Though there are many world views present in The Neverending Story, one that tends to be overlooked is Nihilism. Nihilism as it pertains to culture is, “An approach to philosophy that holds that human life is meaningless and that all religions, laws, moral codes, and political systems are thoroughly empty and false” (Nihilism, n.d). In its manifestation, Nihilism is pessimistic. Several of the characters in The Neverending Story show signs of Nihilistic beliefs. These beliefs exhibited by the characters are not constant but show the inner struggle of people when faced with adversity. The first person to express Nihilistic thoughts is Bastian. Though Bastian never flat out says life is meaningless, he does exude pessimism. With the loss of …show more content…
A great example of such is Rockbiter. When Atreyu falls from the sky and onto the beach, he encounters Falkor. Rockbiter lost his companions to “the nothing”, but more importantly, he lost his positive outlook. When faced with adversity, Rockbiter’s morale imploded into a nihilistic outlook. Doubt, sadness, and grief are all common responses to loss, but Rockbiter’s despair goes beyond that. His view is best described in his conversation with Atreyu when he says, “Listen, the nothing will be here any minute. I will just sit here and let it take me away too. They look like big, good, strong hands. Don't they” (Peterson, 1984)? It is not enough to mourn the loss his friends, he willingly chooses to be taken into “the …show more content…
No other character in the film embodies Nihilism quite as much as Morla. In general, Morla’s attitude shows a lack of interested or care for others. This negligence towards extends beyond just scope of others. The ancient turtle is content with the destruction of the world and the loss of life because there is no immediate benefit to helping. Even when Atreyu warns of the possibility of death, Morla responds, “Die? At least that would be something” (Peterson, 1984). A more overt expression of Nihilism is when Morla responds to Atreyu’s persistence by saying, “Nothing matters” (Peterson, 1984). After persistence from Atreyu, Morla reveals the information about the Southern Oracle. Morla’s only reason for helping Atreyu in the end is not that she believes she is doing good, rather she thinks any help she might provide would still be useless to
Philosophies such as nihilism, existentialism, and solipsism are explored throughout Grendel, a novel by John Gardner. Throughout the book, Grendel embarks on a journey of self-discovery, in which he tries to find himself through philosophy. Despite trying many different philosophies, Grendel is only met with dissatisfaction. However, the nihilistic philosophy that is introduced by the enigmatic dragon seemingly provides Grendel with a way out of his banal existence. Despite this, Grendel couldn’t fully commit to nihilistic beliefs therefore leading to the development of his scepticism philosophy. In the end, Grendel meets his death at Beowulfs’ hands, who disproves his scepticism and forces him to die an existentialist. The fact is that if Grendel had decided to
The belief in fate or free will shapes the way a person lives their life. In Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and Chloe Benjamin’s The Immortalists, many incidents cause the characters to question their destinies. Through the psychoanalytical lens, the characters in both novels challenge their fate and free will in response to negative events that impact their lives. The characters reevaluate their belief systems as they experience loss, death, and change.
It bears mentioning that Grendel was strongly influenced by the idea of nihilism, which means that he believed that nothing has meaning and everything in life was an accident. “Nevertheless, it was
In philosophy “Nihilism” is a position of radical skepticism. It is the belief that all values are baseless and nothing is known. The word “Nihilism” itself conveys a sense of abolishing or destroying (IEP). Nietzsche’s work and writings are mostly associated with nihilism in general, and moral nihilism especially. Moral nihilism questions the reality and the foundation of moral values. Nietzsche supported his view on morality by many arguments and discussions on the true nature of our inner self. Through my paper on Moral Nihilism, I will explain 5 major arguments and then try to construct a deductive argument for each, relying on Nietzsche’s book II “Daybreak”.
It is “being what it is not and not being what it is.” (Being and Nothingness 28) Therefore, being for-itself is roughly being nihilistic, because for-itself is nothingness. It is the opposite of being in-itself, which is not self aware and is merely consciousness. The being for-itself is self aware and creates the meaning of the in-itself, but on its own exists as nothingness, because the for-itself cannot exist unless the in-itself also exists. In the simplest terms, it is the intrapersonal dimension of consciousness and
the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a
Is living forever the greatest gift of the ultimate curse? This is the question that both the ALA notable book, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, and the movie based on the book raise. Both explore the exciting possibility of never facing death, the harsh reality of a never ending life and the greed that it can bring. A look at the similarities and differences will reveal that the theme, along with the general story line, was one of the few things that remain the same in the translation from book to movie.
