While
the specific subject of s novel is cloning, the characters experiences and relationships lead
the reader to a more basic question about what constitutes human identity. The author does not
introduce the reader to the original humans from whom the children at Hailsham were cloned, so
we cannot determine if the characters are identical in personality as well as genetic makeup.
Several possible main arguments can be formulated based on Ishiguros central idea. One line of
argumentation concerns nature versus nurture. Depending on the readers interpretation, they
could argue that either nature or nurture is more important. Ishiguro seems to lean toward
nurture, as he emphasizes the role of their upbringing: Hailsham unites the central characters
and provides a unique environment that has positive elements even though it confines them. The
relative lack of autonomy in charting their own paths also raises questions about free will.
Ishiguro suggests that the three friends exercise free will in their affectionate relationships
with each other and their efforts to use the system to their benefit. Even though they are wrong
about the exception for couples, Kathy and Tommy take definite steps toward escaping their
fate.
Sunday, 7 June 2009
What is a good argument for Never Let me Go?
Saturday, 6 June 2009
What was Adolf Hitler's personality like?
Adolf Hitler
is a historical figure hard to imagine outside of his role as genocidal dictator, but surely he
had other dominant personality traits he expressed privately. It is a little difficult to say
with certainty what Hitler's personality was like because all contemporary documents discussing
his personality were either propaganda skewed by the agenda of the Nazi party or observations
made by foreign entities who saw him as an enemy.
The report compiled for
the United States Office of Strategic Services by Henry Murray is widely considered one of the
most objective reports on Hitler's personality. Because it was
compiled by an American psychiatrist for the purpose of providing the
government with a better understanding of Hitler and how to get the one-up on him in future, we
ought to bear in mind that some of this information may be biased. The report states Hitler's
personality was almost entirely governed by some deep-seated insecurities and a desire for
revenge against those he perceived to be at fault. Hitler was intelligent and crafted a public
appearance that appealed to the needs and wants of the German people, but he was almost
certainly criminally insane. He had a strong need for dominance and admired physical strength
and aggression. The report states that he was often incapacitated by emotional disturbances. The
whole report is redolent of Freudian psychoanalysis and states that Hitler's insecurities and
outward aggression must have been caused by witnessing his parents engaged in intercourse as a
young child. Presumably, this also made him very frail as a child and left him impotent as an
adult.
A more recent, posthumous psychiatric evaluation based on the fourth
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders implies that Hitler was a deeply troubled
man. He likely suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder,
Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and Sadistic Personality Disorder. This article mentions that
when the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung met Adolf Hitler, he found him to be socially distant and
unsettling. In more private settings, it seems that Hitler was quite withdrawn and generally
unpleasant. It was only in public that he "put on" the persona of a charismatic and
inspiring leader.
German propaganda of the time uplifted Hitler to the status
of a demigod. He was painted as unshakable and infallible, with Germany's best interests at
heart. The German people loved him because he promised to "fix" all of their problems
and was exuberant in his apparent passions for their well-being.
So what was
Hitler really like? It is hard to say for certain. It is most probable that
he was deeply insecure and wanted others to have a positive image of himself as a means of
over-compensating for real or perceived flaws.
Friday, 5 June 2009
How did Italian Renaissance artist Pietro Perugino use perspective in his painting "Jesus Handing the Keys to Peter"?
Pietro Peruginos fresco Jesus Handing the Keys to Peter (1481€“1483) is a balanced
and rhythmically-articulated composition. The author emphasizes the central event, which is
placed on the foreground and is in the focus. The act of the handing of the keys is depicted
according to strict rules of the perspective, with figures being located on the planes that are
parallel to the background. Less important figures are relegated to the middle ground.
On the left and on the right of Christ and Peter, there are groups of the apostles
whose postures and movements direct the beholders attention to the center. But there is another
focus in the painting, and that is the dark doorway of the baptistery, which is where the rays
of the perspective converge. The orthogonal rays help to unfold the theme from the forefront to
the background by symbolically linking the keys in Christs hand to the idea of the Church, which
is embodied here in the particular edifice.
Perugino was able to
put...
Who are the charecters in the story written by Hemingway called "Hills Like White Elephants"?
Characters, as you probably know, are the
agents in a work of that cause action and create conflict and drive plot. They are
thepersonalities about whom we care, with whom our imaginations interact,who develop images and
themes of life and living. In some instances,characters can be non-human creatures or, in rare
instances, inanimateobjects. The Wind in the Willows is an illustration of
the first for it is peopled with moles, rats, badgers, toads. The House of the Seven
Gables is an illustration of the second in which the house where Hepzibah lives is an
integral part of all that occurs.
