More handpicked essays just for you.
Techniques of Effective Written Communication
Techniques of Effective Written Communication
Easy writing and effective communication skills
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Many people wonder: what is the meaning of life? What is the human purpose on this earth? At least one time in our lifetime, we all look at ourselves and wonder if we are living our lives the way we were meant to live them. Sadly, there is not a definite answer to the principles of human life. Every human comes from different backgrounds and different experiences throughout their existence. Each person is different, each with different emotions and reactions to their surroundings. People strive to uncover the secrets to the meaning of life. In reality, humans are given the desire to live the way we want and have a critical thinking mind, unlike animals. In the essay Living like Weasels, Annie Dillard believes we should live more carefree and instinctual as weasels, but what we were given as humans is a gift that no other creature has – free will and choice to shape our own lives. …show more content…
All Dillard encountered was a mere weasel. An ordinary wild animal helped her see the difference between our civilized beings and their primal instincts. Dillard learned a lot from observing nature and other creatures on the earth. As humans, we debate and contemplate every move we make. Dillard states, "The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice, hating necessity and dying at the last ignobly in its talons" (Dillard 63). Every action of ours has consequences, while weasels just simply act without it being premeditated. What separates us from wild creatures is the fact that we live our lives in caution; we are afraid of taking
In Christy Wampole’s “How to Live Without Irony” and Richard Taylor’s “The Meaning of Human Existence” both authors argue how humans ought to live a meaningful life. Wampole tackles the argument in a different way than Taylor but they both have similar positions on the meaning. I agree with both authors in some of the ways that we should dictate our lives to justify meaningfulness but I also believe that meaningfulness can differ from person to person. Life is very precious to us; since humans have had the ability to consciously think, we have always questioning our existence. No other animal on the planet has had the luxury of pondering whether or not their life is meaningful.
Warren, Richard. The Purpose-driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002. Print.
Humans have believed this since the beginning of time, valuing their survival and existence over animals, nature, and anything else that came in its way. Annie Dillard is an American author who has written many award-winning pieces in various genres, as well as been awarded a Pulitzer Prize. In Annie Dillard’s creative non-fiction essay “The Wreck of Time”, she discusses the effects of human life on the planet and human population within the last century. She introduces the idea that “there must be something ultimately heroic about our time, something that sets it above all those other times” (Dillard 56). This idea is that people value human life that is spent here on earth and the lives of everyone around them. People believe that each century becomes more and more valuable and impactful towards the progression of our society. People see that in ‘those other times’ people were not as smart as they are now and didn’t contribute as much to the world. Due to this, the value of human life only continues to increase as the impact that one human being can contribute also increases. During one’s life they will form connections and relationships that they value and find to be extremely important within their personal
Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1948) believed that humankind follows a certain evolution of mind and body. This process involves a beginning (komogenese), a development (biogenese), and then a peak (noogenese) in which humans reach an Omega Point of higher being. Though his ideas were actually applied on a much broader scale of humanity over a large timespan, the theory can be applied to the individual’s process of human development. Single humans begin as common clones of one another. From this commonality many examine their lives and develop the things within them that make them uniquely them. This development of the self only can be ended at death when the individual converges upon an Omega Point in which he has an elevated understanding of and meaning for life. The characters Edna from The Awakening and Mrs. May from ”Greenleaf” encounter a similar human development in which an individual is formed with an understanding of life. The means by which they achieve this differ greatly.
In her essay “Living Like Weasels,” Annie Dillard reflects on an encounter she had with a weasel at a pond near her home. This encounter was brief but nevertheless important as it sparked the question “Who knows what [the weasel] thinks”? As Annie ponders this question, we are presented with a comparison between the complex life of human beings and the simple life of weasels. We can find examples of contrast throughout this essay. For instance, Annie describes the pond she visits by the “55 mph highway at one end, and a nesting pair of wood ducks at the other.” Annie describes the landscape further in the fifth paragraph when she says, “Under every bush is a muskrat hole or a beer can”. This contrast between human decision making and
...ns of human purpose.” Obviously, these insights didn’t appear outside the cultural context, as an individualistic researcher might suggest.
Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, is a powerful and insightful book, however, does the center message intertwine with his religious beliefs? Frankl’s book shares the same concerns as religion such as: First, his beliefs of having nothing will give one a Higher Purpose; second, his belief that we must change to become worthy; and third, that we need fill an “empty soul” with God to find meaning.
Early in the essay, she describes herself living alone with her two cats, and she, somehow, makes joke with them although it was not so sure how often she did that in a day. There we can see that she is solitary, yet has some sense of humor lies in herself. Revealing her living environment, that would signal the reader about the upcoming adventure of her with the moths. Some may question why Dillard chose Moths instead of other interesting bugs like a caterpillar or flies to relate to human life. Plus, she does not only explain how the moths dies, but also provides a vivid detail of them dying so that the reader to
Humans look for some key equation through which they might tie all of the experiences of life and feel the satisfaction of action toward a goal, rather than the emptiness of which sometimes consumes the activities of our existence. However, humans may never find some great pure meaning beyond their mundane existences, because there is none. What there is to be found, however, is the life itself. Humans seek to find meaning so that emptiness will not pervade every thought, every deed, with the coldness of reality as seen by an unemotional eye. Without color, without joy, without future, reality untouched by hope is nothing more than an empty void. Man’s search for meaning is depicted in John Gardner’s Grendel, as Grendel’s perspective and philosophy
"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive...." Joseph Campbell made this comment on the search for meaning common to every man's life. His statement implies that what we seem bent on finding is that higher spark for which we would all be willing to live or die; we look for some key equation through which we might tie all of the experiences of our life and feel the satisfaction of action toward a goal, rather than the emptiness which sometimes consumes the activities of our existence. He states, however, that we will never find some great pure meaning behind everything, because there is none. What there is to be found, however, is the life itself. We seek to find meaning so that emptiness will not pervade our every thought, our every deed, with the coldness of reality as the unemotional eye chooses to see it. Without color, without joy, without future, reality untouched by hope is an icy thing to view; we have no desire to see it that way. We forget, however, that the higher meaning might be found in existence itself. The joy of life and the experience of living are what make up true meaning, as the swirl of atoms guided by chaotic chance in which we find our existence has no meaning outside itself.
Now, I can truly say that life today has a value for me only because of this; it does not matter what force has to be put in motion, what results can be obtained. The development of all the germs that are present in the individual conformation of human life, this is what I consider the true goal of man on earth, not precisely happiness. (1)
Humans are, by nature, filled with curiosity. We incessantly seek to learn about the universe. Not surprisingly, we simultaneously strive to learn about ourselves. What is our place in the world? How do we grow into the people we are meant to be?
In “Living Like Weasels,” the writer, Annie Dillard, is talking about weasels by describing some of their living habits and narrating her sudden encounter with a weasel which made her change her mind towards the real meaning of life. In her essay, Dillard is comparing weasels’ life with humans’ life, and in some parts she is favoring weasel’s life over our life since they live freely, but our freedom has been limited .
Davies-Stofka, Beth. "Human Nature and the Purpose of Existence." Patheos Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2013. .
What is the purpose of life? This is a question that has been argued since the beginning of time. Countless honorable and wise men have pondered and made conclusions about what our true purpose is in life. Aristotle and al’Ghazili are two philosophers that studied this purpose of life for almost all of their human existence. Their two proposals about the purpose of life and the ethics that are required to accomplish this purpose share some common ideas, while also having serious contrasts.