ipl-logo

Analysis Of Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris The Tyranny Of Things

555 Words3 Pages

We are currently living in a society that tends to be rather materialistic. In response to such reality, Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris writes the passage of “The Tyranny of Things”, trying to persuade people to enjoy the freedom from “things, things. things”. Morris’ argument is made successful by her use of parallelism, accurate diction, and ample sexual evidence. Morris’ argument is first supported by her use of string parallelism. In paragraph 2, Morris states how the “collections” of things we cake “fill our rooms, our walls, our tables, our desks.” This series of location of where our collections might locate highlight the pervasive nature of the things we collect. This parallelism also appeals to the readers, which might now realize an issue that has been long overlooked: maybe their obsession with collecting things is excessive, or even, problematic. The readers might now start questioning the usefulness of their “mass” collections. Furthermore, when describing the little house by the sea that Morris went to when she was tired, she says how there was nothing in the house “to demand care, to …show more content…

I paragraph three, Morris lists our many instances that outline people’s excessive desire for things. These examples that author uses can immediately connect with the audience; the audience can identify the things that they have done themselves. This evokes them to think that maybe there is a problem with their passion for collecting things. At this point, Morris further convinces the audience with another example/ Morris points out how her friend manages to keep “a spotless house and a soul serene” just by giving away things that she does not “imperatively need”. This particular instance shows the readers that by being free of the control of physical objects, they can easily lead a much simpler life. This appears to the readers’ desire to lead a simpler life, which thus makes the passage more

Show More
Related
776 Words | 4 Pages

In Rachel Sherman’s “A Very Expensive Ordinary Life: Conflicted Consumption,” the argument centres around the “legitimization” of wealth by the New York’s upper class in order to be seen as not only rich, but morally worthy. The possession of great wealth alongside their less fortunate peers could be uncomfortable also for those that hold the city’s riches. Hence, New York’s affluent has “legitimized” their wealth and consumption, or on a more macro level, the inequality between the social classes in the city in order to feel more comfortable in their spending, and to manage the impression of the wealthy in the eyes of the greater public in the much morally contested behaviour of lavish spending in an unequal society. This is supported throughout the reading by the justification of excessive spending and consumption by the claim that the rich live an “ordinary” life. The need that they feel towards justifying their spending comes to show that their amount of spending is excessive in the eyes of the ordinary person, in which they also acknowledge themselves as well.

Read More
308 Words | 2 Pages

They also wanted them to know there was more to life than living, eating, working, and raising kids. Both female speakers experienced the death of their own children. Since the death of their children the speakers strive for a “better life”.

Read More
659 Words | 3 Pages

He reinforces his theory that the American dream is changing by the statistics on housing. “More and more people now rent their homes instead of buying; a recent study showed a decrease in home ownership from 69% in 2005 to about 66.5% in 2010 and an increase in renter household of 1.1 million”

Read More
789 Words | 4 Pages

This passage deals with the author reflecting on the background of his childhood which included his surroundings and beliefs. It also talks about how as a child Crews drew a fascination with the Sears catalogue, and how he saw all the perfect people in this book. Through his memory as a child,

Read More
762 Words | 4 Pages

Contrary to Montag, Mildred is someone who depends on technology and doesn’t really care about important things. Mildred lives her life inside the parlor all day, she doesn’t go outside and only socializes with her “family”. Montag however, loves to go on walks and doesn’t spend a lot of time on screens. Mildred focuses too much on technology and nothing in the real world like taxes and money, “‘It’s only two thousand dollars’ ‘That’s one-third of my yearly pay’”(18) It is evident that Mildred doesn’t take things into consideration unless it is to benefit herself.

