Essay about Suicide in Hamlet - 1448 Words

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, suicide is treated differently on the aspects of religion, morals, and philosophical views. Suicide is the act of deliberately killing yourself in contrary to your own best interests. In today’s society suicide is highly looked down upon. But Shakespeare used suicide and violence in almost all of his most popular plays. Many of his tragedies used the element of suicide, some accomplished, others merely contemplated. Shakespeare used suicide as a dramatic device. A character’s suicide could promote a wide range of emotions: horror, condemnation to pity, and even respect. Some of his suicides could even take titles like the noble soldier, the violated woman, and star-crossed lovers. In Othello, Othello see suicide as†¦show more content†¦During the Renaissance, the discovery of some of these ancient texts was a main spur for the ideas that followed the Renaissance. Most of the Renaissance intellectuals generally affirmed with the i deas of the church about suicide. In Shakespeare’s time suicide had become a paradoxical issue. On one side of the matter it carried the medieval Christian associations of shame and despair. On the other side it was seen as a noble and courageous act in the growing Renaissance tradition. In Hamlet the Christian view of suicide is best played out at Ophelia’s funeral. Her ceremony is very perfunctory and she can only be buried in consecrated grounds, grudgingly because of Ophelia’s high connections. Instead Shakespeare’s plays pity his characters problems which drive them to commit suicide and some approval for their courage. Hamlet has a reluctance to commit suicide because of his religion that he believes in. In his first soliloquy he states â€Å"O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,/ Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,/ or that the Everlasting had not fixed/ his canon ‘gainst self slaughter.† When he states that the â€Å"Everlas ting had not fixed his canon against self slaughter† he wishes that God had not made it a law to not commit suicide. Hamlet is a Christian therefore if he were to take his own life it would be a sin against God. His soul would be condemned and he does not know what would come from the afterlife. We see this best inShow MoreRelatedEssay on Suicide in Hamlet1624 Words   |  7 PagesWilliam Shakespeares Hamlet, suicide is an important and continuous theme throughout the play. Hamlet is the main character who contemplates the thought of suicide many different times throughout the play, since the murder of his father. Hamlet weighs the advantages of leaving his miserable life with the living, for possibly a better but unknown life with the dead. Hamlet seriously contemplates suicide, but decides against it, mainly because it is a mortal sin against God. Hamlet continues to sayRead MoreThe Significance of Suicide in Hamlet1525 Words   |  7 PagesThe Significance of Suicide in Hamlet The concept of suicide is one that is greatly contemplated and discussed by Hamlet and other characters in William Shakespeares play. It can be seen through two of Hamlets soliloquies and his overall demeanor throughout the play. Hamlet has many issues that he must deal with such as the death of his father and the marriage of his uncle and mother. These two incidents led Hamlet to consider the extreme act of suicide to escape the fate that he had been bestowedRead MoreTheme Of Suicide In Hamlet1443 Words   |  6 Pageslost, do not give up. Because if you choose suicide, you will never live to see it get worse, however, you also pass up the chance to see life get better. Suicide is an important, recurring theme in William Shakespeares, Hamlet, and it is a topic that Hamlet contemplates quite often throughout the play. Hamlet often goes back and forth between to be or not to be, but continues to believe that people although capable of suicide, choose to live. Hamlet is adamant that t he unknown, the inconclusivenessRead MoreHamlet- Suicide Essay2453 Words   |  10 PagesWilliam Shakespeares Hamlet- Signifying Death Regardless of a persons age or literary preference it is undeniable that William Shakespeare had a flair for composing dramatic tragedies. Tragedy, when evident is a powerful underlining theme which portrays the qualities of the human capacity. In one of Shakespeares most brilliant plays, Hamlet, tragedy is portrayed through the protagonists constant contemplation of suicide. Shakespeare often alludes to powerful images of death by usingRead MoreThe Theme Of Suicide In Shakespeares Hamlet1190 Words   |  5 PagesSuicide in Shakespeare’s time was a controversial issue. On one hand, it held the theme of Christians, who associated suicide with humiliation and disappointment. Someone who committed suicide would be denied a Christian burial in consecrated ground as further punishment. However, on the other hand, the growing Renaissance tradition saw suicide as a noble