Essay on Appearance Vs. Reality

The film Saving Face is about representing one self’s identity. There are three motifs that allow this transformation; transportation, face and time. The central motif in the film Saving Face is transportation, which is centralized with face and time because they explain the character’s change of identity.

Watching the film ‘The Matrix,’ it is natural to question whether the world we live in is real or not. Neo, the hero, comes to know that the world he lives in is not real thanks to Morpheus. In the future world, the computer rules humans, who are, in turn, born to grow in an incubator. Further, human cerebral nerves are connected to a computer networks, which implies men cannot help living in another incubator till death although they cannot recognize they live in the incubator. Plato’s allegory of the cave is analogous to the story line found in ‘The Matrix.’ People live in a cave, looking at their shadows reflected on the cave wall. They never realize they are in a cave. Plato’s allegory of the cave assumes key words leading the story

Henry James presents American literature in The Beast of the Jungle altogether from a different perspective. In other words, the narrative forces the reader to read in between the lines in order to find out how light and darkness contributes to the story. James’s unique and vivid themes of seasonal and light/dark imagery also allows the reader to come up with many different possibilities of what the meaning of the story could be. The theme of light versus dark is prevalent throughout the story. Light is described as knowledge, wisdom and promise and darkness is described as confusion, depression and uncertainty. The Beast of the Jungle suggests two main reasons for the use of light and dark imagery: to create uncertainty on the reader to pinpoint who or what the beast is and to refer to Marcher’s belief that at some point in his life he would experience a traumatic event that would change his life.

Italy can be looked at as the home of the renaissance and consequently the immergence of great art. Artists such as Michelangelo, Botticelli, Da Vinci, and Raphael are some of the greats and are looked at for standards. But what about the artists whose lives are mysteries, and their works that were influenced by the greats? These artists hold just as much importance in the history of art as do the artist’s whose names can be recalled off the top of an average person’s head. During the sixteenth century things began to change in the art world, and that change was the Baroque. This new style of art brought a revolution to how subject matter was painted, it brought upon “… a radical reconsideration of art and its purposes…” (249) and how artists of all ranks could learn to paint the up and coming style of Baroque.

The subjective element of beauty involves judgment, not opinion. Many people feel beauty is only something seen by the eyes. St. Thomas Aquinas views beauty in both the supernatural and natural orders. Aquinas lists the attributes of beauty to be found in nature. These are; unity, proportion, and clarity. We will see how these attributes of beauty are seen through the eye and felt by the heart.

Today, people are born into a generation where people care only for themselves more than ever. People want the best and nothing but the best. In Jean Twinge’s essay, “An Army of One: Me,” it focuses on the self-esteem that people have and how it is related to the happiness in which people want to feel. Having high self-esteem will contribute to being more confident, which will lead to an individual taking on their goals head on. Also, both Leslie Bell’s, “Selections from Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom,” and Daniel Gilbert’s, “Immune to Reality,” offer insight on the matter of pursuit of happiness. Each individual has their own way of knowing when they are happy and only they will know when the

This essay is for women who believe their thighs are too big, their breasts are too small, their hair is boring, their skin is flawed, their body is shaped funny, or their clothes are outdated. This month's column is for women who believe their life would improve if they could lose 15 pounds; if they could afford contact lenses, that new perfume or anti-cellulite concoction; if they got a nose job, a face lift, a tummy tuck, etc. This month's column is for women who feel shame or unhappiness when they ponder some part (or all) of their body. In other words, this month's column is for 99.9% of the women reading it!

     Things are not always as they appear. You may think someone is a certain way because of how they dress and carry themselves this is called stereotyping. Many people stereotype without even noticing that they are doing it. Everyone has his or her right to first impressions, but stereotyping is wrong. There are many examples of this topic in literature as well as in our society today.

A further denotation of nobility, in line with fashionable Neo-Platonism is that the beautiful are good, and the ugly, wicked. This is explicit in Miranda's case, both in herself and in the attitudes she expresses:

In constructing this short essay, I will first start off by touching on Tartuffe and how the writing was purposefully catering to the aristocratic. I will then shift to the analysis of The Country Wife. Finally, I will show the middle class society from The London Merchant breakdown. I will also be using specifics from Tartuffe, The Country Wife and The London Merchant, to show the shift from an aristocratic to middleclass society effected the drama. That being noted, I will begin with Tartuffe.

Ginevra and Colonel de Hamal, who is tiny in stature and looks like a doll to Lucy, are conceived as almost pseudo art objects. Ginevra is depicted as a butterfly flitting through life, having neither sense nor substance and quite happily so. Most of what we hear about Ginevra is about her outward appearance, thus making her primarily an object of beauty. We hear about her blonde curls, rouge, spangles and sashes, and her habit of often gazing at gaudy polished mirrors. Colonel de Hamal is figured as a dandy, “so nicely curled, so booted, gloved and crafted” (163). At one point, Polly and Ginevra are even contrasted as works of art or figures in a painting- “nature having traced all these details slightly, and with a careless hand, in Miss Fanshawe's case; and in Miss de Bassompierre's, wrought them to a high and delicate finish” (346).

Given the many versions and accounts of famous artist’s lifetimes, we’re shown the vast underlying meaning, and situational ironies, to several of well- known pieces of work we still admire today. Donatello, Verrocchio, da Vinci, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Bernini; All of these artist left unique and controversial imprints on the timeline of art and life. Though many follow one right after the other, we see the changing of times through the midst of the creation of their works. Through the Renaissance and to the Reformation period, these artists help shape the nature of society. Coming to the end of the Renaissance era, an artist nicknamed “Caravaggio,” because of where he came from, pushed his world into the times of a more sound

For centuries mankind has unsuccessfully attempted to define beauty. Greek philosophers, including Plato, tried to define beauty as if it were as simple as any other law in nature. However this cannot be so because the idea of what is beautiful has varied throughout cultures and the ages. In the 1800s women who were pale and rather plump were considered objects of desire; but in today’s society, desirable women are slender and tan, among other things. The fact is that today, beauty is as unobtainable as it is indefinable. All of today’s supermodels, as seen in millions of advertisements, have been modified, airbrushed, and photoshopped. Women desiring this beauty have turned to various

Magic realism is a literary genre or style that encompases mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction. It is an important element that plays into imagery and makes the reader question if certain situations actually happened. Often times realism is found in fiction or drama; however, it can also be seen in some poetry. In this paper, I will be discussing how realism directly affects the complete works of Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Song of Solomon, and “As I Walked out One Evening”.

"Does this make me look fat?” Everyone at one time or another has experienced this iconic question in some way. Your best friend may have asked it, as she was getting ready for a date or maybe you muttered these words to yourself as you stared disapprovingly into a mirror; either way, this six-word question alludes to a standard of beauty that everyone strives to meet. A standard of beauty that is almost impossible to meet. The definition of beauty has evolved greatly over the years and it differs from culture to culture. Today, western culture idolizes the woman who is “thin, large breasted, and white (tanned, but not too brown)” (WVFV, pg. 220). This woman is one that millions of women strive to look like in