In Susan Wolf’s article “The Meaning of Lives” she argues a meaningful life is engaged in positive projects to some degree of success. She also believes that the pursuits with meaning have an objective value that connects with the rest humanity. Susan Wolf’s did not write about her thoughts on the concept of plugging oneself into an experience machine like described by Christopher Grau in “Bad Dreams, Evil Demons, and the Experience Machine”, but her argument for what gives meaning to a life makes it clear that she would argue someone should choose to not plug in. The reason a person would choose to plug into an experience machine is because they could live out all of their fantasies and avoid all the discomfort experienced in real life. But
In the early 1990’s, Chris McCandless left his whole life behind to carry out a transcendental lifestyle. He hitchhiked up the entire West Coast, all the way to his final destination in Fairbanks, Alaska. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that has had a heavy impact on many people, including Chris McCandless, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. These men shared the belief in the importance of individualism, simplicity, and exploration, which molded McCandless’s experience into a dramatic and fatal journey. Arguably the most major principle of transcendentalism, individualism is what drove McCandless to get away from the life he knew.
Contrast the bachelors and the maids in Melville 's "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids." “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus Maids,” shows an interesting contrast between two different social classes: that of the extravagant bachelors and the hardworking maids. Melville uses symbolism and metaphors to expresses the economic reality between both environments and the inequality between genders. The maids work very hard to make the paradise for the bachelors, and the bachelors only worked hard in making a living hell for the working women. The bachelors only hired single women to work long hours for little pay even if their health was declining from the hazardous conditions.
The Path to Identity People often say they know who they are when they really don’t. Some people just don’t care, but the ones that do, the ones that are willing to go the extra mile to find out, those are the people that will be successful in life. To find out who you really are, you need to be persistent because life will throw everything it has at you to keep you from being successful but you need to be willing to go the extra mile to make it. In the book Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Alexie Sherman Arnold perseveres through numerous hardships on his path to identity.
The novels Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko and Flight by Sherman Alexie follow the lives of two mixed race Native Americans whose white backgrounds have a unique impact on how they identify themselves. Tayo, from Ceremony, had an Indian mother and white father, something that his Auntie, who he is forced to live with when his mother dies, and Emo, a fellow WWII veteran who is full-blood Laguna, poke fun at him and criticize him for. This criticism pushes Tayo away from both his white identity, because it is such a point of contention for people in his life, as well as his Laguna identity, because members of his family and community aren’t accepting of him. Zits, from Flight, is similar to Tayo in that he is both Native American and white and struggles to feel at home with either identity. Zits never experiences a sense of permanence because he is moved around from foster home to foster home because of his erratic behavior.
Is there a right way to meet your true love? Some people meet their true love of their life in weird ways, it doesn't matter how you find them as long as you think their the one for you. The novel and movie both show multiple similarities and differences. Although the endings are the same, the plot and characteristics are not.
Self-Discovery Journey; to some, it may be just be the vacation they took last summer. To me, however; a journey is more about mentality and coming of age. As one gets older, they learn to think for themselves, which is valuable for succeeding in life. Being able to have the right mindset encourages me to not give up when issues with school or dance arise. Each setback that I face is just another journey to travel through.
During the struggle of having a meaningful life, an individual must be able to define what is meaningful and how to obtain it. In the story excerpt “The Signature of All Things” by Elizabeth Gilbert, the protagonist, Alma, explores the part of her childhood where she breaks away from routine and makes the decision to make the most of the moment. To contrast, the poem “Atrophy” by Julia Copus explores the outcome of people who do not make the most of their lives and are stuck thinking of their wasted potential. An individual must routinely reconcile their past and present to obtain the power to make autonomous choices in order to create a meaningful life before the opportunity to grasp this power reaches its expiration date.
Leading a human life is a full-time occupation, to which everyone devotes decades of intense concern.” (Nagel, 719) Nagel also argues that we all reflect about whether life is worth it or not. To avoid this this absurdity, we try to give meaning to our lives through what we do “seeking fulfillment in service to society, the state, the revolution, the progress of history, the advance of science, or religion and the glory of God.” (Nagel, 720) But this leads to the conflict that if this thing that gives meaning to our life, it must be significant.
People throughout their lives are constantly discovering who they are and who they want to grow into. The same statement accurately describes Maya Johnson, a strong woman who wrote about her life in her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. As a little girl, her mother’s ex-boyfriend raped and she had to rediscover herself whilst navigating through the grim veil of trauma - a process that burdened her for many years. Throughout her life, she encountered many different people, some good, others bad, but they each helped her eventually discover her identity. ‘Identity’ is how people define themselves as a human being, and, therefore, nobody else can dictate it.
Although the poem and the world’s reality is full of pain and suffering, we all have a purpose in life weather through a dream or through the
It persuades the reader to take a viewpoint on the pride they have within their life. After reading the piece you are left feeling motivated and inspired to find pride in your own life. Overall, this piece was very bold and enjoyable to read with its persuasion and
Identity is social construct that many have mistaken for something an individual is born with. There are many aspects of identity that one can inherit like genes that can drive a certain type of character and certain aspects of identity a person can adopt and build for themselves. However the most part of one’s identity is consistent of what the person wants and adopts for themselves and what the society/the people around him/her choose to give him/her. Identity is a said to not remain unchanged once established.
Introduction The concept of identity has been a notion of significant interest not just to sociologists and psychologists, but also to individuals found in a social context of perpetually trying to define themselves. Often times, identities are given to individuals based on their social status within a certain community, after the assessment of predominant characteristics that said individual has. However, within the context of an ethnicity, the concept identity is most probably applied to all members of the ethnical group, and not just one individual. When there is one identity designated for the entire group, often times the factor of “individuality” loses its significance, especially when referring to the relationship between the ethnic
As I mature, my perspective of life and what it is to be a unique individual is ever changing. I believe that an individual’s environmental and surrounding contributes to their identity greatly. The culture in which one grows up in is a element that shapes one’s beliefs. When I was younger, my friends aided to shape my identity. My peers had a great influence on how I defined myself in early childhood because I deeply valued and cared about what others thought of me.
