The Meditations By Marcus Aurelius

Contemporary novels have imposed upon the love tribulations of women, throughout the exploration of genre and the romantic quest. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their eyes were watching God (1978) and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (2000) interplay on the various tribulations of women, throughout the conventions of the romantic quest and the search for identity. The protagonists of both texts are women and experience tribulations of their own, however, unique from the conventional romantic novels of their predecessors. Such tribulations include the submission of women and the male desire for dominance when they explore the romantic quest and furthermore, the inner struggles of women. Both texts display graphic imagery of the women’s inner experiences through confronting and engaging literary techniques, which enhance the audiences’ reading experience. Hurston’s reconstructions of the genre are demonstrated through a Southern context, which is the exploration of womanhood and innocence. Whilst Woolf’s interpretation of the romantic quest is shown through modernity and an intimate connection with the persona Clarissa Dalloway, within a patriarchal society.

The novel Siddhartha, written by Hermann Hesse, is about a guy named Siddhartha located in ancient India. His best friend, Govinda, are greatly involved in the elite Braham cast: Braham is an elite group of the highest god of Hinduism, which means they are viewed royalty and loaded with heaps of wealth. Siddhartha is the golden boy of his community: women dream of acquainting with him and men long to have his immense power and abundance. The main direct sight of Hindus focus on devotion to God or several gods. Even though Siddhartha endures meditation practices, takes the form of rituals and practices associated with images and sculptures of gods in home shrines, and participates in holy satisfaction, he still feels the emptiness in him not satisfying his needs. In order to obtain the inner peace that he wishes to seek, he tests new solutions to satisfy him, such as, Enlightenment. Enlightenment is defined as a man’s emergence from one’s self-incurred immaturity. The young Indian is very adapted to the Hindu ascetic, for the pressure the Brahim scholar instructs upon him. The only solution in times like these, Siddhartha and Govinda would mediate under the banyan tree.

There are many meanings inside stories; “Gregory” by Panos Ioannides is a heart-wrenching short story that follows the protagonist through the execution of his friend. E.M. Forster explains a want to keep friendships strong even at the expense of one’s relation to one’s country. The main character in “Gregory”' has multiple thoughts showing a tie to what Foster explained, as well as the internal fight that happens when one has two forces pulling at one. The Narrator wants to follow his gut and skirt tragedy, but in the end he wants to save himself from his superiors.

In Meditation Two of René Descartes’ Meditation on First Philosophy, he notes the sight of “men crossing the square.” This observation is important as Descartes states, “But what do I see aside from hats and clothes, which could easily hide automata? Yet I judge them to be men.” This is an important realization as Descartes argues that instead of purely noticing the men through sight, it is actually “solely with the faculty of judgement,” the mind, that perceives and concludes that the thing wearing a hat and clothes are men. I argue that this view of the outside world by Descartes is incomplete as his idea of “I” is faulty, as well as having a misunderstanding on the importance of the senses.

Attention: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” (Emma Lazarus). This sentence can be found in the poem “The New Colossus,” written by Emma Lazarus in 1883. It can also be found inscribed on the Statue of Liberty towering over the New York Harbor, a bright beacon symbolizing the freedom and democracy we hold so esteemed in America. Immigrants founded the United States and immigrants are arguably who made our nation so great. However, when immigrants do not follow the process to acquire legal citizenship into the United States is when the problems arise.

23. The stoics believed that the most important good in life was is the serenity of the mind, and they placed emphasis on duty and self-discipline as main virtues.

Jesus and the Disinherited begin the first chapter with the interpretation of Jesus. Dr. Thurman explained that Jesus was a poor Jew and was a minority in the midst of a dominate society. Dr. Thurman gives his analysis on how the world views Jesus. People around the world have their own interpretation of Jesus; yet, people have an orthodox view of him being fully God and fully man. In chapter one, the author references the nonviolent resistance approach, which is a tactic Dr. Martin Luther King Jr used in the civil rights movements. He interprets Jesus as a black man who lived his life as an outsider in the world. Jesus was the disinherited and oppressed like African Americans.

The book of Romans was written by Paul to present a basic system of salvation to a church that had not receive the teaching of an apostle before. In this book, the basis of a biblical worldview can be illustrated by Paul when it comes to explaining the natural world, our human identity, human relationships, and culture.

