Hemingway and "Nada"
In "The light of the world" written by Ernest Hemingway Steve Ketchel, a boxer symbolizes a Jesus figure for a woman called Alice. Alice, a 350 pound, unpleasant prostitute struggles with her current life. Her central being focuses at the belief that she had a sexual relationship with Steve Ketchel. This wishful illusion arises from a complex she has because of her ugly and unpleasant appearance. Nick Adams, the main Hemingway character, believes that
Alice, although she has really given up her life, still has the chance to change and live a happy life. Steven K. Hoffman would call this belief Alice has "nada".
Nada is a term used in Hemingways story "A clean well lighted place". Steven
K. Hoffman interpreted the word in an Essay he wrote. The word nada translated to English, basically means "nothing". But further it means much more than the simple word nothing.
Nada from the point of Alice's view means that there is nothing behind of her belief. That means that her life is not based on a concrete belief. She does not believe in any religion; her religion is Ketchel. That arises from her place in society. In society she is ranked very low. A prostitute has nothing to say in our society. And since she is that low she cant set her goals higher. Her goals could be the goals Jesus talks about. Her goal in life was and still is to sleep with more and more guys. Back to nada it means that she has nothing; nothing to believe in and nothing to live for.
Alice lives in an illusion. It seems that she suppresses the fact that she is a fat prostitute. How much lower can you get? She suppresses her problems with her dreams and illusions. The most important belief is that she had a sexual relationship with Ketchel. That is her main belief. For a normal American,
Jesus would the most important belief. Ketchel gives her the strength to withstand her complexes. Ketchel in other words symbolizes Jesus. That is of course very sad. When comparing Jesus with Ketchel, you will not find any connecting. Ketchel is just a popular boxer among her friends and she knows nothing more of him. For her Ketchel is more than just a man to have sex with.
As said, for her Ketchel is Jesus. "There was never a man like that.", said
Alice.
Alice did not succeed in her life. Not that it is over, but till now she did not make herself happy. She is unhappy, she is a prostitute and the most
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story about a little girl who comes into contact with unpredictable, illogical, basically mad world of Wonderland by following the White Rabbit into a huge rabbit – hole. Everything she experiences there challenges her perception and questions common sense. This extraordinary world is inhabited with peculiar, mystical and anthropomorphic creatures that constantly assault Alice which makes her to question her fundamental beliefs and suffer an identity crisis. Nevertheless, as she woke up from “such a curious dream” she could not help but think “as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had been ”.
everything and everyone who could have hurt her. One aspect of life and time in
It was from all this extraordinary strength that Alice found her strength,her mother handed down respect for the possibilities as she prepares the art that is her gift. She wrote about how our mother and grandmothers were been enslaved and were put to work so hard that they didn 't get the time to search for their inner gift. Alice advocated that women should use their mind and thought than been a baby bearer. That African American women then have gone through a lot of abuse and its time to wake up from what the society think of them and use their artistic talent that they were born
...that what they believe might not be correct, it is what they believe but others do not have to believe that they are right.
...n high school and she was striving for big goals, working hard to achieve them, and overcoming countless obstacles. Even when her father stole that piggy bank money she did not give up. Her purpose in life helped transfer her into adulthood. Without this determination and sacrifice, seceding into a successful adult would have been much more challenging.
...p away, she is not. Instead, she uses it as a motivation to make this world a better place for the future.
often a moral issue and the choice to believe can be an emotional or instinctual one rather then an
• Alice Walker herself has said: “I believe it is from this period – from my solitary, lonely position, the position of an outcast – that I began really to se people and things, really to notice relationships and to learn to be patient enough to care about how they turned out...”
A major conflict is focusing on after Alice’s brain operation, she perceives to everyone and herself she’s the same girl she used to be. Unfortunately, her friends and family don’t agree that she is the same person. “You’re always saying that you are still you because you have the same brain, but who is to say that your whole personality is in your head?” (pg.5) Jenny argues that Alice is a completely different person than who she used to be. Their mother stands up for Alice but secretly does not agree with her, she does not see Alice as the daughter she used to have. “Sometimes I think my sister is dead.” (pg.5) This similar quote is showing how powerful Jenny feels about the new Alice and her failure to see how Alice is truly seeking self reflection. “Alice stared at her mother, but again her mother avoided her eyes.” (pg.5) This final quote impacts the reader 's empathetically and Alice immeasurably knowing that her own mother doesn’t accept her for who she is now. These quotes show the frustration from Alice and her family, skillfully building apprehensive conflict in the rising
Another example of how Alice has survived from marriage to marriage is she has learned to please men. By the time she marries Waythorn, she has almost perfected this talent. However, Waythorn becomes suspicious of this behavior after encountering the other two husbands. Later in the story, Waythorn finds that his wife 's "pliancy was beginning to sicken him" (Wharton 53). At this point, he realizes that she was not only so accommodating with him she was also this way with the other two spouses. Because of this, he becomes conscious of the fact that
Still Alice, a heart-wrenching movie that illuminates the life of a linguistics professor at Columbia University who is happily married with children and is suddenly comforted with a life altering illness that infects her everyday life and relationship with her family. Alice is diagnosed with Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 50, due to the progression of the disease Alice is forced to accept that life will never be the same for her, and it was only a matter of time that she wouldn’t even remember her children’s names.
Her search for identity is over and Alice knows she will not be able to relate to Wonderland through her rational means. The way Alice comes to terms with her identity crisis in Alice in Wonderland is brilliant. Even though she struggled to cope with Wonderland at the beginning due to the lack of appropriate methods, the experiential learning with the sizes taught her to solve the problems at hand rationally, logically and with evidence. Armed with this powerful tool, Alice then sets out to resolve her identity crisis by learning about Wonderland independently.
Conchita, Charly Carlyle Ph.D. “Alice’s (& Lady Gaga’s) Sense of Self in Wonderland: A Psychoanalytic Formulation.” nymphobrainiac.wordpress. 5 March 2010. Web. May 2015.
Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944. She grew up in Eatonton as the youngest child out of eight. Her parents, Minnie Grant and Willie Walker, were poor sharecroppers. Alice was raised with in a family of poverty and a life of violent racism. Her environment left a permanent impression on her writing (“Alice Walker”). When she was eight, Alice and her brother were playing a game of “Cowboys and Indians” when she was blinded in her right eye. This incident occurred by a BB gun pallet. She was teased by her classmates and misunderstood by her family and became shy. She isolated herself from her classmates, and she explains, “ I no longer felt like the little girl I was. I felt old, and because I felt I was unpleasant to look at, filled with shame.” She had the amazing opportunity to have the cataract removed when she was fourteen. She had it removed, yet her sight in her right eye never returned.
...inal realization that she is growing up and that is normal, therefore, she accepts it. In brief, Alice in Wonderland is a book about growing up, and Alice definitely has grown up since the beginning of her journey and she has entered the adolescence phase when she rebels against everyone. Although she is not able to control herself when she gets angry, in other words she is behaving like a normal adolescent, she has gained a new “power” from this confusing experience: being a person with a voice to say something that matters.