...Romeo and Juliet together. The families were mortal enemies and Romeo and Juliet were never supposed to meet. Their relationship was doomed from the start. It was Fate that draws them together and it is fate that they are enemies. One example of how fate plays a part in the destinies of Romeo and Juliet is when Romeo goes to find Rosaline at the Capulet’s party. Instead he meets Juliet who was there to meet Paris. It was their first meeting and the immediate love for each other that strengthens the conflict between the Capulet’s and the Montague’s. Romeo and Juliet both believed that the stars controlled their fate and their actions weren’t always their own. Romeo, for example, 1.4.115-120, he says, "Some consequence yet hanging in the stars...by some vile forfeit of untimely death. But he that hath the steerage over my course Direct my sail." What he’s saying to his friends is that he had a dream that he will die young because of something in the stars, something that will happen to cause his death. Romeo finishes by saying "...he that hath steerage over my course..." which means that he does not have control over his life if he must look to another power above himself to direct his destiny. He doesn’t feel that he’s the one who makes decisions, it’s a higher purpose, higher power. In Act 5, Scene 2 is another event where fate plays an important part. The scene begins with Friar John coming to see Friar Laurence. Friar Laurence is happy to see that he’s...
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...Fate vs. Destiny One of the biggest factors in the book “Holes” was the role of fate and destiny. It seemed as if fate and destiny where the only forces that really determined anybodies future in this story. What I wanted to understand better was what was the difference between the two and why they are so powerful in determining the future of others instead of them creating their own paths. Fate is considered to be a set of predetermined events which have an impact on the life of an individual. Apparently everyone has a fate that they must own at some point in their lives. Fate is also considered the reason that everyone is born. So no matter what you want to do in life there is something that you where born for and eventually you must serve your purpose. Fate is something that we can’t escape and will eventually take place in our lives. Sometimes willingly and other times forcefully. Fate, the ultimate purpose in life, it is designed to provide balance to the universe, or designed to create certain situations as benefits a grander design. (Keith Ward; http://goarticles.com/article/The-Reasoning-Behind-Fate/904667/) Destiny on the other hand is seen as events that are inevitable and unchangeable. Once you start down that path there is no going back. Although destiny does seem to have a few loop holes. For instance with destiny you have free will. You get to choose whether or not you take that path of life or not. It may be destined for someone to be a teacher, but if...
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...James Baldwin begins the novel of Sonny’s blues with the narrator’s mother, charging him with watching over Sonny, asking him to serve as his brother’s keeper. The dynamic between the two brothers is a parallelism to the relationship between the brothers Cain and Abel in the Bible. In that narrative, Cain, after murdering Abel, asks whether he is supposed to be his brother’s keeper. The narrator, following his mother’s death, is presented with a similar dilemma. Since their mother’s death, Sonny’s life has been marred by prison and drug abuse. The tension between the two brothers is so great that after one particular fight, Sonny tells his brother to consider him dead from that point on, a statement that, again, deliberately echoes the biblical narrative of Cain and Abel. Baldwin’s sentences also contain a biblical tone and rhythm. Like Cain, the narrator turns his back on his brother and fails, at first, to respond to Sonny when he is prison. He has failed to live up to his mother’s commandment that he watches over his brother—but the failure is only temporary. By the end of the story, the narrator has taken Sonny back into his home. He finally takes on the role of his brother’s keeper, constantly watching and worrying over Sonny as he emerges from the darkness of prison and drug abuse. The idea of brotherly love extends beyond the relationship between the narrator and Sonny into the community as a whole. Harlem is plagued by drugs, poverty, and frustration, but members of...
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... Díaz’s mother, was never meant to leave the mountain she lived on. She was expected “to work on the family farm until she died or was married off” (Díaz 128). During her work on the farm, she was the one who tended to illness. Her grandmother did not like the idea of education, she insisted that “she stay on the farm, that she stay a mule” (Díaz 129). Díaz’s mother longed for an education more than anything. She wanted out of the life she knew. She wanted it so desperately that “she got down on her knees beside a stagnant puddle of water, put her mouth in it and drank deeply” (Díaz 129). I have learned that pursuing your own dream is important, no one else can tell you what you want. You have to stand up for yourself and make your own destiny and Díaz’s mother did just that. She became sick from...
