A lot of time in life it’s good for us to just sit down and take a moment to think about our lives, to think about what we have going on and life in general. During this time of reflection we might become closer to God or just ourselves, but no matter what these times of thinking are completely beneficial for us as a whole. This is a time for us to truly reflect on ourselves as well as the world around us; this is time for us to think about how we want to live our lives. Another thing that might come up during this time of self-reflection is that we truly discover and contemplate the meaning of life and some main meanings behind it. Thomas Gray had one of these moments, he sat down in a church yard one evening and wrote to some one of the …show more content…
We see this in lines 25-32 of Elegy; “Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, their furrow oft the stubborn glebe had broke; how jocund did they drive their team afield! How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke! Let not ambition mock their useful toil, their homely joys and destiny obscure…the short and simple annals of the poor.” Gray is telling the readers to respect the poor because they have to work hard to just make it by, rather than have wealth thrown at them from everywhere. This is still true today; in our modern day society there are a lot of people who are born into wealthy families who don’t know what it’s like to work a day in their lives. These same people also have a very good tendency to judge the people who aren’t as fortunate as they are, but the truth is those less fortunate people have to work harder to survive. It’s easy for us to take things for granted until we no longer have them, rich people take their money for granted and have no idea what it’s like to live in poverty. Gray tells these fortunate people not to think highly of themselves because they have money, he tells them to respect the poor for what they have to do, especially the things they do to help the wealthy. He also touches on the idea that the simple people of the world are better off because …show more content…
Gray tells us that when we die we no longer get to experience any of the things we enjoyed while being alive, for instance we don’t get to touch our loved one or feel the welcoming warmth of a fire. He basically tells us that when we die everything is over, we stop existing physically. Now, we don’t know that this is true for certain because he clearly hadn’t died before writing about this, but we do know that once your body is placed in the ground you no longer move around. The second thing that Gray tries to teach us is the idea that we shouldn’t judge people based on their wealth. He tells rich people not to feel better about themselves because they are rich, but rather to respect the less fortunate for what they have to do. He slightly also makes the argument that the people who have to work for a living are happier, but doesn’t go into much detail to support this claim. The final and most important theme to me is the idea that no matter who you are you end up in the same place. He makes this argument following the idea that rich people shouldn’t gloat, by suggesting that a worm is going to eat a rich corpse the same as a poor corpse. Just because you had
Life is not always easy, at some point, people struggle in their life. People who are in the lower class have to struggle for a job every day and people who are in upper class also have their own problems to deal with. These ideas are very clear in Mary Oliver’s “Singapore”, Philip Schultz’s “Greed” and Philip Levine “What Work Is”. In "Singapore" a woman is likely lower class because she works at the airport and her job is to clean the bathroom. In both “Greed” and “What Work Is”, the speakers make the same conclusion about the struggle in the lower class. “Greed” furthermore discusses how Hispanics get a job first before whites and blacks because they take lower wages. All three poems deal with class in term of the society. The shared idea
A big disadvantage that the lower class has compared to the wealthy is a lack of quality education. While serving as a waitress, Ehrenriech learned about many different people. Some of these co-workers were immigrants who had recently come to this country. “I learn that he [George] is not paid by Jerry’s but the ‘agent’ who shipped him over--$5 an hour, with the agent getting the dollar or so difference between that and what Jerry’s pays dishwashers”(38). Their contracts lacked any benefits, and they were paid below minimum wage. People, like George, cannot read their contracts before they sign because they don’t understand the language. The critic would argue, “…They are baffled at the idea of fighting the class struggle of which…Ehrenriech appears to be the only person complaining about the situation…” In Georg...
The upper class lives far above the poor, causing the lower class to feel shame which then stimulates the desire to achieve equality and happiness which the American dream promises. The narrator, Esperanza, admits that when looking at the homes on the hill, "I am ashamed--all of us staring out the window like the hungry. I am tired of looking at what we can`t have." She feels self-conscious not only for her lack of money and house, but also because her family looks at these houses with such longing that their expressions are comparable to "the hungry." Since she feels that her family's income and means exists beyond the starving class, she does not want to look at the houses with an appearance of hunger. She feels ashamed for belonging to the lower class who can only look and admire the houses but cannot own them. Ezperanza no longer feels content with looking at the houses because she wants her own yet knows that at the moment, she cannot have it. In addition, Esperanza notes that "People who live on hills sleep so close to the stars they forget those of us who live too much on earth." The upper class lives on a metaphorical hill, near the stars and heavens because society raises up those with money. Because society places the wealthy on a pedestal or "hill" they become unaware of anyone other than those who live leisurely lives. They do not see the poor who struggle and work through the everyday hardships life throws at them. According to Esperanza, the poor live "too much on earth" signifying that they have experienced too many trials and tribulations yet have not spent anytime amongst the stars.
