In the film Whose Life Is It Anyway? we are introduced to the character of Ken. Ken's life is changed after a life-altering car accident leaves him a quadriplegic. Ken, being unable to live the life he is accustomed asks to be released from the hospital and refuses medical treatment. Throughout this paper I will delve into the roles that work, play, and worship played in Ken's life both pre-accident and post-accident. The roles of work, play, and worship will also tie in with Ken's personal freedom, on how active Ken appears to be, and on the responsibilities Ken takes on day to day. While Ken is an interesting figure who seems to have his priorities in line both before and after his accident, there is very little effort to adapt to his new life which, in turn, comes into conflict with the way Ken sees leisure in his life. Freedom played an extremely important role in Ken's life. Joblin states that he sees leisure as free experience, believing that "leisure initially (is) an attitude or state of mind that people can experience not only in an immediate moment or activity but also in all of time and all of life's activities," (Joblin 9). Ken can also be seen as a "free experience" believer. Prior to his accident, Ken is free to work, as seen by his teaching of classes at the school. He is also free to play, being able to run and laugh with his significant other, Patty, and is able to worship through his sculptures.
Through the discussion of terms such as supercrip and home, alongside discussion of labels that he chooses to accept or leave behind, Clare is able to analyze the way that he looks as his identities. Clare’s autobiography uses words and language as a tool to show that a person’s identities aren’t simply labels, but are ways to understand oneself, unite, and even find a place to
?If you remain imprisoned in self denial then days, weeks, months, and years, will continue to be wasted.? In the play, 7 stories, Morris Panych exhibits this denial through each character differently. Man, is the only character who understands how meaningless life really is. All of the characters have lives devoid of real meaning or purpose, although they each have developed an absurd point or notion or focus to validate their own existence. In this play, the characters of Charlotte and Rodney, are avoiding the meaninglessness of their lives by having affairs, drinking, and pretending to kill each other to enhance excitement into their life.
Bernard William’s The Makropulos Case focuses on the topic of immortality, and the issues that would arise from being immortal. William’s uses the concept of the Makropulos play to refute the idea of immortality, because the protagonist kills themselves out of unbearable boredom from exhausting their categorical desires. Whereas John Martin Fischer rejects William’s view of immortality, due to the limiting constraints of his argument. Fischer asserts the immortal life would be livable, because it reflects a mortal life. In effect, I will further Fischer’s argument, in proposing the concept of categorical desires evolving, and then the significance of external factors occurring in society. Therefore, this essay will explain the significant components
The scenes, which cover thirty years of the characters’ lives from eight to thirty-eight, each revolve around an injury that Doug has acquired through his accident prone life. The play progresses in five year intervals, jumping backwards and forwards, in a nonlinear progression. As they travel and run into each other’s lives, the two characters face new injuries. As the play progresses every five years, a new injury is added to one or both characters. Their lives intersect through these injuries, leading them to compare their wounds, both physical (Doug) and emotional (Kayleen), and drawing them closer together. With each new scene, old injuries and problems may have gotten better or resolved, but some became permanent. Yet, through these experiences, they are bonded together through bloodstains, cuts, and bandages.
Introduction:The road to maturity and adulthood can be a long and difficult road for teens, especially when it comes to decision making and changing your view on the world. The popular short story, “On the Sidewalk Bleeding”, written by world-renowned author, Evan Hunter in 1957, displays this perfectly. Hunter uses the protagonist, Andy, to illustrate his development from adolescence into adulthood as he shifts from a state of ignorance to a state of knowledge, from a mindset of idealism to realism and from a selfish personality to a selflessness personality. Hunter expresses the major theme of coming of age through this protagonist character who is seen shifting from a state of adolescence to a more matured state of adulthood throughout the story.
To live with uncertainty is not an easy task, always questioning and never gaining any form of understanding. Constantly running in a continuous loop of unsettling confusion, hoping to one-day catch up to the realization. The fact of the matter is life is quite erratic in the sense that one can never truly say they know what will come of tomorrow or the next day. But who does one blame for this confusion? Taken from Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love collection, Bath, depicts an ironic scene of an eight-year-old birthday boy, getting hit by a car and falls into a coma leaving his family in a desperate plea for normalcy. Carver’s neutralizing writing style tranquilizes the intensity of this tragedy,
The pointedness of the play is created through a distinct plot path. The observer is lead through the story, seeing first how greatly Amanda Wingfield influences her children. Secondly, the play-goer notes how Tom Wingfield desperately struggles and writhes emotionally in his role of provider- he wants more than just to be at home, taking care of his all-too-reminiscent mother and emotionally stunted sister. Tom wants to get out from under his mother’s wing; his distinct ambitions prevent him from being comfortable with his station in life. Lastly, Laura struggles inside herself; doing battle against her shyness, Laura begins to unfurl a bit with Jim, but collapses once again after Jim announces his engagement and leaves her, again. Each character struggles and thrashes against their places in life, but none of them achieve true freedom. This plot attests to the fact that true change and freedom can only come through the saving power of God Almighty and Jesus Christ, and by letting go of the past.
