Journey means to travel, to start at one point and move on to another. It was clearly demonstrated in “The Children of Cambodia,” an essay by Roger Rosenblatt. It takes place in 1983 where he interviewed Cambodia children after the reign of Pol Pot. Pol Pot was the leader of Cambodia during the 1970s and he led 1.5 million Cambodians into death of starvation, execution, or being overworked. In another topic of journey, “The Third Bank of the River,” written by J.G. Rosa, is about a father who abandons his family by traveling away on a canoe for years without reason. Finally, “Cathedral” is a story written by Ray Carver in which a judgmental man lets his wife’s blind friend spend the night at their house and things turn out unexpectedly. The main resolution these three pieces of writing have in common is that at least one character undergoes a journey. In deeper detail, journey can be from realizing things about life or oneself, aging from adolescence into adulthood, or moving on. These three stories portray journey in different ways.
In “The Third Bank of the River,” journey is shown by the family. The importance of the father going into complete isolation represents the effects he has on his peers. There is an opposite effect from this story because the father’s abandonment left a prominent mark on the family and their future. From an outside perspective, some may assume that the father would be the one who’s miserable and empty, yet this story carries out the reverse
The famous poet Mary Oliver once wrote in her poem “The Journey”, “One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began”. Oliver’s belief is seen in classic and modern literature about journeys. Many people and characters have experienced very difficult journeys in their life. “The Cruelest Journey”, a travel biography by Kira Salak, depicts her six-hundred-mile journey on the Niger River to be the first person in the world to kayak the journey alone. She travels through the most dangerous and bleak regions in Africa to retrace the fatal journey of Mungo Park. “The Odyssey”, an epic poem by Homer, depicts a war hero who is facing difficult challenges to be able to return back home. It takes him twenty years to return home to Ithaca. From the difficult challenges facing the characters, Homer and Salak use characterization to reveal that people embark on quests to challenge themselves to use mental efforts to triumph over obstacles, which they then learn to appreciate themselves.
Michael Dudok de Wit’s “Father and Daughter” is a heartbreaking short film that tells the tale of a girl whose father left her at a young age. Though the unnamed girl ages and moves on with her life, the absence of her father remains largely present in her life, as she continues returning to the place he left her. The only narration is the film’s score, yet Dudok de Wit poignantly conveys the predominant theme: the absence of a parent, especially at a young age, leaves the child with a sense of longing and a desire for closure that will follow them for their entire lives. The titular daughter’s fruitless attachment to the edge of the water remains a constant in her life, despite the obstacles urging her to move on. For instance, when she is
Novelist and poet, Rainer Maria Rilke once said, “The only journey is the one within”(Rainer Maria Rilke Quotes). Meaning, what makes a journey important is how one changes and learns from the experience. The claims made in this quote are well proven in relatively new literature and even one of the oldest poems still studied today. The Odyssey is a famous, well known epic poem. It was written by the renowned poet, Homer, in ancient greek times. The Odyssey follows a man known as Odysseus, he just left fighting in the Trojan war after years. Odysseus has quite the adventure due to the gods’ and goddesses’ constant manipulation, all in the hope of reaching his homeland, Ithaca, and beloved family. Quite the opposite, much younger and shorter “The Journey” is a poem written by Mary Oliver in the 1900s. This poem relays what a journey really is and the purpose of going on journeys. Despite the differences between The Odyssey and “The Journey”, the two both use figurative language to convey a very similar message. People embark on journeys to fill an empty void and learn what they appreciate in life.
“The Indian presence precipitated the formation of an American identity” (Axtell 992). Ostracized by numerous citizens of the United States today, this quote epitomizes Axtell’s beliefs of the Indians contributing to our society. Unfortunately, Native Americans’ roles in history are often categorized as insignificant or trivial, when in actuality the Indians contributed greatly to Colonial America, in ways the ordinary person would have never deliberated. James Axtell discusses these ways, as well as what Colonial America may have looked like without the Indians’ presence. Throughout his article, his thesis stands clear by his persistence of alteration the Native Americans had on our nation. James Axtell’s bias delightfully enhances his thesis, he provides a copious amount of evidence establishing how Native Americans contributed critically to the Colonial culture, and he considers America as exceptional – largely due to the Native Americans.