Read More
974 Words | 4 Pages

Ultimately, thanks to his “scavenging” journey, Eighner has learned to live on the disposal of others by filtering out what is useful to keep and what is useless to remove. Most importantly, he becomes aware that the balances between wants and needs and between material possessions and freedom of burdens can lead to happiness, or what Eighner calls—“a healthy state of

Read More
859 Words | 4 Pages

This can be best demonstrated through the characters of Mrs Phelps and Mrs Bowles, a pair of Mildred’s friends who “jabber about people and their own children and themselves…and their husbands” in a callous manner. Mrs Phelps even mentions that she is so “independent” that if her third husband was to be killed in war it was agreed that she “…[would] not cry, but get married again and not think of [him]”. Likewise, Mrs Bowles speaks of her “ruinous” children as burdens, stating they were only born for “the world [to] reproduce”, and until then they are “[heaved] into the parlour”. ” These monsters”, as they are described are used to emphasise the lack of unity that can result from abuse of technology. This disconnect is further highlighted when it is noted that “the three women fidgeted and looked nervously at the empty mud-coloured walls” as soon as Montag unplugged the parlour, indicating that although the trio are friends, they do not know how to communicate with one another.

Read More
145 Words | 1 Pages

We have all been guilty of wanting more, when we already have plenty. Whether it’s another piece of cake, a fourth pair of converse, or a few extra phone covers, we don’t consciously think about everything we’ve accumulated in the short span of our lives. Instead, we think ‘why not?’ and add it into our collection of stuff. But does buying more, owning more, and having more, necessarily guarantee happiness?

Read More
511 Words | 3 Pages

In Anna Quindlen’s essay, Stuff is Not Salvation, she argues that one cannot determine how “better off” they are, by the amount of belongings they possess. Quindlen states that Americans have, “an addiction to consumption, so out of control that it qualifies as a sickness.” However, she is not just referring to an addiction to buying meaningless items, but the idea that people are purchasing items when they have no money. Quindlen validates her argument with the tragedy of a walmart employee that as trampled to death on Black Friday, and the concept that many people have lost their sense of appreciation and gratefulness. She also argues that there are indeed things we need, however, a large majority of people’s perception of want and need are obscured.

Read More
1809 Words | 8 Pages

Though they are material things and objects, they are viewed as people while “books aren’t real people.” Mildred said that if she looks around, there isn’t anybody. When she turns on the T.V. she says “my family is people. They tell me things;I laugh, they laugh! And the colors.”

Read More
1439 Words | 6 Pages

His story warns that the pursuit of wealth—even as a means to an end—causes loss, despite the seeming gain. In order to achieve fulfillment, we must abandon that pursuit in favour of the direct pursuit of the things that would do

Read More
716 Words | 3 Pages

Before the anaphora she explains what “shopping” is, then uses anaphora to provide the different reasons one may shop. These reasons show that shopping is not about obtaining necessities, the modern day has transformed shopping to provide many other benefits. It demonstrates that some people are becoming reliant on shopping to attain benefits such as decision making, be apart of society, or to cheer themselves up. These other benefits display why people enjoy shopping and are becoming more

Read More
1242 Words | 5 Pages

(196), the questions at the end of the phrase allow the readers some mystery as to the contents of the bag and the amount of generosity in the shop owner. At the culmination of the essay, Ascher asks “could it be that the homeless, like those ancients, are reminding us of our common humanity?” (197). Ascher is implying

Read More
1323 Words | 6 Pages

Mary Wollstonecraft’s, Maria or The Wrongs of Woman, is an analyzation and critique about a woman’s place in society. Specifically, that socially, politically, and economically woman are at a disadvantage. Furthermore, society perpetuates this imbalance through certain expectations about motherhood, marriage, and double standards. This power imbalance has always been present in society and through the analyzation of Maria and themes such as: motherhood, domination, and traditionalist thought it is possible to contextualize the era that Mary Wollstonecraft lived in to gain a better understanding of what women went through in her time so that we have a reference to compare to how women are treated today.

Read More
1467 Words | 6 Pages

Freud, Kant and Nostalgia Sigmund Freud never directly tackled the concept of collecting in his psychology but just before he was forced to leave Vienna for London, the photographer ‘Edmund Engelmann’ photographed his 2,000 objects that Freud had kept over the previous 40 years after his father had passed away. These photographs provided a record that served as a replicate to the desk full of specimens that had always dominated Freud’s room in England. He proposed a more pragmatic account for his notion towards collecting while he did reveal occasional hints for his passion towards objects. “The psychoanalyst, like the archeologist, must uncover layer after layer of the patient's psyche, before coming to the deepest most valuable treasures.”

Read More

More about Analysis Of Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris The Tyranny Of Things

Related Topics

Open Document