To Suffer or Not to Suffer As human beings, we try to eschew from the suffering and adversities that plague human morality. Nonetheless, society remains drawn to the surplus of tragedies in plays, movies, and literary works. Not only do these works provide an escape from our own hardships, but suffering and tragedy is a significant aspect to the development of human society. Personally, I have experienced my own share of sorrow, trauma, and difficulties in life. While they may not be as severe as those faced by the characters in A Doll’s House and Never Let Me Go, a pervasive theme still manifests in the presence of suffering. In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, the prevalent motif of suffering illustrates …show more content…
Tragedy manifests while Kathy is a young child; she listens to a song and clutches her pillow, pretending she’s holding an “imaginary baby”, until a normal human, Madame, observes her and begins “crying” (Ishiguro 71). Kathy is unaware that clones cannot have children, as Madame is aware of. Therefore, Kathy’s innocuous act of pretending to hold a baby is a distressing sight to Madame. Ultimately, the suffering Kathy obliviously experiences is what prompts Madame to fight for the rights of clones. Therefore, suffering links human society together; empathy for others leads growth of a society as a whole. In addition, Ishiguro utilizes the clones as a reflection to human morality. All humans face adversities in life that are inexorable, death being one certain source of trauma. When Tommy, Kathy’s boyfriend, must donate his vital organs and face death, he compares life to a “river” where “the current is too strong” and they will inevitably “drift apart” (Ishiguro 282). By comparing life to a fast-moving river, Tommy realizes that tragedies like death is unavoidable. Therefore, Tommy and Kathy cherish the time they have left together rather than anguishing. When Tommy does fulfill his societal obligations and dies Kathy does suffer some despair. However it is short lived as she grows from her suffering; Kathy learns to accept the tragic fate rather than try to fight against “the current” of life. Therefore, the inexorable adversities both clones and humans experience illustrate that suffering is a key component to growth of the individual being and society
The nineteen year old girl has never left her parents’ house, whereas her partner has physical and psychological scars from the Vietnam war, in the jungle. This contrast between the two individuals’ origin shows the influence one has on the other in their relationship. They mutually help each other getting over their different difficult reality by using their opposite characteristics. They are curious of discovering the other’s current reality, as the girl wants to become an adult and the man needs a hint of innocence. In short, this complementary relationship implies that one’s psychological evolution comes from his/her positive and negative
Most people live a relatively normal day to day life even if we may have our share of mundane problems. If we are asked to describe our emotions, at the very least we can say happy or sad or fine. When we truly love something or take great pleasure in something, most of us tend to wax poetically. In contrast, there are people like Ishmael Beah whose lives started off quite normal but then it took a major wrong turn. From the tender age of ten years, Beah witnessed the horrors of war in his home country, Sierra Leone.
For Phineas he found it in himself to forgive Gene and not take genes obsessive phase too personally, but to Gene,becoming a component of Phineas is his purpose. Phineas becomes dependent on Gene to play sports through his guidance, Gene in reciprocation becomes dependent on Phineas’ guidance, comity, and how to be the prosperous person he is. This quotation settled the Codependence between the two. This Codependence that dies with Phineas hurts Gene in an unimaginable way. Gene does not feel as though Phineas has died; but as if he a component of himself had died.
Cruelty exists in many forms, just as it has a multitude of affects on different people and characters. In both The Poisonwood Bible by Barbra Kingslover and Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the nature, will, and personalities of the characters are put to the test in response to cruelty. As demonstrated in both of these novels, cruelty can shape a character by revealing the true nature of the victim and bringing guilt upon the perpetrator, which proves that cruelty is the driving force in character development. In The Poisonwood Bible, Nathan Price brings his family to the Congo on a conversion mission, and it quickly becomes obvious that he cares more about the mission than his own family.
“Its all we are in the end. Our Stories.” (Wagemese 103) In both of these novels, healing is achieved through listening to
We can spend our entire lives searching for peace but within this search there is inevitable conflict. Everyone has that huge, dark monster in their lives, as shown in the painting Sorrow Teeming With Light by Gabriel Shaffer. This painting also depicts the great individual battles that we go through in trying to resolve or resist these overall conflicts. With these conflicts, suffering is brought on.
