Theme Of Regeneration

The ingenious and vigorous use of metaphors reveal to the reader how crucial division between the laudable ones and those who live in contempt is and the role that possessing a unique identity plays in that. The book explains that each man should be left alone "in the temple of his spirit", and one should let it be “untouched and undefiled”, distinguished by their personalities and traits. (Rand 79). By likening a man's spirit to a temple, it establishes that every man's spirit exhibits sacrality. This comparison implies that a man may not dirty others’ hearts just so their own soul shines brighter by contrast. Soon afterwards, these thoughts are tied to the word "we" when it is written that the pronoun should "never be placed first within man's soul" or else it will "become a monster", one that is inherently evil (Rand 79). When the word “we” equates to a monster, the reader sees that not retaining individuality and submitting to the will of many leads to being like a monster taking root inside of men,

In the short allegory “The Birthmark”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a newly-wed couple becomes consumed by the existence of a small birthmark on the wife’s face. When the wife, Georgiana, allows her husband Aylmer, a scientist, to remove the birthmark, both realize that Georgiana will inevitably sacrifice her life for the sake of its removal. As the story progresses, so does the confliction of the newlyweds as they realize exactly what the birthmark symbolized to and for each other. Hawthorne’s hallmark use of symbolism also provides a ‘perfect’ glimpse into the mindset of two themes of psychological conflictions: perfectionism and codependency. Hawthorne seems to share this story as a possible moral of the hidden pathos we place upon the ones we love, and the invisible marks or standards we place upon ourselves for the ones we love.

In the story “The Birth-Mark” Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates a man with an obsession for perfection of the human body. With a desire to reach the ultimate level of perfection, Aylmer’s obsession ultimately creates a path of destruction that tragically ends in the death of his devoted wife, Georgiana.

This novel is a classic example of many people's lives, which includes fear, jealousy, pride and their insecurities to name a few. The transformation of the narrator from before his reincarnation until afterwards is filled with tragedy and grief, but it is through the sacrifice of his own life that he is permanently freed from his jealousy and egotism. His "punishment" or his purgatory seemed to prove how good of a person he was all

Contemporaries Edgar Alan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne published their respective short stories The Tell-Tale Heart and The Birth-Mark only a couple of months apart. The Tell-Tale Heart is the personal account of a young man’s descent into madness as he becomes increasingly fixated on the eye of an older man, presumably his father. Similarly, The Birth-Mark narrates the story of a young couple, Aylmer and Georgiana, and how the latter’s birthmark becomes the obsession of the former. Poe and Hawthorne’s literary genre of Dark Romanticism opposes human perfectibility, and both writers employ symbolism, irony, similar characters and plot to convey the theme that obsessions will inevitably lead to destruction.

Hillenbrand, L. (2010). Unbroken: A World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption. New York: Random House.

In the book, Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperini was majorly obsessed with vengeance throughout the end of the book that his life was consumed by the quest for it. Louie felt as if the Bird had stolen his dignity at the POW campsites, where he was beaten, humiliated, starved, and stripped of his powers of self-defense. Louie was overwhelmed with his anger that the only objective he sought was to get revenge on the Bird. In other words, Louie was angered about his loss of dignity at the POW campsite, he wanted to get revenge on the Bird by killing him, and how Louie eventually forgives the Bird for what he did to him. These three reasons show how Louie’s loss of self-dignity in the POW camp was pursued.

In “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the symbols of the birthmark and the old man’s eye influence the plots of the stories. Through different ways, the characters in both stories feel compelled by these objects to do something. The main character, Aylmer, in “The Birth-Mark,” was obsessed with his wife’s birthmark which he saw as a flaw in her beauty, as well as a symbol of human imperfection, and tried to remove it. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator sees the old man’s eye as “evil” and holding mysterious powers which symbolizes the narrator’s deepest fear and his obsession where he chooses to destroy it. The characters’ interpretation of these things created conflict, and both stories are formed by the symbolic meanings that the characters attribute to those things.