and courageous act. Someone who committe d suicide would be denied a ChristianRead MoreSuicide Soliloquy in Hamlet Essay1210 Words   |  5 Pages William Shakespeare is a famous English playwright. His play Hamlet centers around Hamlets decision on how to seek revenge for his father’s death. However, Hamlet is unsure of what course of action he wants to take to exact his revenge. He discusses the idea of suicide as a possible option in his â€Å"To be or not to be† soliloquy. In this soliloquy, Shakespeare uses metaphors, rhetorical questions, and repetition to express Hamlet’s indecision regarding what he should do. Shakespeare uses metaphorsRead More Death and Suicide in Hamlet by William Shakespeare1100 Words   |  5 PagesSuicide, originating from the Latin phrase sui cadere, â€Å"to kill oneself†, is one of the top leading causes of death worldwide. Every year, more than a million people commit suicide, successfully ending whatever feelings of despair, pressure, or suffering they felt when alive. Yet statistics show that the number of nonfatal suicide attempts exceeds that of actual completed suicides. Failed attempts of taking one’s own life reveal the deep, undermining uncertainties humans have about death. Such inquiriesRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Hamlet - Suicide And Selfhood Essay1365 Words   |  6 Pages â€Å"This above all, to thine own self be true† (Shakespeare 1.3.78)--suicide and selfhood: two issues that Hamlet ruminates on throughout Hamlet. Shakespeare reveals the connection between these two ideas through his references to Christianity throughout the play. By juxtaposing characters’ treatment of suicide and murder--two equally grave sins in a world governed by Christian morals--Shakespeare presents suicide as the greater sin because it represents something worse: the annihilation of the selfRead MoreEssay about Suicide in William Shakespeares Hamlet2962 Words   |  12 PagesSuicide in William Shakespeares Hamlet In two of his soliloquies, Hamlet questions whether life is worth living. With characteristic ambiguity and indecision, he wavers as he considers both the Christian and the classical perspectives on suicide. Much of the debate surrounding Shakespeare’s treatment of suicide in Hamlet develops from interpretations of those soliloquies. Focusing primarily on his most famous soliloquy at the start of act three, much critical debate has arisen over the subjectRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Hamlet - The Contemplation Of Suicide And Murder1941 Words   |  8 PagesShakespeare’s Hamlet, the protagonist: Hamlet, contrasts the ideas of life and death to understand whether life is worth living with all the pain one must endure. Hamlet battles an internal struggle throughout the play to decide if suicide is the correct method to alleviate his hardship and dismay, or if he should face the daunting task of avenging his father’s death. The struggle Hamlet is faced with lead s him to debate suicide in his â€Å"To be, or not to be† soliloquy. The contemplation of suicide and murder

Essay on National Defense A Political Perspective

National Defense: A Political Perspective nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The defense of our nation has always been a strong issue throughout America’s political history. Although our nation has not existed a long period of time, our country has had to take up arms to make the world safe for democracy many times. Liberals and conservatives are also constantly up in arms over the issue of the best way to defend the country. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;One of the foremost issues in the ongoing debate is that of a Ballistic Missile Defense program. The idea was first pitched during the tense period of the Cold War. Colin Powell, a prominent conservative, saw Missile Defense â€Å"at the time the time not as a Utopian dream but as a useful way of†¦show more content†¦Concannon 2 The â€Å"Star Wars† space based program especially has met with strong criticism from liberals throughout the last two decades, cited as being to costly to ever be an option for Missile Defense. Some liberals feel that the program is not unreasonable and feel that advanced testing should be considered as technology gets better every day. The issue is still very much unsettled though as â€Å"Before the anti-terror campaign, the issue of missile defense was the single most important test of how the Bush administration would balance the new primacy of unfettered American self interest...