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Ways identity is reinforced in literature
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The Identity of Thomas Pynchon
The identity of Thomas Pynchon is as elusive as the sticky, complex webs of
meaning woven into his prose. As America's most "famous" hidden author,
Pynchon produces works which simultaneously deal with issues of
disappearance and meaning, of identity and nothingness in a fashion that
befuddles some and delights others. He speaks to the world from his
invisible pulpit, hiding behind a curtain of anonymity that safely
disguises his personality from the prying eyes of critics and fans alike.
Without a public author presence, readers are forced to derive the identity
of the author instead from the author's actual works. When searching for
the identity of Pynchon, and indeed the notion of identity itself, the
novels of Thomas Pynchon offer an interesting starting point.
Questions of identity and meaning are shrouded beneath a veil of conspiracy
in The Crying of Lot 49, Pynchon's second novel and his shortest.
Throughout the novel there are snatches of hidden agendas and mysterious
plans; it is a world run by Pierce Inverarity, a character who is dead when
the novel opens yet remains an active presence throughout the work. This
seems to fit Pynchon's situation rather nicely as the ghostly moderator of
a tired world, leading his main character Oedipa Maas on a quest for
meaning while blindly groping for clues about a conspiratorial mail system
known only as the Trystero. Oedipa's quest echos the quest of everyone; she
wishes for an identity that makes some sense within the framework of her
world. Thomas Pynchon, by erasing himself from the public sphere, is
questing for identity in his own right through his writings, letting Mrs.
Maas do the searching for him.
Little is known about Pynchon's life, and no one who knows him seems to be
willing to add to the miniscule pile of information currently available
about him. His most recent published photograph dates back to 1953.
Beginning at the beginning, he was born on May 8, 1937 in Glen Cove, New
York. He attended Cornell University and received a degree in English in
1959. He worked at Boeing Company in Seattle as a technical writer until
his first novel V. appeared in 1963 (Gray 70). From that point onward,
Pynchon vanished from the public eye. Information about any part of
Pynchon's life after V.
LTC George Armstrong Custer did not effectively apply the concept of mission command as a warfighting function during the Battle of Little Bighorn. While it is important to understand the context in which Custer made his decisions, those circumstances offer little in terms of excusing the fiasco that was Little Bighorn. Custer failed to follow orders, did not take pertinent intelligence into consideration, did not adequately plan or execute protection of his forces, and fought without essential fires equipment available to him. Custer did exercise good sustainment, but it was for naught, as the battle was brief.
Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4, 1969. He grew up in the infamous Marcy projects in Brooklyn with a sister and a brother. You would think that just growing up on the Marcy projects would be hard enough on a kid, but at the age of twelve, Shawn’s parents got a divorce. Shawn then attended the Brooklyn High school with two of today’s better known rappers, Biggie Smalls and Busta Rhymes.
Many people to this day still do not have a collective agreement on what is the Canadian identity? Depending whom you ask you may get a wide variety of answer spanning the spectrum of possibilities, more so now, than at any point of the history of our nation. This essay will investigate how Pierre Elliott Trudeau found himself as a Canadian, and will demonstrate how it is his surroundings in which he immersed himself that shaped who he became. It is only later in his life that he truly discovered himself as well as his identity. Through the use of John English's biography as our primary reference we will investigate the development in Trudeau's character as he becomes older and experiences turning points in his life.
In life, one goes through different experiences which makes and shapes us into the person who we become. Whether something as little as a "hello" by a crush or a death in a family, they contribute to the difference, as they are all equal in importance. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the protagonist Hamlet struggles throughout his life as he is in search of his true identity. The Webster's dictionary, under the second definition, defines identity as "The set of behavioral or personal characteristics by which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group." As life only moves forward for Hamlet, he struggles to find his place in life, nonetheless to revenge the murder of his father.
Identity; the meaning of which can represent a number, a name, or an origin. It can be concrete and documented on a social security card or birth certificate. Quite the opposite is the quality of fluidity it offers. Simply from how one presents themselves, their identity can be interpreted and assumed from a passerby’s glance. Femininity characterized by long hair and makeup. A smile projecting happiness, while a scrunched brow displays distress. “Self-Portrait” by Robert Mapplethorpe sets out to illustrate how varying traits, even while on the same subject matter, can change how one perceives another’s gender. However, without the obvious attributes that are stereotypical for one gender, the harsh line dividing masculinity and femininity
Identity, in today’s society, is often taken for granted. We have the ability to be anything we wish to be and act in any way we wish to act, but in the novel 1984 by George Orwell, identity is not taken for granted because it does not exist at all. Winston Smith, the narrator, lives in a dystopian society based on the idea of totalitarian government rule. This government is known as Big Brother. In order for Big Brother to stay in power, a few things are necessary: identity cannot exist; everything and everyone must be uniform; the past must be controlled in order to regulate the present; and the people must constantly be practicing the ideas of Newspeak and Doublethink, a form of control the government holds over the people. By enforcing these simple laws and regulations, the government is able to keep a tight grip on its people, with few ever releasing themselves from its grasp. Winston Smith on the other hand, seeks to know the truth behind the government, he is constantly questioning everything and repressing all the ideas forced upon him. Winston “seeks truth and sanity, his only resources being the long denied and repressed processes of selfhood” (Feder 398). All identity is gone in this place called Oceania, and for the sake of Big Brother and its continuous control of the people, it will never exist again. In 1984, the absence of identity strips the people of all creativity and diversity, as well as takes away any chance the society has to advance as a people or in the area of technology.
