Commentary on The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville “…a humble little thing, the bend giving it an apologetic look.” The author portrays the reader of a bent bridge in which the community is divided on a heritage issue. This passage is taken from The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville. As the extract progresses, the reader realizes that the local community is divided into two groups on the ‘bent’ bridge. This passage contains some paradoxes and opposites. The ‘bent bridge itself is a paradox. It is an old and damaged bridge; yet, there are a group of people believing that the old bridge is part of the area’s cultural heritage. The authorial concern is that things do not always result, as simple as they seem to be and therefore people should not trouble themselves too much. The use of nature imagery and unnatural imagery also signify to the reader the beauty of nature. Grenville seems excessively preoccupied with literary technique and details such as imagery nature and surrounding to depict the image in the reader’s mind. The setting contributes to the author’s main concern as well as it contributes to our understanding as a whole. It is a vital literary device of this passage with some colorful descriptions of the surrounding countryside “… but close up, each timber had its own color and its own personality”. The use of words such as ‘white ute’ and ‘marcel wave’ suggests the reader times when and where it is set and what kinds of people living here: those who want changes and growth and those who do not want changes. The passage suggests the reader that this is set in a country side through a description of “flaking woo... ... middle of paper ... ...…lit up rounded rocks…and fans of white sand”. Each timber had its own color and its own personality. The reader realizes that in a community – “the old wood looked nothing more interesting than grey”- they may look similar as a whole, however, people have got their own identity –like each timber. Probably, this leads to the issue where the community is divided into groups and the complication of something, which at first sight may look simple. Throughout the passage, the author intertwines some literary devices to create the intended effects as well as reminds the reader that we cannot expect things to go according to what we intend and something may not be as simple as it seems to be. The author also encourages the reader to appreciate nature by the use of combination between similes and rich description of nature.
If Christ lives in us, controlling our personalities, we will leave glorious marks on the lives we touch. Not because of our lovely characters, but because of his. –Eugenia Price.
Throughout the life cycle, a person undergoes many changes. One matures both physically and emotionally as time passes. Emotional growth is quite often more difficult than physical growth. A person must realize his faults and admit to them before he can develop emotionally, while one does not need any self-analyzation to develop physically. In her book Ordinary People, Judith Guest depicts the struggles man must experience in order to reach his ideal emotional perfection. Conrad, the book's protagonist, and his father Calvin, were both searching for higher levels of emotional health. Conrad had to let out and face all the feelings he had repressed, while Calvin had to correct his confused perspectives on life.
According to Cambridge Online Dictionary, a performance is the action of entertaining other people by dancing singing, acting, or playing music. In a performance, performer(s) execute their act while audiences watch and critique. Performance of the human body changes depending on various factors such as the format, venue, and dynamics between the performer and spectators. In Anna Deavere Smith’s Never Giving’ Up, which is a live performance, and The Pianist, which is a film, there are differences and similarities on how the performance of the human body alters.
As highlighted by the author, Mary Louise Adams in her article, “Excerpts from The Trouble with Normal”, ‘a norm’ “can be defined as something that is usual, typical or standardized” (Hacking, Adams, 2003). Norms are often already so established that most individuals do not realize how much they have shaped society and the people who live in it. Audrey Lord tells us that being a “White, thin, young, heterosexual, Christian, male” defines the characteristics of being “normal” and “privileged,” in which she calls “the mythical norm” (Perry, 2011). We use our sexuality, race and class as a way of giving ourselves an identity for the world to see. This identity will ultimately allow us to understand our place in the world and give
F. Scott Fitzgerald uses many motifs in The Great Gatsby to convey all sorts of different
and he goes on to suggest that the solution is to ‘find a form of
In the Great Gatsby, we are faced with two extremely wealthy men, a beautiful wife, and a mistress. Jay Gatsby, a very mysterious man, who is extremely wealthy and well known for his parties, is very interesting as well as spontaneous. Tom Buchanan, a man made wealthy by being a professional polo player as well as having a gracious inheritance, is very bitter and somewhat cynical. Daisy, a beautiful young lady and the wife of Tom, is very light hearted but is also in love with Gatsby, almost as much as she loves Tom’s money.
In The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, dreams, goals, and ambitions have a way of enticing and enchanting the characters. A goal becomes more than a goal; it becomes something into which the characters submerge themselves and by which they define themselves. These dreams then set up impossible expectations which are detached from what can realistically be achieved. Gatsby dreams of love with Daisy, a dream which eventually consumes his life. It seduces him into giving himself up entirely for its attainment. Similarly, Tom's ambitions to control every aspect of his life end up consuming him. It might be considered this fundamental tendency of human dreams to seduce the dreamers into dedicating themselves completely to those dreams which constitute their dangerous nature.
