The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Don Quixote - 1636 Words

The reader have probably wondered how different the life would be, if one day one could have followed his desires? If spontaneously, leaving his routine life behind one could have finally discovered a long awaited feeling of delight?! Life is not much different. People are living in a society: a family, a circle of friends and acquaintances - where certain customs or beliefs set the boundaries of our behaviour. People are expected to do what is thought to be right or appropriate. The actions are not necessarily supposed to be bad by nature to be thought as wrong, but it can be something different or unusual for people around. This idea goes throughout the whole story of â€Å"Don Quixote†, where a middle-aged man named Alonso Quijano,†¦show more content†¦Tolstoy, in other hand, immerses a reader into a short life story of the protagonist, starting from his family origins, to his youth and his adult life. The misleading nature of Ivan Ilyich’s existence is demo nstrated from the very beginning of novella which accurately describes the illusory reality the main character is living in. The reader might be curious why the normal and ordinary life could be horrible. It is not much possible that Tolstoy was against ordinariness itself, but rather to show the reader that the main character Ivan Ilyich never reaches anything meaningful and exciting in his life. Ivan becomes kind of a prisoner of social milieu, he does everything that is expected of him: he goes to law school just like his father did, he finds a job, gets promoted, earns enough money to enjoy his life, fulfills his duty. He becomes kind of a spiritual zombie. Tolstoy describes main character’s absence of â€Å"real† life in a subtle but authentic way, showing that Ivan is not much different from the people in his circle. As an inventor of his own illusion, or the â€Å"lie†, in which main character lives, Ivan is not showing much curiosity, moreover he is not in search of any kind of truth. He simply exists in his undisturbed, tranquil environment, until something unpredictable happens to him. During one of his ordinary actions, while hanging the new curtains in his new house, he slips, falls down, banging his side against the window frame. This

Essay on Tim Winton and Zohra Saed values - 1167 Words

Similar issues, explored in different texts, reflect the values inherent in each composer’s context. Compare and contrast how Winton and Saed explore similar values. Make detailed reference to your texts. An authors values and ideas originate and stem from their personal, historical and cultural context. By comparing the two authors Tim Winton (from an Australian context) and Zohra Saed (Afghani/New York context) we are able to see how similar values are shaped through identity/contex. Winton uses various literary techniques to embed personalised values into his texts such as place, family, and identity in â€Å"Big World†, 2005 and â€Å"The Turning†, 2005. Zohra Saed has implanted her values of culture, family, memory and identity into â€Å"What the†¦show more content†¦Winton also addresses the impact of regionalism and cultural up bringing. Biggie has been raised in a dysfunctional family household, and is not educated beyond the realms of traditional manual labour in â€Å"the meatworks or the cannery†. Through first person narrative and vivid sensual imagery, Winton expresses the influence of Australian ‘regionalised’ culture, and the negative impacts it has on youth, limiting their opportunities in life. The importance and value of extended family and family heritage/ memories in Saed’s work is represented by descriptive language, personification and motifs. Saed tells the story of the healing nature of sharing traumatic memories after hers and her extended family’s traumatic experiences. In the lines, â€Å"Grandmothers tell the story of healing; how wounds heal only after they have memorized the moment of hurt...† and â€Å"Mother’s veil hangs on the wall like a talisman. Her lapis doves and tinselled mountains are misplaced and glorified behind plates of glass†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (What the Scar Revealed) the personification of wounds enables the reader to compare the situation to their own lives, bring it ‘alive’ and giving it a deeper meaning. ‘Wounds’ is a recurring motif throughout the poem to reinforce and emphasise the principal message of the healing nature of sharing traumatic memories. These extracts show the value Saed holds

