Norton Essays

  • A Day at the Norton Simon Museum

    1220 Words  | 3 Pages

    A Day at the Norton Simon Museum It was the day of April 13, 2000. I woke up at exactly 12 o’clock because my boyfriend was to pick me up at 1 like we planned the night before. The day looked quite nice, but I was in a fowl mood. I got into a car accident the night before and had a huge argument with my parents about the car. I finally dragged myself into the shower and got ready in half an hour. Then I went downstairs, sat on my couch, and repeatedly told myself the day would hopefully turn

  • Cascando, by S. Beckett, and Burnt Norton, by T. S. Eliot

    3447 Words  | 7 Pages

    "Cascando," by S. Beckett (Poems 41-42), and "Burnt Norton," by T. S. Eliot (Quartets 7-13) express the poets' desire for love and union: Beckett, desiring a woman, expresses his apprehension of their love, and Eliot, wanting divine revelation, expresses his apprehension of God's love in creating the universe. Knowing the poets' personal circumstances, the artists' creative suffering can be discovered in these complex poems, as they struggle to discern the uncertain future, and to arrange to procure

  • The Significance of Mr. Norton and Fate in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

    2152 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Significance of Mr. Norton and Fate in Invisible Man In his novel Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison has developed the invisible man by using the actions of other characters. Through his prophecy, Mr. Norton has secured the destiny of the narrator, himself, and all persons in the novel. Mr. Norton forebodes that the narrator will determine his fate, but Mr. Norton doesn't realize that the fate determined is universal: that every being is invisible and without this knowledge, people are blinded

  • Rich, Adrienne. Midnight Salvage: Poems 1995-1998. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999.

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rich, Adrienne. Midnight Salvage: Poems 1995-1998. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999. A Physical Conversation Adrienne Rich writes a long conversation, in A Long Conversation, with multiple and fluid dialogues. Interpretations of these dialogues are rich, thick and endless. Her dialogues include a conversation between past and present times, between past and present theories, between great minds and regular people, between the subject and creation of art and its place in time, and the conversation

  • Fight Club

    519 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Fight Club, directed by David Fincher, constructs an underground world of men fighting with one and other to find the meaning to their lives. Ed Norton and Brad Pitt are the main characters who start the fight club. They make a set of rules in which everyone must follow. The fight club exists because individuals get weighted down by possessions causing them to miss the deep meaning of life. Most of the people in the fight club hold service jobs or lower level management jobs that are meaningless

  • Past Contrasted with Present in Faulkner's A Rose for Emily

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    representative of Yankee attitudes toward the Griersons and thus toward the entire South), and in what is called "the next generation with its more modern ideas" all represented the present time period (Norton Anthology, 2044). Miss Emily was referred to as a "fallen monument" in the story (Norton Anthology, 2044). She was a "monument" of Southern gentility, an ideal of past values but fallen because she had shown herself susceptible to death (and decay). The description of her house "lifting its

  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

    547 Words  | 2 Pages

    the Trojan survivors ventured to Europe where each began a new kingdom. "Ticius to Tuscany, and towers raises, Langobard in Lombardy lays out homes, and far over the French Sea, Felix Brutus on many broad hills and high Britain he sets, most fair." (Norton p. 202) In the same lines in the original text, "And fer ouer the French flod Felix Brutus On mony bonkkes ful brode Bretayn he settez wyth wynne" Britain is described as a land that is settled "wyth wynne" or, with joy. The second stanza describes

  • The Royal Truth

    870 Words  | 2 Pages

    London. This work is a combination of comedy and satire. The poem also has two plots: "the beheading contest, in which two parties agree to an exchange of blows with a sword or ax, and the temptation, an attempted seduction of the hero by a lady" (Norton, 200). This essay will discuss one description of the setting of the poem, the characters' behavior, and how this courtly society has deteriorated from the ideal. The poem begins with the burning of the city, Troy, and the flight of Aeneas. The

  • Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the Epic Poem of Gilgamesh

    1974 Words  | 4 Pages

    god and one third man.” (19, Norton; “Gilgamesh”). He also is said to have a perfect body, which is a trait of godliness in many ancient cultures. “When the gods created Gilgamesh they gave him a perfect body.” (18, Norton; “Gilgamesh). Here again it is obvious that the myth says Gilgamesh is from the same stuff as the gods. He is known for taking whatever he desires “His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warriors daughter or the wife’s noble.” (19, Norton; “Gilgamesh”). He has the arrogance

  • The Wife of Bath

    952 Words  | 2 Pages

    defended mariage by expres word? I praye you, telleth me. Or Where comanded he virginitee?” [Norton,118] She asks where in the bible is virginity commanded? If God condemned virginity, there would be no children, and no population: “For hadde God comanded maidenhede, Thanne hadde he dampned wedding with the deede; And certes, if there were no seed ysowe, Virginitee, thanne wherof sholde it growe?” [Norton,118] She then says how she is not jealous of virgin women, and how she always has her man

