In the short story, The Elephant in the Village of the Blind, there are a group of blind villagers that come across a conflict amongst themselves. The villagers are being introduced to an elephant for the first time in their lives. In curiosity, they all feel different parts of the elephant, observing the different textures and body parts. As they discuss their different views and experiences from touching the elephant their personal ideas created conflicts. As they disagree, it creates an interesting representation of human interaction. In this story, the conflicts that arise between the villagers represent the small bubble of human observation and subjectivity, and how much of human interaction is about competing to be correct in our beliefs because ego and self worth drive how we interact with each other.
The villagers in the story represent different aspects of humans in society. One of the things they represent is ignorance. The first clue the author gives that symbolizes their ignorance is by describing the setting to the story. The location in the village is “high in the mountains” (line 1) in a “remote mountain village”(5). This displays that they are essentially isolated from the world and their peers. With their blindness limiting their vision, and their apparent seclusion from the world, they are ignorant to the things going on around them. The relationship between the villagers represent how humans believe that the things surrounding them are all there is in the
In Chaim Potok’s book, The Chosen, blindness is a recurring theme. Although there are some instances of physical blindness, such as Billy in the hospital, most of the situations in this book are of the figurative sense. In these circumstances, the person has good physical vision, however, due to their previous experiences, they are not able to see the true situation.
Animals by Simon Rich is an outstanding short story which takes a unique perspective on the everyday life in a classroom. The story is written from the point of view of a hamster who spends his tortured life entrapped in a cage. From the first point in this story, it is clear that the purpose of the writing is not to understand the hamster, but rather to analyze the different actions of the people, and to discover that how they act towards the hamsters reflects on their character. It is curious to view the everyday interactions of people through a different set of eyes, that is done by humanizing the narrator’s perspective. Based on the actions of the many people and the treatment of the class pet, the author suggests that human nature is very much a product of the financial circumstances a person is subjected to.
Human beings have full control over their identities after they have received knowledge and have become shaped from external stimuli. These stimuli include the teaching process of humans which comes through tradition, schooling, and the actions of other humans and the influence of the organisms around them. Andrew Solomon, through “Son,” was able to use his experience of growing up and labeling himself as a gay dyslexic to show how his environment and knowledge had shaped his identity and how it was viewed by others with different identities. In “An Elephant Crackup,” Charles Siebert was able to explain how the other organisms or humans are able to form new identities for elephants over time by shaping them a new environment and having the elephants process it. In “Mind’s Eye,” Oliver Sacks had different case studies of blindness from different people and was able to show how each one experienced their blindness help shape and express their individual identities. The stimuli that becomes processed by a person in the situations, accounts, and studies of these works assist in the role of explaining the formulation of an identity.
Many of the people living in the village have come from a variety of lives before moving into the community. Some old, some new, and often have been alone most of their life.
“The Elephant in the Village of the Blind” shows us that in life, we frequently attempt to comprehend the world around us by the way we see it. Nevertheless, our understanding is limited by our experiences, knowledge, beliefs, moral systems, education, opinions, influence of others, etc. In this sense, we are metaphorically “blind”, as are the villagers. For this reason, some people in the story saw the animal as “a fringed rope” (line 13) and others as “a cool, smooth stuff” (line 14), which is clear juxtaposition. Moreover, when we are not familiar with something we are trying to define it, before fully understanding it. The clear moral of this parable is that we rarely see the things as they are, we see the things as we are.
In The Village, they live in a town surrounded by a forest its set in the future but they town lives in the past with no technology, so does Anthem. The woods was also a forbidden place to go, they had a deal with “creatures” in the woods that they wouldn’t go in the woods. In the Village, They are all scared to go into the woods but two people, everyone else in the town is scared to go into the woods and avoids it at all costs. That's the same as in anthem and Pedestrians, In The Pedestrian, they all conform to do the same thing. They are all conforming to something in each story. These stories are all conforming to different Ideas.
The friendship between the two young girls before the realization of their differences represents rich soil. Given these images, the reader can create a connection of what the authors is trying to convey.
George Orwell’s 1930 short story “Shooting an Elephant,” demonstrates the total dangers of the unlimited authority a state has and the astounding presentment of “future dystopia”. In the story, Orwell finds himself to be in an intricate situation that involves an elephant. Not only does the fate of the elephant’s life lie in Orwell’s hands, he has an audience of people behind him cheering him on, making his decision much more difficult to make. Due to the vast crowd surrounding his thoughts, Orwell kills the elephant in the end, not wanting to disappoint the people of Burma. Orwell captures the hearts of readers by revealing the struggles he has while dealing with the burden of his own beliefs and morals.
The serenity of the village is the direct representation of the negligence of everyone in it towards
The man helps the narrator overcome his “blindness” by teaching him a new way of seeing. The experience of this effective communication transforms the narrator and the way he sees the external world. He is no longer an ignorant and distant
As an illustration it showcased an insight right of the beginning with: “And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movie, the blind moved slowly and never laughed”, this very quote showed me the author did not care this man was blind nor did he have an understanding of blind people. He made his own guess based on watching a movie and this feeling was true to him as this is what he believed. This quote also showed me that he
When you know that everyone wants you to do something and their will is pushing yours, even if you feel like what they want done isn't what you believe should be done. This is the problem that George Orwell faced, he was pushed by a crowd to kill the the elephant even though he felt it was wrong. The essay shows through the language that Orwell uses that his pride pushed him to kill the elephant and the deep regret he feels afterwards.
The overall message of the novel is that, in order to create a difference in our lives we must create the right path for transformation. The authors create an analogy to illustrate this very point. He states that our emotional side is an Elephant and our sensible side is the rider on top of the elephant essentially. The rider directs the elephant and seems to be the leader, however, the rider only has so much jurisdiction when in the end the elephant fundamentally controls the direction he chooses to go. Thus the rider’s control is miniscule in comparison to the large elephant. Therefore, no matter what, the elephant will just about
If you are looking for a movie for opening up your mind or experience real love, “The Village” is for you. Opening our eyes in this film gives us shocking scenes that can make us upset or to visualize the actual action of fear. Because we see so many scenes that show love and opening the mind, it contributes to the fear and how we look at ourselves. At the beginning of the movie, it plays out nice and smoothes within their village where all the people live and where most of the film takes place. The movie begins with
To choose your own future, destiny and life is very hard. Everyone wants to do something that makes them happy. But sometimes you take the wrong decisions or everything decides to go against you, which makes you stay in the box you were trying to escape from. When your dreams don’t get fulfilled, you will be in that box and wait for the light. It’s not always about what you want, but what you need. And to live a good life, and to do something productive, you have to work in a way that will make you happy, because that is what you need the most.