Puja Patel AP Literature and Composition Mr. Burgess 26 February 2017 Title Pending In the dawn of the 11th century, Murasaki Shikibu composes the novel, The Tale of Genji, in efforts of drawing parallels to the Heian era. The Heian period consists of classical Japanese history that is a prominent factor in the lives of the characters, traversing through the year 1008. Perfection exemplified, the Emperor Kiritsubos’ son, Hikaru Genji, is born in a kingdom brimming with lavishing commodities. Although, from a far, Genji’s life seems like the epitome of perfection, during the first twelve years, Genji loses his mother, Kiritsubo, to an illness. After the death of Kiritsubo, the prince is placed in the care of his grandmother who passes
The Tale of the Heike is a collection of tales that depict the livelihood of warriors during the Heian and Kamakura period. These tales illustrate that warriors during this period spent their existence dedicated to their duty to the Buddhist Law and that the growing contention arose from each warrior’s devotion and loyalty to the Buddhist Law.
The Prince, written by Machiavelli is concerned with the issues politics, ruling a state and how a ruler or a leader should be. The key properties of a ruler are represented by Machiavelli in details and the inner and outer effects of the success in ruling are mentioned. One of the most important topics in The Prince is about the relationship of skillfulness (virtù) of the ruler and his good or bad chance (fortune) and their effects on gaining and keeping the power. Virtù, which has the present meaning of manliness, is used by Machiavelli as having skills, strength, intelligence and prudence of a ruler. It is the inner ability to gain the power and not to lose it easily. Fortuna, with the present use, fortune is explained as the word of God and the luck and opportunity that is given to the ruler. A ruler by fortune is dependent
Murasaki Shikibu’s Tale of Genji, set in the Heian Period, gives a good idea of what the model Heian man and Heian woman should look like. Genji himself is like a physical embodiment of male perfection, while a large portion of the Broom Tree chapter outlines the ideal of a woman—that it is men who decide what constitutes a perfect woman, and the fact that even they cannot come to decide which traits are the best, and whether anyone can realistically possess all of those traits shows that the function of women in the eyes of men of that period was largely to cater to their husbands and households. Broken down, there are similarities and differences between the standard for Heian men and women, and the Tale of Genji provides excellent examples of characters who fit into their respective gender roles.
In the short book, Being Perfect by Anna Quindlen, Quindlen shares her wisdom of the term “perfection.” She discusses her personal experience of being “perfect” when she was younger and tries to persuade the readers that being “perfect” is not worth the hardships, but finding and expressing someone’s true personality and character is. Striving for “perfection” can fog people’s mind in acting contrary to their true selves. For example, people begin to expect the ultimate best out of one another and begin to lack the understanding of others. All people should learn to give up the unreachable goal of being flawless because everyone makes mistakes; it is the way in which people handle their mistakes that makes their true personality shine.
Perfection is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “being entirely without flaws; something that cannot be improved.” In today’s society many people, particularly young women desire to be perfect in their outward appearance. They want the perfect hair, the perfect skin, the perfect body, which so many think would be the perfect life. However, perfection of this kind is very difficult to achieve, yet so many people still want this perfect self-image. This desire for perfection has caused self-hatred within many and this pandemic of perfection is rapidly spreading amongst individuals. The song “Pretty Hurts” by Beyoncé Knowles clearly shows how perfection is truly a disease of a nation. People are faced with the pressure to be perfect in their daily lives, but why? Many individuals feel the need to be perfect because of parental influence, social acceptance and self-conflict.
In a world dominated by religion, it was thought that the only place where perfection existed was within God. In some cases, for instance, the ontological argument, it was the proof of his existence. But in a modern world, the concept of perfection has been distorted and comes with an abundance of seemingly negative consequences, ultimately putting into question whether or not perfection is even possible. In Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, the concept of perfection is constantly challenged in a world run by corporations who are trying to package human perfection and profit from it. The desire and attempt towards attaining perfection brings moral instability and corruption.