  • Anglo Saxon Literature

    2029 Words  | 5 Pages

    “fully-fixed is his fate” (Norton 100). This shows that wyrd is unchangeable. Then, he goes on to say “Words of a weary heart may not withstand fate” (Norton 100). Here it seems that a person must be strong, brave, and show no emotion in order to be able to cope with wyrd. Later on, wyrd is proclaimed as “mighty” because not even earls are able to escape their deaths. Lastly, we see the power of wyrd: “The world beneath the skies is changed by the work of the fates” (Norton 102). This quote reflects

  • Beowulf As Christian Allegory

    522 Words  | 2 Pages

    dragon represent evil. The first monster our hero, Beowulf, faces is Grendel. Grendel is said to be a descendant of Cain. “Unhappy creature (Grendel), he lived for a time in the home of the monsters’ race, after God had condemned them as kin of Cain” (Norton, 28). Cain is the son of Eve, the woman who bore sin into the world. A connection, however vague, can be made between the maternal relations of Eve and Cain and Grendel and his mother. Grendel’s mother can be considered to personify man’s fall from

  • The Squire in The Caterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

    586 Words  | 2 Pages

    Squire illustrates him as if he was a Roman statue, or taken from a chivalric romance. Chaucer describes his " lokkes crulle as they were leyd in presse"(Norton, 83), average height, great strength, "Of twenty yeer of age he was" (Norton, 83), bravery and cleverness. The author illustrates Squire's youth "as fressh as is the month of may." (Norton, 83). The dress of the squire is colorful, embroidered with flowers, short with large sleeves. He is very talented, too. Chaucer dedicates some lines in

  • The Canterbury Tales

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    in Southwark (outside of London). Chaucer decides to join them, taking some time to describe each pilgrim. According to the Norton Anthology, "the composition of none of the tales can be accurately dated; most of them were written during the last fourteen years of Chaucer's life, although a few were probably written earlier and inserted into The Canterbury Tales" (Norton, 80). One of the great characteristics of this story is the unique diversity of the characters illustrated by the author: "Chaucer's

  • Invisible Man Essay: Ethics and Invisible Man

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    trustee, Mr. Norton, on a tour of the vicinity. Invisible Man inadvertently drives Norton to the old slave quarters, past the home of Jim Trueblood, a local pariah who has committed incest with his young daughter; both his wife and daughter are pregnant by him. At Norton's insistence, the student stops. Norton feels compelled to hear Trueblood's spellbinding version of his crime. Embellished several times over, it is so effective that Norton has a mild stroke. Before leaving, however, Norton gives Trueblood

  • Themes from the Celebration at Heorot

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    regards to this theme. The first story, about Sigemund, is a happy one, and in it a hero defeats the dragon: "The hot dragon melted." (Norton, 38) The second story is about a treacherous king, Heremod, who betrays his people, "crime took possession of Heremod" (Norton, 38), and becomes a burden to his tribe. The last story is about Hildeburh, sister of King Hnaef (Norton, 41), who was married to Finn, king of the Jutes. Hnaef paid a friendly visit to his sister's home. Finn and Hnaef had an argument

  • The Medieval Church, The Book of Margery Kempe and Everyman

    2024 Words  | 5 Pages

    century had already taken full root in England by the middle of the 15th century. War, disease, and oppressive government led to a general anger toward the Catholic Church, believed to be “among the greatest of the oppressive landowners” (Norton 10). John Wycliffe, whose sermons preached against abuses in the church and attempted to shift the focus of religious faith away from church rituals and onto scriptural interpretation, was persecuted. Renaissance Humanism’s notion of individual

  • Sir Gawain Preparing Himself and His Neck

    689 Words  | 2 Pages

    Green Knight survived what a mortal man cannot. Nevertheless, Sir Gawain acts like a true honorable knight and decides to face his destiny: 'Why should I tarry?' And smiled with tranquil eye; 'In destinies sad or merry, True men can but try.' (Norton 561 - 565) Click here to listen to this monologue Realizing that he is just human and is predestined for a test he isn’t fully aware of, the only thing he can do is to do his best and not worry about the outcome. Sir Gawain decides to fully

  • Waste Land Essay: Love and Sex

    955 Words  | 2 Pages

    Love and Sex in The Waste Land Attitudes toward love and sex are one of the major themes of the poem. The introduction to "The Waste Land" in The Norton Anthology of English Literature states that "This is a poem about spiritual dryness," and much of this spiritual dryness relates to the nature of the modern sexual experience (although there are also other aspects of spiritual dryness the introduction also notes that major themes include a lack of a "regenerating belief" that gives "significance

  • Trinitarian Symbolism In Tennyson's The Passing of Arthur

    1480 Words  | 3 Pages

    far into the middle mere:/ Watch what thou seest, and lightly bring me word" (Norton, 1298, 204-6). When he takes the sword to the water's edge the first time, he cannot bring himself to throw it in because of the Excalibur's blinding beauty. Tennyson describes the Excalibur as "brightening," "sparkled," "twinkled with diamond sparks, / Myriads of topaz-lights..." Bedivere "gazed so long/ That both eyes were dazzled" (Norton, 1298, 222-7). He returns to Arthur, who sends him back to complete his mission