Groundhog Day is a film starring Bill Murray who plays Phil Connor’s, a news anchorman, who gets stuck on the repeating Groundhog Day every day. He is a man who does not appreciate things around him but he expects others to look up to him. He lives the same day while time goes on; he does not make an effort to reach out to others. Phil follows the same daily routines and does not attempt to change anything and accepts his life as it is, even though he doesn’t like it. Phil doesn’t understand the idea of the man creating his own being by experiencing life.
To live in a world without sacred, shining moments is like breathing air without oxygen. It is these moments that fill us with hope and put meaning into our lives. In a modern sense, the world we once knew is now dull, without meaning or purpose. This idea is often regarded to as nihilism, which is the belief that “nothing really matters.” It is the lack of a firm grounding or belief system that guides our decisions. The authors of All Things Shining give indication that they dislike the idea of nihilism and believe that acts of heroism are the only sacred shining moments left in our secular age. The authors further suggest that their goals are to replace this complete absence of hope with new reason and abandon all despair, which will in-turn encourage others to pursue a meaningful life.
Nihilism in Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899) challenges readers to question not only society's framework but more importantly the existence of being. Through the events involving Marlow and Kurtz, Conrad communicates a theme of the destruction of Being, "including that way of being which we call 'human' and consider to be our own" (Levin, 3). This theme is more clearly defined as nihilism, which involves the negation of all religious and moral values. The philosophy behind nihilism is extensive and in its completeness connotes humanity's inescapable fate of meaninglessness. The extent to which various ideologists regard nihilism varies according to their own philosophies.
While reading the novel “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy the overall aspect is pessimistic. It is about violence, hardship, death, fear, and the loss of hope. Throughout the book, the two main characters, the man, and boy face up against some of the toughest survival and life lessons. Together they face the woman’s suicide, starvation, the idea of rape, sickness, survival of the apocalypse, and in a sense being hunted like prey by cannibals who also managed to survive the terrifying possibilities that cause Earth to go to chaos. Within the novel, there are hundreds of examples to provide evidence of the pessimistic nature of the novel. Cormac McCarthy who is the author continuously writes in his novel about some of the deepest and darkest situations
Martin Heidegger (1889 -- 1976) was, and still is considered to be, along with the likes of Soren Kierkegaard, Edmund Husserl and Jean-Paul Sartre, one of the principal exponents of 20th century Existentialism. An extraordinarily original thinker, a critic of technological society and the leading Ontologist of his time, Heidegger's philosophy became a primary influence upon the thoughts of the younger generations of continental European cultural personalities of his time.
After a tragic loss someone will go through a grieving process that will either be constructive or destructive. Mourning is a period of time when the person experiencing this loss begins to search for reconciliation and a way to deal with the sadness. They will attempt to move on, forgive and forget, the past. Freud wrote that mourning is a normal reaction to the loss of a love object, which is consciously known and identifiable. People mourning will express their sadness but will be able to eventually part from their love lost. Inversely, Freud says that melancholia develops when the sadness is inappropriate to the situation and becomes internalized. The person suffering from melancholia identifies the lost object or person with himself or herself on an unconscious level, leading to ego loss. Two films dealing with mourning and melancholia are Journey From The Fall and New Year Baby.
Hopelessness is an intense emotion every person feels at one point in their life, a feeling closely interlinked with depression and suicide. In the poems “It was not Death, for I stood up,” and “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,” by Emily Dickinson and “No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,” by Gerard Manley Hopkins, the theme of the poems is hopelessness, but the authors approach the theme differently in each poem.
In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway demonstrates nihilism through Jordan’s view of death. Coming to face death, Jordan states, “That’s what it will be like. Like a cool drink of water. You’re a liar. It will just be nothing. That’s all it will be. Just nothing” (FWTBT, 470). Faced with death alone, Jordan views death as not even an event; he believes it as an escape from the current complications of his life. On this idea, Emil Cioran, a famous nihilist philosopher, explains, “The deepest and most organic death is death in solitude…In such moments you will be severed from life, from love, smiles, friends and even from death. And you will ask yourself if there is anything besides the nothingness of the world and your own nothingness.” Death