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...Introduction Description of a prison The walls closed in. I could not escape the endless, darkened wait to freedom. Sat in the corner of the chilled room, I can see the sharp corners at each edge of the room. The walls, painted red many years ago, connecting each corner forming a perfectly shaped square room. The dull paint on each of the four walls carries a burden memories where psychotic men drawing closer and closer to their death had been scratching at the walls. Looking up from the corner of the cell, my light flickers as many moths flutter around it finding the only hope and light that is left in the prison. ...read more. Middle Each man would shiver in the darkness of their cell knowing that this evil man would lead them to their death when the time would come in the near future. Every hour of every day, on perfect timing, the shadows of the evil guard would seep the rusty bars of each cell in the zoo of madness. Every twelve hours of every day the bell of the old clock tower would ring twelve times driving average men closer to madness. Every twelve hours of every day the bell ringing would drive those men closer to wanting to add the speckles of blood on their cold stone floor. Looking around when darkness falls in the real world, a small crack in the wall shows life outside in freedom. ...read more. Conclusion All the prisoners know it is time for another to walk the mile. And soon after the unlucky prisoner leaving the smell of burning flesh fills the halls and...
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...In Bless me, Ultima, Antonio starts to understand the identities of different heritage because of Ultima’s influence. In this narrative, Ultima starts to teach Antonio things that his family cannot. She does this because she sees herself knowing Antonio more than his family knows him. Ultima thinks this way because she claimed that she is the only one that knows his true destiny and that more than anyone else Antonio comes to her for advice. Antonio’s most relevant lesson that Ulima taught him was that he should follow his own beliefs, he decides his fate, no one can do that for him even family. Antonio learns about the identities of his families’ heritages. Anaya uses Bless me, Ultima to introduce the reader to conflicting cultures in Antonio’s childhood. Antonio’s early life is based on the conflict between the two sides of his family, the Luna and the Marez. The Luna are devoted farmers who worship the earth and the moon, while the Marez are vaqueros who are devoted to horses and the sun. Because of Antonio’s three older brothers chose the life of the Marez, Antonio is expected by his mother to choose the Luna and become a priest. “You are a Luna, they chanted in unison, you are to be a farmer-priest for mother”. (Anaya 26) Ultima teaches Antonio many things about morality. "In two days we would celebrate the mass of the dead, and after mass we would take her body to the cemetery in Las Pasturas for burial. But all that would only be the ceremony that was prescribed...
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...The Impact & Meaning of The Ballad of the Sad Café and How These are Created by the Writer In The Ballad of the Sad Café, Carson McCullers presents an intriguing, metaphorical tale laden with hidden messages and meanings, the most important of which is the idea of the concept of fate and the fact that everything is already mapped out. McCullers effectively develops this through the story’s strong use of narrative techniques, which provoke ideas that allow us to deduce the text’s ultimate meaning. The arrival of Cousin Lymon and the estranged criminal husband of Miss Amelia, Marvin Macy, adversely affect the impressionable population of the small backwater town in The Ballad of the Sad Café. It is the former’s influence that makes Miss Amelia start up the café, giving the townsfolk somewhere to congregate. However it is also he who causes the destruction of the café due to his obsession with the felonious Macy. It is Lymon and Macy’s actions that cause the town to become the empty, deserted shell we see in the opening of the book. This opening is a significant contributor in developing meaning in the novella. McCullers uses a frame at the start and end of the text, and this choice of structure shows how the story will end, at the start. This promotes the notion that the end is already determined before the story begins. The town in which the story is set will become ‘lonesome, sad and like a place that is far off and estranged from any other place in the world...’...