†(Keller 1). nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Perhaps the most debated issue between Conservatives and Liberals in the area of national defense is that of the our defense budget. â€Å"Military spending overall, which fell after the Cold War, is now budgeted to start climbing over the next five years†(Pemberton 2). Military spending was severely cut after the lack of necessity for it, but now the issue of military readiness comes into play. The budget of our nation’s military was designed to accommodate fighting and winning two major wars at once, but many conservatives feel that we are spread too thin to accomplish that. â€Å"The angry and frustrated Republican response to Kosovo is caused, in part, by the president’s refusal to pay the cost of his military commitments† (O’Beirne 1). During the first six years of hisShow MoreRelatedGender, Sex, And The Postnational Defense1539 Words   |  7 PagesGENDER, SEX, AND THE POSTNATIONAL DEFENSE Militarism and Peacekeeping Annica Kronsell New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, In the book Gender, Sex, and the Postnational Defense Annica Kronsell is â€Å"interested in exploring the potential defense and its gender implications† (3). Looking at cases in the European Union and Sweden through a constructivist approach to gender she challenges the mainstream perspectives of masculinity and militarism. In questioning â€Å"whether the broader recognition ofRead MoreUnited States Southern Command ( Southcom ) Essay930 Words   |  4 PagesSouthern Command (SOUTHCOM) has been working to build regional and interagency partnerships to ensure the continued stability of the Western Hemisphere and the forward defense of the U.S. homeland for more than fifty years. U.S. Southern Command is responsible to the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States for national security interests through roughly one half of this hemisphere – 31 countries, 16 dependencies and areas of special sovereignty, and approximately four hundred andRead MorePr eventing Delayss In The Aftermath Of Hurricane Katrina1299 Words   |  6 Pagesfuture delays in domestic emergency response does not lie in removing legal protections of Americans, but in the education of political officials on the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 regarding legal use of state and federal capabilities at their disposal and ensuring unity of effort through use of the Dual Status Commander as authorized by the implementation of the National Defense Authorization Act. PREVENTING DELAYS IN THE AFTERMATH OF KATRINA 3 The PosseRead MoreGermanys Current Cyber Strategy1564 Words   |  7 Pageslocated in cyberspace and may determine and shape the future of all prospective battles and wars to come. In this paper, we will look at two separate countries, Belgium, and Russia, and examine what their cyber strategies are pertaining to warfare and defense or security, and current capabilities of these countries regarding cyber-attacks or warfare. We will also be looking at the potential risks these countries present to the United States and the best was the United States can defend against these potentialRead MoreFinland and Sweden on NATO Essay1421 Words   |  6 Pagesjoined PfP in 1994. The nations choose to cooperate with NATO through PfP and other related mechanism. This is because joining PfP as opposed to NATO meant that the members remains neutral and do not commit to the NATO security guarantee and other defense policies of the nation. 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Protectionism Improves National Welfare by Preventing International Price Discrimination Sometimes goods might be sold overseas at prices that are below their production costRead MorePrime Minister Of Denmark Essay1119 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Consequentialists have an easy answer† (Masse). â€Å"As long as the politician advances the proverbial â€Å"greater good† then she is morally innocent, negative side effects be damned† (Masse). Nyborg’s first real test of ethics begins with trying to pass her national budget bill when several members of the parliament are withdrawing their support because they feel she is choosing to use the budget bill to serve the poor in Africa over the poor in Denmark. The ejected politician is caught off guard during herRead MoreU.s. National Security Strategy1398 Words   |  6 Pagesof his presidency, President Obama determined that increasing our strategic focus on the Asia-Pacific Region and rebalance our national power and resources toward this region. 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Rather, the military object must be one â€Å"that will serve the political purpose and symbolize it in the peace negotiations.† As the national interest in question moves from the vital toRead MoreThe Evolution of Federalism and Housing Policy Essay1452 Words   |  6 Pagesthat the political theory of Federalism would generate, and the subsequent evolution of federalism that would follow. The Framers of the Constitution never planned for the federal government to be directly involved with the general welfare of people living within the United States beyond ensuring for a national defense and the creation of a national economy (Wills, 1982). As debatable as this issue was in 1787 and 1788, the subject is still controversial today, and has spawned political factions

Mosquitoes Free Essays

