Myths, Dreams and the Epic of Gilgamesh :: Epic of Gilgamesh Essays

The Epic of Gilgamesh, a masterpiece of world literature, is considered to be one of the oldest epics in the world. It is called an epic, but it is really a myth. In order to be able to understand a myth, it is necessary to have an historical point of view from two perspectives, so to speak, an outer and an inner one. The outer one concerns the necessity to understand the historical form in which the archetypes appear, the historical background to which the myth is related - in our case, the Babylonian culture and religion. The inner aspect concerns the essential problems of the time, with which that particular epoch struggled consciously, or in which it was unconsciously involved. Although this is primarily a scientific task, I believe that it is nevertheless a matter of immediate necessity for us to understand such documents humains in relation to our own life, for all the ages live in us, and we cannot really understand ourselves unless we know our spiritual roots. What particular age and what spiritual contents are evoked in us by the unconscious is, to a certain extent, a question of individual fate. Since Western culture is based to a great extent on Judaism and Christianity, Babylonian culture as one of their roots may be looked upon as of immediate psychological interest to us all. The archetypes live in their realm, beyond time and space. This builds the bridge of understanding between men of all ages, and makes it possible to realize that we ourselves with our essential problems are bound up in the continuity of the eternal problems of mankind, as they are mirrored in myths. But the form in which the archetypes appear, their garments so to speak, depends on the historical conditions: the symbols in which they appear change. In the human being these changes correspond to the development of human consciousness. Thus the myths, in my opinion, represent not only eternal archetypal events, but a certain level of the development of human consc iousness. During my work on this remarkably rich material this connection thrust itself more and more into my mind, so that I should like to define it as the basic idea, as the starting point of my attempt to explain this myth. It was only in 1872 that scholars first became aware of this myth, when the English Assyriologist George Smith made public "The Chaldean Account of the Deluge," as he titled his translation of the eleventh tablet of the epic.

