The amount of worldviews that exist in the world today are about as diverse as the people that believe them. Why is it that human beings differ so much on how one ought to live one’s life? How does one know what to believe about the world? Every human longs for a purpose to live for and a way to intentionally live out one’s beliefs. In his book, Donald Miller explores Christian morality in a personal memoir format. In Blue Like Jazz Donald Miller explains the importance of living life intentionally through his personal storytelling, and allegory
Donald Miller recounts his vast life experiences as a young college aged man living in Portland, Oregon. Miller went to Reed College, which is an incredibly secular school that provided an interesting
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Miller uses the process of penguin reproduction to explain what it looks like to follow an inward compass. Essentially after penguins lay an egg, the females go hunting out to sea while the males stay and keep the egg warm. When the females come back from the sea, which is a several mile journey, they often make it back within a day or two of the eggs hatching. After explaining the process of penguin reproduction, Miller explains, "They [penguins] have this radar inside them that told them when and where to go and none of it made any sense, but they show up on the very day their babies are being born, and the radar always turns out to be right" (57). The seemingly irrelevant story about penguin sex, is actually decidedly relevant to the reader 's life. Miller suggests that each and every day one must decide to follow a calling within oneself. Readers can easily gain a mental picture of the penguin sex whereas it is much more difficult to have a mental picture of the concept of following an internal compass within ourselves. Oftentimes the best way to describe difficult concepts is to compare them to more concrete things, and this can be done through
Sonny’s Blues By James Baldwin Sonny’s Blues the author is presenting the past from the perspective of the present in order to understand his own feelings concerning the role of a father. The two brothers in the story had different life choices. Both Sonny and the narrator have found their own mode of escaping the violence and harshness of the ghetto, different though those modes might be. After the death of the mother the narrator feels he is his brother’s keeper, because of the promise he made to the mother. He is not exactly happy about it and especially Sonny’s life style. Nevertheless, this is his only brother and he made a promise not to turn his back on him. Sonny was more like his uncle a music lover. Before the mother died she told him about his father and the pain he went through after the death of his brother. His father’s brother was a music lover and somewhat like Sonny. So, by telling this story it would help the narrator to understand Sonny. Now he knows a little about his family background and roots. At the end the narrator was finally able to see and understand what music did for Sonny; it allow him to be himself and express himself to other. Explore the implications of the allusion to the Book of Isaiah 51:17-23 in the concluding sentence. What has the narrator learned as the result of his experience? All of the desolation, destruction, famine, sword things that we (the narrator) go through in this life, are learned through other who have shared these same experiences. Our oppressor (Satan spiritually, mankind physically) causes a trembling in our lives; but just like Jerusalem, who was and still is oppressed; God has already taken our “cup of trembling”. We are delivered through the sharing of our experiences with one another, freeing ourselves from one who causes the trembling.
Wright grew up in the Jim Crow South where everything about his life was socially and culturally inferior to the white masses. In Bloom’s Modern Critical Views Richard Wright, Qiana J. Whitted wrote about Wright’s life as a kid, shedding light on how his grandmother forced him to partake in religious in order to be saved from “religious execution” (123). It was this type of religious interpretation held by his grandmother, that was a “cultural marker” for Wright, reminding us, “that in his life, as in his writing, Richard Wright wrestled with his faith” (122). This struggle can be seen in Wright’s male character, Big Boy, in Big Boy Leaves Homes. Big Boy and his friends go to swimming creek where they see and are saw by a white woman. With the woman, was a white man who shot at Big Boy and his friends. Big Boy wrestles with Jim over the gun and ends up shooting and killing him. In panic, he runs home to retell the story of the murder he committed and the ones he witnessed. As he tells the story, his father sends for some of the religious members in the community. During this time Big Boy’s mother calls out several times for mercy, “Lawd Gawd in Heaven, have mercy on us all!” (36). The religious community members become a fist around Big Boy and come up with a plan for saving his life. In the midst of this Big Boy experiences an internal conflict with his actions and how they look in the eyes of God.
Religion and nature are both thought to bring beauty to life. Religion gives some a purpose to live while for others, nature provides a natural escape from the problems of modern day life. However, author Flannery O’ Connor uses both of these elements in her short story, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, for a different purpose. Religion and nature provide the reader with insight into the main character, Tom Shiflet, a troubled drifter with one arm who comes into the lives of the Crater women and leaves them abruptly. Shiflet’s moral corruption is represented in the story’s weather change and the numerous Christian symbols that surround the various characters.
In life, empty, forsaken, lonely people in dire need of help put their faith toward God or a significant individual. A current example includes the 10 year old boy released by his kidnapper after singing a gospel song for hours. In Mark Twain’s The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, Joan Arc, a teenage French military commander shows faith whenever she goes to battle or is about to face death. Eventually she gets captured and even though she will die she continues to keep her faith in God. By showing the effects of faith on Joan of Arc and her comrades, Mark Twain illustrates his belief that the value of an intense personal faith is important in everyone’s life.
