The Odyssey And The Symposium - 1620 Words

Often times we live our lives based on what our environments pour into us. Friends, family, media, books and experiences shape our way of thinking. Friends give opinions on what they think should be, family will tell you right from wrong; or at least what they consider right from wrong, media will paint an elaborate picture and give visuals of how to, when to and what to expect, and books open our minds to fairy tales, realities and possibilities. After indulging in some of the â€Å"great books† that include The Odyssey and The Symposium, I can say that these readings, without a doubt, can and will influence and shape the way we understand our lives. This essay will defend the notion that these â€Å"great books,† The Symposium; The poems: Ulysses, Ithaka and Penelope are considered to be fundamentally vital to the human condition. These great readings take us on a journey, a journey of love, loyalty, Perseverance, faith, and the goodness of life. The stories point out some of the most vital aspects of life. In reading The Odyssey, we are able to connect with Odysseus’s journey early on. If we know nothing else about life, we know that in order to be what you want to be and whom we want to be, we have to continue on the course, even in the face of difficulty and struggle. Most call this perseverance. Odysseus had to make a decision to either persevere or give up many times. From the very beginning, Calypso imprisoned him, but because he was connected to the gods and had great faith,Show MoreRelatedVarying Cultural Structures in Homers The Illiad and The Odyssey1008 Words   |  5 Pagesmythology deals significantly with culture and its factors, as they describe the societies and the people inhabiting it by depicting their everyday life and the state of their land. Both Hephaestus, in Homer’s Iliad, and Odysseus, in Homer’s The Odyssey, set out to portray the cultures that they saw, yet the cultures and societies varied great ly, from Hephaestus illustrating the highly developed societies of the Greek and their culture; while on the other hand, Odysseus seems baffled by how underdevelopedRead MoreLove And Devotion : Everlasting Concepts With Innumerable Meanings1655 Words   |  7 Pageschanged; and the studying of great texts such as the Plato’s Symposium, the Book of Ruth in the Hebrew Bible, and the Bhagavad Gita have contributed to the expansion of my knowledge on such abstract topics. Love holds various meanings that vary from person to person, which is largely what is so remarkable about it. Love is an emotion, a drive, an expression; love is many things combined into one strong pull to some force. In The Symposium, love holds many interpretations by the various speakers, butRead MoreThe Odyssey, By Plato And The Triumph Of Odysseus1517 Words   |  7 Pagesa glance but no force can compel it to stay. Love. It was the downfall of Troy and the triumph of Odysseus. The dual nature of love in Greek myth as both destruction and salvation may have led to Plato’s unique conceptualization of love. In The Symposium he speaks of two Aphrodites: Common and Heavenly. The first has domain over physical attachments and is considered vulgar. The second, being divine is concerned with the soul, not the body. It is a heavenly love, a love of the mind, the spirit. ItRead MoreSynopsis Of Sci Fi Paper1002 Words   |  5 Pagesrelentless onslaught of disfiguring radiation (Nace). Materials selected more for their absence of mass than presence of durability. A product of the ever pervasive rocket equation and the binding grip of Earth’s gravitational pull. Moreover, imagine this odyssey as a mission to Pluto, intended to place you as the first person on mars. A proof of concept, affirmation that human expansion is possible. But on this voyage you were exclusively a passenger, the intricate details of the bi-elliptic transfer orbitalRead MoreThe State Of Lying By William Shakespeare2058 Words   |  9 Pagesare these factors. A character is often considered strong or weak based on the language and behavior during the epic or story. That same language along with the person’s traits, can determine whether that character is a great liar or not. In the Odyssey, Odysseus goes to great lengths to lie and deceive the suitors into thinking he’s a beggar. During the fight against the beggar Odysseus downplays the whole situation by stating â€Å"Friends, how can an old man, worn down with pain, stand to a young buckRead MoreThe Quest: An Archetype in Various Cultural Myths Essay2253 Words   |  10 Pagesof the quest archetype and the function it serves within society—to provide meaning and a sense of wholeness to otherwise clueless individuals. The most infamous image of the quest archetype in Greek literature is Homer’s figure Odysseus. In