Mr and Mrs Ramsay †Characterization Essay

The modernist way of thinking in literature brought about new ways of understanding and writing about people. Unlike the 19th century, where neo-classical influences still prevailed at times, writers of the 20th century focus on an individual’s personal experience, feelings, what he is going through and how this affects him. The new way of looking at people (prompted by the advancements in psychoanalysis among others) makes the modern man a complete man – all the things, however small, that define him are taken into consideration – and an important stress in laid on subjectivity as unique and only way of perceiving the world and appropriating it to himself. In her 1924 essay Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown, Virginia Woolf wrote that On or about December 1910, human character changed. I am not saying that one went out, as one might into a garden, and there saw that a rose had flowered, or that a hen had laid an egg. The change was not sudden and definite like that. But a change there was, nevertheless; and, since one must be arbitrary, let us date it about the year 1910. However, perhaps it was only the humans’ change, but also, the way that was written about humans and their life, be it ordinary, outside, and more importantly, their inner life. Such is the case with Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, the two main characters of Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse. The two are a couple in their fifties, married, and have eight children. They form a beautiful, and to some extent typical family. However, there is a lot that contributes to their division. Mrs. Ramsay is a beautiful woman, aged fifty, who has made an art out of being a woman, more specifically a mother. She is arguably the true protagonist of the book, as her being permeates the existence of the ones around her. She is the one who sets everything into motion – be it dinner parties, marriages, helping the ones around her, she is the one who never disappoints, and never seems to fail. She defines her existence through her being a mother and a wife: Oh, but she never wanted James to grow a day older! r Cam either. These two she would have liked to keep for ever just as they were, demons of wickedness, angels of delight, never to see them grow up into long-legged monsters. Nothing made up for the loss. She loves her children, and would do anything to protect them and their childhood. This is the reason why she tells James, her youngest, that they will be able to go to the Lighthouse the following day, and why she resents her husband so much for stating the contrary obvious and crushing little James’ hopes. Although she is no longer a young woman, Mrs. Ramsay is full of vitality and energy. She is the central figure, around which the action revolves and who, at the same time, sets the action in motion. Her intentions are good: knitting socks for the Lighthouse keeper’s tuberculosis-ridden son, tries to be nice to Charles Tansley, Mr. Ramsay’s student with working class origins whom her children mock, to Augustus Carmichael whose old age and opium addiction are sources of others’ looking down on him. Constantly being surrounded by people has led her to become the gracious hostess and caring mother she is, but also to defining (and also seeing herself) in that position for ever. Having been a mother to small children a big part of her life (the Ramsays have eight children), and still being one, she wishes to keep her children at this age forever, supposedly for their well-being, but perhaps this comes due to a need to protect and go on the same routine she has known, as it is hard for her to think about herself outside these terms. One of the instances in which this is evident is the moment when she can follow her regular string of thoughts for as long as she hears some kind of familiar noises in the background. She is not used to being by herself, and not surrounded by people. However, in some truly honest moments, she does not hide behind different masks (seen as roles she takes, mother, wife, host, friend), and acknowledges her own existence as something deeply personal and private: She took a look at life, for she had a clear sense of it there, something real, something private, which she shared neither with her children nor with her husband. What one can also recognize are remnants of Victorian morals and models, in both her and her husband. She is the central, matriarchal figure, who takes care of her family, a dutiful wife while managing the household (one of her recurring thoughts is that the bill for the greenhouse will be fifty pound, and tries to be a matchmaker for Minta and Paul, but also for Lily Briscoe and Mr.  Bankes, while being beautiful and admired, as Victorian women were expected to be. She has always maintained and upheld a steadfast belief in traditional gender roles – men being strong and hiding weaknesses (for their chivalry and valour, for the fact that they negotiated treaties, ruled India, controlled finance), and women being the ones bringing the family together, and this makes her resent Mr. Ramsay for his confession to her that he feels like a failure. She cannot bear the thought of her husband being a lesser man than who she thinks and wants him to be, a man better than her: She did not like, even for a second, to feel finer than her husband; and further, could not bear not being entirely sure, when she spoke to him, of the truth of what she said (†¦) but it was their relation, and his coming to her like that, openly, so that any one could see, that discomposed her; for then people said he depended on her, when they must know that of the two he was infinitely the more important, and what she gave the world, in comparison with what he gave, negligible. It is interesting to see the way she influences and sometimes dominates the lives of those around her; her husband is restless after her death and while they are still a couple feels he is a disappointment to her and himself. Prue, her daughter, admires her greatly: what a chance it was for Minta and Paul and Lily to see her, and feeling what an extraordinary stroke of fortune it was for her, to have her. Mrs. Ramsay admires Lily Briscoe for her independence (she was an independent little creature, and Mrs.  Ramsay liked her for it), her peculiar charm and her flare of something, that reminds her of herself. In turn, the young painter feels compelled by Mrs. Ramsay’s beauty and personality, that attracts and fascinates Lily, and which she finds impossible to transpose in the painting she is working on. It is only through Mrs. Ramsay, even after her death, that Lily finds her clarity and her vision. Mr. Ramsay is Mrs. Ramsay’s husband and one of the protagonists of the novel. He is a man in his fifties, a father and a metaphysics philosophy teacher. He defines himself through his work and, like an artist, is concerned with whether his work will be remembered, worth remembering, and how long it will survive after he is gone. This is one of the things that constantly drive him. Just like his wife, being raised in the spirit of traditional values and gender stereotypes, in relationships with his children he is tough, insensitive and has the mentality that he must always be authoritarian and must always do things the right way. He is a rationalist, and feels he must stick to sound principles even when it comes to letting his six-year old son James hope that the weather will be fine so as to go to the Lighthouse the following day: But it won’t be fine. While Mrs. Ramsay tries to smooth out what had been harsh before, he has no problem with being harsh as long as it means sticking to the cold truth: What he said was true. It was always true. He was incapable of untruth; never tampered with a fact; never altered a disagreeable word to suit the pleasure or convenience of any mortal being, least of all of his own children. †¦). His duty, his fatherly duty is to make sure his children are prepared for their grown-up life from the beginning, although he is unaware of the fact that his presence stifles them: his own children, who, sprung from his loins, should be aware from childhood that life is difficult. Through the eyes of Lily Briscoe, he is not good enough for Mrs. Ramsay, while through the eyes of his son James, who wants to take his place in a typical Oedipus’ complex, he is too harsh and cold, but he is also admired for his intelligence. Had there been an axe handy, a poker, or any weapon that would have gashed a hole in his father’s breast and killed him, there and then, James would have seized it. Such were the extremes of emotion that Mr. Ramsay excited in his children’s breasts by his mere presence. These do not mean that he and Mrs. Ramsay do not complement and complete each other. As it is observed in the first chapter of the novel, He found talking much easier than she did, but she felt herself very beautiful. He is the talkative one, the intellectual one, but it is her presence that attracts people. Moreover, both of them are dutiful persons. If Mrs. Ramsay thinks her duty is with her family and trying to keep everyone happy and being a gracious host, Mr. Ramsay sees his duty in his work, his duty is to leave something valuable behind. The Ramsays are polar opposites, and can embody the Jungian archetypes of animus and anima. Among others, he has a constant need for approval and for people to tell him that his work is important and valuable. These (new to the time) ideas are what torment him so much as to make him confess to his wife that he feels like a failure, in hope of reassurance and sought-for comforting. However, this situation is new to what both of them have known about the way each other is supposed to be or feel, or the way they should handle it. This explains the distance that is created between them upon hearing each other’s take on the situation. Their inability to show true empathy can be a result of their Victorian ideas about their spouse and marriage and their own role there being put to the test. Victorian society would not have permitted for men to show weakness, not to mention confessing it to their own wives, their obvious inferior, and for women to think that they can even for a moment be better than their husbands. At the turn of a century and an age, they as individuals are confronted with new ideas, new sides of themselves they do not know how to reconcile with the other, traditional ideas everyone including themselves had taken as unmovable. This difficulty is seen in the stream of thoughts of both of them, but also has, as visible result, a cut/breach in communication between them, which leads to a possible estrangement/alienation from the other. What they fail to see is that the 20th century society and way of life gave way to a better way of communicating, they way one felt was important, and no one was supposed to play a previously defined part, and that this is the way things should be. This is seen in how they react to Mr. Ramsay’s moment of complete honesty – Mrs. Ramsay cannot bear the thought of him telling her this and of actually having to be the better one, while Mr. Ramsay cannot get the comfort and reassurance he needs. Indeed, as Virginia Woolf wrote in her essay, human character did change at the beginning of the 20th century. People, both women and men, became more aware of themselves, and most importantly, became aware of their inner life and the attention it deserved. But this could not have been possible without the insight modernist writers offered through their books. What they tried to do, using the stream of consciousness technique, is depict the way human minds work, the messy, not completely coherent ways that this happens, the way in which we perceive a moment and how intense we live it and how much happens within us during that moment as opposed to the measured moment (the irst pages of the first chapter, when the same moment is presented through the eyes and inner thoughts of three characters). What they achieved, however, was to show that human beings are different (as Lily Briscoe says, fifty eyes are not enough to get round one person), and that everyone tries to find meaning in fleeting moments, albeit differently, and that society was wrong in fitting them into stereotypes. And this too helped change the remnants of the Victorian society and turn people of the age into modern souls.

