The Use of Nature in Siddhartha and A Doll’s House Essay

One species of bird in the story which acts a symbol is the oriole. “The oriole nest in the elm was untenanted and rocked back and forth like an empty cradle… and now

Siddhartha becomes a rich man and soon loses his desire to search for Nirvana.  Along with Kamala, a man named Kamaswami influences Siddhartha.  He convinces Siddhartha that material possessions can "fill" his life.  Siddhartha takes the advice, and he begins to live his life for money.  He starts to gamble and to compromise his true beliefs for material pleasure. While living in the village, Siddhartha slips into a deep depression.  He feels that he has lost a part of his soul, and he attempts to commit suicide.  However, during this attempt, Siddhartha becomes reborn and longs once again for Nirvana (http://splavc.spjc.cc.fl.us/hooks/ew/SmithSidd.html).  At this time, Siddhartha meets a ferryman named Vasudeva.  Vasudeva fascinates Siddhartha the way Buddha did (Welch 71).  Vasudeva tells Siddhartha that the way to find inner peace is by listening to the river.  He also tells Siddhartha that the river will teach him two things; however, Siddhartha must learn these things on his own.  Siddhartha's relationship with the ferryman is the key for Siddhartha to reach Nirvana.  Eventually, Siddhartha takes the place of Vasudeva as ferryman, and he soon attains

What symbolic roles do birds play in our lives? What roles can they play? Are doves always peaceful? Are chickens always scared? How are birds used as symbols in literature? Or more importantly, what is symbolic about the birds in The Scarlet Ibis? While many readers have different ideas on what the birds represent, after reading meticulously it can be seen that they stand for Doodle and his death. The short story The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst is about two brothers named Brother and Doodle. The birds in The Scarlet Ibis represent Doodle and his death because death are mentioned when birds are, Doodle and his death is connected to the birds in many ways, and Doodle is comparable to and even called a scarlet ibis.

Subsequently, he ventures out into the world and explores his senses in a desperate attempt to investigate his spiritual needs. He greets love openly and rests satisfied by the splendors his lover Kamalah. Siddhartha's contentment is terminated as he is presented with a controversial dream. He dreams that Kamala's beloved bird is found dead: " The bird, which usually sang in the morning, became mute and as this surprised him, he went up to the cage and looked inside/ The little bird was dead" (82). Siddhartha's freedom from religion and promiscuous behaviors cease along with the birds death, " he felt horror and death in his heart/ He sat and felt himself dying, withering, finishing" (82). He recognizes the materialistic things including love itself, were insufficient: "Then Siddhartha knew that the game was finished, that he could play it no longer...he smiled wearily, shook his head and said goodbye to all these things" (84).  Siddhartha's perpetual search for security and internal happiness ventures on.

Thus, through the initial impression of the man of the bird’s brave and challenging movements by the utilisation of poetic techniques, the reader is able to visualise the bird’s characteristic it inherits and gain a deeper understanding of nature and the impression of humanity distinctively.

Because of the supposed similarities between humans and birds, birds are a useful tool for authors wishing to symbolize human emotions or thoughts. Mynott offers that birds are often “distinguished partly by the different human emotions they seem to be revealing” (Mynott 282). He references several examples of the use of human-specific traits in the description of birds, such as “kind,” “stern,” and “astonished” (282). It is not such a huge leap from the attribution of such human characteristics, to “anthropomorphic misdescription” (282). The birds in The Ant of the Self are said to be looking “as though they [had] placed bets” on who would lose Spurgeon’s and his father’s confrontation. While Spurgeon is taking a stand against his father by ordering him out of the car and onto the shoulder of the road, the birds’ curious glances are exposing Spurgeon’s own thoughts. The birds, a symbol for Spurgeon, wonder whether he or his father will “go down in flames” (Packer 95). The caged birds, which are so capable of human expressions, are expressing Spurgeon’s thoughts. ZZ Packer endows the birds with a look of human quizzicality, having them glance from the nervous Spurgeon to his angered father. Spurgeon wonders whether he or his father will win, and the birds, as his symbol, express this.