The controversy over abortion has been going on for years. This movie portrays how the debate has changed over the decades in a befitting manner. It is about three different women who come upon having to make the choice of terminating their pregnancies. The setting takes place in the same house during the course of 40 years where a different women deals with the option of aborting her fetus. This movie shows the various reasons woman want to get abortions, each being a valid reason in a liberal point of view.
With the ongoing debate and the advancement of technology in determining the viability of a fetus, abortion, the ending of a pregnancy by removing a fertilized egg, has become increasingly controversial. The morality of abortion has caused many to separate into opposite sides of the spectrum, pro-life and pro-choice. The arguments over abortion has stirred a continuous debate between a pro-choice stance such as that presented by the analogical reasoning of Thomson or Glover’s examination of social context and a pro-life position argued by a moral view of personhood by Noonan. The ethical arguments presented by the conflicting views in the abortion debate has caused others to taken into consideration a sociological account visible in Luker’s examinations of world views in order to discover underlying motivations.
The Abortion Debate According to Dean Stretton, “The most plausible pro-life argument claims that abortion is seriously wrong because it deprives the foetus of something valuable. This paper examines two recent versions of this argument. Don Marquis’s version takes the valuable thing to be a ‘future like ours’, a future containing valuable experiences and activities. Jim Stone’s version takes the valuable thing to be a future containing conscious goods which it is the foetus’s biological nature to make itself have.
What is an abortion? An abortion is an operation to prevent women from carrying on with the pregnancy and having a baby. In other words, it means terminating a pregnancy. Also this method is called a birth control. An abortion is a legal procedure that is done around the world. Other countries, they might have different beliefs about an abortion. There is an illegal way of having an abortion. A certified doctor has to do the operation. The illegal way is when an unprofessional person without certificate or license giving the abortion. This method can be fetal and very dangerous. "Abortion is the death of a person, a living human being distinct from any other individual on this planet"(book 2).
What if I told you that right now someone was deciding, without even knowing you, whether you would live or die? What if I told you that this choice wouldn’t be based on what you could or couldn’t do, it wouldn’t be based on what you have done in the past or what you will do in the future? And what if I told you that there was nothing that you could do to change their mind? That choice is abortion, and that someone is a child’s mother. Millions of innocent children die every year simply because they can’t speak for themselves, the unborn are humans and we can’t continue to take their rights away.
Abortion is a method of contraception that can be taken after a child is conceived and developing inside a woman’s body. However, this method of contraception has caused much controversy over the years, and many people feel that the procedure should be terminated for good. Despite the opinions of critics, women should have the right to get an abortion because women have human rights that enable them to have freedom of choice. In addition, they may have extenuating circumstances that lead them to consider an abortion; deciding whether or not to have a child is a delicate and private matter; and finally if the government outlaws abortion, it could lead women to take drastic measures that could ultimately result in severe internal harm or death.
What is personal identity? This question has been asked and debated by philosophers for centuries. The problem of personal identity is determining what conditions and qualities are necessary and sufficient for a person to exist as the same being at one time as another. Some think personal identity is physical, taking a materialistic perspective believing that bodily continuity or physicality is what makes a person a person with the view that even mental things are caused by some kind of physical occurrence. Others take a more idealist approach with the belief that mental continuity is the sole factor in establishing personal identity holding that physical things are just reflections of the mind. One more perspective on personal identity and the one I will attempt to explain and defend in this paper is that personal identity requires both physical and psychological continuity; my argument is as follows:
For hundreds of years, the United States of America has been a country defined by its promising opportunities and freedom. However, America has proven many times it is not the promised land that many residents of other countries have viewed it to be. Issues like euthanasia, death penalty, freedom of speech, and abortion have given rise to questions of the freedom in America. Abortion has proven to be one of the more tenacious issues that has brought controversy to America. In the Encyclopedia Britannica, abortion is defined as “the expulsion of a fetus from the uterus before it has reached the stage of viability” (Encyclopedia Brittanica). In simple terms, having an abortion is a pregnant woman choosing to not deliver her child. The Guttmacher Institute provides that there are 6.6 million pregnancies in the United States each year, and 51% are unintended (Guttmacher Institute). Further facts from the Guttmacher Institute states that around 358,000 women die per year because of pregnancy and the United States accounts for 60% of those maternal deaths (Guttmacher Institute). There is an estimated over 1 million abortions in the United States per year (Worldometers Real Time World Statistics). Death is one of the reasons of why women decide to have an abortion. More reasons in modern society include fear of parents, unplanned pregnancies, and financial instability. The controversy surrounding abortion is revolved around the two opposing sides which includes pro-life, the argument that abortion should be illegal, and pro-choice, in which people argue women should have the choice of whether or not to have an abortion. People in favor of pro-life support their decision with many arguments. They state that a fetus is considered a h...
"Back alley" abortions would increase if it were made illegal, leading to increased risk of young women dying or becoming sterile.