...Sujaan Lal Greek Classics Paper Brian Doherty 11/4/12 Beneath the Surface: The Significance of Somax, the Ordinary Carter There has always a bond between a father and his son that is somewhat unexplainable. The strong generational connection between the two paves the way for both deep intimacy and love but also an overwhelming sense of grief their loss. David Malouf’s Ransom appropriates a section of Homer’s tale for closer examination in which he gives voice to Somax, a character of his own invention. Although he is introduced as an ordinary carter, Somax and his journey become intrinsic to Priam’s own self-discovery. The story of the carter helps his King experience a range of emotions he has never explored and introduces Priam to what it is like to “simply be a man.” Malouf draws an interesting comparison between Somax and Idaeus to differentiate between royalty and the common man. In the book, Somax is renamed Idaeus, the name of the royal wagoner. Priam’s selection of a peasant carter is in an effort to follow his vision and speak for himself. If a royal carter or herald had spoken for him, it would seem as if the gods had played a major role in their fate. Malouf throughout the book argues that Gods do not control fate, humans hold their destiny in their own hands. Additionally, Priam chooses to forgo his royal garb and its decadence for something more plain in an effort to appear more as a father than a king. Here we see Malouf taking a more modern approach in...
Words: 1218 - Pages: 5
...Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer is a testament of what it means to be human, how people grieve, and how they are affected by their losses. Several characters in the book are going through some sort of grief through loss. Searching for answers that will probably never be found each of them is brought together and deal with their respective issues differently. Most of them spend years of their lives attempting to understand and find closure, but some don’t find any at all. No grief is greater than the other, no matter how miniscule some seem. It’s how they responded to the losses that defined what kind of person they are. Oskar Schell finds his own unique ways of dealing with his grief. Dealing with his issues in his own unique way, Oskar is doing his best to prevent the loss of his father from destroying his entire world. He uses the key he found, his inventions, and even self-harm to help grieve the untimely loss of his father. Using his journey to find what the key opens as way to cope with the grief of losing his father, Oskar struggles to understand why this is happening to him. One would suspect his intelligence would help play a factor in his grieving process, but it is shown that he is still very much a 9 year old kid to the core. Embarking on his journey he searches for not only what the key opens but also answers to what really happened to his dad. While searching for some sort of answer he also is extending to memory of his father. This answer however is not...
Words: 1877 - Pages: 8
...“Science does not answer “why” questions it answers “how” questions.” [1] Didion wondered why she suffered the emotions she suffered. She delved into the etiology of grief emotions, while neuroscientist like Panksepp study the pathogenesis. Didion suffers the sudden death of her husband accompanied by the illness of her daughter. These are traumatic and shocking moments for any human being. She did what was only natural for herself and sought the truth through investigation. I imagine as a writer she probably kept personal journals with notes regularly, so it was a natural response. The journey led to a masterpiece of narrative and literary techniques to tell a story about a very complex topic. I intend to analyze Didion’s etiological take on her emotions and compare it to the neuroscientific pathogenesis of her primal emotions....
Words: 555 - Pages: 3
...Healthy Grief: Kubler-Ross Grieving Process and Stages of Grief Alice Verrett Grand Canyon University: HLT 310v June 16, 2013 Kubler-Ross Grieving Process and Stages of Grief We are examining the grief process and the stages of grief by evaluating and distinguishing differences, or similarities of Kubler-Ross, Job of the Bible, and Hinduism. We also looked at a connection and interplay linking joy, the grief process, and its stages we will also look at personal means of dealing with the grief process and whether or not it merits change. Kubler-Ross acknowledges; {People in some aspect of time in life will grieve over the loss of someone or something of importance in their lifetime.} We cannot forget about them. People will deny the grief process to avert pain but it will be much healthier for us to accept the loss as we journey through the grief process. Kubler-Ross says; “The grief process follows a normal sequence of deny, rage, trying to negotiate, a depressed state, and finally acquiescence”. (Kübler-Ross, 1969). Kubler-Ross five stages of grief: 1) Denial, 2) Anger, 3) Bargaining 4) Depression, 5) Acceptance.. A model proposed by Stroebe and Schut is also in place and utilized. The grief model used today is a two track process model. The first track looks at loss (separation distress), while the second track looks at re-establishment of means (the progression of opportunities in which to maintain living on one’s own). (Stroebe and...
Words: 1243 - Pages: 5
...story of grievance and preparation for burial that comes off as humorous as well as deeply unreasonable and confusing. The speaker and the young widow spend the night before the funeral, waiting for dawn and the depth of the widow’s loss is counterbalanced – “your tears made a pale butterfly, the color of dawn” (line 25)- by the depth of connection with the universe and the acceptance of the inescapability of death to us all. It is Harjo’s use of the butterflies-at-dawn imagery that infuses joy and triumph over the darkness in the incessant continuum of dawn versus darkness, and brings about thoughts on the nature of grief and the part that spirituality plays in the grieving process. In this poem, Harjo uses several elements. She uses metaphors in some instances “Your grief is the dark outlining the stars” (lines 18, 19), “Everything is a prayer for this journey” (line 58), and similes – “his abandonment to the grace we pursue as wild horses the wind” (lines 17, 18), “It is one of countless dawns since the first crack of consciousness…each as distinct as your face in the stew of human faces” (lines 2 - 4). She also uses repetition of some words to indicate their significance and further themes central to her expression. For example, the word “dawn” is repeated many...