string(61) " in control she brings the interaction to an immediate halt\." William Faulkner’s Mosquitoes is a roman à   clef featuring some of the people and locations Faulkner encountered while staying in New Orleans as a young writer. This paper will examine the relationship between the upper class and the artists and the relationship between the upper class and the workers. In particular this paper will examine the actions and character of the two main characters: Mr. We will write a custom essay sample on Mosquitoes or any similar topic only for you Order Now Gordon and Patricia Robyn, as well as a most interesting character Ernest Talliaferro. Faulkner stages much of his novel aboard a yacht so that they won’t have contact with other members of society. In literature the use of isolating the characters from society is not uncommon for example Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians and The Mousetrap. By separating characters from society, the author is able to focus his or her attention on the people as themselves, almost as if he or she were isolated for a laboratory experiment. Mosquitoes provides Faulkner a forum to examine the artistic life in contrast to the life of the members of the beautiful people and the workers. In particular Faulkner examines the creative growth of the artists and the lack of growth of the part of the others on the cruise (Atkinson, 8). Faulkner stocks his novel with characters representing three groups or perhaps communities of society. He represents the artists with of Dawson Fairchild, a novelist, Mr. Gordon, a sculptor, Mark Moore, a poet trying to â€Å"nurture a reputation for cleverness,† Dorothy Jameson, a painter and Eva Wiseman, a lesbian poet (Fitzgerald 39). Also included with this group is Julius Kauffman who at times serves as a narrator such as when he relates the life story of Mrs. Maurier, hostess of the cruise   or as the philosophic pathfinder for the artists’ discussion throughout the book. Among the social elite are Mrs. Maurier a social dilettante who is quite wealthy and a hanger-on of artists, her twin niece and nephew Patricia, who is the catalyst for much of the book’s action, and Josh Robyn who are visiting from Chicago, and Ernest Talliaferro who is the conduit between three classes. He is a member of the working class as a buyer of women’s clothes for a local department store, he is friends or is at least known by some the artists who don’t really seem to care too much about him, and visits with Mrs. Maurier who also appears to not care about him except for his ability to provide access to the artistic community. The novel is written in six major sections days 1, 2, 3, 4, a prologue where Faulkner gathers up his characters and an epilogue where he returns them to their individual places in society. The sections, Day One through Day Four take place largely Mrs. Maurier’s yacht the Nausikaa. In Homer’s Odyssey Nausikaa was a young woman, daughter of the king, who found Odysseus and brought him into her city to care for him. In Mosquitoes Mr. Gordon represents Odysseus and Patricia Robyn is the analogue of Nausikaa. Mr. Gordon is a sculptor. When the novel begins, Gordon has just finished a sculpture. It represents his ideal woman. It is of a young woman with small breasts who has no head, arms, or legs. Mr. Gordon has sculpted the piece from his imagination rather than using a model. At this time he has little interaction with others, artistic or otherwise. Shortly after the novel begins, Mrs. Maurier, Patricia Robyn, and Ernest Talliaferro visit Gordon’s studio and see the new sculpture. The reactions of both Patricia and Gordon are plot points in the novel. When she first sees Gordon’s sculpture Patricia believes she recognizes the statue as being of herself, â€Å"[i]t’s like me† (Faulkner 28). Mr. Talliaferro describes it more eloquently â€Å"[d]o you see what he has caught? . . . The spirit of youth, of something fine and hard and clean in the world† (26-27). Mr. Gordon is very interested in Patricia in relationship to his sculpture. He examines â€Å"her with growing interest her flat breast and belly, her boy’s body. . . . Sexless, yet somehow vaguely troubling. Perhaps just young, like a calf or a colt† (Faulkner, p. 26). Throughout the book there is a sexual tension between Gordon and Patricia. When they are swimming he twirls her around and throws her into the water. She is thrilled, â€Å"for an instant she stopped in midflight, . . . high above the deck while water dripping from her turned to gold . . . the last of the sun slid upon her and over her with joy† (Faulkner 72). Ultimately it is Patricia and to a less extent, Mrs. Maurier who provide the artistic growth for Mr. Gordon. Just as Nausikaa rescued Odysseus from the sea, Patricia rescues Gordon from his previous tendency to work without a model, working from his mind using ideal types that don’t exist in reality. When Mr. Gordon sees her in her young, self-centered state, he realizes he must