Narrative - Life with Escher
If you were to diagram my life, it would look very much like a drawing of Escher. Sometimes I feel like I'm the hand that's drawing a hand that's drawing itself. Other times I feel like I'm locked in one of those inescapable paradox cages. But most of all, I feel like I'm on the ever-ascending stairway that never goes anywhere.
Life's canvas was not designed to be painted by human hands. Constrained by the limitations of space and time, crippled by the human inability to see the entire painting at once, and gifted with an uncanny lack of judgement, I smear and smudge what I cannot go back and fix. At the same time, I worked hard to render my own image impeccably clear without the faintest idea of who I really was or the realization that I was constantly in flux, changing as often as a lonely flower bends before the force of the wind. Once I began to find outward stasis, my inward person grieved that I was not in the end what I wanted to be at the beginning. My attempts were futile.
I then looked to the Maker of the canvas and the Master Painter to draw something more perfect, more beautiful upon my heart and frame. But do I put down the brush and lay aside our pencils? No. I stupidly scribble all over the masterpiece of my Creator. Even if He asks me to stop (I only hear him if I haven't destroyed the ears He painted in) I stubbornly confound His every stroke. Worse, I think I made an improvement.
My life is also like Escher's paradox cage. This cage is of my own drawing. I thought I was building a palace for myself, but it restricted my movement. My own creation bound me, kept me from following the loving words of the Master Painter. He erased it for me once, but I was dumb enough to paint it back into existence. The funny thing, of course, is that it's just like the paradox cage. It doesn't really keep me inside. I just think it does. From my perspective, I have the illusion that it's an impregnable fortress when it's only a fake facade that need hold no one in, rendered so by the Master's nail-pierced hands. In the end, I choose to stay inside, though if I listened close, I'd hear the words of the Painter, guiding me through the illusion and onward in my life.
Showalter, Elaine. "Mob Scene." American Prospect 11 : 8 (Feb. 28, 2000) : 42-3 .
Finding one's self is not without turmoil. This does not pertain to only the young. It takes some people well into old age before they reach the level of ‘knowing’ who they are. An essential element of this maturation is turbulence. Periodic turbulence gives an individual the opportunity to rise above previous deficiencies of personality and provides levels of self-awareness. There are many ways that people face maturation, and many more ways in which they do or don’t face their ‘demons’.
In Schechtman’s Stories, Lives, and Basic Survival, the author argues through her narrative self-constitution view that narrative is extremely important to our lives, and that we identify with our past actions, while using our larger narrative of our lives to make decisions for the future as a survival technique. She then goes on to explain that we have “empathetic access” to our past decisions, and that we must look at our lives as one large narrative, and learn from living our lives in the past, to survive on as the best possible person in the future. I disagree with her viewpoints because they do not allow the possibility for someone to radically change and they force people to identify with their actions they would not like to be remembered for in the past. In this paper, I will explain Schectman’s “narrative self- constitution” view on narrativity, but disagree with her views that one must identify with their past actions. I will align my view more towards Goldie’s “narrative sense of self” because that people don’t have to identify with their past actions, and that while incredibly difficult, there is a chance for people to forgive themselves for a bad occurrence in the past and radically change for the better.
The deliberate compositional inclusion of arrows and eyeballs featured in the Lost Thing’s environment act as visual guides. The arrows lead jumbled vectors in different directions, the audience encouraged to pursue a direction. However, as evident in the course of growing into adulthood, the decision to take a particular direction is often a challenging encounter, illuminated by Tan’s own personal endeavour to discover his vocation as an illustrator and author. This exploration of direction is aided by the feature of eyeballs, embodying clarity and awareness of possibilities and future opportunities for the ‘Lost Thing’ and in turn, Shaun Tan. In addition, the continual symbolism of the number ‘5’ complements this navigation to self discovery, featured on the armbands of the public and on the gadgets in the ‘Lost Things’ realm. The number ‘5’ represents the most dynamic and energetic of all single-digit numbers, resonating with notions of personal freedom, individualism, change, and adaptability. In this way, Tan draws considerable attention to the negligence of adults towards change and expression which inhibits one’s self discovery. Thus, ‘The Lost Thing’ portrays the adult issue of self discovery and belonging to a immense extent, revealed via rich symbolism illustrating evolution of human
Gender Trouble published in 1990 by Judith Butler, argues that feminism was and still relaying on the presumption that ‘women’ a...