In "" there are two central
characters, andone central character who is inferred though never introduced. There isone minor
character who interacts with the first two and facilitatestheir interaction. There are
characters who are mentioned and provideinsight into the character of the American man but who
have no discernible role in the action.
Coming back, he
walked through the bar-room, where people waiting for the train were drinking. He drank an Anis
at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting reasonably for the train.
The two central characters are the American man and his girlfriend
who is the only one who has a name--she is called Jig.
The
American and the girl with him sat at a table inthe shade, outside the building. It was very hot
and the express fromBarcelona would come in forty minutes.
The character who is inferred is the unborn baby of Jig's pregnancy. The minor
character is the woman who brings them their drinks through the symbolic beads that represent
separation or dividedness. The other characters are the people in the "bar-room" who
are "all waiting reasonably for the train."
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Advantages Of Constitutional Democracy
In a
democracy such as ours, which has a representative form of governance, whereby we vote for
people who will make decisions on various matter for us, this is an advantage and a
disadvantage. When we elect people to make these various decisions, it is not at all clear
whether they are elected because we want them to exercise their own intelligence, logic,
experience, and ethical values or we want them to represent our opinions. There is no law
governing this in our democracy, and it is indeed a two-edged sword. Should our representatives
do the former or the latter? There are advantages and disadvantages inherent in each. Few of
us as individuals are able to be fully informed on every issue that comes before a legislator,
an executive, or a judge. It can be a good thing for people who are elected because they are or
can be fully informed to make such decisions for us. But it can have consequences that we do not
think of as truly "democratic" when an elected official makes a decision that does not
represent the will of the majority, even when the decision made might be reasonably construed to
be the best decision, for all, or in the long run. We would all want to give some very careful
thought to the notion that all decisions by elected or appointed individuals should be made
through poll-taking. If that were the case, we would have a sort of direct democracy, but what
would be the point of having elected or appointed officials at all? And that brings us to the
next way some issues are decided.
Democracy also, though, can include the
referendum, which is a decision that people vote upon directly, for example, whether or not to
allow medical or recreational marijuana use in a particular state or whether or not to allow
same-sex marriage. This is the purest form of democracy, truly representing the will of the
majority, but this has the disadvantage of a majority making a bad decision, since, again, very
few of us are as well-informed as we could be or should be to weigh in on these matter.
Furthermore, these are state referenda, and the American Constitution can trump any of these,
for very good reason.
We have been speaking of democracy in a kind of a
vacuum, ignoring what might be the most important aspect of American democracy, which is that it
is a constitutional democracy, which places limits on the powers of those whom we elect or
appoint, limits that at least theoretically protect all of us as we cede authority to those we
elect or represent. One of the difficulties in developing democracies is that without a
carefully crafted constitution, all of the disadvantages of democracy emerge, with few of the
advantages.
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
Comment upon the poet's love in "Our Casuarina Tree."
I think
that love takes on a couple of different forms in the poem. There is the obvious love for the
tree. It has become the symbol that has endured throughout time, even when the people
associated with it has not. There is the love for the playmates that are so closely a part of
the memory of the speaker, presumably the poet, but also for the tree and the shared experiences
of all of them: Speaker, companions, tree, and being in the world are all linked together.
There is a love for the memories that the tree holds that are unable to be produced in the
modern setting.
It is here...
Why does Gregor cling to the picture of the woman in furs on the wall?
Early on, the narrator
describes Gregor's feelings that his life is not very fulfilling. He has no time to establish or
develop any meaningful relationshipsnot even time enough to eat satisfying foodsbecause he
spends all of his time on the road as a traveling salesman.
When he first
awakens as a bug, he cannot figure out what has happened to him, and it is here that the
narrator first describes the "picture of a woman with a fur hat and a fur boa." He had
cut it out of a magazine and put it into "a pretty gilt frame." It is as though, in
lieu of an actual woman with whom he might have an actual relationship, Gregor can only place
the picture of an attractive and luxuriously-attired woman from a magazine in his frame, because
no such woman exists in his life. When the behavior of his sister, Grete, and his mother
indicate that they may intend to take this framed picture, it represents the likelihood that no
such woman will ever exist, and this is too painful for Gregor to endure. With the removal of
his furniture and this picture, it seems as though the last vestiges of his humanity will be
gone.