When there is peace between two different people and cultures it is almost always for the better. The headmaster and the priest of the village for some reason do not get along. “Dead men’s path” by Chinua Achebe shows the struggles of life. It shows that when people don’t get along nothing good can come from it. When people fight and disagree the world shakes; but when people get along it is calm and still. Would you rather shake than be still? Peace in the world is better than war.
Being a man of control, headmaster Obi looks at the path as a thing of destruction. The path in a sense is completely harmless. It represents the dead ancestors coming through the path to visit with family. If this gate way is closed so is the communication. The path symbolizes the communication between the priest and the headmaster. Headmaster, thinking of himself closes the gate way to the village to save his school. He thinks nothing of how the villagers feel, but somehow feels remorse and guilt for what he has done. All he wanted to do was make sure that his school passed the inspection. He tries to regain the peace that he and the priest had once had. By then it was broken and nothing could fix it. If the headmaster would have let things be, the peace would have remained. When something is broken it is then more than one piece. Once it is broken it is usually hard to fix; just like the path in the story. If the headmaster was more considerate of his surroundings the inspection would have done well and no harm would have been caused. Everything could have been fine if the path was never bothered and just left alone.
The path represents death and new beginnings. Without death there could be no new. With every bad thing comes a good. The path is the only way for the ancestors to cross between the village and for newborns to arrive. It is the only way that death can escape, or it will be trapped. As the priest states on page 477 in the fiction book “This path was here before you were born and before your father was born. The whole life of the village depends on it. Our dead relatives depart by it and our ancestors visit by it. But most important, it is the path of children coming in to be born…”. This path was the life of the village and when it was gone so was the village. But because the headmaster refused to listen to the priest, he suffered the consequences as well. His inspection was ruined by the very hate that he shunned against the village. When the school was perfect, there was no hate; only love to fulfill the school of the dreams it could become in the future. These dreams and hopes were then crushed by the path that was now closed off. Everything could have been prevented if one small thing was done differently; the path had remained open.
This story was inspired by the African culture. Everyone perceives a story differently according to what they have learned in the past. If the priest and the headmaster grasped the path in the same way there would have never been a conflict. “A dead men’s path” shows that even though people do not get along we need to learn how to. Many people walk away from situations without trying to compromise. This story teaches us that we need to learn this skill to become successful in life. If you can not cooperate with other people life will be hard for you.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
The necklace essay
When you have everything that you absolutely need in life, what more can you ask for? Matilda Loisel had an average life compared to les unfortunate people. When all her husband did was try to please her, she begs for more. She was unhappy with what she has in life. She believes that it could be more. Matilda wants to be on top and when she can’t have it she complains and whines. The one word that describes her would be greed.
Matilda wanted to be elegant and graceful, but she thought that one must be wealthy to possess these wonderful features. She clearly did not see what was right in front of her. The necklace symbolizes sophistication and greed that she had or wanted in her life. When this necklace was around her neck her life was fantastic. Everyone wanted to dance with her at the ball. But wanting everything can only take you so far in life. Once you get to the top of the mountain everything is wonderful; but you can only stay up there for so long. When you lose your balance everything goes downhill. This is exactly what happened to Matilda when she lost the very necklace that got her to the top in the first place. She lost her elegance and grace. When the necklace is gone, so is the greed. All she felt was guilt and if she had done something differently things would be better. The greed in the necklace was gone and replaced with sorrow. All of the good that came with the necklace came and went just as fast. Because of this error Matilda and her husband spend the next ten years repaying her greed with hard work and labor. If she was not wanting more she would have never lost the necklace. Once finished she finds that her work was for something that was of lesser value. She paid more than the original was worth. This symbolizes that with greed you have to pay more to get rid of something that is so small and not worth your time. Matilda paid off her greed with the replacement necklace she bought for her friend. She finally saw how it was to be less fortunate than she already was. Once she saw this she regretted her actions immediately. She wanted what she had before; but by then it was too late and she was stuck forever. Greed can ruin lives. Yet most people let it control them.
Matilda always wanted more that what she had. She would look at what she had and become sad that she was not rich like her friend. For example on page 15 in the hand out. “She suffered incessantly, feeling herself born for all delicacies and luxuries. She suffered from the poverty of her apartment, the shabby walls, the worn chairs, and the faded stuffs. All these things which another woman of her station would not have noticed, tortured and angered her.” The small things like a scratch on a chair would infuriate her with rage and selfishness. She wanted everything she did not have. Her husband tried with everything he had to please her. He gives her a gift and she needs something to go with it. She will not be seen wearing something that is cheap yet beautiful. When her husband suggested she wear flowers to play up her face she said it was cheap and needed some real jewels. She wanted money to be pleasing to the eye. Yet she still wanted more after everything her husband did for her. Wanting to be famous and rich, Matilda extinguished her comfortable lifestyle for a world of pain. She tried to be more than she really was and she failed. When she wanted everything all she got was nothing.