Words: 1193 - Pages: 5
...Experiential Learning Essay Template Review this check list in prior to submitting your experiential learning essay. If you have completed all of the items listed below, you are ready to submit your essay. Keep in mind, your evaluator may still request additional material, however, the list below will guide in your essay submission preparations. Not adhering to these guidelines will cause a delay in processing. ** Review each of the items below and check if you have completed each of them: 1. I have selected an approved essay topic from the essay course descriptions page. http://www.phoenix.edu/admissions/prior_learning_assessment/experiential-essays/essay-topics.html 2. Some essays have specific experience requirements. I have checked the essay description and I meet all of the experience requirements listed. 3. I have written and included a 1,500 to 2,100 word autobiography; autobiography is only required with first Experiential Learning Essay, subsequent essays do not require additional autobiographies. 4. I have written an experiential essay: 3,000 to 4,500 words for 3 credit essay 5. My essay is written in first person (1st) without references. 6. I have written to all four (4) areas of Kolb’s model of learning. 7. I have addressed all of the required subtopics in each of the four areas of Kolb’s model of learning. 8. I have included supporting documentation that validates my personal/professional experience with the essay course description/topic. 9. My essay is based...
Words: 4611 - Pages: 19
...Away Study guide Background to Michael Gow Michael Gow was born in Sydney in 1955, He went to ‘a pretty rough school and at the age of 14 participated in workshops at Australian Theatre for Young people as both an actor and a writer. Gow’s plays have been popular with both critics and audiences alike. Away was produced several times throughout Australia after its initial presentation in 1986. Away is typical of Gow’s work in that it is rich in literary allusion. The quotes from Shakespeare mingle with numerous references to more modern culture. His style juxtaposes contemporary realistic situations with non-naturalistic theatrical elements. The plays explore lower-middle-class family life in Australia since the Second World War. Humorous sequences are mingled with painful situations often involving illness and death. These themes are always dramatized in the social context. Conflict between generations is a reoccurring them, typically involving the clash between attitudes formed through the Depression and Second World War and the changing values engendered by post-war prosperity. This conflict is more harmoniously resolved in Away than anywhere else. Gow says that the Sydney suburbs and the beaches of northern New South Wales are important settings for his play because that’s where he spent his childhood, and idealized versions of these places are in the background of his imagination. In the plays these settings are transformed into places representing more universal ideas...
Words: 6174 - Pages: 25
...Through pushing away from the feminine and seeing marriage as a trap, Frederica and women can continue her journey and her education through traveling and moving through her hardships and finding success within herself. In Still Life, the heroine Frederica learns that she will be going to college at the University of Cambridge and traveling to France before the start her semester. While this is a continuation of the rejection of the feminine, it is also the beginning of hardships. Hardships according to Murdock the part of the journey that the heroine realizes that it is not easy to become equal in societies eyes. She will constantly battle the stereotypes of females and with each success she becomes stronger in her own character. As she...
Words: 1901 - Pages: 8
...Is Your Grieving Making you sick? Maintaining Your Own Health Through Grief Audrey Pellicano R.N., M.S. Chronic stress is the response to emotional pressure suffered for a prolonged period over which an individual perceives he or she has no control. Keyword here, perceive. You may not have had any control over the death of your spouse, how ever, you can regain control of your own health. And you must! You may or may not have children that depend on you but you do have a life beyond the grief. Chronic psychological stress is associated with a greater risk of depression, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and upper respiratory infections. It is the chronic state of stress we are in, a constant state, which is known as “fight or flight”. Our body’s natural defense is inflammation, which, with chronic stress, is prolonged heightening the risk for disease. Grief initiates the natural “fight or flight” response and sends the body into overdrive. Overdrive is helpful when there is an emergency or may have been helpful when woolly mammoths chased us. Instead of fleeing an emergency, our bodies are in a constant state of fighting without a direction, outlet or purpose. During the grief period, we are frequently overwhelmed and lost. When we grieve, a flood of stress hormones is released. In recent publication’s the term ”broken heart syndrome” has been used to describe, what is medically known as, stress cardiomyopathy. The...
Words: 682 - Pages: 3
...The storytelling in the Odyssey is told in a way that creates or solidifies memory depending on who the audience is. Odysseus, throughout his journey, has told his story to the Phaiacians to solidify, or at least make sense, his suffering that was endured on his journey back home. Later, he creates multiple variations of a story to protect his identity as he attempts to create bonds built on trust with anyone who has not betrayed him while he was gone. By telling these stories, either being about his journey home or about being from Crete, Odysseus is fermenting a memory in his audience that portrays himself as a strong leader/soldier that has endured much pain on his journey home. After telling the Phaiacians his story thus far, Odysseus...
