Analysis Of Started From The Bottom

Regarded as a hip-hop classic from rap artist Drake, “Started From the Bottom” recounts young Drake’s shift from rock bottom to his rise to fame. Though not all share the same global success as Drizzy, his story conveys a familiar‒ and almost universal‒ journey of one’s lowest lows to highest highs, something ingrained in the human lifetime. Drake utilizes repetition throughout the song, echoing his chant, “Started from the bottom, now we're here.” He follows this with a comparison between childhood struggles and his now luxurious reality, explaining, “Living at my mama house we'd argue every month…I was tryna get it on my own/Workin' all night, traffic on the way home…Now I'm on the road, half a million for a show.”
This tale of improvement

Shortly after contemplating suicide by the river, Siddhartha has a flash of “all things divine.” After this surreal revelation, he falls into a deep slumber, and realizes that “never had a sleep so refreshed him, so renewed him, so rejuvenated him! Could it be that he had really died, perished, and been reborn in a new shape?...But this Siddhartha was nonetheless transformed, was renewed, was oddly well rested, oddly awake, joyful, and filled with curiosity” (Hesse 76). Hesse focuses on this idea of “dying” and “rebirth” as key components of Siddhartha’s epiphany. While “death” often marks the permanent end of one’s journey, Hesse uses it to convey the start of Siddhartha’s new life; while the old Siddhartha “dies,” a new Self‒ one of greater wisdom and understanding‒ emerges. Furthermore, just after reuniting with his childhood friend Govinda, Siddhartha admits that he had to experience failure, “[he] had to experience despair, [he] had to sink to the most foolish of all thoughts, the thought of suicide, to be able to experience grace, to hear Om again, to be able to sleep well and awaken well” (81). Here, Hesse beautifully utilizes contrast between Siddhartha’s actions and their consequences. While Siddhartha experiences “despair” and “the thought of suicide,” he is me with the ability “to experience grace, to hear Om again, to be able to sleep well and awaken well.” It is as

First, Rohr claims that the soul contains many secrets, one being that “the way down is the way up” (Rohr xviii). This use of antithesis portrays this “secret of the soul” as confusing, but also obvious. Rohr compares this pattern to seasons, dieting and fasting, and mythology through “stories like that of Persephone, who must descend into the underworld and marry Hades for spring to be reborn” (xviii). This pattern can be seen through Siddhartha’s journey, as his eventual growth (“way up”) stems from his failures (“way down”). Furthermore, Rohr argues that one’s rise can only come from their initial fall, and explains that “some kind of falling, what I soon call ‘necessary suffering,’ is programmed into the journey” (xx). “Suffering” is often seen as a pain that should be avoided at all costs. However, Rohr asserts that not only is suffering necessary to understand when you are living your best (from the experience of living your worst), but it is necessary to bring about the rise to your best. He furthers this assertion with the line, “Losing, failing, falling, sin, and the suffering that comes from those experiences‒ all of this is a necessary and even good part of the human journey” (xx). Finally, Rohr warns of the dangers of avoiding solving one’s problems, illustrating that “by denying their pain,