work from real life. He makes a mask of Mrs. Maurier. This is significant because it is the first time, as far as the reader knows, that Mr. Gordon had sculpted based on a live person rather than his personal artistic ideal. His growth and change of artistic inspiration to the real world are punctuated in the Epilogue where he walks the busy night streets of New Orleans with Fairchild and Kauffman drinking and celebrating their epiphany of working within society. Gordon leaves the book when he decides to visit a bordello looking for a real woman instead of a fantasy woman (Hepburn, 21-22). Throughout the play Patricia has an androgynous quality about her. Despite her sexual appeal to Gordon and later to David West the ship steward, Patricia is always described as â€Å"hard and firm and sexless† (Faulkner 140). In many ways she seems androgynous, neither male nor female. Although she will flirt with men, kiss them and even run away with them, whenever she feels she is not in control she brings the interaction to an immediate halt. You read "Mosquitoes" in category "Essay examples" She is the female part of the person she and her brother make together. At times they will call each other â€Å"Gus† as if Gus were the real person and Patricia and Josh were just partial personae of Gus. She lies next to her brother for part of the night of day four because she wants to be near him. He will be leaving for Yale the next day where she not be nearer to him than living in an apartment in New Haven. While lying together she asks him â€Å"[d]idn’t you do something to that boat† (Faulkner, p. 261. The yacht had gone to ground and was unable to move for three days, making certain they were uninterrupted by outsiders. This was caused when Josh removed a rod in the steering mechanism, but Josh denies it, â€Å"I never hurt—I never was down there except the morning when you came tagging down there (Faulkner, p. 261). Yet he quickly tacitly admits his guilt when he asks if Patricia has told their aunt. By the second day Patricia is bored with being a living ideal and looks for diversion. She decides to go swimming and coaxes David West, the steward to go with her. While swimming he is aroused by her, he â€Å"looked up at her with an utter longing, like that of a dog.† On day three they leave the ship and try to cross the swamp and get married in Mandeville. Their excursion into the swamp, struggle to find the road and the way to Mandeville with David West seems to foreshadow for Patricia what her life might be if she were to give up her place in high society and marry into the working class. She wouldn’t be able to bear it. She would use up her working class husband, working him until he collapsed from exhaustion. It isn’t long before Patricia treats West like an animal. She is done slumming with the working class and decides to take charge just as her social position permits. She demands, in the face of reason, that they take the direction she chooses when they arrive at the road. This seems to indicate that she realizes she has chosen the wrong way by leaving the boat, representing wealth and high society. She literally rides him into the ground as he carries her when she is too tired to walk. When they discover they have been walking the wrong direction, West collapses. Ultimately they find someone to give them a ride back to the Nausikaa, but she insists on paying with her own money. As a consequence of what David and Patricia went through together David quits his job and is gone the next morning. A curious thing is that Patricia seems to the only one troubled by mosquitoes. Almost exclusively she is the one who â€Å"angled her knee upward and outward from the knee, scratching her ankle† (Faulkner 23). It is she that â€Å"suddenly slap[s] her leg when she and West are planning to enter the swamp. It is Patricia is so badly bitten by mosquitoes that West puts his shirt over her to protect her (Faulkner 150). Of all of passengers, she is the one that is most irritated by the pesky â€Å"mosquitoes† of life. One last point about Patricia that should be made has to do with the evening when she first met Mr. Talliaferro. As Mr. Talliaferro prepares to leave Mrs. Maurier and Patricia for the evening Patricia calls him â€Å"Mr. Tavers.† This is apparently his real name and the incident shocks him. His entrails feel cold because of her statement (Faulkner 31). This writer tried on numerous occasions to find a resolution to this puzzle but was unable to do so. The nearest indication that might solve this puzzle appears in the description of Talliaferro (Faulkner 32) â€Å"[t]hey never did know what became of Mr. Talliaferro’s sister.