The Diary of Anne Frank shows many stereotypes, such as Jews, adults, parents, and teenagers. Stereotypes are a standardized mental picture or belief held in common by members of a group. The Diary of Anne Frank identifies that the stereotype of a teenafer is moody, argumentative, and self-absorbed. The three teenagers, Anne, Margot, and Peter commonly show these traits in the play, The Diary of Anne Frank.…
Without happiness, sadness cannot exist. In today’s society, happiness and sadness coexist and form an unbreakable bond. In Ray Bradbury's book, Fahrenheit 451, that bond does not exist. In this book, the main character, Guy Montag, desperately wants to be happy; but society tells him to stay neutral. Montag understands that he never genuinely happily married his wife when he meets a clever girl named Clarisse McClellan. Montag breaks free of society’s expectations with the help of Clarisse, by learning about the past, and through his own, more literal, battles to finally achieve true happiness.…
The Enlightenment period was a time of new ideas and philosophies. One of the philosophies to emerge from this period was Philosophical optimism. The theory revolved around causes and effects and the belief that we live in the “best of all possible worlds” and that everything happens for the best (Voltaire). Voltaire was an enlightenment writer/philosopher and he was largely influenced by both early enlightenment and the current enlightenment philosophers and writers of the era. However, he vehemently disagreed with many of the ideas, most specifically the theory of philosophic optimism. Throughout Voltaire’s novel, Candide, the optimism of the main character is tested repeatedly to exemplify his belief that philosophical optimism is illogical considering the events that occur in this world. Voltaire satirizes philosophical optimism throughout the entire novel, primarily by using using irony and exaggeration.…
Work 4: “Why the Americans show themselves so restive in the midst of their well-being” By: Alexis de Tocqueville…
“Are you happy?” This quote was deeply focused on in the book Fahrenheit 451. When Guy Montag was asked this by Clarisse, his world changed. Isn’t it ironic how, “Are you happy?”, can make a person so unhappy? Here’s another question to ponder about. What is happiness? Is there a true definition of a happy person? Based on Fahrenheit 451, happiness can be represented by 3 things: materialistic objects, current situations, and happiness over hardship.…
Religion can persuade many people to do many unintelligent things such as dehumanizing people who fail to meet the dictates of the religion, and has the power of persuading people into doing nothing about the situation because it be known as unacceptable to "God". Ignorance, Culture of fear and discrimination are three themes that demonstrate that ignorant adherence to man-made tenets, attributed to religion can dehumanize those who fail to meet those so-called dictates of the religion.…
The Pursuit of Happyness stars Will Smith as Chris Gardner and shows his struggle as a single father facing homelessness yet striving to create a better life for his family. While it could be described as a Black man’s struggle, the movie manages to leave that as a secondary factor rather than the main source of conflict. Both the generosity and the discrimination he experiences at the hands of whites around him are portrayed, as well as, the reality that poverty has no color boundaries. People of all ethnicities are shown in impoverished scenes: in homeless shelters and food kitchens. His cultural interaction includes Asian Americans as well and depicts the cultural misunderstandings and language barriers experienced between them.…
The discussion centered on who Candide, the main character, is. We concluded that Candide represents naivety. Developing Candide’s innocence and sheltering it, Voltaire creates the beginning setting called Westphalia. Voltaire uses the notion similar to the Emerald City used in the original Wizard of Oz - take off the glasses and see the world is not only green, but contains various different colors. Voltaire…
In the essay, “Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness”, Eckhart Tolle discusses the individual’s attempts to establish and define their identity. According to Eckhart Tolle, “The self is a story that develops in the head, very much like a fictitious creation. Yet it forms the basis of most people’s sense of who they are, and that sense, of course, is reinforced by the surrounding world” (6). There are several different aspects that Tolle says can influence a person’s view of their identity: society, our family and our past, technology, and religion and philosophy. Eckhart Tolle believes that these aspects cause a person a to view themselves the way they do and that, in turn, prevents humans from achieving the greater intelligence found within everyone, which could save the world.…
Optimism was created to basically view life as a glass halfway full instead of halfway empty. It is a philosophy which states that we as a people live in the best of all possible worlds and that God created this world involving the laws of physics. It is quite interesting that this is a major theme in the story, considering the fact that Voltaire is known for famously mocking this idea. Voltaire uses satire to mock and criticize this idea using one of the main character’s Pangloss. Pangloss can be seen as a pre-enlightenment philosopher who preaches the importance of optimism by stating “For, everything having been made for a purpose, everything is necessarily for the best purpose” (Voltaire. 360) and “ the fall of man and the curse entered necessarily into the scheme of the best of all possible worlds.” (361). As Pangloss speaks about the good optimism brings, now naive Candide feels as if he is able to overcome all the cruelties that he encounters such as rapes, robberies, diseases, an earthquake, and many betrayals while still feeling like he lives in the greatest world. Looking at all the terrible things Candide has to endure in a way suffering and optimism go hand in hand. Voltaire has made the novel offer a multitude of pain, misery, and loss with an intention to emphasize the flaws of optimism. With more complex and pessimistic minded characters coming across, even Pangloss…
The definition of happiness has constantly been debated on by philosophers and scholars for over nine centuries, but will this debate be forced by majorities to stop soon? In the story, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, in which citizens like Guy Montag live in a corrupted society where happiness and delectation is dictated by the government. Captain Beatty, the captain of the firefighters that peregrinate the community, and find books to burn. Beatty has very different, stereotypical, and tyrannical views on happiness that are unfortunately epidemic in society today. The Captain’s wrongful views of happiness that are dejectedly chronicalized in society today by the never ending pressure of entering a prestigious university, government rule, and everyone’s different views of happiness which are what spew Beatty from fully understanding happiness. Therefore happiness hundreds and hundreds of definitions is reflected by the hundreds and hundreds of different perceptions of happiness.…
The young man in the story is constantly looking for reassurance. He asks his girlfriend quite frequently for compliments, and encouraging words to help boost his diminutive ego. The author shows the struggle taking place in the characters thoughts by his need for such words, making it obvious on how the character feels about himself. The author shows how the character is at a war with himself through not only the characters thoughts, but also with his words. However, the character is gifted enough to have such a loyal companion who sticks by him even when times are…
At first attempt the boy, when asked “to be(come) useful” fails in all the efforts he bequeaths walking back and forth “returning with an empty dish” time and time again ruminating the failure of the human person because of miscarriage of what is expected of him to know whilst constantly degraded by his own mother in the process. Life, therefore in this context pushes man down at the moment he begins to search for value in the world: “You’re good-for-nothing” and “stupid” the mother wales. On another light, while in the search for reason, we are attacked by temptation – which bites at even the most “delicious breakfast(s)”. “I found the conjurer looking straight at me. A stupefying joy overwhelmed me; I was completely taken out of myself”, even under the shadow of punishment, man seeks for momentary refuge among what he enjoys, and in the end blames the subject of his distraction to…
All the long misery of his baffled past, of his youth of failure, hardship and vain effort, rose up in his soul in bitterness and seemed to take shape before him in the woman who at every turn had barred his way. She had taken everything else from him; and now she meant to take the one thing that made up for all the others. (Wharton 107)…
The moral of the story is represented very clearly: you can not build your happiness on the misfortune of others, regardless of other people's…