Ariel Levy, a staff writer at the New Yorker, and author of the article “Female Chauvinist Pigs” has brought up a very interesting topic called raunch culture. Now, what particularly is raunch culture? Raunch culture, in my own words, is a culture which allows women to participate in male-dominant cultures of raunch that deals a lot with sex in a way that is meant to be funny. Male and Female genders have various stereotypes labeled against them, and in this essay, I will go ahead and incorporate the different types of stereotypes men and women are labeled to, and to start with a first, one that is widely known by almost every individual, women being ‘girl-girls.’Girly-girls are girls, or women,
Hattingh continues by saying that each human being canned choose the direction his or her life is going to take. There is only two choices, namely to continue on the same road and to be stuck in the past, or to take a journey of self-renewal. Selecting the route of self-renewal entails becoming aware of the patterns, habits and powers of the present and past that prevent self renewal and moving towards a self-fulfilled future, as well as becoming aware of the untapped inner potential. Hattingh (1997:273) suggests a model for self-knowledge and
You are submerged in the tub of yourself—,” (Lines 11-12). The entire concept of the individual’s “tub” is now a construct of a person’s personality, and therefore each person is their own
middle of paper ... ... However, Kaysen points out that in life, we seldom perceive our own experiences clearly, nor understand ourselves and each other completely. She implies that we all live suspended between a reality we live in and a reality we create in our minds, like the young girl in the Vermeer painting trapped in a world of muted light,unable to perceive everything lucidly.
The consequence of this attitude is that he finds himself increasingly "stepping outside" his experiences in order to observe them from a distance. Instead of living his experiences more intensely, he finds himself o...
Borges often contemplated life and where man should find himself suitable in its situations. In “Death and the Compass”, detective Lonnrot works to solve a labyrinth that has been created for him through a series of murders. The labyrinth is considered the biggest secret in the short story. In the end the labyrinth proves to be worthless to Lonnrot. Borges strategically uses symbolism to prove his philosophy that, it is pointless to spend life endlessly searching through a “labyrinth” to find our purpose. Borges specified, “Man’s search for meaning in the world is a fruitless effort” (Borges). The idea of someone creating a series of murders that form a triangle with equidistant vertices is completely imaginary. It is a clear portrayal of Borges’ manipulation of fantasy to create alternate realisms. Borges’ varied literary methods in a single story help communicate his two life theories. Labyrinths and identity are consistent topics that transpire in Borges’ short stories. “In Death and the Compass”, as well as several other short stories, Borges depicts characters that use reason to create and solve labyrinths. This symbolizes that people create their own paths in life. The labyrinth in Borges’ stories plays many roles. It examines the idea that life is a riddle and at times can seem endless. In “Death and the Compass” Red Scharlach, a criminal ...
The boy from “Untitled” crumbles when faced with adversity; he is not resilient at all. Before he would draw; “and it wasn’t anything”, and he would stare into the sky; “It would be only him and the sky and the things inside him
Throughout this journey of life many outside forces manipulate whom all of us become. Who created my personal connotation? Through every relative, friend, and composition it boils down to me. I have taken all these beliefs and crammed them into a 6 feet, 2 inch frame. The real journey lays ahead, the journey from young adulthood to old age. I only pray this journey includes many travels and few destinations.
I never really thought about where my life was going. I always believed life took me where I wanted to go, I never thought that I was the one who took myself were I wanted to go. Once I entered high school I changed the way I thought. This is why I chose to go to college. I believe that college will give me the keys to unlock the doors of life. This way I can choose for myself where I go instead of someone choosing for me.
The arts have influenced my life in amazing ways. Throughout my life, art has been the place I run to and my escape from the world. As I’ve grown older, art has become so much more than that. Every piece of art I create is a journey into my soul. It’s a priceless way to deal with my emotions and my struggles. I create art not only because I enjoy it and because I want to, but because I have to. Somewhere deep inside there is a driving force, urging me to put my heart down on paper. I become emotionally attached to each of my pieces because they are like dashes on the wall marking my growth. Each one is the solution to a problem I have dealt with and overcome.