In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel a character in the book, Eliezer, begins to lose his faith. This occurs after many horrific incidents in the novel such as babies being burned alive or a child killing his father for a mere scrap of bread. Towards the beginning of his living hell Eliezer clings to his faith, like many others, hoping that his experiences were a test from God. His faith deteriorated more and more throughout his nightmare. His thoughts go from desperately clawing to keep his faith to blaming God for abandoning his children to denial of faith completely.
Nathan Beck Mr. Arcuri College Prep Senior English 21 September 2015 Grendel Philosophy Philosophy is a theoretical thought held by a person or group of people, to make decisions that they believe to be right. John Gardner uses many of these philosophies, in his novel Grendel. Throughout the book the main character, Grendel, shifts from philosophical idea to philosophical idea as he attempts to understand the world around him.
In this essay we will review the historical side and the persuasive writing side of Elie Wiesel’s speech “The Perils of Indifference”. We will give some background information on why they gave this speech. Tell you what appeals he used and if he used all three of the persuasive writing appeals ( emotional, logical, ethical ). Why the speech is very widely admired and cherished and still highly regarded. Also how the author used the appeals.
Within a world that has endured so much tragedy, and so many crippling hardships, people are often forced to consider how exactly they are going to handle the adversity that they are faced with. Do they run at it head on and recklessly attempt to deal with it? Do they lose faith with their religion and their God? Or do they simply pray, and hope that amongst all of their misery that something good will come of it and a light will be found in the end? Those are the hard decisions that people are forced to make on the daily, and maybe the questions that we have, or the lack of faith we endure is what makes us stronger at the end of the day.
Existentialism is a philosophical theory that was developed by Nietzsche and many other philosophers in the 19th century. In the first four chapters of the novel Grendel by John Gardner, the protagonist and the narrator, Grendel tells a story of his adolescence. Like any teenager, Grendel encounters multitude of events which molds him into what he is; an existentialist. Through the use of diction, personification, and simile in the narration of Grendel, John Gardner illustrates the cause of Grendel’s existential outlook.
The Holocaust, a time of misery, suffering, and self-doubt for all who were victimized. It forced several people to abandon their faith and beliefs – leading them to In Elie Wiesel’s Night, Elie experiences a loss of faith due to the traumatic experiences of the Holocaust which leads him to believe that God has abandoned him, showing that when people experience a horrific event, even the most devout can lose their faith in God. Elie is a very religious child, and is shown to be very devout as his main goal in life is to become one with God. Elie is part of a very religious household, and has obviously been raised with certain standards.
Karen Armstrong and Robert Thurman wrote their essays, “Homo religiosus” and “Wisdom”, respectively, describing two words, “being” and “void”. These words, although have opposite meanings, describe the same spiritual experience that come about through different means. By definition, “being” is a kind of fullness or completeness of existence and “void” is emptiness or a negation of existence. Armstrong believes that “being” is the equivalent of the Buddhist’s “Nirvana” while Thurman believes that “void” is the equivalent of the Buddhist’s “Nirvana”. Although these terms seem to be opposite in the literal sense of defining them, they lead to the same outcome: not being at the center of one’s own universe.
Words are the garb of people’s thoughts. Words can be very powerful and influential both in the society and among people, because whether or not someone choose the right words could change someone's life forever. Brilliant examples of power of words took shape in world’s history. A holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, who survived the concentration camp, wrote a book ‘Night’, as well as he introduced his acceptance speech to different people all around the world. He sought to restore the amicable and tolerate society where there is no place for such a word as ‘hate’.
According to Sire (2009) nihilism is the denial of any philosophy or worldview. It is the negation of everything. Reflecting on this discussion and the thought provoking question of how a nihilist would answer the seven basic worldview questions assisted in my selection of three questions. The nihilist would view these question as non-existence.
A Lust For Power For as long as man ate the forbidden fruit, individuals are poisoned with the need to be superior and the want to exercise their power on those of lesser stature. In Inferno, Dante Alighieri explores different ways in which individuals abuse their power, leading to the conclusion that although some individuals may have the power to use their platform for good or peace, they choose to act selfishly in order to be above others. Dante achieves in conveying this concept through his description of those in the church and in politics. Although one may think that the topic of the abuse of power is only stressed in the eighth circle of Hell, it is actually represented throughout the entire epic poem.
Although Sartre agrees with Dostoevsky who says, “If God does not exist, then everything would be possible,” he tries to pull back from nihilism by saying that each human must act “for all humanity” and before the audience of all of humanity. Sartre claims that all humans have no nature or essence, he disqualifies himself from calling them “all humans.” First Sartre affirms that human beings lack a nature, but if we lack a nature, then the term “human being” has no reference at all. The descriptive term that applies to something with inherent qualities and do what is required of the qualities can be identified as “human being”.
In Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, there are scenes that trick the audience into thinking that it will give them the movie’s view on the meaning of life. The film, however, never actually gives the audience a real, serious answer to the questions that relate to life’s meaning; by doing this, the people who created the film probably wanted the audience to make up their own views and answers to life’s meanings and purposes (a loosely defined meaning of existentialism). In existentialism, existentialists reject proposed systems that have a definitive answer to the questions involving the meaning and purpose of life; they freely choose standards of values on the human condition, which asks questions, like “Why am I here,” “What does it mean to be human,” or “How should I live my life?” According to Mitchell’s Roots of Wisdom, the idea of existentialism “emphasizes the uniqueness and freedom of the human person as an individual (what makes each life a unique, personal experience) as opposed to the essence of a human being (what makes all of us alive).”
It roots to our idea of the philosophy of life, in terms of reflection on our existence as humans and not only the contingence but the limitations thereof. Death encompasses the individual’s fundamental existence on the one hand and reshapes our concepts of its nature complementing one another in order to enlighten the idea of it. The manifestation of an individual to herself/himself is made probable by nothingness. The notion of spirituality and death in existentialism.
Sartre says “Nothingness can be nihilated only on the foundation of being; if nothingness can be given, it is neither
The argument Jean-Paul Sartre, a French philosopher, presents on existentialism helps to prove the foundation which is “existence precedes essence”. Existentialism is normally understood as an ideology that involves evaluating existence itself and the way humans find themselves existing currently in the world. For the phrase existence precedes essence, existence’s etymology is exsistere or to stand out while the term Essence means “being” or “to be” therefore the fundamental of existentialism, literally means to stand out comes before being. This can be taken into many different ideas such as individuals having to take responsibility for their own actions and that in Sartre’s case the individual is the sole judge of his or her own actions. According to him, “men is condemned to be free,” therefore “the destiny of man is placed within himself.”