In order for an individual to effectively rebel against an established society, he or she must maintain some degree of power. If leaders or majority groups intend to revolt against an aspect of society, they simply speak or act against their issue. A member of marginalized group does not have the liberty of rebelling so directly, as he or she would be immediately isolated. In addition, taking a stand through an unappreciated aspect of one’s status in society would be futile. Therefore, an individual must find his or her value to society and utilize it as their method for rebellion. This is exemplified in both Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, as women rebel against society without using their voices. The main characters, Janie and Hester, defy gender roles through external appearances, maintaining silence, and accepting sexuality. Both Hawthorne and Hurston reveal society’s value of women’s external persona through female characters’ nonverbal rebellion.

In a psychological novel, the author lays out a plot with a most – intricate analysis of the characters and explores deeper into their minds by emphasizing the internal characterization and mentality of the main characters. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, is a psychological novel that mainly focuses on the emotions and internal states of Hester, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth by emphasizing the consequences of sin, guilt and revenge, respectively. Hester’s uncontrollable desires, Dimmesdale’s everlasting guilt and Chillingworth’s extreme obsession with revenge all convey the Freudian concepts of consciousness. According to the concepts, every person has an id, ego and superego; the id is the primitive part of a personality which immediately responds to a person’s desires. In order to suppress the id, the ego and superego decides which desires can or cannot be satisfied by evaluating the physical consequences and moral values. Through the inner lives of the three main characters, Hawthorne constructs the basis of his psychological novel and creates a complex relationship among them.

Talking about America living up to their so called “promises”, “statements” whatever you want to call it. America has the tendency of not following all the rules or laws that they themselves have created. Between 1877 and 1945 did the United States live up to Emma Lazarus ' poem which is engraved on the Statue of Liberty? While, reading her poem “The New Colossus”, there was a sense that Emma Lazarus believed that the United States of America would had let anyone come into the state no matter of what the person’s situation and/or lifestyle they lived, basically “what happens in their country stays in their country”, America would be a fresh new start of life. The way she viewed America and the way America is viewed by many others upon this earth have some similarities and differences in various of ways. Therefore, her ideas of America being a “gratifying and inviting” place is just a belief comparing it to what this country is actually about, when it comes to the level of patience and actions with we the people and how America reacts. There are nine sources that explains Americas perception and views on certain topics.

I feel like the book Night lets off a very sad a depressing mood. The setting of this book is a various amount of concentration camps that Elie and his dad go to. The main central idea of Night is to explain the experiences in the Holocaust. I personally think that this book is a good book for young adults and not kids because it uses some language and it’s very descriptive.

Edward Taylor’s “Meditation Six” uses a coin-based conceit to explore the ambivalence of the persona; using the coin, Taylor describes his spiritual value to God in material terms. The first stanza reflects an uncertainty within Taylor about his worth to God. He equates himself to gold, asking if he is “thy gold” (1) or merely a vessel for God’s wealth—the congregation. The speaker worries he may only appear to be worthful to God, but he is worthless underneath and “brass in heart,” alluding to the Brazen Serpent of the Bible. Working through his ambivalence, the speaker compares the impression of the grace of God to the stamp on a coin, and he asks if God has left such an impression on him, stamping value onto worthless metal. Taylor writes that he is “a golden angel” in God’s hand, meaning he is valuable to God, which ends his ambivalence as he concludes that he is worthful as a man. In the final stanza, the speaker asks God to make his soul the plate, a blank coin, onto which God stamps value with his “superscription in a holy style” (16). The speaker then becomes a coin with value to God, part of God’s hoard, whereby Taylor acknowledges that he is one of many. A surrender ends the conceit and poem, the speaker asks if he may be an angel, period slang for an English coin, in God’s eyes and if God may be his Lord.

Even today, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is read by every class from kings to common people. The book is a universal classic, meaning it can be related to at any time, by anyone. The philosophies included in his book have spanned the centuries, and Meditations remains to be one of the most influential books ever written.

Included in Aurelius’ book are all the philosophies he believes in, which generally match with those of the Stoics. His views on such topics as man’s place in the universe, an outer force, the soul, death, truth, knowledge, and virtue are included in his works.