Susan Wolf, born in 1952, is widely considered one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th and 21st century. One of Wolf’s most renowned works is The meanings of Lives, which drew a lot of attention in the philosophical world for a number of questions that arose from it. Arguably her most widely debated and questioned assertion in The meanings of Lives is “If you care about yourself you’re living as if you’re the center of the universe, which is false.” This however I don’t not believe to be true. Every human being, no matter how successful or unsuccessful, has the right to care for them sleeves and not believe they are the center of the universe while doing so.
In conclusion, “Sonny’s Blues” is the story of Sonny told through his brother’s perspective. It is shown that the narrator tries to block out the past and lead a good “clean” life. However, this shortly changes when Sonny is arrested for the use and possession of heroin. When the narrator starts talking to his brother again, after years of no communication, he disapproves of his brother’s decisions. However, after the death of his daughter, he slowly starts to transform into a dynamic character. Through the narrator’s change from a static to a dynamic character, readers were able to experience a remarkable growth in the narrator.
This paper is a critique of a production of The Last Night of Ballyhoo, a play written by Alfred Uhry, which was performed and produced by the Ball State University Theatre. Gilbert L. Bloom directed the production and was very successful with producing a truly entertaining, comedic play with an important message about the personal dilemmas that we as individuals with different beliefs and values must encounter in our daily lives.
Humans in the past and present have always strived to blend into their societies and uphold the appearance of normalcy. However, in Act I of his play Equus, Peter Shaffer explores normalcy both the upsides and downsides of normalcy. While Doctor Dysart examines the disturbed child of Alan Strang, Dysart reflects on the detrimental side effects of being normal and his own duties as a doctor. In Dysart’s monologue (Shaffer 62), Shaffer utilizes contrasting diction and antithesis between the good and bad sides of normalcy to emphasize Dysart’s conflict between maintaining mediocrity and maintaining individuality in his patients.
Growing up, I was given the freedom to choose who I wanted to be, to decide what I wanted to do. I grew up with many different opportunities and chances to try out new things. A simple life I led as a child, sheltered and loved by all, but I was oblivious to reality, lost in my own “perfect” world. Yet as I grew up and began to surpass the age of imaginary worlds, the idea of “perfection” had begun to fade and reality began to settle in. Like a splash of cold water, I went from a childish mindset to an adult’s. Child hood play was a thing of the past and responsibility became the norm.
Stand By Me, Rob Reiner’s 1986 film, captures the beauty and fragility of human life and friendship through experiences with death. The film operates on two different levels; it serves as a coming of age story of Gordie Lachance, Vern Tessio, Teddy Duchamp, and Chris Chambers, but also as a reflection of the meanings of life and death by the Writer. The Writer serves as the narrator, looking back on the events leading up to his first encounter with a dead body. The film makes wonderful use of the five formal axes of film design to convey its powerful message: life is best enjoyed with a friend, because death is all around.
The film exhibits and analyzes the story of NFL player Michael Oher’s life through high school as he endures various adversities and difficulties in his life. It tells Oher’s story of being the son of a cocaine addictive mother and absentee father, who is homeless due the circumstances of his family. Despite not having either of his parents in his life he did have Big Tony, who was his friend’s dad. Big Tony would allow Michael to sleep on his sofa some days when he did not have anywhere else to live and he also was the main cause to Michael being admitted to the Wingate Academy Christian School. At this school Michael meets S.J., who is the son on the Tuohy’s. S.J. begins a friendship with Michael at a time when no one else would and on a rainy day after S.J.’s thanksgiving play, the Tuohys see Michael walking. They ask him ...
Truman has a good marriage, a great job, and lives in a picturesque town. However, the ethics portrayed in the reality of “The Truman Show” are immoral because they are based on a society that has found norm in living in a world where the “perfect” life means happiness, spontaneous circumstances do not exists, and that there is no need to venture out into the unknown. While the real world might not always be perfect, and life might not always go as one plans, it is the unexpected and imperfect things in life that makes the world feel so