In the featured article, “Beside Oneself: On the Limits of Sexual Autonomy,” the author, Judith Butler, writes about her views on what it means to be considered human in society. Butler describes to us the importance of connecting with others helps us obtain the faculties to feel, and become intimate through our will to become vulnerable. Butler contends that with the power of vulnerability, the rolls pertaining to humanity, grief, and violence, are what allows us to be acknowledged as worthy.
Perfection is much like the lottery; many people will strive for it with the hopes of attaining their ultimate goal, only to realize that reaching it is nearly impossible. However, unlike the lottery, there is not even the slightest chance of winning the final prize. To be completely perfect is an impossible feat, and the more attempts made to reach a status of “perfection”, the more let down a person will be. The quality of complete perfection is unobtainable and unreasonable, yet many cultures and certain groups of people take pride in being known as perfectionists. This reach for the impossible can be seen in the strict code followed by all knights during the feudal time period. Sir Gawain in the late
In todays society to be “perfect” one must follow society’s criteria. This criteria can depend on what type of perfection one is following. There are different types of perfection such as self oriented perfection, socially prescribed perfection, other oriented perfection, overt perfection, and covert perfection. These types of perfection are all different in how a person is “perfect”. Trying to be perfect can have its benefits but it causes mental health problems that make it not worth it. Rachel Rettner said, “Though perfection is an impossible goal, striving for it can be a boon for one's health, causing one to stick to exercise programs to a tee, say, or follow a strict regimen for treating chronic illnesses like type
In “On beauty and Being Just” by Elanie Scarry she says “Beauty brings copies of itself into being. It makes us draw it, take pictures of it, or describes it to other people.”(pg. 1) When we see something we consider beautiful we can’t help but want to make it last forever. She argues that if we study beauty, the outcome of what we find could possibly be harmful and dangerous. When she writes in “On Beauty Being Wrong” she says that we make mistakes or are wrong in anyway about what we consider to be beautiful or not, that most of the time we are incorrect and make a mistake about it. She goes on to say in her writing that “A visual event may reproduce itself in the realm of touch.” (pg. 4) He says that “the simplest manifest of phenomenon is the everyday fact of staring. (pg. 5) She uses the example of a first glance at a bird. We want to duplicate it but not into a drawing or a poem or song, we simply want to just keep looking at it for as long as the bird will be there. “This replication in the realm of sensation can be carried out by a single perceiver across time or can instead entail a brief act of perception distributed across many
The ways that society and social media has instilled into many teenage girls and boys that the ideal body is one that is skinny or muscular, has a flat stomach, thigh gaps, long skinny legs, big butts, and big boobs. People that are built this way are considered beautiful and are looked highly upon while those who are thick, fat, and have chunkier thighs and stomach is looked at by everyone as being a disgusting piece of trash that’s worthless and shouldn’t have a part in everyday life unless they change the way they look. Many young adolescent then proceed to take extreme precautions to try and lose all of the unwanted weight to achieve their ideal body. The steps they take to lose weight quickly leads to the development of eating disorders
Pacht (1984) states that perfectionists are the ones who set high standards without any reason, and they try to accomplish their goals. The perfectionists think that in truth only exists extremes but there is no middle ground. For them percentage of success as a rate of 95% or higher is a failure because they have to be 100% perfect. For example if they were given a rate they will focus on the failure rate. Perfectionism can be explained as a desire to gain the high standards of performance. But perfectionists can not fulfill their expectations so they critise themselves (Pacht, 1984). Hamachek in 1978 (as cited in Schwarz, Gairret, Araguete, & Gold, 2005) found that there are two types of perfectionists: Normal and neurotic perfectionists. Normal perfectionists are the ones who can select pleasure in normal degrees from their occupations and they need approval from others just like anyone else. They think that it is a good way to give encouragement. Encouragement is needed to become better. Normal perfectionists are the normal form of perfectionism so they can concentrate on the good ways to gather perfectionism. They have quite normal expectations from themselves. Latter one wants more performance than they can do so they become unsatisfied because they think that they can not do better as anyone else. Neurotic perfectionists are not like normal perfectionist so they are not comfortable with their performance. There were non-pathological perfectionists and pathological perfectionists. Non-pathological perfectionists are the ones who can make big standards and they believe that it is essential for perfection. Pathological perfectionists are the ones who set standards and make decisions and they have a critical concern over mistak...