† This might indicate that Faulkner had initially intended to make some previous connection between Patricia and Talliaferro through his missing sister, but failed to do so in the final version. This event provides a segue to a most interesting character: Ernest Talliaferro. Mr. Talliaferro is a tiny man, eager to please, unwilling to make waves, but eager to spend time with artists, particularly Dawson Fairchild. He is a buyer for the women’s clothes department at a local department store. He married young, was widowed young and set about making himself over. He â€Å"did† Europe in forty-one days and cultivated friendship with artists and members of society, such as Mrs. Maurier. He lacks confidence, often apologizing and knocking into things. He is eager to date women but finds himself unable to get up the nerve. Frequently he seeks Fairchild’s advice. On the second day of the cruise Fairchild tells Talliaferro that he isn’t â€Å"bold enough with women . . . I don’t mean with words. . . . They ain’t interested in what you’re going to say: they are interested in what you’re going to do† (Fitzgerald 96). Sadly, but a bit amusing, Talliaferro takes this advice to heart and tries to implement it with Jenny the attractive young woman whom Patricia invited to attend. On the second day Talliaferro finds Jenny sleeping on the deck. He tries to wake her â€Å"[w]ake princess with kiss† (Faulkner 109) this causes her to awaken but she is terribly frightened. However she does dance with him later that afternoon and things go smoothly until day four when the guests are trying to free the boat and Talliaferro is overcome with desire and grabs her and pulls her with him into the water. Naturally, Fairchild thinks this it is funny that Talliaferro has implemented his advice in such a boisterous fashion and laughs about it. Unfortunately, Talliaferro has not learned his lesson and repeats his efforts in the â€Å"Epilogue† only to be disappointed again. By the end of novel Talliaferro has retreated further into himself and seems to have no interest in a relationship with a woman. Although Faulkner never uses the â€Å"M† word in this book, it is clear by the scratching and slapping that there are both literal and figurative mosquitoes. As mentioned above, Patricia suffers from bites from mosquitoes. Most of characters suffer from pesky, annoying irritations throughout the book. The artists are irritated by the way in which the non-artists want to parade them around on the cruise like some sort of show pony. Talliaferro is irritated due to his inability to successfully seduce women, Josh Robyn is irritated that Major Ayers does not believe that he is making the pipe for fun. Naturally Ayers is upset because he wants to market the pipe, and Robyn will not help him do so. It is in part due to the irritations that Gordon, Fairchild, and Kauffman grow. Prior to the cruise, they had lived their lives working when they could and trying to avoid the pesky little mosquitoes fostered by the non-artists. By the time the cruise has ended they have realized that these pests provide much of the motivation and interest in life. In essence, they have changed their philosophy of art from â€Å"an aesthetic ideology of formalism as part of a larger expression of cultural conservatism (Atkinson, 6) Unhappily, no one else appears to have changed much other than these three. Mrs. Maurier is still the social matron, though she is quite angry with the artists. Patricia Robyn has returned to the self-centered, sexless, hard person she was when she first appeared in the novel. When she says good-bye to the poet Mark Frost, she is just as cold to him as she was to Gordon when she first met his him. Mr. Talliaferro, the wonderful, Chaplinesque man, is still frustrated. He has had no success trying to seduce a woman. However Faulkner tells the reader that Talliaferro was to be married soon. Sadly, he does not appear to tell Ernest. The conclusion that Faulkner draws with this book appears to be that artists need to explore life, down and dirty. However, his apparent conclusion that non-artists will not grow is parochial and hopefully false. This smacks of the self-centered arrogance a young, gifted writer might have before he and his craft mature. Summary of â€Å"Faulkner’s Mosquitoes: A Poetic Turning Point† By Kenneth Wm. Hepburn Hepburn’s thesis in this article is that there was a turning point in Faulkner’s writing that occurred not with Satoris as many scholars have alleged by with Mosquitoes published two years earlier. The author tries to establish that â€Å"the poetic which finally involves from the structural considerations of various artistic strategies is both necessarily prior . . . and central to the development of† the open-ended poetic of Faulkner’s more famous novels (Hepburn 19). To prove his thesis, Hepburn focuses his study on Sections Nine and Ten of the â€Å"Epilogue† (Faulkner 277-288). In the first of these sections Hepburn contends that three of the artist, Gordon, Fairchild, and Kauffman undergo the greatest change. They are walking the streets at night through the â€Å"seedier streets† of New Orleans (Hepburn 20).   