his Odyssey, Homer presents great tests for his classical hero. Odysseus became too prideful based on his many successes in the Trojan War. He then refused to give proper thanks to Poseidon for helping him execute the plan of the Trojan horse. Poseidon had sentRead MoreGreek Mythology And Society : Ancient Greece2283 Words   |  10 Pagesinfluence the people in several different ways. They listen to the tales as a form to live out their lives, yet others viewed them as a form of warning if they were not to obey to the commands of the Gods. Such an example can be viewed within The Odyssey by Homer, which states, for when the gods have made up their minds they do not change them lightly. The gods were feared and worship by many people during the early years of Greece and especially during the Ancient or otherwise known by the ArchaicRead MoreGlobal Warming - Truth or Myth: Two Sides to Every Story Essay2815 Words   |  12 Pagesthe minimum of this cycle, so the sun is in the process of increasing its heat output and we will experience a peak of heat in 2012 (â€Å"11 Year Cycle of Solar Storms Will Peak in Late 2011,â €  2009). â€Å"In 2005 data from NASAs Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide ice caps near Marss south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row† (Ravilious, K., 2007). The most important greenhouse gas is water vapor, which makes up 95% of the world’s greenhouse gasesRead MoreErp System Implementation and Business Process Change: Case Study of a Pharmaceutical Company8522 Words   |  35 Pagestechnology in business processes. Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 6, No. 3 (2000), 224 – 237. J. CHENN Planning for ERP systems: analysis and future trend. Business Process Management Journal, Vol.7, No. 5 (2001), 374-386. CIO Nestle ERP Odyssey – December 2002 (2002), http://www.cio.com/archive/051502/nestle.html S. COLLET SAP Gets Stuck in the Spin Cycle. Computerworld, Vol. 33. No. 45 (1999), 1. T. H. DAVENPORT Process Innovation: Reengineering Work Through Information Technology, HarvardRead MoreProject Mgmt296381 Words   |  1186 PagesImplications for United States National Security,† Global Business Network, Inc., October 2003. Shenhar, A., â€Å"Strategic Project Leadership: Focusing Your Project on Business S uccess,† Proceedings of the Project Management Institute Annual Seminars Symposium, San Antonio, Texas, October 3–10, 2002, CD. Woodward, H., â€Å"Winning in a World of Limited Project Spending,† Proceedings of the Project Management Institute Global Congress North America, Baltimore, Maryland, September 18–12, 2003, CD. Case

The Unfair Experiences of Transgender Inmates - 1900 Words

In 1994, the US Supreme Court addressed prison rape for the first time when they ruled that Dee Farmer, a transgender female inmate, was a victim of cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. Though prison officials knew Dee Farmer was a trans woman, they housed her in a male facility, where she was repeatedly beaten and raped, and subsequently contracted HIV. Farmer argued that prison officials knew that she was vulnerable and at risk for assault but failed to do anything to address the issue. The US Supreme Court ruled that the prison officials violated the Eighth Amendment by â€Å"commit[ing] an act or omission accompanied by ‘deliberate indifference’ to a substantial risk of serious harm to an inmate† (Maruri, 2011, p. 819). Since 1994, several cases related have pushed the issue of transgender inmates in the national conversation. Most recently, Chelsea Manning, who was charged with releasing confidential US military documents came out as transgender over the course of her trial. This helped to focus attention on the experience of transgender inmates in prison . Through the lens of the prison industrial complex, I will explore the experiences of transgender, intersex, and gender nonconforming inmates (TIGNC), a population subjected to gross human rights violations as wards of the State. Although the term â€Å"transgender† is most commonly used to someone who does not identify with their sex assigned at birth, those who identify as intersex or who do notShow MoreRelatedIs Labelling Gender Dysphoria A Psychological Illness Constructive?997 Words   |  4 Pagesand other parts of South Asia (Nanda, 1990). This is likely due to the fact that these groups experience a level of acceptance within their societies that is not present for non-cisgender individuals in Western culture. If this is indeed the case, and transgendered individuals in our society experience distress based on a lack of social acceptance, ra ther than based on the condition itself, it is unfair to call it a psychopathology. A condition can not be called a disorder solely on the fact thatRead MoreCommunity Engagement Papers1947 Words   |  8 Pages In this report, I will talk about my community engagement that pertain to LGBT books for prisoners. the main goal here was to get books sent to the LGBT prisoners in the United States. The target of people they send to are queer and transgender. This program has been able to run because of the volunteers and the outside donations that they receive from the public through their advertisement on Facebook, word of mouth and throughout the community engagement with college students and through the