The foundation of a Christian worldview is the belief in a personal God, creator and ruler of the universe. The Christian worldview views the world through God’s word, providing the framework for humanity to live by giving meaning and purpose to life. It defines who Jesus is, human nature, and how salvation is achieved. In essence it is the basis of which Christians behave, interact, interpret life and comprehend reality. A Christian worldview imparts confidence, answers to life’s problems, and hope for the future. In this paper I will discuss the essentials of a Christian worldview and an analysis of the influences, benefits, and difficulties sustaining the Christian faith.
Throughout the hundreds of years, individuals have pondered the impact of heavenly or insidious force, environment, hereditary qualities, even excitement, as deciding how free any individual is in settling on good decisions. Fate, a result of the past, is often described as the advancement of occasions out of man 's control, dictated by an extraordinary force. In any case that someone may utilize their freewill can reflect upon their outcomes, decided upon a supreme force, whether they are positive or negative. In the novels “A Lesson Before Dying,” Ernest Gaines and “The Grapes of Wrath,” John Steinbeck, the authors explore the trials and tribulations of self influenced fate controlled by an higher force.
It is stated by Michel de Montaigne that “the greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself”. Becoming more individualistic is not a goal that can be attained within a day, month, or even a year. This goal can only be completed within a lifetime of hard work and dedication towards focusing on the individual and less on or society’s influential voice upon the individual. Emily Dickson “Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church” and Robert Frost “The Road Not Taken” implement the idea of the individual. Dickinson and Frost exhibit a perspective of individualism and the self-worth while explaining how individuality can relate to the individual today.
the book i am reading is a novel about polio the book is called “Blue” by Joyce Moyer Hostetter it is a disease that is dealing with your bones and how they move. In this story a teen named Ann Fay Honey had to be the man of the house while her dad went to the war to fight. She did everything around the house helped her dad’s garden cleaned around the house like washing dishes and feeding her siblings. But also when her dad went to work she wasn't the only one doing work around the house she made her 2 sisters and her 1 brother do some work too. As the weeks go by the days got even more busier, her little brother named Bobby was outside one day working on the garden as well as the 2 other sisters and Ann Fay. Ann Fay was telling her little brother Bobby to work harder than he was doing because she didn't think he was working at all.
Upon close examination of the story “Young Goodman Brown” one might notice that Goodman Brown had stored his faith in three places; in his neighbors, in his wife, and in his personal experiences. The placement of Goodman Brown’s faith with his neighbors is the first...
James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues tells the story of the narrator and his brother and the hardships that they must endure. As Kahlil Gibran States “Out of suffering have emerged the strangest souls, the most massive characters are seared with scars.” (Gibran). In that very quote the real light is shown as it informs the reader that with suffering comes growth and once the person whomever it may be emerges out of the darkness they may have scars but it has made them stronger. The theme of light and darkness as well as suffering play a vital part in this story. For both men there are times in which they have the blues and suffer in the darkness of their lives but music takes the suffering from them.
At first glance, "Sonny's Blues" seems ambiguous about the relationship between music and drugs. After all, the worlds of jazz and drug addiction are historically intertwined; it could be possible that Sonny's passion for jazz is merely an excuse for his lifestyle and addiction, as the narrator believes for a time. Or perhaps the world that Sonny has entered by becoming involved in jazz is the danger- if he had not encountered jazz he wouldn't have encountered drugs either. But the clues given by the portrayals of music and what it does for other figures in the story demonstrate music's beneficial nature; music and drugs are not interdependent for Sonny. By studying the moments of music interwoven throughout the story, it can be determined that the author portrays music as a good thing, the preserver and sustainer of hope and life, and Sonny's only way out of the "deep and funky hole" of his life in Harlem, with its attendant peril of drugs (414).
The decision of Adam and Cal Trask to overcome their struggles and Cathy’s decision to succumb to evil prove that the choice of what to do with one’s life is completely up to the individual. John Steinbeck’s use of the biblical story of Cain and Abel builds on the idea that a person is completely responsible for choosing what becomes of them in result of a word, an action and a memory. Undoubtedly everyone has the choice whether or not they wish to triumph over the pain and the sins they are struggling with. After all, look at Ghandi he witnessed children burdened with evil inheritance walk away surmounted because of their strength to rein over evil.
All in all, Chris McCandless is a contradictory idealist. He was motivated by his charity but so cruel to his parents and friends. He redefined the implication of life, but ended his life in a lonely bus because of starvation, which he was always fighting against. Nevertheless, Chris and the readers all understand that “happiness only real when shared.” (129; chap.18) Maybe it’s paramount to the people who are now alive.
After reading the short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin, I find there are two major themes that Baldwin is trying to convey, suffering and irony. The first theme that he brings out and tries to get the reader to understand is the theme of suffering. The second theme that the author illustrates is the theme of irony.
Haley, Alex and Malcolm X. “Saved.” Reading and Writing the College Experience. Huron Valley Publishing: Ypsilanti, 2003. 203 – 214.