God of Small Things Quotes Essay Example for Free

God of Small Things Quotes Essay Extended metaphor: â€Å"Perhaps Ammu, Estha and she were the worst transgressors. But it wasnt just them. They all broke the rules. They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved and how. And how much. The laws that make grandmothers grandmothers, uncles uncles, mothers mothers, cousins cousins, jam jam, and jelly jelly. Rahel and Estha live in a society with very rigid class lines. â€Å"Commonly held view that a married daughter had no position in her parent’s home. As for a divorced daughter – according to Baby Kochamma, she had no position anywhere at all. And for a divorced daughter from a love marriage, well, words could not describe Baby Kochamma’s outrage†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Chacko told the twins that, though he hated to admit it, they were all Anglophiles. They were a family of Anglophiles. Pointed in the wrong direction, trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps because their footprints had been swept away† The concept of Anglophilia is a big one in this book, from the way everyone fawns over Sophie Mol, to Chackos cocky attitude about his Oxford degree, to the whole familys obsession with The Sound of Music. But its pretty clear that the thing they love also holds them down. When Chacko says their footprints have been swept away, he is making a reference to the way members of the Untouchable caste have to sweep away their footprints so that people of higher classes dont pollute themselves by walking in them. Even though by Indian standards their family is of a relatively high social status, they are of a low social status in relation to the British. Pappachi would not allow Paravans into the house. Nobody would. They were not allowed to touch anything that Touchables touched. Caste Hindus and Caste Christians. Mammachi told Estha and Rahel that she could remember a time, in her girlhood, when Paravans were expected to crawl backwards with a broom, sweeping away their footprints so that Brahmins or Syrian Christians would not defile themselves by accidentally stepping into a Paravans footprint. In Mammachis time, Paravans, like other Untouchables, were not allowed to walk on public roads, not allowed to cover their upper bodies, not allowed to carry umbrellas. They had to put their hands over their mouths when they spoke, to divert their polluted breath away from those whom they addressed. (2.270) This quote speaks volumes about the experience of the Untouchables, and it helps us appreciate the kinds of deeply ingrained attitudes that drive so much of the prejudice and hate we see in the novel. Then [Baby Kochamma] shuddered her schoolgirl shudder. That was when she said: How could she stand the smell? Havent you noticed? They have a particular smell, these Paravans. (13.129) Like Mammachi, Baby Kochamma has a heap of prejudices against other social classes, and these prejudices run deep. By disparaging Velutha out loud and saying that his smell must have been intolerable, she tries to show just how high class she is. Mammachis rage at the old one-eyed Paravan standing in the rain, drunk, dribbling and covered in mud was re-directed into a cold contempt for her daughter and what she had done. She thought of her naked, coupling in the mud with a man who was nothing but a filthy coolie. She imagined it in vivid detail: a Paravans coarse black hand on her daughters breast. His mouth on hers. His black hips jerking between her parted legs. The sound of their breathing. His particular Paravan smell. Like animals, Mammachi thought and nearly vomited. (13.131) Again, we see just how deeply Mammachis prejudices run. She doesnt see Ammu and Veluthas relationship as love between two people, as it might look to us. As far as she is concerned, it is as low as two animals going at it in the mud. The idea of a coolie (lower-class laborer) having sex with her daughter is so repulsive to Mammachi that it almost makes her puke. Still, to say that it all began when Sophie Mol came to Ayemenem is only one way of looking at it. Equally, it could be argued that it actually began thousands of years ago. Long before the Marxists came. Before the British took Malabar, before the Dutch Ascendancy, before Vasco da Gama arrived, before the Zamorins conquest of Calicut. Before three purple-robed Syrian bishops murdered by the Portuguese were found floating in the sea, with coiled sea serpents riding on their chests and oysters knotted in their tangled beards. It could be argued that it began long before Christianity arrived in a boat and seeped into Kerala like tea from a bag. That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much. (1.207-210) This quote is full of what might seem like obscure references, but what its basically doing is pushing us to think about what caused everything to fall apart for Estha and Rahel. Did everything come crashing down because Sophie Mol came to Ayemenem? Or do the events of the novel happen as a result of decisions, actions, and rules that were made thousands of years before any of our characters were even born? Do things happen for a reason, because theyre part of this huge plan, or do they just happen because the world is fickle like that? [Estha] knew that if Ammu found out about what he had done with the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man, shed love him less as well. Very much less. He felt the shaming churning heaving turning sickness in his stomach. (4.245) We can be pretty sure that if Ammu ever found out that Estha was molested, she wouldnt be upset with him. Shed be unbelievably angry at the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man, but she would never actually blame Estha. Yet, in Esthas mind, what happened to him is his fault, and he carries it around as his shame Ammu touched her daughter gently. On her shoulder. And her touch meant Shhhh.Rahel looked around her and saw she was in a Play. But she had only a small part. She was just the landscape. A flower perhaps. Or a tree. A face in the crowd. A Townspeople. (8.48-50) This moment turns the way Rahel understands her role at home upside-down. All of a sudden, things are totally different than they usually are. Rahels realization that theyre in a play shows us that everyone here is playing a part to some extent – they arent being themselves. Sophie Mols arrival topples over Rahels reality; she goes from being one of the leads to being the nobody in the background. Now, all these years later, Rahel has a memory of waking up one night giggling at Esthas funny dream. She has other memories too that she has no right to have. She remembers, for instance (though she hadnt been there), what the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man did to Estha in Abhilash Talkies. She remembers the taste of the tomato sandwiches – Esthas sandwiches, that Estha ate – on the Madras Mail to Madras. (1.10-12) Rahels ability to remember things that happened to Estha and not her tells us a lot about their joint identity and how profoundly she understands him.