Gatto’s Against School Free Essays

â€Å"Gatto’s Against School† In John Taylor Gatto’s â€Å"Against School†, the author describes our educational system, from a teachers’ point of view, as boring. Not only are the students bored, but the teachers are as well. Gatto asserts that, â€Å"Teachers are themselves a product of the same twelve year compulsory school program that so thoroughly bore their students and school personnel†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (683). We will write a custom essay sample on Gatto’s Against School or any similar topic only for you Order Now If the teachers aren’t happy with and are bored of the educational system, the students aren’t going to have the want or drive to learn. Students want to be engaged by the teachers. If the material they’re teaching isn’t reacting to the students than maybe it’s time for a change? Like Gatto, I believe that most students only want to learn about something that they have a vested interest in. If they don’ have any interest in it, then of course they are going to be bored. Gatto suggests ways of fixing the â€Å"boredom† within the student. The author asserts that, â€Å"Instead of receiving schooling that bores them, we encourage the best qualities of youthfulness- curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight-simply by being more flexible on time, texts, and tests, by introducing truly competent adults and giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then† (684). I know from my own experience that if I am challenged, and pushed to take a risk, that you can perform at your very best. If the students have to take a class with boring or dull material, than the teacher cannot expect the students to want to push themselves to do their best. Although our educational system has served us as a nation very well, the author believes that it has failed to prepare people for what lies ahead after schooling. According to Gatto, there are three main purposes for schooling, â€Å"1) To make good people, 2) To make good citizens, 3) To make each person his/her best† (685). Gatto believes that these values in and of themselves are not wrong, but that we can’t do enough to achieve them. The author adds the point that, â€Å"The main functions are to hold back and limit progress of the student†. I feel it is not just the educational system but the teaching as well. If there were more competent teachers that understood that the material they are mandated to teach is boring and ineffective, than they should change it, or at the very least suggest a change in material to the head of the department. If one of the purposes of our educational system is to make each person achieve his/her best, than the teachers should strive to make sure the students are getting the best possible product out there. In essence, Gatto’s â€Å"Against School† asserts that our educational system is boring and fails to allow the student to take risks by subjecting the student to the same material that they either already know, or that the teachers themselves are bored with, and or don’t know enough about. After reading this essay, it is hard to disagree with what Gatto states. I believe that changing the material once in a while will allow the student to achieve higher expectations and to help the student to reach his/her personal best. Having competent teachers, will ensure the student has the best subject matter expert to be giving out the material. After all, it’s the student who suffers as he or she is there to gain the knowledge from the teacher; shouldn’t the student get the best? How to cite Gatto’s Against School, Papers Gatto’s Against School Free Essays â€Å"Gatto’s Against School† In John Taylor Gatto’s â€Å"Against School†, the author describes our educational system, from a teachers’ point of view, as boring. Not only are the students bored, but the teachers are as well. Gatto asserts that, â€Å"Teachers are themselves a product of the same twelve year compulsory school program that so thoroughly bore their students and school personnel†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (683). We will write a custom essay sample on Gatto’s Against School or any similar topic only for you Order Now If the teachers aren’t happy with and are bored of the educational system, the