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...A human’s future is never decided by one event, human, or dream. For “[one] often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it” (Jean de La Fontaine). The circumstances and moments that life puts one through can never be controlled, but more than often decides who one becomes. Every moment encountered builds illusions and disillusions that guide the direction of our future. Just as a physically abused 5 year-old tends to act out in hate a different child raised with loving parents will act with compassion and love. Everyone develops tinted sunglasses that dictate how one sees the world and responds to their surroundings. The “tinted sunglasses” that all humans wear drastically effect the course of their destiny and the men and women one becomes. The role of illusions, disillusions, and “tinted sunglasses” intensely impacted Macbeth’s decisions and he king he came to be. In the case of Macbeth, illusions did not solely focus on the physical, but his falsified view of the world mentally. The belief that power could be eternally secured eventually lead him to his death. In accordance, the disillusion of his “tinted sunglasses” developed an irreversible reputation as a tyrant and a dictator. For “fair is foul and foul is fair” and things are never as they seem (i.i.12). Power has an unique ability unlike anything else in our human world. It has the capability to start wars, pit brothers against brothers, and drive men to their graves in pursuit of more of it. To start, Macbeth...
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...‚The Happy Man’ The story I’m going to analyze is entitled ‘The happy man’ and it was written by Somerset Maugham, a well-known English writer. He was born on 25 of January in 1874, he was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was one of the most popular authors of his era. Now, I’d like to give the summary of the story. At the beginning of the story the author tells us that the narrator didn’t like to give advices. The narrator thought about life and showed his attitude to the whole life. He said that he didn’t know anything of others. But then the narrator remembered that once he had advised well. Once a man, a total stranger, came to him and ask him for a piece of advice. He wanted to know if he would have any chance to have a job in Spain. The narrator said that if he wasn’t worried about money, he would be success. 15 years later the narrator happened to be in Servile. He had some in disposition and went to an English doctor. It turned out that this doctor was Stephens. He was happy in Spain. And thanked the narrator a lot. The method of character’s portrayed is indirect, which sometimes called dramatic. The author didn’t comment upon the person ages, the author made them act, speak and let the reader judge for himself. The main characters of the story are the narrator and Stephens. The narrator was an intelligent, clever and bright. We can judge by his way of narration, speech. He was a doctor but didn’t practice. And first of all he...
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...Jean Keany A. Lantin P2A Chosen Children & Cavite Center for Mental Health: Starting Experience with Awesome People “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” -William Shakespeare The children in the Chosen Village are also born great, they also achieve greatness, and most of them have greatness thrust upon themselves and their capabilities. They do have different cases and disorders yet they also have different capabilities that made them a unique individual. Melissa and I handled Michelle who is a wheel chaired bound child and always has a smile on her face. When we try to feed her, she was just looking at us maybe because we are new to her. Yet, we are able to feed her properly and carefully. While looking at Michelle, I noticed that she can understand the things that we are saying or talking about and she also able to understand the gestures and actions that we portray for her to copy it so that she can eat. Though she can’t speak and make some necessary actions, still she can able to communicate with us by responding through copying the actions that we are showing to her. At the end of the session with Michelle, I can conclude that we make her happy and we are able to put a smile on her face. Also, we are able to make her feel that she is special in some ways. The experience in CCMH was a little bit creepy and nervous. It was creepy and nervous because of the place, the ambience and the patients. During...
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...In Oedipus Tyranous, Sophocles, is having the audience ask a question as the play progresses; was Oedipus’s punishment fit for the crime that he has committed. Among the crime we as an audience ask are self why does Oedipus insist in finding the murderer of Laius, is this a self fulfilling prophecy that he is trying to answer or in the back of his mind does he already know the answer of who killed Laius; during all of this does the free will of Oedipus stand out or is his free will diminished at this point letting his destiny control him and not the other way around. With these questions asked upon our own interpretation of the play we ask ourselves what kind of character is being shown by Oedipus from the beginning when he doesn’t know Laius to the confession that he may have killed his own father. Throughout the play the audience can gain a clearer picture of Oedipus as a man by the reactions that he gives toward the murder of Laius. The first question that we should ask is if the punishment that Oedipus received is appropriate for the crime that he has committed. In doing the analysis on this the first thing that should be looked at is how Oedipus felt about his situation, and the second is how Oedipus reacts when he finds out that he is the killer of Laius his father. Oedipus was adamant on finding out who the killer was so that justice could be served and the plaque that engulfs the village can be lifted, he cares about the people of the town and wants to try everything...
