Embers: An Analysis of Friendship
There are over six billion people on Earth today. Each of those people has countless relationships, which extend further into an immense network of relations among thousands of individuals. These relations can be romantic, professional, unconditional, mutual, or the strongest of all, friendship. Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more beings. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, and affection and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis. Friends will welcome each other's company and exhibit loyalty towards each other, often to the point of altruism.
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If I leave a tip at an evening party, my father gives up cigars for a week. This is how it has been for twenty two years. Somewhere in Poland we had a farmstead. I’ve never seen it. It was the source of everything; the uniform, tuition, money for theatre tickets, entry fees for exams, and duel fee” (Embers 45). Konrad could have been jealous and envy Henrik’s financial status, but he still held to his friendship. Sometimes people make friends with others who have something they lack. This could be evident that Konrad is only friends with Henrik because he has wealth, while Henrik could be friends with Konrad because of his understanding of Music. Relationships could be built on a foundation of needs to fill in missing parts of one’s life, even if it is below the surface and unnoticed by the couple.
While materialism could be the backbone to Henrik and Konrad’s friendship, there are other instances in the story that hint to the accusation of there being more to this bond than attraction. One reason for Henrik’s attachment to Konrad could be influenced by his obligative views on friendship. Henrik, as “the General”, views friendship as a duty as opposed to a relationship. “Sometimes camaraderie and fellowship look like friendship; common interests can bring about relationships akin to friendship, and in an attempt to escape loneliness, people are only too happy to involve themselves in confidences that they will later
People need to be around other people. Whether those people are friends or not, they need to at least have someone to talk to, to feel accepted and loved. This aspect of relationships is best conveyed in section four. In the scene, George, (the strong worker with mental issues) is talking the stable boy, Crooks, who is black and has a crooked spine. He is always excluded from the activities of the other ranch hands because of his race. Crooks tells the Lennie and in turn, the reader, “ A guy needs somebody- to be near him… A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you, I tell ya… I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.” (Steinbeck, 71E) This speaks to the immense nullity created with a lack of relationships. It can be dangerous to be alone in this harsh world. Humans need people in our lives who will shape us. Without this, people run the risk of becoming like Crooks, mean and almost reviled by other people. Whether these people are our friends or not, people need human contact at the very least.
Friendship is shared between two people or a group of people that trust, support, care and are comfortable with each other ("Friendship"). Everyone wants to be a friend and have a friend because of the feelings it gives him or her. It makes them feel like they belong somewhere, like they have a place in the world, and it makes them feel secure and happy to be who they are (Vernon). These are the friends who you can
We all need human companionship in order to have an enjoyable life. John Steinbeck exemplifies this in of Mice and Men through the relationships of his characters. A couple of the characters have an undoubted friendship. In contrast, the other characters only care for money and themselves and therefore are very lonely. There are two friends in this novel and although they are not entirely happy, they are happier than if they did not have each other. Friendships and human connections create a contented feeling about life that money cannot give.
Merriam-Webster defines a friend as “One attached to another by affection or esteem”. Our success and lives as a whole are altogether based on relationships we create and what we do with them. Communication and the ability to work with others is a basic and required skill in every field of our lives, whether it's applying for a job, meeting with a teacher, talking to a parent or simply spending time with family and friends. It is something taught to preschoolers on their first day and used until their final few. To survive, we must meet “basic needs” known as food, water, shelter and, clothing. Friendship should be acknowledged in this list as a need of each person. By displaying the relationship of Lennie Small and George Milton in Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck portrays this need for friendship. F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays this idea as well through, Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby. Friendship is a basic need of any human, needed to survive and thrive in our everyday lives.
In the common world, the meaning of a friend has many different definitions. However, in today's society, defining and explaining the word "friend" by common sense are two individuals who stick together by trust, and usually because they share the same characteristics, and have similar viewpoints of their environments. They have similar viewpoints since they gain the same experience derived from the same community as they grow up together. Friends have a correspondent situation that has to be solved, so their reactions and answers for that particular situation are parallel with each other. Based on the friend's sympathetic relationship what they found to be grounded to each other, they able to interact knowing that result, and its outcome are
Friendship is an entity that has been in our history since the beginning of time. This seemingly unbreakable bond has been ingrained in us since before we were able to speak and really understand the value of friendship. Television has even promoted this relationship throughout the years with shows such as Sesame Street featuring Bert and Ernie, the 90’s mega hit simply entitled Friends all the way to the wildly popular cartoon Spongebob and his faithful best friend and sidekick Patrick. Friendships can carry strong or limited emotions so there may be highs and lows, but at the end of the day friendships have been proven to be beneficial for individuals, groups and society as a whole.
Many believe friendship is one of the most important values in life, and that you need not be the same age, sex nor type to attain friendship. One of the most primary and discernable philosophies of friendship is “Don’t judge a book by its cover, it is what is inside that matters”. That means that if you don’t know them, don’t judge them. Yet, too often are we influenced by society, and become so biased to see the true beauty of friendship: You can be friends with anyone. Whether it is another person, an animal, or your imagination.
