Essay about Is Margery Kempe a Mystic?

“She wishes she had asked him to explain more of what he meant. But she was impatient…to be done with sewing. With doing everything for three children, alone…” (1125, 3), and “Respect, a chance to build. Her children at last from underneath the detrimental wheel. A chance to be on top” (1124, 2) both reveal the motives behind getting married to this man, despite the religious conflict. She is torn between the pros and cons of this new life. It’s although she is trying to convince herself, but the negative thoughts just keep surfacing.

Edna Pontellier was a very respectable woman from the 1800's that was unsatisfied with her situation in life. Mrs. Pontellier was a mother of two sons and had a husband whom she adored at the beginning of their marriage, but overtime they have became distant and her sexual desires were no longer being fulfilled. She soon broke the role society had casted upon her and became rebellious by leaving her womanly duties behind. Kate Chopin reveals Edna Pontellier's character through the her actions, through dialogue, and by telling the reader the thoughts and feelings that are circulation through Mrs. Pontellier.

Four million African American women were slaves in the years between 1619 between 1865 (Sterling 3). Slave women did not keep diaries and hardly wrote letters thus it is so hard for historians to track their lives. Black women were the most exploited working force. Ellen Craft was a great woman, she overcame the biggest struggle of her life during hard times for an African American women.

The woman who was to become Catherine the Great was born Sophie Augusta Fredericka. During her teen years Sophie blossomed into a beautiful young woman and had excellent health. She later went on to marry Peter III the future emperor and grandson of Peter the Great. During her reign as empress Catherine encountered many conflicts, which she surpassed so successfully that even now so many years after her death she is still remembered. Even though she was known to have many lovers during her lifetime and had three illegitimate children two of who survived, her strong spirit, willingness to make Russia a better place, and her political victories made her one of the greatest empress ever.

In Joan Didion's essay "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", she writes her observations of the people in the Haight-Ashbury district as she interviews people there. She demonstrates sound critical reasoning by using the personalizing lens, distancing lens, ethos and pathos and does a decent job of doing so.

A Religion where spells are acceptable, the earth is celebrated and nature is a basic mold of the major concepts, paganism. The word "pagan" originates from the Latin term paganus which is defined as country dweller, at one point any person not being an active Christian was considered to be a pagan. Pagan followers have a different view on life, such as they believe in the natural forces of the earth, and consciously try to live with it. Another example illustrating how unique this religion is the fact that pagans are polytheistic, but have the one chief god that rules over the others, it's contradicting that a pagan can also have no belief in any one god. An interesting concept about this religion is that you are not told a certain way,

“‘She was competent, decisive, self-reliant; perhaps she intimidated them, for before long they drifted their attentions elsewhere’” (93).

Medusa was a victim and not a villan. Medusa was not born an ugly, cruel lady with snakes as hair and eyes that turned people into stone, she was cursed. Even worse, Medusa was not punished for her own wrong doing. Medusa’s life was completely changed after something horrific happened to her. In this story, Medusa is not the villian, nor the monster many see her as today. Medusa was a girl who was missunderstood.

     Almost immediately after her death in 1980 controversy arose about whether Dorothy Day should be canonized a Saint by the Church. Now that the Vatican has approved the late Cardinal John O'Connor's request to consider Dorothy Day's "cause," the controversy is being rekindled. After converting, she dedicated her life to New York's poor and immigrants, building hospitality homes that operated much like homeless shelters. Her endeavor grew into the national Catholic Worker movement, a social justice crusade conducted in revolutionary tones new to the church.

Flannery O’Connor once noted that all good stories are ones of conversion (Wood, 217), and Wise Blood is no exception. The central spiritual struggle of the book is that of the character Hazel Motes. The protagonist goes through not simply one but several conversions throughout the book. His spiritual quest is his realization of the Church Without Jesus, and his search for a new jesus. As analysis in this paper will elucidate, Hazel spiritual arc is a critique of approaches to knowing God. The first such method, nihilism, is a belief in nothing. This exists not only as a rejection of belief in an areligious sense, but is an active love of the concept of nothing itself. The second method comes in the debate of how one can come to know God,

The Awakening by Kate Chopin introduces the reader to the life of Edna Pontellier, a woman with an independent nature searching for her true identity in a patriarchal society that expects women to be nothing more than devoted wives and nurturing mothers.

Mary Cassatt is known world-wide for her impressing art in which she focuses mainly in the everyday life of women and children. She is an American artist born in Pennsylvania on May 22, 1844, but later relocates to Europe in 1866 to pursue to work in art. This was mainly due to her family’s and society’s objections to women in the field of art. There she met and befriended famous Impressionist Edgar Degas. Because of her close friendship with Degas, she grew courage to continue to do art in her own way. She continued to paint until she slowly began to lose her eyesight and later died in 1926. Cassatt was part of the Impressionist style movement, in which she painted portraits unlike many others who painted landscapes (biography.com). Her artwork

Edna Pontellier is a woman of great needs. Although she has a husband who cares for her and two children, she is very unhappy. She plays her roles as a mother and wife often, but still keeps doing things unmarried, barren women should do: enjoy the company of other men, ignore her children's cries, dress unladylike for the times. The story is set in the late 1800's, when women were to be in the kitchen preparing a meal for their family, giving birth to more children to help with daily chores, or sitting quietly at home, teaching the children while the husband was at work. Edna Pontellier was a woman not of her time. At only 28, she would have rather been out gallivanting with different men, traveling with them, and painting

Reading this book has been interesting and heartbreaking experience. A Year of Magical Thinking, a journey through the grieving process. While dealing with the death of her husband, she is confronted with the sickness of her only child. This book touches me, and it makes me think of what would happen if my loved one died. This paper is a reflection of my thoughts and feelings about this woman’s journey that has been explored by book and video. I will also explore the author’s adjustment process, and how she views her changed self.

Her career that spanned three decades and her work that ranges from lyrics to verse play and political commentary. Edna St. Vincent Millay is mostly known for her earlier works, such as "Renascence", Few Figs Thistles, and Second April. Millay wrote about things such as mystical views on the universe, god, death, celebration of feminism, and free love. It's almost as if she was a writer from today and with that, I believe that she would be comfortable with today's free America.