The Dark Romantic texts “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne are similar and different in many ways. The similarities of the two pieces are very plentiful. To begin, obsession is a supernatural force that has taken over the main characters in each piece. The narrator in “The Black Cat” is on death row and is trying to rid the guilt he has accumulated through his wrongful acts. He has become obsessed over these actions and he says, “these events have terrified-have tortured- have destroyed me” (Poe 3). They have taken up so much of his thoughts that he no longers thinks of anything else. This similar obsession of it taking over the mind is also present in “The Birthmark”. Aylmer is obsessing over his wife’s birthmark. Thinking to himself, “At all the seasons which should have been their happiest, he invariably...reverted to this one disastrous topic” (Hawthorne 4). Nature is beautifully changing which should bring joy to Aylmer, but all that he can think about it the mark upon her face. Similarly to the narrator in the previous text, the object of Aylmer’s obsession fills his mind and becomes the only thing that he thinks about. Also featured in both pieces is the inability to distinguish fantasy and reality. The narrator in the first text cannot tell the difference between his two selves. He described the feeling as, “a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my

As mentioned in a Frontline interview with Gawande about Being Mortal, life’s two ‘unfixables’ are aging ang dying ("Dr. Atul Gawande On Aging, Dying And "Being Mortal"). Despite this well-known fact, most physicians and patients alike are overwhelmed by the concept of death. Moreover, in times of medical crisis, terminally ill patients allow themselves to be given “the medical equivalent of lottery tickets” in the hopes of making a miraculous recovery (Gawande 171). The allowance of end-of-life decisions to be controlled by the concepts of medicine or technology is a dangerous path which shows a lack in pragmatism regarding death (Sinclair). Although the overall avoidance of the

In this short story, Hawthorne uses symbolism to emphasize the strange shape of the 'earthly imperfection' (204) and his desperate need to change it. The shape of the birthmark 'bore a

In “The Birthmark”, the relationships and behaviors of the characters play a significant role in the story by revealing more than the story itself does . Through the character’ different actions, characteristics, and behaviors, Nathaniel Hawthorne gives a deeper insight into his life, such as revealing his worldview to his readers, and also gives insight into a more relevant story. Hawthorne’s transcendentalist worldview is conveyed through Aylmer’s and Georgiana’s obsessions, Aylmer’s manipulation of nature, and the birthmark.

The fiction “Recitatif” was written by Toni Morrison, which is a profound narrative and meant to invite and let the readers wondering to search for the buried connotation of the encountered experiences of the main characters, Twyla and Roberta faced as children and their reunion as an adults again. Some of the story’s meanings and values involving around friendship, race and abandonment began to emerge as the plot thickens, and also more additional messages got concealed and remain unrecognized until even the most last sentence of the story about Recitatif. From the very first paragraph of the story, there were few details that were not mentioned which required further deeper possibility and that produced the story extremely engaging for me.

Eventually, Dimmesdale confesses to his sins and asks for people to “forgive thee,” believing the death by “triumphant ignominy” brings mercy and preventing the loss of his existence (Hawthorne 161). For individuals with a moral conscious, the punishment of their actions relieves the guilt of allowing others to receive their sufferings. By claiming their accountability, they restore their sense of purpose and existence, they believe that they found themselves. Individuals should relinquish the patriarchy and masculine hegemony and aim for total equality, for the effects of the patriarchy proves detrimental to all with a sense of morality. Critic Stroner extends Hawthorne’s argument that individuals leave with a “comforting truth” that Dimmesdale would rid himself of the guilty conscious prior to his death (Stroner). When individuals receive the justice of rewards or punishment they deserve, those individuals prevents the forsakenness of their souls, they comfort others with preservation of their morality. Relinquishing the hypocrisy of their actions of hegemonic masculinity against their sense of morality, individuals have the ability to forgive themselves for both the original sin and the sin of secretive oppression. By ending the neglect of responsibility, all individuals would have the ability to carry equal burden of societal sin rather than

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a novel that also doubles as a piece of art. Art is an expression of a certain feeling, or idea, that cannot be put into simple words. Hawthorne wanted to aspire to be something that others around him didn’t believe he could be. He took the feelings he felt because of this, and molded them into Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, Arthur Dimmesdale, Pearl, and the scarlet A. He became a writer through them. I was inspired by The Scarlet Letter, most particularly by a scene in chapter 14, Hester and the Physician. I was deeply moved when Hawthorne reminded us that Chillingworth was once “A mortal man, with once a human heart,” (179) but has long since “become a fiend”. This quote was spoken by Chillingworth