Aristotle identifies the existence of three different kinds of friendships that are founded on the basis of either utility, pleasure or goodness of the friend. He views pleasure and utility to not be as binding compared to what he regards as complete friendship based on character, because in the latter the factor sustaining the social bond is more fragile relative to enduring virtues of a person. Aristotle further discusses that although a good person seems to have no apparent need for friends, they cannot lead a fulfilling life without friendship. I support Aristotle’s argument and will approach the matter from a different angle by explaining the importance of friendship in making us connected with the world. Additionally, I will pose if there
In our modern society, the term, ‘friend’, has been commonly used so much that it has almost lost its meaning. According to a standard dictionary, a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard is what you’d call a friend. But that’s not the case according to people these days, especially teens, we call anyone a friend as long as they’ve done something that has benefited us. No really though, we give someone a pencil, they’re your friend now, you save them from getting in trouble, they are your friend now. Which in some cases is a good thing but at other times, you just involuntarily got yourself a friend that you can’t get rid of. So, this paper sums up the three types of friendship that hold
A dictionary contains a definition of friendship somewhere in the F’s between the words “fear” and “Friday.” An encyclopedia supplies interesting facts on friendship. But all the definitions and facts do not convey what friendship is really all about. It cannot be understood through words or exaggerations. The only way to understand friendship is through experience. It is an experience that involves all the senses.
So the social structures, divisions and agencies which underpin society influence friendships. Analysis has identified many different types and formations of friendship of varying degrees of intimacy. Perhaps the key to understanding friendship is to understand that different friendships thrive in accordance with the different needs of each person, and that finding a person who or a friendship which meets personal expectations is where the relevance lies. A ‘symbolic interactionist’ sociological approach to future research would ascertain how that understanding between two people is reached. So, friendship exists within the social and economic context in which it was formed, and if this context alters, so does the nature of the friendship. The way in which humans manage and create friendships reacts to changes and evolves in order to sustain itself as part of the human condition. This is evidence of the value and necessity of human connection, be it friends or family, to the life experience. Studying friendship provides knowledge of social developments and changes. This is valuable in understanding human interaction and future policy within health and
Our friendships consist of individuals who we confide, trust, and rely on for continuous support. These individuals preserve the aptitude to either heal or destroy our perspectives, future relationships, and self-esteem. Because friendships appear to rest natural, “we don’t often explicate our expectations about what it means to be a friend, but most of us nevertheless have rules for relationships that are shared cultural beliefs about what behaviors friends should perform” (Miller, 2012, p. 220). Through ensuing an innate governance of expectations, friendships subsist informal and effortless, until an individual breaks expectancy. Of the rules of friendship, three embrace prominence to me: show emotional support, don’t be jealous of each other’s relationships, and stand up for your partner in his/her absence. These rules stand analytical to my friendships as they endorse a trusting, compassionate relationship.
Not everyone strives to become part of something that they are not, but those who do must be very careful about their methods. Hamlet and Love’s Labor’s Lost have characters that view their political and social statuses differently. Almost unsurprisingly, the same people who strive unsuccessfully to attain membership into something they are not are often taken advantage of by their higher class friends. Scholarship about friendship in the early modern period explains how people of a higher class abuse the trusting friendship of their subordinates, usually for their own self-serving benefit. However, in these plays there appears two different kinds of reactions to this manipulation, which provokes questions about Shakespeare’s intent and what he truly believes about effective manipulation of social status. In Hamlet, Claudius’ friendship with Polonius, who is generally accepted to be an old fool, aligns with common cultural conventions. However, the friendship in Love’s Labor’s Lost between Don Adriano de Armado and his young pageboy Moth, “shifts away from the inherited code [of friendship]” (Lochman 11). Though the friendships between these two groups of men contain unique components, one similarity lies in their respective successful or misguided use of words as a means to elevate their social class within their friendship. Shakespeare manipulates the way characters use their words in order to highlight attempts at either striving to belong in or criticizing a higher
There was no hesitation when my friends asked me for help. I helped friendship which belonged to both me and him. During the time I worked with him, we enjoyed and looked forward to work together in the future. I didn’t think of this reason so deep until I was asked to write it down. Friendship was the incentive which existed in my heart, which just motivated me to help without any doubt. This reason was apparent to both me and my friends because we were friends. However, friendship as a type of relationship is for future use. People can get future sake by cultivating friendship. In chapter 3: “Unbelievable Stories About Apathy and Altruism” of their book SuperFreakonomics (2009), Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner discover that local sellers give better deals than out-of-town sellers to earn a good relationship with consumers. (116) In this case, friendship and reputation work in the same way. As people expect others to be nice, they do good to others first. Namely, people help for future
In this essay I will talk about how the term “friendship” cannot be defined because no one can judge other people’s personal value of what a friend is to them. Friendship is used in many contexts because of technology and how it is used from different levels of personal, formal, and informal meaning I believe that “friendship” can be on all three levels. The personal level is the friends who are intimate with you. The personal term for friendships is “intimacy”. The second level that I believe the “friendship” term can be easily used is the informal approach. The informal level categorizes the acquaintances and familiar people that a person knows, but is not that close with. For example, a worker knows his coworker, but is not that close as friends, but can establish a closer “friendship” if it is mutual, thus the word friendship can be placed here. The third level is the formal which means that complete strangers are involved. Through technology, all three levels can be reached separately or together in stages of friendship. Although these are the stages, not one person can define a person’s personal value of what a true friend is.