Edna Pontellier’s Sin in Kate Chopins The Awakening Essay examples --

Nora's Sin in The Awakening      Ã‚   In writing this paper, I believe, God has given me wings, strong wings, to help me fly above common literary convention. The prophet Isaiah said, "[T]hose who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. . ."(Isaiah 40:31). Because I believe the Bible is the complete word of God, I must conclude that that "The Awakening," by Kate Chopin, is "not a healthy book"(Culley 146). The truths presented in the Bible that lead me to this conclusion are the following. "The Awakening" has a central message that is contrary to Biblical Christianity, denying the headship of Christ and making it seem that people are basically animals and should be able to do whatever they want. It would be possible to argue that Kate Chopin is simply projecting that man is an animal lacking moral obligations without bringing Christianity into the picture, but Kate Chopin made several attacks on Christianity in her fable, and her seeming obsession with tearing down Christ ianity opens her up to Biblical criticism.    On two occasions, Chopin uses terms probably from the King James Version of the Bible, including the term for Christians as "the salt of the earth" and the "Holy Ghost." According to Chopin, Edna, lulled by the sea into deep self contemplation, "received [from herself] perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman"(Chopin 32). Why did Chopin have to bring the Holy Ghost into this? The Holy Ghost, termed Holy Spirit in modern translation, is acknowledged as being equal and one with God. She is using her own twisted irony to imply that Edna's awakening is a step superior to Christianity. The moral or ideal being projected to the read... ...iliar world that it had never known"(Chopin 136). This rebirth, very much different from the Christian rebirth or salvation, is an assertion that life isn't worth living when you are just an animal. This is the awakening that is being glorified by Kate Chopin, and it is not healthy.    Works Cited: Chopin, Kate. Walker, Nancy A. ed. The Awakening Boston, NY Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press. (c) 1993. Crowley, Aleister. The Book of the Law. Access via the world wide web.   URL: http://www.crl.com/~thelema/crowley.html Culley, Margaret. Ed. The Awakening: An Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism NY WW Norton, 1976. Nine Satanic Statements, The. Access via the world wide web.   URL: http://www.marshall.edu/~allen12/cosstate.html The King James Version of the Bible as set forth in 1611.   Bible Truth Publishers, Addison, Illinois. 1983.