Amos Kincaid was born to Delilah Kincaid in November 1833. Jake Kincaid, a trapper and dowser was the father of Amos, and left every couple of months to continue trapping. He would return in the later months to visit Amos, for Delilah died giving birth and Jake wasn’t prepared to raise him. For the first majority of his life, Amos was raised by his aunt Rebecca and his uncle Gil. Rebecca was kind hearted but couldn’t bear children. Over time Rebecca taught Amos to read and write, along with some children from the Native American tribes. This ended however when Rebecca came down with smallpox. Which she obtained from tending to the Native American children, who didn’t want to receive the vaccination. Rebecca then begged Gil to shoot her to relieve
To further discuss, for the eldest son, his relationship with his father was depicted as non existent like this sentence stated, “In the day and a half before the funeral, he went around the neighborhood researching his father, asking the neighbors what he was like. They were embarrassed.” Such a situation is extremely depressing since the father was not an active part of his son’s life, even though he was still
A journey can be physical, within the imagination or an inner progression. Every journey enables the traveller to gain a sense of enlightenment and deeper understanding of their world. This is evident in Atwood’s Journey to the Interior, Eliot’s The Journey of the Magi, Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Adamson’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which prove every journey, if truly a journey, profoundly changes one’s perspective on certain aspects of life.
The journeys people take and the hardships they face can cause them to grow as a person. The struggles faced and how people choose to overcome them can show the most about a person’s strength and determination. In the story “The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dog” Long Arrow goes on a long journey to find the elk dog. Nobody has ever returned and yet he is not afraid. John, the main character in “By the Waters of Babylon,” takes a trip to the place of the god in search of knowledge and wisdom. Jerry’s journey in “Through the Tunnel” causes him to grow up and mature. In these stories Long Arrow, John, and Jerry learn the importance of the journeys they take to become better people.
What makes a journey such a large influence on our decisions in life is its substantial impacts that has affected the traveller in which provide a catalyst for them to challenge their own perceptions. Many aspects of journeys are represented in the three texts, ‘Journey of the Magi’ by T.S Eliot, ‘Journey to the Interior’ by Margret Atwood and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, and display the impacts of undertaking a journey on the persona which describes the journey taken throughout the text as well as the ways the persona has been influenced by it. Through these journeys, each traveller has exhibited a broadening in perspective as they undergo change through overcomed obstacles and encountered opportunities, proving to have had a significant
Journey- the act of traveling from point A to point B. Everyone goes on some kind of journey in their lives, though, some are more adventurous than others. In the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel goes on a dangerous journey of a lifetime. My journey was a little less exciting but just as difficult. It was a terrifying thing called junior high school. Both Pi’s journey and mine prove that faith and spirituality enable us to endure hardships but in slightly different ways.
Winston S. Churchill once said,” I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”. In the novel Flood Tide by Clive Cussler, Dirk Pitt shows he is always ready for whatever may come next, and he will attempt to accomplish the task to the best of his ability. Dirk Pitt continually exemplifies the true meaning of having helpfulness, bravery, and intelligence in his everyday life.
Journeys can be physical, emotional or spiritual paths that we embark on to move from one
I would be writing a summary of this book written by David Roediger. It was really hard for me to get through this book because it did not make a whole lot of sense to me. Immigration plays a huge role in how America was founded. Working Toward Whiteness shows the case against the so-called Latinos-are-White thesis, and against the apparently imminent Black/Brown debacle. This is what I got out of this book.
In “The Third Bank of the River” by Joao Guimaraes Rosa, writes on how his father lived in a boat on a lake near their house and how he never left his boat and never said why he stayed in the boat which upsets Rosas family. This is an example of how a father has impacted a young mans life in a
Augustus Waters, also struggling with cancer, helps Hazel open up and helps her have a positive outlook on life. They met at a support group to talk about their cancer problems and quickly fall in love. Before meeting Augustus, Hazel doesn’t have many people to talk to besides her parents because she isolates herself after she was diagnosed. Once she meets Augustus though, she is able to open up and experience what it feels like to love and to be loved. They go on multiple dates throughout the book which allow them to connect more and have a good time together. Later, Augustus finally professes his love for Hazel, which makes her really happy and helps her realize that ever since she isolated herself, she wasn't living the life she could have