Greed can ruin a person’s life and how they act. Matilda threw away a good life for something way worse. She wanted money and that was what life meant to her. Money and nothing else. Without money Matilda thought her life was not as important as others. She felt as if she was too low to be noticed and buy her way to the top. All this did was put her at the bottom. The lesson within this story is that you need to be happy with what you have. Don’t ask for more than you need because you will end up with worse than you have. Greed takes you no where.
Matilda wanted to be elegant and graceful, but she thought that one must be wealthy to possess these wonderful features. She clearly did not see what was right in front of her. The necklace symbolizes sophistication and greed that she had or wanted in her life. When this necklace was around her neck her life was fantastic. Everyone wanted to dance with her at the ball. But wanting everything can only take you so far in life. Once you get to the top of the mountain everything is wonderful; but you can only stay up there for so long. When you lose your balance everything goes downhill. This is exactly what happened to Matilda when she lost the very necklace that got her to the top in the first place. She lost her elegance and grace. When the necklace is gone, so is the greed. All she felt was guilt and if she had done something differently things would be better. The greed in the necklace was gone and replaced with sorrow. All of the good that came with the necklace came and went just as fast. Because of this error Matilda and her husband spend the next ten years repaying her greed with hard work and labor. If she was not wanting more she would have never lost the necklace. Once finished she finds that her work was for something that was of lesser value. She paid more than the original was worth. This symbolizes that with greed you have to pay more to get rid of something that is so small and not worth your time. Matilda paid off her greed with the replacement necklace she bought for her friend. She finally saw how it was to be less fortunate than she already was. Once she saw this she regretted her actions immediately. She wanted what she had before; but by then it was too late and she was stuck forever. Greed can ruin lives. Yet most people let it control them.
Matilda always wanted more that what she had. She would look at what she had and become sad that she was not rich like her friend. For example on page 15 in the hand out. “She suffered incessantly, feeling herself born for all delicacies and luxuries. She suffered from the poverty of her apartment, the shabby walls, the worn chairs, and the faded stuffs. All these things which another woman of her station would not have noticed, tortured and angered her.” The small things like a scratch on a chair would infuriate her with rage and selfishness. She wanted everything she did not have. Her husband tried with everything he had to please her. He gives her a gift and she needs something to go with it. She will not be seen wearing something that is cheap yet beautiful. When her husband suggested she wear flowers to play up her face she said it was cheap and needed some real jewels. She wanted money to be pleasing to the eye. Yet she still wanted more after everything her husband did for her. Wanting to be famous and rich, Matilda extinguished her comfortable lifestyle for a world of pain. She tried to be more than she really was and she failed. When she wanted everything all she got was nothing.
Greed can ruin a person’s life and how they act. Matilda threw away a good life for something way worse. She wanted money and that was what life meant to her. Money and nothing else. Without money Matilda thought her life was not as important as others. She felt as if she was too low to be noticed and buy her way to the top. All this did was put her at the bottom. The lesson within this story is that you need to be happy with what you have. Don’t ask for more than you need because you will end up with worse than you have. Greed takes you no where.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Tell tale heart essay
If you were a mad man would you admit it? “Tell tale heart” has a narrator that says he is completely sane. But the question is , do you trust him? If somebody is insane they usually believe the opposite of the truth. The author makes it your choice whether to believe that the narrator is insane or sane. The narrator is trying to convince us he is sane because he was smart enough to hide all the evidence of the murder. Ordinary people don’t have to convince people they are not insane. These concepts in the story are what really make you re-think the story of “Tell tale heart”.
The vulture eye is suppose to be evil. According to the narrator, he is sane for getting rid of the evidence. The vulture eye bothers the narrator with a passion. But instead of quitting his job as caretaker for the old man who possesses the eye, he takes a different route. He decides to murder the old man. “ I loved the old man. He had never wronged me.” Of course he would think of this act as perfectly normal; to break the law. As long and the truth was never revealed and it all stayed a secret. As you can see this narrator is not reliable. In my opinion he is insane because he thinks he is regular when he is nowhere close. The vulture eye represents evil and fear. This is the reason the narrator ends up killing the old man in the first place; because of his evil eye. The eye needed to go and the simple solution in his mind, is to rid of the old man. This is a tragic event but does not declare if it is a tragedy or not.
Irony is a story that is unrealistic. This could be a story from unicorns to vampires as long as it could not happen in real life. “ Tell tale heart” is an Irony because when the narrator hears the heartbeat, he assumes it is the old man coming back to haunt him. In real life this would never happen unless it was hallucination. Most people would either say that it was the narrator’s imagination or his sickness coming into play. The heartbeat represents the fall of the narrator. He reaches his goal and just as he is about to get away with it the heart starts to beat. This makes him feel guilty but can’t control himself while the police are still around. The heart beat symbolizes that in the end the old man wins, because the narrator is caught. Another unrealistic characteristic of the story would be the police. If this was a true story the police would search the perimeter even more than they did in the story. If the narrator was worrying they would have noticed because he was not acting normal. Not that he acted normal in the first place; but the police would have become suspicious of the narrator. Also they would have been less gullible. If a neighbor heard a scream they would never believe it was the narrator in his sleep. But back then, when the story was placed, most things were left without further investigation. Today we would have done everything differently like searching and questioning. Every fact points to Irony. The author made this story and Irony for a reason.