Socialist Cuba essays

Socialist Cuba essays This essay will attempt to show how the vision of a peoples republic was maintained such that the US blockade failed to lead to a rejection of Fidel and Cuban socialism. It will be assessed through a series of economic and social case studies that underpin Cuban society today, in its successful socialist state. Cuba has great symbolic importance in the region and is unique in the world as a strikingly successful and continuing socialist revolution. Fidel Castro assumed control of Cuba in 1959, as a culmination of the revolution. As part of his revolutionary reforms, the Cuban government expropriated large U.S. estates, oil refineries, and other economic assets. He also allied himself with the Communist Party and fostered a strong ally in the America's Cold War enemy, the Soviet Union, from whom Cuba received annual subsidies worth $4-5 billion. As a result, American relations with Cuba were cut off both diplomatically and economically, the United States tried unsuccessfully to overthrow Castro, and Cold War tensions escalated dangerously and dramatically during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Today, Castro is still in power, U.S./Cuban relations remain cool, and the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba continues. Prior to the revolution, Cuba was considered to be one of the higher income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in 1950s. It was rather urbanised than most countries in the Latin American region, with 55% of its population living in urban areas. Illiteracy was estimated officially about 22%. However, the distribution of health service and education was unequal between urban population and rural population. Indeed, poverty was severe in the pre-revolutionary Cuba. One third of the urban population and nearly two thirds of that in rural areas suffered from malnutrition. The ownership of agricultural land was extremely concentrated and the economy of the country was deeply dependant on sugar export to USA. In response to ...