Here, Kathy brings her own experience into this interpretation. Always knowing subconsciously that she is infertile, she reimagines herself as the childless mother in the song and expresses her joy and fear should she have someone to love so deeply and tenderly. Kathy’s reinterpretation is so truly yearnful and sympathetic that it draws both Madame and the readers to tears and pushes us to believe that clones are fully capable of the utmost human emotions and
Growing up requires a high demand of endurance as life is filled with hardships and challenges. Thus in order to live through them, people must be as strong as the stress and anxiety which builds upon them. Both Donald M. Murray’s “What Football Taught Me” and Lisa Keiski’s “Suicide’s Forgotten Victims” demonstrate how to persist life challenges. Despite experiencing different forms of hardships that enable them to survive through their pain, Murray and Keiski transmit life lessons about individual growth. They emphasize survival through society, authority figures, and themselves.
’ This example shows that what makes humans “Human” is the relationships you form with people around you and your identity not your body parts. These examples are significant to this novel because it helps us understand the extremes that some parents will go to save their children and the effects it then has on the child physically and
In spite of the theory behind her defense, the mechanism of blocking out the truth in order to keep from being exposed to the brunt of painful realizations of death and injustice is, arguably, the best option for her. In a perfect world, humans would be able to live life as they please and not be “denied agency” (Carroll 131); but Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go gives reason to believe that the human race as a whole is a selfish being who cares more about the betterment of themselves rather than the neglected and dismay that their actions bring to others. In the past-tense novel, Kathy rekindles her memories prior to being slaughtered for her vital organs, in order to cure “normals”. Her attitude towards the system is extremely fatalistic as she feels no real need to run from the inevitable of being put down by the society that brought her up. In her mind, never letting anyone in is the only way to never let anyone
Making Light of Tragedy In Making Light of Tragedy by Jessica Grant is a collection that portrays both arrogance and uncertainty. They exemplify to a great extent what it is like to feel lost in a world that seems so simple. Grant creates vivid imagery ensuring that the reader can paint the picture beautifully in their head and understand the moral of the story. The two short stories “The Anxiety Exhibit” and “Bellicrostic” capture the motif of feeling lost, trapped and unhappy exceptionally well.
A Doll’s House: Character Comparison and Contrast Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House contains a cast of deeply complex characters that emulate the 1800’s societal norms that they belong to. Two characters that compare and contrast each other throughout the play are Nora Helmer and Kristine Linde. Nora and Kristine are similar because they both display a sense of independence. Their personalities differ as Nora presents herself as inexperienced, while Kristine is more grounded in reality.
Tragedy is a part of life and most people will experience a tragedy in their lifetime. Tragedies are common enough to be presented to children through television shows and children’s books. Small tragedies occur in children’s entertainment. A children’s story may go like a kid loses an item he/she loves and then his/her friends or family help and find the lost item. Imagine if a kid had no support in finding whatever he/she has lost.
Never Let Me Go follows the life of a young woman named Kathy H, who starts off talking in first person explaining that she is a 31 year old, living in England in the late 1900. We do not quite understand what she is talking about, as she announces that she is a ‘carer’, and we are unclear to what that is. Therefore, she speaks to us, the audience, and tells the story of her childhood. She recounts the story of her life. Kathy is a clone created to start giving vital organs to people considered more important when she is around her thirties, and by doing this they die very young.
As human beings, we tend to know and discover what life really is. One thing I know, each one of us has his/her own definition of the word “life” such as this movie directed, starred and created by him, Robert Benigni. This is a story of some of the horrors of the Holocaust which includes a unique, almost lighthearted element, something beyond the material reality that on its face is so horrible. Benigni 's willingness to use comedy to underscore the evils of fascism is undoubtedly shocking, but it is extremely effective in conveying Benigni 's firm belief that beauty and light can be found even in the most horrible of places.