Accordion Crimes Essay Example For Students

Accordion Crimes Essay Accordion Crimes is a difficult book to place in a single time period because the story takes place over about 100 years, originating in a small Sicilian village, but the main setting and focus is the United States. The various settings introduced in the book influenced the characters in various ways, but one instance of influence was great enough to cause his death. The accordion maker was literally ruled over by his setting. The setting around him was one of oppression that worked against him because he was Sicilian. The accordion maker saw the approaching men with searing clarity, the loose thread on a coat, mud-spattered trouser legs, a logging chain in a big hand, the red shine of the engorged faces, a man with one blue eye and one yellow eye. Even then he hoped to be saved. He was innocent! Pinse held his revolver loosely in his hand, had lost his staff in the rush up the stairs, so crowded it had been, looked at the Sicilians knotted in the corner, their wicked eyes glittering, some of them pleading and praying the cowards! He thought of the rat king, fired. Others fired. A barrage of bullets and shot of every caliber and weight tore the Sicilians. The accordion maker reared twice and fell back. A character that has a great deal of intrigue is the accordion maker. The most interesting fact of this character is that he has no name, only an occupation. This is symbolic of all the millions of faceless immigrants that came to America in search of their dreams, but very few found them waiting, much less at all. He had his theory, his idea of the fine instrument; with the proof of this one, he planned to make his fortune in La Merica. The accordion maker himself was a large man, but more sensitive that most like him. He despised working through problems and simply let his wife handle them when she could. Once in La Merica, the accordion maker had to deal with squalid living conditions, but when one man wanted an accordion like the one he had made for himself, the accordion maker readily agreed. Despite that squalid living conditions, the accordion maker sti ll had high hopes, He was fortunate to have the room many slept in the streets and docks and every morning lifeless forms were carried away, throats slit and pockets turned inside out, even young children. All around him were men who had to piss in their nettles. The accordion maker is a sort of introduction to the rest of the characters in the story in that they all live lower-middle to lower class lifestyles, with barely any income, and one finds that there is no epiphany or catharsis for the character, sometimes simply because you have the feeling he is ignorant of the truth, other times he dies before any resolution can be reached. One must remember that Accordion Crimes is a group of short stories that are bound together by an old accordion, with no character overlapping into two stories. The plot of Accordion Crimes is a difficult one to describe as it is rather a collection of short stories and there is only one thing constant in every story, which is the accordion. Therefo re, I have decided to write not of the overlying story, but of the journey of the accordion. The story begins with a Sicilian accordion maker and his dream of making a fortune in La Merica. All he had is a green, two-row button accordion and some money. He takes his son, Silvano, with him so that there might be enough money for them to eat decently. The accordion maker ends up in the worst of conditions along with having his pockets as good as empty, almost makes some money by selling an accordion, but is killed with 10 other innocent Italians by a lynch mob, and the accordion is stolen by a black dockworker who goes down the Mississippi and sells the accordion to a Mr. Smith who owns a lumber shop in North Dakota for some food money. The accordion is bought from the now late Mr. Smith by Hans

Essay on Never Giving Up on a Dream Job Essay Example For Students

Essay on Never Giving Up on a Dream Job Essay Ever since I was a little girl my dream job was to be a fashion designer. Over the years, I lost that passion like a candle burning out. Soon after high school was over, I had no idea what I wanted to be or what to even pursue in life. I still decide to go to college rather than staying home doing nothing, might as well knock out a few general education classes. When a few family members came over we started to talk about a few careers choices that would fit some of my skill sets that I have obtain over the years of growing up and working with my parents. That is when it hit me, wasting two years and half later my new dream job was gazing at me straight in the eyes. My life had a new meaning all over again, with this new dream job that I was going to pursue as a Pharmacy Technician. Out of all the careers I talked over with my family members Pharmacy Technician was the one that stood out the most for its skill sets, the environment in the work field, payment and the continuing of education. I began doing a bit of research on Pharmacy Technician. Based on the information provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the important qualities to be in this field would be, â€Å"Customer-service skills, detail oriented, listening skills, math skills and organization skills.† Part of these skill sets fit so perfectly with my personality such as detail oriented, listening and organization skills. The other two skill sets, math and customer service will work best to my abilities. Since Pharmacy Technicians use a lot of math in this work field. I’m not afraid to take higher math if they need me to, the higher the better. Customer service will be the trickiest one of them all, since I’m the type of person to be alone most of the time. I never got. . that no longer have any use get dropped out. I have been encouraged to keep going to school even after I graduate Heald College in order to higher the degree in my degree as a Pharmacy Technician. Nobody should ever live without giving their dream job a chance even if it wasn’t your first choice. There is always one out there that is the perfect fit for each one of us; we just have to keep on looking and never giving up. I never gave up looking and here I’m at Heald College, my dream as a Pharmacy Technician has been growing more than ever before.Works CitedBecome a PTCB CPhT. Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014.Pharmacy Technician: Salary. Pharmacy Technician Salary Information. Ed. Stephanie Steinberg. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2014.Summary. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2014.