...is seems to line up well with the serenity prayer: “Lord, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Our task as humans is to discern these wills in our lives and separate them. We must not become embittered, but rather empowered, clinging to the knowledge that there is an ever-benevolent God constantly working for our good, and that he always has a plan for us amidst trial presented by life on earth. In order to discern this will though, we have to be on the lookout for it with an awareness of its separateness from our own fears and desires. This discernment is also difficult because of our limited perspectives as humans, and thus we need humility in our search. The most important thing, however, is the search itself: we must all continue to search for the will.
Stories about life 's struggle to survive in everyday America can make one think twice of the American dream. In David Shipler’s book The Working Poor, David tells many different tales of people living in poverty and also analyzes what 's wrong and why. The book’s portrayal of the poor is not for the meek however, as one reviewer exclaims, “Through a series of sensitive, sometimes heart-rending portraits”, (Lenkowsky). In the book a lot of American ideologies are turned on its head as The Red Phoenix explains how our poor are viewed as, “Wealth and decadence are the tell-tale signs of hard work and brilliance paying off, while poverty is a sign of laziness, irresponsibility and a disposition or work-ethic undeserving of the
Throughout the novel death is portrayed as normal, something not too worry about. An example of this is shown when the director takes the students through the facility, “Bernard, whispering, made an appointment with the Headmistress for that very evening, ‘from the Slough Crematorium. Death conditioning begins at eighteen months. Every tot spends two mornings a week in a Hospital for the Dying. All the best toys are kept there, and they get chocolate cream on death days. They learn to take dying as a matter of course’”(109). The portray death to children as relaxing and fun so they do not fear or get sad about deaths of a loved one. Another example of this is shown when the director talks about how everyone dies when they are sixty. The world state does this because when the are sixty they do not want to work or play their expensive games. During their life the always look you, they are fit, and healthy. The people in the world state see not having too grow old as a luxury. They see the elderly as gross, fat, disgusting creatures with growths and blemishes. Both of these views are highly contrasted with what the concepts of love and marriage are like in the world today. People view death as a new beginning. We believe that when we die our spirits go on into either heaven or hell based on our actions. This makes us strive to do good in the world so we would be compensated for our actions. Another example is that People view old age. As children we are taught to love and respect the elderly because the give the next generation values and morals to help guide their lives. We all honor the elderly with medical assistance and holidays made to celebrate
The upper class men had all the wealth in the world at the tips of their fingers while the lower classes didn’t have two pennies to rub together. “… The rich should share with the poor, especially those rich persons who had acquired their property from trade or had otherwise won it from the poor.” (#8) The favoritism is eye-catching, it says that the nobles had won the land from the peasants but stereotypically upper classes have had the land in their family for generations. The trade among the people was unfair to the farmhands. The farmhands fashioned the land and “they were supposed to be brothers with one another” (#8) they should have the right to property and not have to just work it for the lords. On the contrary the upper class “purchased this right for a considerable sum of money… [if the peasants want to be released from their duties to us, nobles, then] the peasants shall pay us a reasonable amount of money.” (#4) Until the sharecroppers started attacking the nobles they “looked on, unaware that misfortune was creeping up on [the peasants]” (#11) Instead of the peasants adopting and modifying their way of life they challenged the nobles to a war and lost. A total amount of the souls that were consumed by the sinful acts of the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants was 100,000.
Wealth has both a good and a bad side. It can change the life of a person for the better or worse, and that is clearly shown in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Wealth effects the lives of the characters of Their Eyes Were Watching God very differently than the characters of The Great Gatsby. Janie’s wealth came about, mainly, from her failed relationships. Gatsby, on the other hand, earned his wealth, despite it being through questionable means. The characters also used their wealth for different reasons. Gatsby used his wealth in hopes to win back the love of his life, and Janie’s wealth was simply an asset to her. Even though there are many differences in how the characters live, there are similar outcomes (change wording). Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Great Gatsby take place in very different places, but despite that, their relationships and happiness are similarly affected by wealth.
While Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" overtly deals with the distinction between social class and the opportunity for greatness, the poem also contains a subtle yet strong message against the dominant role of men over women in society. Gray's tone throughout the poem is permeated with regret and a sense of something lost, voicing his opinions clearly against social class prejudice. This emotional tone, when applied to the stereotypical roles of differing sexes discussed throughout the poem, portrays the injustice of inequality between males and females.
In the beginning of the play, Walter is foolish and quarrelsome, with his heart set on becoming affluent. As he grasps how hard work his father worked and how hard his family works, he reasons that living by his standards is more important than gaining wealth, and he stops feeling resentful towards them. This play highlights how many members of society focus more on making money than living by their ethical
Is there such a thing as free will, what is the relationship between mind and body, and the true difference between right and wrong are a few questions about human existence that have plagued philosophers and average men alike since the days of Socrates and Aristotle. While not everyone may pay these questions much attention, there is one philosophical thought that has probably crossed the mind of every human at some point in time, and that is the concept of death and what happens after. There are widespread thoughts about what happens postmortem which range from the idea of immortality during the days of the ancient Greeks to the belief in reincarnation that is associated with many Eastern religions. These beliefs, along with others similar to them, provide some with a sort of safety net because they know that their essence (soul, spirit, etc.) will continue to exist after they pass. That being said, not everyone shares these opinions and for some the idea of death can be frightening. Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise examines this fear through Jack Gladney and several other characters. While the novel does not offer any answers, it does stimulate thought regarding death in modern society and how it should be handled. Although many of the characters try to do things such as ignore or embrace their fear in order to get it off their minds, Jack cannot shake his angst, all of which mirroring the various reactions people in today’s society have regarding death.
Death is not a formidable force because the soul cannot die. Death is not powerful and in the end of time, it will fade out because humans have eternal life. Furthermore, death is a slave. It has no real power to choose who is going to die. By depreciating death, Donne is reaffirming that death is nothing to be apprehensive about. He considers Death a long slumber and when the dead wake, Death will be no more. Whitman argues that although death claims our bodies, it cannot claim our souls. When we die, our bodies become part of nature. The old and the young are all going to be a part of the earth eventually. Their bodies provide life to other creatures and their souls live forever. The soul cannot be claimed by death. According to Oliver, the way to accept death is to lead a meaningful life. Everyone dies, but death is not frightening because it cannot affect the human
I have always been to asking myself what is meaning of life? or what I supposed to do ? or what I have to achieve? . Meaning of life what 's you have been given? what you have given by different kind of human? Or what I believe or what I do not believe in life .Everybody have Meaning of life it depends between person to person, I found myself when I was young because my parents always talk about experience in their life.Throughout my entire life ,I have wondered about the significance meaning of life that has beneficial for the people, because the life is beginning odds and ending odds .Even though struggle of life, I believe meaning of life are ,regional ,ambition, participate ,achievement ,and happiness .Due to this, I
Most people think that wealth and success equate happiness, but the wealthy and successful do not know what they should be happy for. Tomoyuki Iwashita was a middle-class man in Japan and wrote: “Why I Quit the Company” to explain why he was insatiable with the job he had. Iwashita knew he had a desirable job that provided him with many luxuries on top of all the necessities; however, he did not appreciate the many benefits of working at such a prestigious company. On the other hand, those who are stricken with poverty are much more appreciative of everything they have. Jo Goodwin Parker wrote “What is Poverty?” and she explained the reality of poverty to her readers and wanted those who were wealthier than her to understand. The deprivations that accompany poverty seem to be unimaginable, but those in poverty live the unimaginable life every day. Poor people do not have much to be thankful for, but they still appreciate the little things even if they are angered by their disadvantages. People of a privileged lifestyle do not appreciate the necessities as much as those below the poverty line because
Personal Development is a lifelong process that involves the assessment of current skills and talents and the enhancement of oneself based on that assessment which then leads to the realization of goals and an improved quality of life. To be able to assess yourself, you need to be able to reflect on your past which helps you to understand the attitudes you have developed and the foundation that you will be building your life on. Also, you have to reflect on your present to see if there’s room for improvement and reflect on your future so that you can achieve your aspirations.