exist or function. It is this necessary duality that lies at the heart of both texts, and makes the narratives so intricate and compelling.
Category: Essays
Introduction
The moral justification of Spanish presence in Latin America was the proselytization of Christianity. Religion would continue to have an unparalleled impact on the consolidation and maintenance of colonization. Christianity was often the first form of communication between the Spanish and indigenous. It was a key factor in the subjugation of Amerindians. Religion is the perfect grounds for determining the potency of Amerindian identity in the colonial era. One mode of exploring the role of religion in colonial identities is through architecture. As the colonizers conquered and consolidated Latin America, new structures were erected and existing ones modified.
J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians examines the actions and thoughts of the Magistrate, who becomes conflicted as the Empire he is a part of becomes increasingly violent against the perceived barbarian threat. Central to the Magistrate’s turmoil is the perceived superlative nature of the Empire with its objective history and absolute truths, and the irreconcilably immoral actions the Empire performs. The idea of history being written on the body is integral to this supposed unequivocal nature and history of the Empire. Literally, the barbarian captives are written upon. On a more metaphorical level, the torture of prisoners can be seen as an extension of the Empire’s writings. Torture provides an objective narrative, pain, on the subjective body. It absorbs and converts the subjective into the objective, so that only the history of the writer (i.e. the history of the Empire). remains. As articulated by Hegel, the modern Western idea of civilization has long rested on the union of history and its written record(Moses 117). The writing of history on the body then is the Empire, representing Western civilization and colonization, consuming the uncivilized colonized. At its core, Waiting for the Barbarians is about the Magistrate’s search for truth. Coetzee charts the evolution of the Magistrate’s beliefs from objective to subjective, from a Hegelian and teleological perspective to a post-modern and post-structural perspective.
Categories
The Constant Vanity in Araby
James Joyce’s “Araby” follows a nameless narrator as he pursues a girl for the first time, seeking to win her affections by bringing her a gift from the titular bazaar. The short story can be interpreted in many different ways depending on the different facets the narrator is being viewed through. Despite the different commentaries that stem from the multi-dimensional characterization of the narrator, there is nonetheless an overarching, central thesis, surrounding man’s vanity and his desire for an ideal.
Categories
Stanza Structure in The Fish and The Force
Marianne Moore’s “The Fish” and Dylan Thomas’ “The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower” are complex and ambiguous poems that explore the paradoxical forces in a monistic universe where everything is intertwined. Time, nature and humanity are all connected and shown to have contradictory, twin faces: one of creation and one of destruction. Focus will be given to Moore and Thomas’ use of stanza structure to emphasize and reflect their ideas. The stanza structure of “The Fish” and “The Force” are largely different with subtle similarities, but effectively convey the same message, themes and ideas.
Categories
Stanza Structure in When I Have Fears
“When I Have Fears” by the English Romantic poet John Keats is a sonnet that centers on the theme of fear: fear of his own mortality and the brevity of life, and the effects it has on his poetry and love. Keats’ use of the formal aspects of poetry to convey his ideas is particularly interesting, especially when complimented by other literary techniques. In particular, the stanza structure of “When I Have Fears” contributes greatly to the poem’s content. The stanza structure serves the primary purpose of organizing the poem, so that individual themes are more pronounced, hence the poem holistically has greater meaning. The stanza structure is also notable for mirroring Keats’ ideas. The stanza structure ultimately makes Keats’ thoughts clearer and stronger.
Abstract
Gandhi is famous for his pacifist nature and ideology, and is often attributed as one of the main factors for the end of colonial rule in India. Yet this view may not be entirely deserved. Upon analysis, questions are raised about the effectiveness and impact of Gandhi’s ideologies, and there is a strong school of thought that points to Gandhi hindering Indian Independence.
The focus of the essay is to address this view, and answer “To what extent did Gandhi’s ideologies hinder the Indian Independence Movement?”, giving a more thorough conclusion on the value and effect of Gandhi’s ideology to Indian Independence. As such, Gandhi’s key ideologies and execution of said ideologies have been explored, and their pragmatism and impact on Independence examined. Analysis of the unifying effect Gandhi’s ideologies had has also been explored, as that was one of the notable effects.