students aren’t going to have the want or drive to learn. Students want to be engaged by the teachers. If the material they’re teaching isn’t reacting to the students than maybe it’s time for a change? Like Gatto, I believe that most students only want to learn about something that they have a vested interest in. If they don’ have any interest in it, then of course they are going to be bored. Gatto suggests ways of fixing the â€Å"boredom† within the student. The author asserts that, â€Å"Instead of receiving schooling that bores them, we encourage the best qualities of youthfulness- curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight-simply by being more flexible on time, texts, and tests, by introducing truly competent adults and giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then† (684). I know from my own experience that if I am challenged, and pushed to take a risk, that you can perform at your very best. If the students have to take a class with boring or dull material, than the teacher cannot expect the students to want to push themselves to do their best. Although our educational system has served us as a nation very well, the author believes that it has failed to prepare people for what lies ahead after schooling. According to Gatto, there are three main purposes for schooling, â€Å"1) To make good people, 2) To make good citizens, 3) To make each person his/her best† (685). Gatto believes that these values in and of themselves are not wrong, but that we can’t do enough to achieve them. The author adds the point that, â€Å"The main functions are to hold back and limit progress of the student†. I feel it is not just the educational system but the teaching as well. If there were more competent teachers that understood that the material they are mandated to teach is boring and ineffective, than they should change it, or at the very least suggest a change in material to the head of the department. If one of the purposes of our educational system is to make each person achieve his/her best, than the teachers should strive to make sure the students are getting the best possible product out there. In essence, Gatto’s â€Å"Against School† asserts that our educational system is boring and fails to allow the student to take risks by subjecting the student to the same material that they either already know, or that the teachers themselves are bored with, and or don’t know enough about. After reading this essay, it is hard to disagree with what Gatto states. I believe that changing the material once in a while will allow the student to achieve higher expectations and to help the student to reach his/her personal best. Having competent teachers, will ensure the student has the best subject matter expert to be giving out the material. After all, it’s the student who suffers as he or she is there to gain the knowledge from the teacher; shouldn’t the student get the best? How to cite Gatto’s Against School, Essay examples

Pablo Neruda Poetry free essay sample

He was originally named Neftali Ricardo Reyes, and was raised by his widowed father in Temuco, Chile. He began to show an interest for literacy early as thirteen, being given the opportunity to write limited articles and share his poems in the daily La Manana news paper. With the influence and experience that La Manana newspaper gave Pablo Neruda, in 1920 he was able to branch out and be part of the literary journal â€Å"Selva Austral. † Here he went under the pen name Pablo Neruda in memory of Jan Neruda, a famous Czechoslovak poet and later on made it his legal name. Neruda worked for the government between 1927 and 1935, which allowed him to visit many cities all over Latin America. With this privilege not only was he able to do many honorary consulships for the government he was able to create some of the best selling poems with the influence of his many experiences. (First article in works cited) â€Å"Walking around† is one of Pablo Neruda’s well known poem in Latin America written in 19 In this piece of literature Neruda approaches the matter of man vs. society. Throughout the poem he expresses anger and his displeased feelings towards the corruption that is occurring in modern day â€Å"It so happens that I am sick of my feet and my nails/ and my hair and my shadow/ It so happens I am sick of being a man. † In this stanza Pablo Neruda exemplifies how tired he is of the demoralization that is happening in the society, by using his own appearance as a metaphor to what he constantly sees in everyday life. In reality he’s not really sick of his feet, nails, hair, or shadow, he’s actually sick of observing the decisions that people have made and it’s outcome (impact). The fact that he’s not able to know if things will improve, torments the man walking around because all he sees