The Brothers Karamazov

What does it mean to be a Karamazov? The true essence of a Karamazov is sensuality. The well known family experience hardships due to this implanted characteristic. Sensuality meaning gratification of the physical appetites or physical rather than intellectual. Dmitri, Alyosha, and Ivan all possess this trait from their deceased father

Despite not living in Skandia, Hal Mikkelson has always seemed to be by my side. My introduction to him took place many years ago while reading The Brotherband Chronicles. First impressions are very important and sadly, Hal did not impress. He was described as a very physically weak and reserved individual while other Skandians are very exuberant, expressive, and quite muscular. Thankfully, as the plot changed so did Hal.

Director Boaz Yakin created film “Remember the Titans”. This film was set placed in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971. At this time T.C. Williams high school was the first school having black race and white race together and neither race were happy about it. This film talks about how they overcome the racism and how each individual person on the team become one as team. And analysis of “remember the titans” shows people can overcome challenges by hard work, determination and perseverance.

The Founding Brothers tells the tales of the ordinary lives and challenges that the founders or framers of the United States faced. One of the challenges was the common goal to ensure that the nation that the forefathers helped build would stand the test of time. The author, Joseph Ellis, wants the reader to understand better that the founders were more than just men, that were all white and male. Instead, the founders were men that knew the problems that the country was facing after its gaining independence from the British in the American Revolutionary War. They all fought each other tooth and nail over things that they felt were essential for this new republic to survive. Nevertheless, they all met each other to form political compromises that would aid in building the strength and future position of the new republic. These compromises would help settle many disputes that threatened to divide the new nation in half. Even though, they dealt with issues -like slavery, they understood that the entire world was watching and waiting to see what would become of this new government system that.

Viktor E. Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who also had survived the Holocaust, writes “When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves” (BrainyQuote). Frankl survived genocide against his own people and still chose to have a positive outlook on it because he understands that if he did not, he would continually live an unhappy, upset life. Like Frankl, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, the main character in One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, contains a similar outlook to that of Frankl. The novel takes place during Soviet Russia in a gulag in Siberia, or otherwise known as a labor work camp. The whole book is about only one day that Shukhov lives; from 5 in the morning to 10 at night and all that happens in between. In this labor camp, not only are the weather conditions very cold, making it difficult to work in such circumstances, but also the workers are punished and harshly treated if they do not obey the guards. When placed in this environment, it is easy to be discouraged and miserable, but instead of facing the negatives of his situation, Shukhov remains affirmative in his thoughts – which are most important in order to survive not only physically, but also mentally. This stoicism portrayed in the narrative can also be found in Epictetus’s work, The Handbook. In this text, Epictetus discusses how he believes people can live a happy life, despite the hard conditions they are put through

Night and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich express the potential horrors of humanity’s immense capacity for extreme cruelty. Both took place in mid-twentieth century Europe and exposed the hardships of life in forced-labor camps: Wiesel’s in various concentration camps, Solzhenitsyn’s in Gulags. It is important for human populations to be aware of these tragedies so as to not commit the same atrocities again; therefore, this essay will explore each with regards to shared or different themes included and the messages presented. Both of these books are important due to their influential and informative nature regarding the horrors of their respective historical times. Night by Elie Wiesel and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr

In the book, Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis the founding fathers have impacted the world together. In our nation the founding fathers include Abigail and John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. Joseph Ellis uses this book to argue that all of the founding fathers knew each other personally, had diverse personalities.

In the Brothers Karamazov written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, books 6 and 7 provided additional details on the characters Zosima and Alyosha. More specifically, the books provide insights on how similar the two characters are to one another in terms of their personal lives and paths to spiritual awakening.