Dr. Seuss Biography - Creator of The Cat in the Hat

Dr. Seuss Biography - Creator of The Cat in the Hat Who Was Dr. Seuss? The biography of Dr. Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel, reveals that the impact he had on books for children has been an enduring one. What do we know about the man known as Dr. Seuss who created so many classic childrens books, including The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham? For several generations, picture books and beginning readers books by Dr. Seuss have delighted young children.   Although Dr. Seuss died in 1991, neither he nor his books have been forgotten. Every year on March 2, school children across United States and beyond celebrate Dr. Seusss birthday with skits, costumes, birthday cakes, and his books. The American Library Association named the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award, a special annual award for beginning reader books, after the popular author and illustrator in recognition of his pioneering work in the development of childrens books written at the appropriate reading level for beginning readers that are also entertaining and fun to read. Theodor Seuss Geisel: His Education and Early Employment Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1925, but rather than earning a doctorate in literature at Oxford University as he originally intended, he returned to the United States in 1927. During the next two decades he worked for several magazines, worked in advertising, and served in the army during World War II. He was stationed in Hollywood and won Oscars for his work on war documentaries. Dr. Seuss and Childrens Books By that time, Geisel (as Dr. Seuss) had already written and illustrated several childrens books, and he continued to do so. His first childrens picture book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was published in 1937. Dr. Seuss once said, Children want the same things we want. To laugh, to be challenged, to be entertained, and delighted. Dr. Seuss books certainly provide that for children. His witty rhymes, engaging plots, and imaginative characters add up to fun for children and adults alike. Dr. Seuss, A Pioneer in Developing Books for Beginning Readers It was his publisher who first involved Geisel in creating entertaining childrens books with a limited vocabulary for beginning readers. In May 1954, Life magazine published a report about illiteracy among school children. Among the factors cited by the report was the fact that children were bored by the books that were available at the beginning reader level. His publisher sent Geisel a list of 400 words and challenged him to come up with a book that would use about 250 of the words. Geisel used 236 of the words for The Cat in the Hat, and it was an instant success. The Dr. Seuss books definitively proved that it was possible to create engaging books with a limited vocabulary when the author/illustrator had both imagination and wit. The plots of the Dr. Seuss books are entertaining and often teach a lesson, from the importance of taking responsibility for the earth and one another to learning what is really important. With their quirky characters and clever rhymes, the Dr. Seuss books are great to read aloud. Childrens Books by Theodor Seuss Geisel Picture books by Dr. Seuss continue to be popular read alouds, while books by Geisel for young readers continue to be popular for independent reading. In addition to those written by Dr. Seuss, Geisel also wrote a number of beginning readers under the pseudonym Theodore Lesieg (Geisel spelled backwards). These include The Eye Book, Ten Apples Up on Top, and Many Mice of Mr. Price. Although Theodor Geisel died at the age of 87 on September 24, 1991, his books and Dr. Seuss and Theodore Lesieg did not. They continue to be popular as do books in the style of the original Dr. Seuss.   In addition, several collections of lost stories by Dr. Seuss have been published in the last few years and in 2015, his unfinished picture book What Pet Should I Get?was completed by others and published. If you or your children have not read any of Dr. Seuss books, you are in for a treat. I particularly recommend The Cat in the Hat, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hatches the Egg, Horton Hears a Who!, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Lorax, And To Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street and Oh, the Places Youll Go. Theodor Geisel once said, I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.* If your brain cells need a wake-up call, try Dr. Seuss. (Sources: About.com Quotations: Dr. Seuss Quotes*, Seussville.com, Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel: A Biography by Judith and Neil Morgan)

Consequences and Significance report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Consequences and Significance report - Essay Example Once they get penetrated into the human body, destroy biological cells and hence process as a whole(Cohen). These radiations are the cause of cancer in most of the patients; whereas genetic disorders produced by these radiations are relatively less frightening. Nuclear power used in nuclear plants apparently seems to be a clean source of energy but it really is not. Like thermal power plants, nuclear power plants also need sinks for transferring heat energy and reduce temperature of the fluid. In case of nuclear reactors, 60 to 70% of energy is rejected into the environment and is not used by the system(Jaffer). This energy is either expelled out of the system by developing artificial lakes or reservoirs or by making use of natural resources. In such cases, the aquatic life is adversely affected and ecosystem is destroyed. Another drawback of using natural water bodies as a heat sink for nuclear reactors is that the water in rivers and lakes gets heated which when falls into the seas thus resulting in sudden climatic changes that may result in calamities. Also increased temperature has resulted in faster melting down process of glaciers and northern and southern caps, thus resulting in increased sea level. A nuclear reactor is not only a threat to the environment due to the emission of excess radiations into the environment, but it also emits hazardous gases into the environment. A nuclear reactor makes use of diesel generators for providing emergency backup system. These generators are also used at least once a month to carry out maintenance processes and thus result in the production of excess GHG emissions into the atmosphere. Not only this, nuclear reactors generate radioactive gaseous emission as well into the environment. These are generated either as a result of radioactive processes being carried out in the reactor or the exhaust of