O Henry’s Furnished Room Essay

The short story is about a young man searching for his love in a furnished room. He meets the owner of the furnished room that his love has rented recently. In the latter part of the story, the young man commits suicide in the same room where his love committed suicide, too. Moreover, the landlady tells to a friend that she knows the girl that the young man is looking for but she does not tell him because she is greatly taking care of her reputation and her business. She wants no one to know that someone committed suicide on her room because it won’t attract lodgers. INTRODUCTION This paper aims to analyze some stylistic features of O.Henry’s short story â€Å"the Furnished Room†, in order to make further analysis of O.Henry’s particular writing style and its specific effect. The short story was written not just to appraise the young man’s true love to his beloved but to reveal the truth that the capital society makes people cold-hearted. People in that society tends to be indifferent and cruel. They are the ones who LITERALLY mind their own businesses. STYLISTIC ANALYSIS 1. Lexical features and the according effects Adjectives Most of the vocabularies in the story are simple and easy to understand. But it’s obvious that the author also employs many complicated and abstract words, especially the adjectives, in order to create the complex atmosphere in the story. For example, when the author describes the room which the young man rents , large amount of adjectives like â€Å"faint ,sunless, viscid, unholy, rank, foul and tainted, haggard, perfunctory, sophistical, ragged, gilt, gay-papered, desolate, musty, dank, cold†¦Ã¢â‚¬  are used. They can bring visual imaginary and aid the description of the room and the things in it. Actually many of these adjectives are not common words and it’s a little difficult for the reader to understand them. The propose of using these vocabulary may be the author’s intention to let the reader to have a authentic feel of that room and the whole society. Complex word may help produce this kind o f feeling. Noun Phrases One main character of the story is Mrs. Purdy, the landlady. The author tries to describe her in details using some specific noun phrases, such as â€Å"an unwholesome, surfeited worm; her throat seemed lined with fur; furry throat†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Through that way more information of the landlady is added and a vivid figure of a disgusting woman was shown. This ugly appearance of the landlady can really provide a background of her hardheartedness mentioned later. 2. Syntactic features and the according effects This article contains various types of sentences, both simple and complex structure. The author uses not only declarative, but also â€Å"inverted sentences, subjunctive mood, indirect speech†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , aiming to achieve particular effect, such as to emphasize someone or something. Take the specific followings for example: (1) â€Å" Restless, shifting, fugacious as time itself, is a certain vast bulk of the population of the redbrick district of the lower West Side.† The â€Å"first is most important† principle is employed here. At the beginning of the passage, the author uses syntactic inversion to emphasize the unstable atmosphere of the district, aiming to present the background of the whole story at the first sentence. (2) â€Å"†¦ it would be strange if there could not be found a ghost or two in the wake of all these vagrant ghosts.† The subjunctive mood here shows the author’ attitude towards the real world and emphasizes the cruel reality of the society. (3) â€Å"To the door of this, the twelfth house whose bell he had rung, came a housekeeper who made him think of an unwholesome, surfeited worm that had eaten its nut to a hollow shell and now sought to fill the vacancy with edible lodgers. This sentence is rather long and complex, including one inverted sentence and three attributive clauses. The complexity is helpful for the description as it gives and withholds information. The step-by-step revelation can make the sentence coherent and close linked. The reader can be deeply impressed of the situation it describes. (4) â€Å"They comes and goes†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ; â€Å"we has our living to be making†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (the landlady) The short form and grammatical mistake of these sentences prove that the landlady is not actually well-educated and her utterances can reveal her real character to the readers. 3. Phonological features and the according effects In the view of phonology, the story has a specific feature produced by the character of Mrs. McCool, the landlady’s friend. She speaks with non-standard English and sounds strange. (1) â€Å"Now, did ye, Mrs. Purdy, ma’am?† said Mrs. McCool, with intense admiration. â€Å"You do be a wonder forrentin’ rooms of that kind. And did ye tell him, then?† (2) â€Å"Yis, ma’am; ’tis true. ‘Tis just one wake ago this day I helped ye lay out the third floor, back. A pretty slip of a colleen she was to be killin’ herself wid the gas Compared with Mrs. Purdy, Mrs. McCool speaks with non-standard English which is full of grammatical mistakes. The underlined words show some features of â€Å"Black English Vernacular. It implies that maybe she is poor-educated and simple-minded. Her social status can aid with making up the background of the story. 4. Semantic features/figures of speech and the according effects The use of characteristic figures of speech in this article is frequent and effective. Obviously the rhetorical devices here can make the description more realistic and impressing. Take some examples from the story for support. (1) â€Å"their vine is entwined about a picture hat; a rubber plant is their fig tree.† Traditionally â€Å"vine† and â€Å"fig tree† are often planted in house yard and here they stand for stable and happy family life. The author uses metaphor to show peoples’ eager for happy family life, which is not restless any more. (2) â€Å"†¦a housekeeper who made him think of an unwholesome, surfeited worm that had eaten its nut to a hollow shell and now sought to fill the vacancy with edible lodgers.† The author describes the landlady as a â€Å"worm† in order to dram a vivid picture of a greedy woman who always hungers for profit. The employment of animizing produces special effect which may make the reader smile and i mpressed. (3) â€Å"It seemed to have become vegetable; to have degenerated in that rank, sunless air to lush Lichen or spreading moss The carpet in the room are said to become â€Å"vegetable, lichen and moss†, which are disgusting things. What the atmosphere of the room is like can be clearly shown through that metaphor. (4) â€Å"†¦ but it was like a monstrous quicksand, shifting its particles constantly, with no foundation, its upper granules of to-day buried to-morrow in ooze and slime.† The simile here is quite obvious which compare the city as â€Å"quicksand†. It draws a real picture of the cruel city and society which is a heaven and also a hell. The reader may understand why the hero of the story feels desperate and commits suicide hopelessly. CONCLUSION Through the analysis of the stylistic features of O. Henry’s short story â€Å"the Furnished Room†, it can help the reader more understand the writing style of the author. The author uses specific adjectives and phrase to emphasize his description; employs some complex sentences to achieve particular effect; employs some rhetorical devices, such as figures of speech, to make his story more, picturesque; also use the special way of â€Å"surprise ending† to produces the irony and surprising effect at the end of the story.