Siddhartha represents all of humanity, in that he is many things, yet he is himself. He is a Brahmin, a Samana, a ferryman, and he is Siddhartha still in all these things. Unlike Gregor, Siddhartha is very active in his quest for destiny. His choice to leave his father and all he had ever known is not influenced by any force other than the thirst for knowledge sending him on the quest for the meaning of life. Just as a sheep wanders in a pasture, Siddhartha wandered the wilderness in pursuit of his true self. He searched his soul to find his place in the world and the unity of all. He examined how his Self responded to hunger, pain, and all achings of the physical in order to reveal the strength of the spiritual. When Siddhartha entered into the world of “ordinary” people, he fed his physical being and through that discovered the weakness of his spiritual. Siddhartha finally quenched his thirst for knowledge at the river, where he found wisdom. Siddhartha knew who he was and at the river, he discovered why he had to go on the path that he did, and he found peace and discovered how he fit into the universe along with all other things. Siddhartha’s identity at that point had little to nothing to do with who he had been. Yes, he was once a Samana, a Brahmin, a ferryman, but what mattered was that he was now at

In the story “Night Calls” one of the symbols is the Heron (bird) that the father takes care of. The father of the girl (narrator) had lost his wife and just got a heron to look after. The heron was a symbol of distraction for the father. The people told him that the heron was almost extinct and they would try to find a mate. Meanwhile the father took care of the bird, he was so interested in the bird in the beginning. When the girl/daughter/narrator would come home all he talked about was the heron. With that being said, the symbol is distraction by the heron.

the bird in the fifth and sixth verses, and so the bird returns to its

    Charlotte Bronte makes extensive use of nature imagery in her novel, Jane Eyre, commenting on both the human relationship with the outdoors and with human nature. The Oxford Reference Dictionary defines "nature" as "1. the phenomena of the physical world as a whole . . . 2. a thing's essential qualities; a person's or animal's innate character . . . 4. vital force, functions, or needs." Bronte speaks to each of these definitions throughout Jane Eyre.

Finally, Siddhartha leaves the city due to a dream he had. In this dream, “this bird, which usually sang in the morning, became mute, and as this surprised him, he went up to the cage and looked inside. The little bird was dead... and then he threw it away on the road, and at the same moment he was horrified and his heart ached as if he had thrown away... all that was good and of value in himself”(Hesse 82). This dream showed Siddhartha that if he stayed in the city he would die and never reach enlightenment. Kamala is heartbroken, as written by Hesse, “When she heard news of Siddhartha's disappearance, she went to the window where she kept a rare songbird in a golden cage. She opened the door of the cage, took the bird out and let it fly away" (85). In other words, it is using symbolism to show that Siddhartha is freed from his worldly desires. At the conclusion of his journey, Siddhartha returns to the river he once crossed. This represents his growth and how

References about birds appear at different sections of the novel and are the main motif in the novel. Skellig answers a question from Michael “What are you?” I whispered. He shrugged again. “Something.” He said. “Something like you, something like a beast, something like a bird, something like an angel.” (PG: 158) Through Skelligs actions and speech, it shows that he doesn’t know what he is. He knows that he has wings like a bird and he can fly and be free, but countering that he has an appearance like a man. Skellig believes that he can be free and happy like birds are, he believes that the whole world is his home. Skellig only shows his wings when he has been let out of the crumbling garage, this is when he is free. Birds are linked to freedom because they

Although both Dickinson and Baudelaire write to motivate readers to appreciate nature, Baudelaire uses personification to convey the symbolism of nature. In, “Correspondances,” Baudelaire begins the poem personifying nature as a temple that can communicate with us. He says, “The pillars of nature’s temple are alive/ and sometimes yield perplexing messages” (1-2). This personification is significant because nature is not talking with us, but figuratively it is telling us something about ourselves that

Birds often represent freedom and the ability to fly but are also symbols for something that goes one step further. Several kinds of birds appear throughout

In American Literature many authors write about nature and how nature affects man's lives. In life, nature is an important part of people. Many people live, work, or partake in revelry in nature. Nature has received attention from authors spanning several centuries. Their attitudes vary over time and also reflect the different outlooks of the authors who chose to discuss this important historical movement. A further examination of this movement, reveals prevalence of nature's influence on man and how it affects their lives.