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...Fate is hidden, yet beyond any person’s control. It may lead to positive events, or it may lead to certain consequences in the future. The theme of fate plays a big role for the characters of the play, Romeo, and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Fate plays a big role in moving the plot along, it does this by guiding them together. Romeo and Juliet share a destiny, that they try to test. Fate has also lead Tybalt and Mercutio to a terrible death if fate didn’t bring Romeo, Mercutio, and Tybalt together who knows what would’ve happened. With fate, the two lovers were meant to be in order to restore the peace in Verona. Their destiny dooms them in the end to a tragic death. In the play, fate plays a crucial role in uniting the two lovers...
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...Destiny or Fate, predetermined course of events considered to be beyond human control. There are philosophic and religious views that human destiny is predetermined and cannot be changed, views that human beings have some control over their destinies or the belief that destiny is determined by a combination of human intelligence and divine will. Fatalism is a concept that advocates that destiny cannot be changed. It is doctrine that all events occur according to a fixed and inevitable destiny that individual will neither controls nor affects. A fated event takes place not according to a natural law but in accordance with some mysterious decree issued by some mysterious power, perhaps ages before. Free Will, on the other hand, is the power or ability of the human mind to choose a course of action or make a decision without being subject to restraints imposed by antecedent causes, by necessity, or by divine predetermination. According to Maurice Blondel, truth cannot be known by intellect alone, suggesting that it can be attained only through full, active self-synthesis in accordance with divine will. Haven given a brief introduction and different views to the word destiny, can one say that African destiny can be taken in our own hands and thus changed and if so, how can this be attained? Africa to the rest of the world is viewed as a sick and starving man of the global village, where the other villagers rather than share their food and medicine with him ( so that he can...
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...The tension between free will and destiny: Which one is more powerful? ‘I would say that there are three main questions: One, do people have free will? Two, is determinism true? And three, are free will and determinism compatible? ’ Throughout history, human beings have always tried to be the ones who have the power to rule their own lives. However, there exists a debate which questions whether that is really possible or not. In other words: are human beings capable of deciding what to do with their lives or is there a greater force that rules over our destiny? The Oxford English Dictionary defines destiny as ‘that which is destined or fated to happen to a particular person, country, institution, etc. (…).’ Consequently, this term is opposed to free will, defined as ‘the power of an individual to make free choices, not determined by divine predestination, the laws of physical causality, fate, etc. (…).’ Human beings have thought of these antithetic concepts as something to worry about since the beginning of civilization. Because of that, playwrights have taken them into consideration when writing different plays all over the years. This essay seeks to explore the tension existing between the concepts of destiny and free will in the world of drama through the study of language as well as the analysis of character and situation development. In order to carry this research out, I will take Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (429 BC) and Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1604) as the...
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...Shayna Mayoh October 8, 2012 Tooele Eng. 1010 Essay #1 Destiny Destiny: the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person in the future. When a child is born is that child already destined to be like his/her parents? When our parents, siblings, or friends make mistakes do we learn from them? Do we change ourselves to be better because of the things in life that go on? Can we in a way choose our own destiny or does fate decide for us? In “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen, the daughter was born with a disability/illness. The mother did nothing to make her have this illness. The daughter was going to have it when she was born no matter what the mother did. The mother did not have this illness, so in this way she was not fated to be like her mom. Although this doesn’t mean the daughter was completely different then the mother, she could have acted the same maybe had the same personality as her mother. The personality that a child is born with is not necessarily going to be there personality for the rest of their life. As you grow older you change and is changes with you. When you meet new people you sometimes want to be like them so you will change your way of doing things to be like them, where at other times you meet people you don’t want to be like so you do everything you can not to be like them. Do the people we love most make mistakes, even if we don’t realize it at the time it happens? When they do, do we look back and try to make ourselves...
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