Despite that he cannot live forever, the paradox established between the abstract symbolism of the scraggly eagle and the concrete metaphor of the shadows allows him to comprehend that raw beauty and power are eternal, though the people and objects who channel and depict them are not. In “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles”, Keats proposes that reveling in true majesty cannot delay the inevitability of death: humans are destined to change, grow old, and eventually die, and no amount of contemplation is going to change that. It is possible to gaze upon beautiful objects or landscapes, but the perpetuity they embody is unattainable. Just as an elderly woman can only fantasize about her youthful looks once wrinkles line her face, humans can only dream of the immortality of Gods when confronted with the stark proximity of their own mortality. But this realization is not as pessimistic as it may seem. Even after all of humanity fades into oblivion and civilization is wiped away, majesty and brillance will endure. Try as it may, time can do nothing to diminish their nature. As the optimism of Keats’ argument that splendor and glory can never be lost in “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles” demonstrates, not even death can rob the world of
Since most people think that the “ideal” is impossible to reach, they are led to feel inadequate. The idea of perfection is a mere deception because, the obsession of trying to reach perfection is taken to extremes, perfection is based on individual opinion and there is no such thing as actual perfection.
One of the problems with this piece of literature was during the Heian period Japanese was very inflected with complex grammar. On the other hand, another problem when it came to the Heian court society it was found very rude to name other people. Leaving many of the characters within this work of literature to be nameless. Which in this case the author often refers to men by their social rank or stage in life, as well as women being referred to by the color of their clothing or ranking given by a prominent male relative. The novel is split into three different parts; two dealing with Genji’s life, and the last one focusing on the earlier years of two of Genji’s prominent descendants, Niou and Kaoru. Several short transitorily chapters are also included in this piece of
During the Medieval period (1185–1600) in Japan there was change and innovation in Japanese literature. This period was largely influenced by the ideals of Buddhist and the ruling military class. During this time, Buddhist religions were also greatly influenced by the handling of the priests and monks. And there were many civil wars that led to different classes in the society. Actually, there are many different types of people who helped form the medieval period. People like the emperors and priests, women and poet author, and samurai. The work during the medieval periods usually consisted mentality distorted, not perfect, and deal with the unfortunate and retribution. Insights from life and death, ghost that haunted people, redemption through killing,
Okonkwo is a self-made man. He achieves greatness through his own hard work and determination. Okonkwo started his life without the benefits that other young men had. His father, Unoka, was a lazy man. He had acquired no honorary titles. When Unoka died, Okonkwo did not inherit any barn, title, or young wife. He merely acquired his father’s debts. Therefore, Okonkwo sets about to make a name for himself and to achieve greatness in his community. He diligently plants and harvests his yams, building a farm from scratch. He builds a large commune for his family. He marries three wives; one of them was the village beauty. He acquires two titles. Okonkwo is not a failure, like is father was. In Umuofia, “achievement was revered”, and Okonkwo’s achievement was immense (8). He was “clearly cut out for great things” (8). To the Igbo people, Okonkwo epitomizes greatness and success.
Since the dawn of time, the desire for immortality and eternal beauty has all but governed humans as a species. A fallacy that such a thing could be procured as the proverbial fountain of youth has consumed, destroyed, and even sent some into a spiraling descent of madness. From the destitute to the affluent and everyone between, no one has ever fully escaped the hypnotic lure of the notion of being forever young and beautiful. The journey to acquire such an unattainable object has even motivated some to implement unspeakable and deplorable acts against their own kind. One individual in particular, a late Hungarian Countess by the name of Elizabeth Bathory, is a perfect example of lust for perfection and beauty taken too far.
...ience true perfection. Since an ideal can never hold up to a reality, nothing can be truly perfect.
In his book, The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli outlines many characteristics that he thinks an ideal prince should have. A true ruler, according to Machiavelli, looks out for his own good as well as the welfare of his country, even if that requires him to resort to deceitful means. There are many examples of Machiavellian princes in literature and one such example is Denethor, Steward of Gondor. In this paper I will first clarify a few quotes from The Prince, and then describe how Denethor fits the requirement for being a true prince, according to Machiavelli.