Searching for Forbidden Knowledge in Digging for China
In Richard Wilbur's poem, "Digging for China", he writes, " 'Far enough down is China,' somebody said. 'Dig deep enough and you might see the sky as clear as at the bottom of a well.'" (Lines 1-3) Wilbur was suggesting to his readers that if one looks at the world in a different way, they could find a totally different place. We can see this concept when we explore Wilbur's poem as a whole piece. He is talking about finding a paradise in one's backyard. He emphasizes a lot about prayer, and looking harder and digging deeper for this other world. He warns his readers that they must not loose the rest of their life by trying to change one thing.
When we, the readers, break apart Wilbur's poem, we find the continuous acknowledgement of religion. The person in the poem works day and night trying to reach China. He/she was on hands and knees trying to dig this hole. "It was a sort of praying, I suspect." (Lines 12-13) This person is realizing that they have to look other places for their "paradise" they are trying to find, so they look to God. When they do this, they are covered in brightness. Wilbur uses the word "palls" to express this idea. The true definition is a black velvet cover that drapes over a coffin. If the person wouldn't have looked to God in prayer, then their "paradise" would be covered in this darkness, rather than the brightness they found. Another word that Wilbur used in reference to prayer was "paten". A paten is a plate that the Eucharist is carried on. The Eucharist is the body of Christ; his life. In the poem, the life that the person was looking for was growing before them, but they were still looking into the hole.
The person then begins to realize that they are looking in the wrong place. We see this when Wilbur writes, "my eyes where tired of looking into darkness, my sunbaked head of hanging down a hole." (Lines 18-19) They realize that this idea of their "paradise" is taking away from their life and that they must take their head out of the darkness that it has caused. Wilbur brings up the sun because it shows that the person is coming back to consciousness.
In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston describes the horizon as possibilities and opportunities. When the story starts out Janie’s perception of the horizon changes first from desire for love to the need of love, and ultimately the feeling of contentment towards love to show Janie maturing throughout the novel.
In March of 1970 Jane Roe filed suit against the state of Texas. She declared that the Texas Criminal Abortion Statues were unconstitutional. Jane Roe claimed that the Texas statue was vague and took away her right of personal privacy. These rights were protected by the first, fourth, fifth, ninth and fourteenth amendments as far as Jane Roe was concerned. Roe claimed that she was not suing for herself alone but for all women.
The 1973 Roe v. Wade is one of the most controversial cases in United States in not only the abortion issue, but also in American government. In this paper, I will discuss the case, argument, the decision, and the significance of Roe V. Wade. The Historic decision made by the United States Supreme Court in 1973 legalized abortion on a federal level. As the federal court- particularly the circuit courts and the Supreme Court have become more important in determining American public policies. (Greenberg 435) Now more than thirty years later people all over the country are trying to overturn the decision as well as striving to keep in intact.
"Jane Roe" was a 21-year-old single divorcee who became pregnant, but didn't want to have the baby. She couldn't have an abortion because it contradicted the Texas law that abortion was illegal unless it was necessary to save a woman's life. Obviously Roe didn't fit this criterion because her life was not in danger; she just did not want to bring a child into this world....
Abortion is one issue that has polarized a nation and the battle lines were drawn forty years ago with time not easing the tensions between the groups on both sides of this issue. The abortion debate started in the middle of the 1800’s. However, the issue came to a head in 1973 with the Supreme Court ruling of Roe v. Wade which legalized abortion and the fight has been ongoing ever since. This paper aims to show how the Roe V Wade court case came about and the resulting arguments for and against abortion that ensued.
Like when the prisoner went outside and was blinded, confused, and hurt by the sun. It's almost like when a person tries to experience a different way or discover something new and he or she are confused, uncertain, or have doubts by the new method. This recurs in real life situations when a person opens their mind and try new methods or try to look at an issue in somebody else’s perspective. This is why I believe the sun represents a side-effects coming with new ideas.
The landmark case on abortion was Roe vs Wade. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a historic case in which the United States supreme court overturned Texas interpretation of abortion laws. This decision legalized abortion in all 50 states. The Supreme Court ruled that a woman has a constitutional right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy before the fetus acquires viability and that a fetus is not a person under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, two young and ambitious attorneys, filed the suit on behalf of Norma McCovery using the alias of Jane Roe. The suit alleged that the abortion law in Texas violated her constitutional rights and the rights of all women. The current state law at the time of this
In the poem, “The Story” by Karen Connelly, the poet explains the quest for the ideal in one large metaphor. Connelly discusses the notion that we risk failure in the quest because we are not always up for the task. Therefore, success is not always certain. In the poem, she says that what is certain is the fear that we are always going to have in the pursuit for the ideal. Connelly uses the metaphor of swimming in the ocean to illustrate this concept. In the line “the way you never know what’s in deeper water” (4-5), Connelly is acknowledging the inherent peril in the quest for the ideal just as a swimmer cannot see everything below the water. She extends the metaphor further in the next stanza to illustrate the process we go through in the quest for the ideal.
"In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, - no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, - my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space, - all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God."
The Roe V. Wade court case unfolded when in 1970 two women lawyers brought on a lawsuit on behalf of “Jane Roe”, a pregnant, single woman. They claimed that a Texas law that banned abortion except to save the life of the mother was unconstitutional. The case reached the Supreme Court in 1973, and the court came to the final decision that the law was unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment’s right to privacy clause. This ruling affected laws in 46 states that banned abortion and cleared the way for women to receive proper medical treatment when pursuing abortions.
building to descending into Hell. He comments that his “hole is warm and full of light... I
Zora Neale Hurston opens Their Eyes Were Watching God with an eloquent metaphor regarding dreams: “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others, they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time (Hurston 1).” Hurston describes here how some dreams are achieved with time while others lurk out of reach until the dreamer gives up. Janie Crawford, protagonist of Their Eyes Were Watching God, encounters numerous ambitions throughout her life, mainly concerning a desire to somehow achieve something in life, and to not just go through the motions. While Janie’s dreams and my own do not exactly correspond, we both aspire to discover a greater passion in life and find a voice that will enable us to make a difference.
George MacDonald the narrator/teacher, from whom Lewis found inspiration for his book, is the guide in the journey through the gates of heaven. This provides great wisdom throughout the book which is not understood without reflection. MacDonald in essence presents Lewis with a choice while journeying in the gates of heaven. The stories of lost ghosts in the heavenly gates only provide reflection for Lewis’ own choice. This choice is not revealed by Lewis, rather it is up to the reader to make his/her own choice. MacDonald gives guidance towards our choice, “The choice of every lost soul can be expressed in the words, ‘Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.’ There is always something they prefer to joy....” (71).
The speaker in this poem claims that praying follows a “simple form,” because it “keeps things in order” (1.7-8). This can also be said about writing; at least the kind of writing that follows a prescribed formula, such as, the sonnet or the five-paragraph essay. Writers often use these structures, because the methods are established an...
Many people find theology a very esoteric field of study, and Christian doctrine regarding the life of the soul can seem quite difficult to comprehend for non-Christians and Christians alike. The conceit in “A Drop of Dew,” which employs common images and processes straight from the natural world, enables Marvell to sum up a commonly held view of the soul’s journey with creativity and cleverness. Its symbolic elements also help Marvell to evade avoid sounding either preachy or pedantic. It is this mastery of the conceit and other devices of figurative language, so delicately and feelingly demonstrated in “On a Drop of Dew,” that has made Marvell an enduring figure in the world of poetry.