The author of “Tell tale heart” seems disturbed to write such a wretched story. If you researched Edgar Allen Poe you would find that his past life was very tragic. When Edgar was very young both of his parents died. This happens to many kids at young ages, but they eventually get over it and move on with their lives. Unfortunately, Edgar never recovered from this catastrophic incident. After his parents had died he was adopted by the Allen family. The mother was loving of Edgar and the only reason he was treated so well. The father thought otherwise of Edgar. When you get adopted it is usually a very happy moment after the disheartening event that put you there in the first place. It was for Edgar until his affectionate mother was snatched away from him by the wind of death. She was the only one who actually cared for him. After that, almost everything was down hill. The father put him down with every chance he got. Constantly getting negative vibes from his father, Edgar found an escape route into a world of fantasy. He started to wrote deep, dark, poems. I believe that his distressing past inflicted very much on his future. This might be why he wrote such alarming stories and poems. If his life had been happier, most of these stories would not exist.
Edgar Allen Poe had a diverse perspective on everything. He liked to put a twist on his stories endings. If his poems were happy they might not have been as good. In his stories you must look every little detail makes a difference. To truly understand his stories you must look beneath the obvious meaning. Look deeper into what it could possibly symbolize. Edgar Allen Poe was disturbed, but this is what made his pieces so interesting.
The vulture eye is suppose to be evil. According to the narrator, he is sane for getting rid of the evidence. The vulture eye bothers the narrator with a passion. But instead of quitting his job as caretaker for the old man who possesses the eye, he takes a different route. He decides to murder the old man. “ I loved the old man. He had never wronged me.” Of course he would think of this act as perfectly normal; to break the law. As long and the truth was never revealed and it all stayed a secret. As you can see this narrator is not reliable. In my opinion he is insane because he thinks he is regular when he is nowhere close. The vulture eye represents evil and fear. This is the reason the narrator ends up killing the old man in the first place; because of his evil eye. The eye needed to go and the simple solution in his mind, is to rid of the old man. This is a tragic event but does not declare if it is a tragedy or not.
Irony is a story that is unrealistic. This could be a story from unicorns to vampires as long as it could not happen in real life. “ Tell tale heart” is an Irony because when the narrator hears the heartbeat, he assumes it is the old man coming back to haunt him. In real life this would never happen unless it was hallucination. Most people would either say that it was the narrator’s imagination or his sickness coming into play. The heartbeat represents the fall of the narrator. He reaches his goal and just as he is about to get away with it the heart starts to beat. This makes him feel guilty but can’t control himself while the police are still around. The heart beat symbolizes that in the end the old man wins, because the narrator is caught. Another unrealistic characteristic of the story would be the police. If this was a true story the police would search the perimeter even more than they did in the story. If the narrator was worrying they would have noticed because he was not acting normal. Not that he acted normal in the first place; but the police would have become suspicious of the narrator. Also they would have been less gullible. If a neighbor heard a scream they would never believe it was the narrator in his sleep. But back then, when the story was placed, most things were left without further investigation. Today we would have done everything differently like searching and questioning. Every fact points to Irony. The author made this story and Irony for a reason.
The author of “Tell tale heart” seems disturbed to write such a wretched story. If you researched Edgar Allen Poe you would find that his past life was very tragic. When Edgar was very young both of his parents died. This happens to many kids at young ages, but they eventually get over it and move on with their lives. Unfortunately, Edgar never recovered from this catastrophic incident. After his parents had died he was adopted by the Allen family. The mother was loving of Edgar and the only reason he was treated so well. The father thought otherwise of Edgar. When you get adopted it is usually a very happy moment after the disheartening event that put you there in the first place. It was for Edgar until his affectionate mother was snatched away from him by the wind of death. She was the only one who actually cared for him. After that, almost everything was down hill. The father put him down with every chance he got. Constantly getting negative vibes from his father, Edgar found an escape route into a world of fantasy. He started to wrote deep, dark, poems. I believe that his distressing past inflicted very much on his future. This might be why he wrote such alarming stories and poems. If his life had been happier, most of these stories would not exist.
Edgar Allen Poe had a diverse perspective on everything. He liked to put a twist on his stories endings. If his poems were happy they might not have been as good. In his stories you must look every little detail makes a difference. To truly understand his stories you must look beneath the obvious meaning. Look deeper into what it could possibly symbolize. Edgar Allen Poe was disturbed, but this is what made his pieces so interesting.
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