In this section each of the artists, Gordon, Fitzgerald, and Kauffman make the transformation from artists that were polarized from each other to artist are more in congruence. In this section there is a parable of three groups, priests, revelers, and rats encounter a dead begger [sic] clutching a piece of stolen bread. The priests in their â€Å"thin celibate despair† (Faulkner 277) and the revelers engage in an orgy-parade cannot be bothered with the dead begger [sic]. Only the rats can appreciate him by â€Å"dragging their hot bellies over him, exploring unreproved his private parts† (Faulkner 281). According to Hepburn the parable indicates that these three artists have changed and recognize â€Å"[o]nly the artist who is willing to wade into life will ever be able to confront it with any intimacy and accuracy† (Hepburn 23). It is evident that Hepburn has interpreted these sections correctly. What is not evident is why Hepburn views Mosquitoes as a poetic turning point. What he appears to prove is that Mosquitoes provides a needed prerequisite to his later writing. This need not signify a turning point but rather may be just one more step along the path toward becoming the writer Faulkner   would become in subsequent years. Works Cited Atkinson, Ted. â€Å"Aesthetic Ideology in Faulkner’s Mosquitoes: A Cultural History. The Faulkner Journal 17, 1(2001: 3-18. Faulkner, William. Mosquitoes. London: Chatto Windus, 1964. Hepburn, Kenneth Wm. â€Å"Faulkner’s Mosquitoes: A Poetic Turning Point.† Twentieth Century Literature 17, 1 (Jan. 1971): 19-28. How to cite Mosquitoes, Essay examples

Chaos and Safety Nets free essay sample

I haven’t won the Nobel Prize yet, but I can make a time machine. All I need is a knife, two slices of cinnamon-raisin bread, a tub of Jif’s smooth peanut butter, a jar of preserves, and a porcelain plate. Lunch is more than a sandwich – it’s a resonating reminder of my childhood. I used to beg my mom to buy cinnamon raisin bread from the corner store; my tiny hands gripping the metal bars of the shopping cart, locking my slate-blue puppy eyes on hers. She hesitated because I ate entire loaves in a matter of days – using it in everything from sandwiches and toast to stuffing and bread pudding. I would trace the swirls of spice with my finger, pretending that it was a map – planning out some indefinite future of mine. It was a messy one – sharp turns, a few long, lonely stretches, raisin-shaped obstacles and an undefined destination. We will write a custom essay sample on Chaos and Safety Nets or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page On the first slice, a thin layer of peanut butter is spread; it’s the glue of the sandwich. It’s stable, safe, and subtle, concealed between two thick slices of bread. A dollop of peanut butter is often taken for granted, but a sandwich with too much peanut butter is inedible. The trick is to resist the temptation to keep the peanut butter and the jelly in a perfect equilibrium. The sticky consistency of peanut butter cannot overpower the tangy taste of the jelly. Though the philosophies of my parents are ingrained my dad’s passion for science, his love of medieval castles, and my mom’s belief in the healing power of dance – their efforts contribute to, but do not determine, the character of their daughter. The peanut butter is the subtle undertone of the sandwich, the essential aftertaste. The jelly is the spontaneous, risk-taking, adventurous condiment. It determines the taste of the sandwich itself. One has such a plethora of choices from sweet, berry preservatives to tart, citrus marmalades – and playing favorites with one is discouraged. Like peanut butter, it’s also a layer of the sandwich that is concealed between thick slices of bread. It’s lucky if a sticky, splash of flavor seeps out; I have never liked a neat sandwich anyway. Not that I would complain when my mom put together perfectly manicured homemade lunches, but the sandwiches I made and ate myself were always more satisfying – even if they were chaotic. I have always preferred passionate, uncontrollable energy to the regularity and restraint of perfectionism. My quirks – a reverent respect for Vivaldi (and absolute void of musical talent), interest in photography and architecture, an intuition for blizzards and thunderstorms – are sugary gifts of uniqueness tha t ought to be explored. This entire sandwich – this body – rests on a porcelain plate. One often forgets entirely about the plate, perhaps because it never seeks to be recognized. Silently, it catches loose crumbs, discarded crusts, and uneaten pieces of the sandwich. Family, friends, teachers, and mentors – the community I have built around me is engineered to weave a safety net for me. I have the luxury of making a mistake – and erasing it too. I can be every aspect of my personality – loud, messy, introverted, organized, curious, quirky, left-brained, and right-brained – and be assured that my community will receive me with open arms. Sometimes I cut my sandwich diagonally; sometimes I cut it into perfect squares. Some days I don’t cut my sandwich at all. I always eat the crusts.