is a world full of laziness and people seeking for the easy way in life â€Å" The only thing I want is to lie still like stones or wool/ The only thing I want is to see no more stores, no gardens/ no more goods, no spectacles, no elevators. † As the reader continues to get deeper into the poem, modernization becomes what Neruda is trying to portray as the drastic impact of society. In the stanza provided above, he explains that things have gotten way easier to receive and to do, which has affected us in various ways. Before factories were built, or technology was invented, people actually had to grow their own food, use fire as their light and rely on it for heat. With the society being modernized, human beings have forgotten how to appreciate nature and the value of creating things for their own benefits. Not only have we been spoiled with the advanced technology that we have today, many have become adversed to labor expecting things to be already done by others. Walking around† focuses on the changes that many people do not see happening, which is the corruption of society. A countless amount of the population seem to be too busy or caught up in their own lives, simply not realizing what is surrounding them. In contrast Neruda stays in disgust while observing everything that seems to be affecting humanity unconsciously. He realizes that he is tired of s eeing the repetition of deterioration to the value of nature, and gets tired of being a man stuck in the society that’s falling apart. Walking Around† is an extraordinary poem because it touches important topics which only a few during that time period were aware of. What really caught my attention in this piece of literature are the examples of personification and vivid imagery that Neruda provides. They demonstrate how strong Pablo Neruda feels towards the matter that he conveys, which allows the reader to distinguish the tone of disgust and depression which the poet establishes. Not only was Pablo Neruda known for his poems about important arguments, he was well known for his poetry of romance. While reading a couple of Pablo Neruda’s literacy, I came across some of his love poems, and was drawn to â€Å"Poem 20† also known as the â€Å"Saddest Poem. † Here he expresses his emotions for the love that no longer accompanies him, and feels lonely without that comfort. I enjoyed reading this poem because it‘s straightforward and relatable. He talks about the complication of love, and how its so hard to understand â€Å"I don’t love her, that’s certain, but perhaps I love her/ Love is brief: forgetting lasts so long. The stanza provided is one of my favorite sections of the poem because it reveals so much just in those two lines and summarizes what the poet is trying to explain. Here he is facing complications with his true emotions. Neruda mentions that he is certain about not loving the woman, than switches to the possibility that he may still have feelings for her. This stanza shows how love can crucially play with a human beings mind , causing the poet to contradict his emotions â€Å"Though this is the last pain she will make me suffer/ And these are the last lines I will write for her. Although he says he doesn’t love this woman, he truly feels pain, but proclaims that it’s the last pain she will ever make him go through. This poem is a symbolization of the poet moving on, him applying that those are the last lines that he will write for her signifies that she will not continue to be part of his thoughts. â€Å"Poem 20† sums up the consequences that many people go through for falling in love. It’s natural to go through heartaches, but it’s our decision to dwell in depression or move on, and that’s what Neruda indicates when he decides to continue forward in life. Pablo Neruda’s poems â€Å"Walking Around† and â€Å" Poem 20† are my ultimate favorite, because they touch base on everyday life experiences. As a 20th century poet, Pablo Neruda was influence by the surrealism movement, explaining why vivid imagery is an important part of his writing. The imagery provided in his poetry is what caught my undivided attention, allowing me to visualize and have a clearer understanding of what Neruda tries to get across the reader. His style of writing is what influences me to continue reading poetry, and even write my own poetry. Works Cited Neruda, Pablo. â€Å" From Twenty Poems of Love† Poem Hunter. Poem Hunter, n. d Web. 20 September 2012. . â€Å"Walking Around† Poem Hunter. Poem Hunter, n. d. Web. 20 September 2012. â€Å"Pablo Neruda Biography† Famous Poets and Poems. Famous Poets and Poems, 2010. Web. 26 September 2012. â€Å"Pablo Neruda Biography Synopsis† Bio True Story. Biography. com, n. d. Web. 26 September 2012. â€Å"Pablo Neruda† Poetry. org The Academy of American Poets, 2012. Web. 26 September 2012