See below Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 8

See below - Essay Example It discusses the behaviors portrayed by the corporation. It also discusses and gives suggestions to the ways the corporation has to do to the environment. And finally, the essay gives the most important considerations a corporation has to consider. Having a strong desire for more wealth, possessions and power more than a person’s needs can lead to a person to do things that will harm other people just to satisfy that desire. Being greedy can lead a person to do actions such as sacrificing the safety, happiness and the rights of other people for the sake of satisfying one’s self. Monsanto is a big business that can be found all around the world. It is a corporation that has existed in the year 1901. A 42-year-old, John F. Queeny, whose job is to purchase under the Drug Company of the Meyer brothers started this business. The name was taken from the last name of his wife for the reason that the last name of his wife is well known to other people especially to the Germans that are responsible in supplying goods. During that time, they named their companies using their last names. They had been discovering and manufacturing products in connection to the farms and cattle for fast production that leads them to higher profits. From the very beginning, Monsanto Corporation has been claiming that their main purpose is for the sake of the farmers and for the environment. Their main goal is to help the farmers in every possible way in order to produce more crops. One of their goals is to use as little of the resources such as the soil and water as possible so that these resources will last a long time. But the corporation is the number one violators of their goals. They did the opposite for the sake of higher profits. They torture the farmers for the sake of profits by suing them to court and asked them large amount of money. The amount of money that both parties agreed to pay is not revealed to the public which means that the corporation is only

The Role of Public Opinion in the Downfall of Policies The 1990 Poll Essay

The Role of Public Opinion in the Downfall of Policies The 1990 Poll Tax and the First Employment Contract 2006 - Essay Example The following discussion will explore the theory behind the rights assertion of citizens in reaction to unfair laws and policy reforms of the government, which is becoming very important to the validation of public policy. It is then going to consider the problems that the Conservative Government experienced with the Poll Tax in the 1990s and the French Government in respect to the First Employment Contract 2006. In this section it will illustrate how public opinion doomed these policies to the scrapheap. Carney has proposed that pressure groups have embarked on using the legal system for alternative methods than just setting precedent or using judicial review for ulterior motives than questioning the rule of law. This has occurred because the present legal system does not provide sufficient protection for the environment and he considers three theories of how pressure groups use the legal system which are; as a surrogate political process (Sax); adjunct to the political process; and rights assertion (Dworkin and Rawls). The following section will consider; each of these theories; the application that Carney proposes; and whether the theories of empowerment and grassroots movements provides any insight into providing environmental rights as sufficient access to justice against unfair public policy. The Surrogate Political Process theory argues that courts are completely independent from the political and as Sax argues that it is the only method of social reform that is not possible in the political arena of lobbying and the competing of interests.1 This is the radical form of the argument; however there is a more traditional line of argument as illustrated by Carney: The ability to operate as a surrogate political process the courts must have values which promote a different agenda to that which is being promoted by the traditional political process, and have the ability to ensure that these values are ultimately accepted in the traditional political process.2 The problem with this argument for the political/legal process is that it is not viable in the English Legal System, because of parliamentary sovereignty and the unwritten constitution because the English courts do not have the power to quash laws that are inconsistent with the constitution. In France, however, this is a possibility therefore extreme public reaction as to the First Employment Contract 2006 can result in the laws being quashed by the Courts. Therefore the government before losing in the courts in jurisdictions, such as France, will retract their public policy because of the ultimate failure of the policy due to the unfairness to the public. Adjunct to Political Process: This thesis recognizes the limitations of the court's ability to effect significant social change by itself - rather litigation is seen as another campaign tool - or in the words of David Robinson3 an arrow in the quiver. As a campaign tool litigation can serve a number of purposes. It may if successful legitimize the goal [of the Pressure Group] It may