Words: 531 - Pages: 3
...Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar Schell’s dad dies in 9/11 and Oskar goes on a journey to find the answer to the key he found. He bumps into many different characters along the way that all show various ways of coping with death. Jonathan Safran Foer shows that through death and loss people can get through hard times. Characters deal with grief and loss in their own way in order to balance happiness and sadness. Oskar deals with grief in his own unique kind of way. He thinks you would never get hurt if you just never met anyone. Oskar tells the limo driver that it would be great to make a limo you could just walk through from birth to death but the driver says you would never meet anyone. Oskar says “So?” (5). To get something is to risk losing something. Oskar invents to get his mind off of things. Oskar says “Being with him made my brain quiet. I didn’t have to invent a thing” (12). When Oskar’s dad died he starts inventing a lot more. Oskar also deals with his loss in ways most young children would not even think of, with self harm. Oskar says “Even though I knew I shouldn’t, I gave myself a bruise” (37) Whenever Oskar feels sad, alone, or guilty he bruises himself. He has over forty all over his body. In result of losing Anna, Thomas Sr. can never truly love or speak again. At first he loses the word Anna. Thomas Sr. says “...but I couldn’t finish the sentence, her name wouldn’t come” (16). Sometimes people can’t stand...
Words: 601 - Pages: 3
...Finally (adverb modifier), due to overcoming the burden cancer has brought on the protagonist and his family, they have converted their lives from sorrow into peace and acceptance. In Ron Rindo’s short story “Learning to Drive”, the protagonist and his family travel through the passage of time withstanding the struggles life brings them, and from experiencing the stages of grief they learn to move on and reach acceptance. The protagonist and his family are grieving (gerund) due to his downward battle with cancer causing them to spiral into the stages of grief. The first stage being denial, is displayed most prominently by Sarah and Elaine in which Sarah cannot accept her father’s situation as she elucidates with her inappropriate gifts. Elaine...
Words: 414 - Pages: 2
...There are various sorts of people that experience the loss of a loved one. My focus is on children and there could be a child who had lost their parent’s or even lost their grandparents. For the child this could be confusing and freighting as well as traumatic; the child could be experiencing powerful and difficult feelings due to the fact they may not know what death is and typically the age rang for this is six and under and some believe that death is tempera or reversible. The grieving children often sometimes feel alone and misunderstood. Some children might feel as though talking about the loss or even expressing their grief is unacceptable. The child could also be in denial, have sadness, anxiety, guilt, misbehavior, anger, and possible...
Words: 258 - Pages: 2
...Stages of Grief Human is made of different emotions. It is impossible to live social life without emotions inhuman. Human often identifies negative and positive emotions. Happiness, joy and laughter are considered as positive emotions where anger, grief and pain are consider as negative emotions. Sometimes we do not realize that negative emotions can also guide us towards positive event in life. In Lament for a son authors replications are similar with this theory. These great thinker studies the death of Eric by indirectly explaining the five stages of grief. Wolterstorff experiences the pain and finds that no one can take his son place, but it is up to living family members how they can agree on death reality. His argument shows journey of suffering father changed to acquiescent person who accepts that endless knowledge and thinks that almighty does everything for a reason and individual must accept to understand life in better way. Before understanding dilemma of Wolterstorff and his idea about anguish, it is significant to analyzed and recognize five stages of grief which are described by Ross in a book of Death and Dying. Every individual passes through thru grieving stages during their life time but it is might not happened in same order of stages as describe by Ross. In the beginning, death of close loved one creates misbelief from reality, which is considered as denial and isolation stage according author Ross. Knowing the truth that the reality will give them...
Words: 857 - Pages: 4
...situations as he attempts to move into the world when his brother Daniel is involved in a tragic car accident. The image by Image Zoo also shows four different pathways leading into the one tree with branches that lead up into the sky. This picture shows the tree of life and how people can take different paths to experiences. I Measure Every Greif I Meet is a poem by Emily Dickinson that shows the strength a person needs to overcome grief in their lives. The strength comes within the individual and their surroundings. All three of these texts show that moving into the world involves different pathways to new experiences shown through different circumstances, problems and views. The image by Image Zoo reflects the idea that moving into the world involves different pathways. This image uses the rule of thirds and symbolism to bring attention to the four different pathways to the centre tree trunk. The rule of thirds draws central focus to the light coming from the tree. This light symbolises the light that is present through different pathways and journeys. Light symbolises the hope, possibilities that come with moving into the world. Even though each pathway comes to the same centre of light, it branches upwards into different pathways shown at the top of the tree trunk. The tree symbolises the “Tree of life” as the tree that brings possibility to the world, it gives life and experiences to everyone. This brings to the main point that moving into the world, shown metaphorically as...
Words: 2332 - Pages: 10