Socrates and his Philosophy Essay - 1752 Words

Socrates and his Philosophy Socrates makes a profound impact in our minds through his wisdom, power of critical thinking, moral strength and intelligence. It is Plato who immortalizes Socrates in the popular imagination as a man of profound knowledge. Socrates’ effectiveness as a philosopher depended as much on the strength and interest of his personality as on the power of his mind. Socrates’ philosophy was based on discovering the truth, understanding moral life and talking about the elements that make up a good life. According to my judgment, one of the most important things about Socrates quest was, indeed, the unceasing habit and practice of being critical and thoughtful- of not being truly blind to ones†¦show more content†¦On one extreme, there are views according to which only certain definite kinds of lives or in the most extreme versions only a single kind of life is best. On the other extreme, there are views according to which there is no objective answer at all as to what sort of life is good, so that the only relevant consideration is the person’s own judgment. If people think that they are living good or satisfactory lives, then they are, and there is nothing more to be said. Between those two extremes life varies from person to person and perhaps other dimensions as well. There are some objective conditions or requirements that must be satisfied for a life to be good. One may think that the good life is one that contains lots of pleasurable experience and few if any painful ones. Happiness seems to be the standard for measuring the good life to them. But Socrates believed that, happiness cannot be the standard for the good life; the good life has to be gained through avoiding bodily pleasure, because body always misguides us from gaining the real truth about our lives. So, the definition of the good life completely depends on the people’s own ideas, judgments and beliefs. Socrates showed us in his very own way how wisdom interrelated with one’s life and afterlife as well. Pursuit of wisdom should be given most priority because wisdom makes people awareShow MoreRelatedBiography of Socrates, An Annotated Bibliography1581 Words   |  6 Pages Bibliographical Annotations FUTTER, DYLAN. â€Å"Socrates Human Wisdom.† Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review 52.1 (2013): 61-79. Humanities International Complete. Print. 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First I will show you some contradictions introduced in the books of the Apology, and Crito and explain them. Next, I will explain how in the present day Socrates philosophy is false due to the vices of mankind, with evidence from the Apology, then I will show you how Socrates might argue his point and a counter argument in presentRead More Socrates Essay601 Words   |  3 Pages Philosophy in ancient Greece was merely a type of argument, until a pioneer named Socrates showed the world a new way of thinking. Socrates was born in 469 BC in Athens (where he lived all his life) as the son of Sophroniscus, a stonemason, and Phaenarete. In his life, Socrates changed common philosophy, which was a study of why the way things are, into a consideration of the virtue and health of the human soul. 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However, Socrates remains one of the most powerfu l, yet misunderstood and enigmatic figures of philosophy. What is known about Socrates comes from writings of other philosophers, such as his follower Plato, and Plato’s student, AristotleRead MoreWhat Is Philosophy According to Socrates Essay970 Words   |  4 PagesWhat is philosophy according to Socrates? Philosophy is an academic subject that exercises reason and logic in an attempt to understand reality and answer fundamental questions about knowledge, life, morality, virtue, and human nature. The original word for philosophy comes from the ancient Greek word philosopha, which means love of wisdom. Although Socrates himself never claimed to have any answers to the questions he raised, his views and methods of philosophy became the foundations of whatRead MoreSocrates s Philosophy On The Western Civilization1440 Words   |  6 PagesSocrates is one of the most popular philosophers of all the times. He was the first to study ethics and principles of morality and he always claimed that he did not put knowledge in anyone, yet asked serious questions which contributed to numerous debates (Class notes). Despite his high intellectual level, Athens condemned him with several charges such as the corruption of youth as the society of this time viewed secular knowledge as an obstruction to the achievement of spiritual enlightenment (ClassRead MoreGreek Philosophy And The Greek Creation1593 Words   |  7 Pages The word â€Å"philosophy†, comes from the Ancient Greek word (Phileo), meaning â€Å"to love† or â€Å"to befriend† and (Sophia), meaning â€Å"wisdom†; making philosophy stand for â€Å"the love of wisdom†. Philosophy is about understanding the fundamental truths about ourselves, the world in which we live in, and our relationships to the world and amongst each other. It is the study of general problems connected with existence, values, language, and mind. Those who study philosophy (philosophers), engage in asking