In fact, when Alyosha asks Ivan a question, Ivan dismisses the question and suggests Alyosha focuses on what the Inquisitor is saying, not on the insignificant detail. For instance, this conversation between Ivan and Alyosha illustrates that point, “I don’t quite understand what this is Ivan…is it boundless fantasy or some mistake on the old man’s part, some impossible qui pro quo?…Ivan laughed…but isn’t it all the same to me whether it’s qui pro quo or boundless fantasy? The only thing is that the old man needs to speak out, as say aloud all that he has been silent about for ninety years.”

Since Alyosha is the “hero” of the story, as Dosteovsky states a couple of times throughout the novel, Ivan is one of the best examples of free will in the novel. He is the rationalist in the novel and he sees the world much like we today see it. He uses reason and logic to make his choices as opposed to his father and brother Dmitri who make decisions based on their usually passionate feelings. For example, it is Ivan who first proposes how importance the existence of immorality is to humanity and what would happen if humanity as a whole were to stop believing in it. If that belief in immortality were to be extinguished, “not only love, but also any living power to continue the life of the world would at once dry up. Not only that, but then nothing would immoral any longer” (pg. 69). Ivan logically links man’s belief in his own eventual immortality with God to how man

Ivan, brother to Alyosha and Dmitri, also speaks to Alyosha on his beliefs in the existence of God. Ivan, being a scholar and intellectual of sorts, is by far the most skeptical and critical of the brothers in his assessment of the question. He claims initially that no natural law that made humans love each

“Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom.” –The Grand Inquisitor” “Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” - Father Zosima. These two quotes voice the polarized philosophies that impregnate the book, The Brothers Karamazov. Ivan, the second of the three sons, and Zosima, the old monk, are huge commentators on the question, “Is the burden of free will to much for a human to bear?”

Oskar Kokoschka, a poet, artist and playwright, is known for his expressionistic portraits and landscapes. Kokoschka was concerned with expressing human character and psychology through effects of color, formal distortion, and violent brushwork throughout his life. He and Max Beckmann were both concerned as a founding leader of Expressionism, but both parties maintained some independence from the movement. Kokoschka, different than other, rejected the term as a description of his work and maintained that his practice adhered to traditional themes and values. The Bride of the Wind is his most important work, where he celebrated for his dark and emotionally turbulent figurative painting to its extreme. It is a mediation on his affair with Alma

A short story’s purpose is to introduce an idea or moral to the reader. In many cases the reader can understand the thesis, but there will be times where the reader is uncertain. The reason for this is because the short story’s moral is profound ironically. Ultimately the reader is able to relate to him or herself in the short story various ways. Likewise the use of irony in, “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov, illustrates the characters and their opposing speculations that demonstrate the importance of human life and confinement. Relating to the thesis of the short story, there are three main points that irony plays a key role on. To begin with, there are the two main character’s roles that guide the reader though both perspectives of their conflicts. There are also main points in their dialect and involvement that Chekhov used to help the reader understand the character’s ironic speculations.

In high school I read a short story called The Bet by Anton Chekhov. The story was about a young lawyer who made a bet with a banker that imprisonment for fifteen years was better than the death penalty. Like Socrates in Plato’s Crito the lawyer was trying to challenge society’s beliefs. While in confinement the lawyer read many books, whose subjects ranged from languages to philosophy. After fifteen years of solitary confinement the lawyer rejects his prize money and defaults on the bet, hours before winning. I wonder if the man had read the Crito. We can reason that Socrates’ could have inspired the man to decide to pick the more brash choice to try and teach his accusers a lesson. The man may have decided to default on the bet when he was so close to winning because he wished to make the lesson the banker learned more memorable and infinite. In the Crito even though Socrates thinks himself to be innocent of the charges brought against him he still refuses to escape prison when presented with the opportunity. This helps him teach his final lesson about the principles he believes are worth dying for. His principles are that the opinion of the many is unimportant, his life is not worth living with a corrupt soul, life is not as important as living justly, the only consideration to take into account is justice, and acting unjustly is always bad and shameful. Even though Socrates and the polis or laws arrive at the same conclusion that Socrates should not escape prison, the