Maggies Ozymandias Essay -- Analysis, Percy Shelley

In developing an insightful central theme, Percy Shelley avails of two potent literary tools, imagery and irony, to jolt readers with a striking epiphany. Imagery for one, navigates the audience to what is truly emphasized in the meter literary art as opposed to physical, plastic art. It also serves to characterize a key figure in the poemOzymandiaswhom is ascribed as having cold, arrogant, and pretentious qualities. The speaker juxtaposes the words inscribed on the pedestal with the image of dilapidated monuments and the bare limitless sands which surround it. When these two vivid descriptions contrast, the visual imagery, through this juxtaposition, actually buttresses situational irony. In fact, situational irony dominates and governs the readers very impression of the former pharaoh at the conclusion of the poem worn down and disintegrated, Ozymandias monument portrays an image of wreckage and unimportance whereas, the poem itself portrays an image, which withstanding time, h as successfully attempted what Ozymandias himself desired everlasting fame and a lasting legacy. By using imagery and irony, Shelley conveys the idea that poetical verses, linguistic expressions, and literary legacies discoverlast those of monumental and architectural form.Interestingly enough, Shelley employs the phrase antique land (1) to start out the diction in this instance highlights the setting, and our perspective of time, for antiquity denotes the belonging to the past and not being modern. The style in which the poem is rendered is reminiscent of a family tales recital since we are told the story through an obscure traveller and the reader is naturally drawn into the mysticism and mystery. However, in this way, Shelley distances the audie... ...initely. So the wreckage which remained exactly survived the sands of time. So in this way, the reader perceives that a legacy through a mere monument is a legacy which fades.So what is left of Ozymandias? The poem itselfand fu rther, the poem actually slights at the very heart of the former kings desired legacy. We see that, in fact, how easily the Pharaoh, whom monuments had at a time been built for and who once ruled a great empire, is easily thwarted in the readers mind by linguistic expressions, by delicate subtle phrases, and by literary persuasion. Shelleys work perpetuates through the years to remind many of Ozymandias. On the other hand, we also see that the endurance of physical art, monumental designs, and sculptures as a medium of legacy is inferior to that of the mighty, powerful literary weapons Shelley wields from his arsenal of ink and parchment.

Essay on Toni Morrisons Beloved - Freedom and Independence

Freedom and Independence in Beloved Toni Morrisons important novel Beloved is a forceful picture of the black Ameri put forward experience. By exploring the impact slavery had on the connection, Beloved evolves around issues of race, gender, and the supernatural. By revealing the story of slavery and its components, Morrison declares the importance of independence as best envisioned by Sixo. The combination of an psyche amongst a community sets forth the central theme of moving from slavery to freedom and reconnecting with family and community. Sixo is one of the nine slaves living on Sweet Home, a Kentucky plantation. A young man in his twenties, Morrison introduces him as the wild man (11) without explanation. Later, Paul D describes Sixo as Indigo with a flame-red expectoration (21). He is closer to the African experience then the other slaves. Morrison portrays Sixo as the odd man out in an attempt at underlining the idea of an individual in a community. Community at Sweet Home is the only reassuring object possessed by the slaves. The relationship among fellow slaves creates a gibe community, which is enough to satisfy everyone. Morrison utilizes Sixo as rebellious and clever, one who refuses to conform to his predicament. Physically a slave, Sixo rejects his position and remains a spirited man who takes night walks and dances among the trees to keep his bloodlines open. Although black sexuality is dominated by slavery, he chooses his own woman and controls his own destiny. Sixo plotted down to the minute a thirty-mile trip to see a woman. (21) Despite the bounds of slavery, Sixo asserts his independence and searched for a better life and family of his own. In an attempt to free himself from the restrai... ...Sixos characterization defines how slaves managed to remain people despite slavery. Morrison places Sixo in the novel Beloved, to express the manifestation of community as well as individualism. Sixo uses the strengths of the Sweet Home commu nity to independently search for an identity of his own. Without the consistent community of Sweet Home, Sixo could not of ventured upon journey after journey in search of personal freedom. The steady community enabled Sixo to express a rebellious independence, that otherwise would take up been lost. Sixo maintained a sense of self, lost by many others. Beloved explains that the independent spirit and the belief in personal self worth can not be maintained without the presence of an impermeable community, and the individual desire for freedom. Works CitedMorrison, Toni. Beloved. New York, Penguin Books USA Inc, 1988.

Masters and Gautama: A Synthesis of Buddhist Philosophy :: Buddhism Buddhist Philosophy Papers

Masters and Gautama A Synthesis of Buddhist PhilosophyRegardless of who we are or where we come from, we are unlucky abounding to be subject to a world consisting of modifiers, pre-established social elements, systems of opinion and belief, which, though we may be unaware of them while they work their magic on us, ultimately serve to wrap us in a prison of thought. At the same time, there exist modifiers which may serve to free us. Depending on the correct conditions, the time, we atomic number 50 be fortunate enough to see with the shroud pulled over our head at birth, to the true explanation of why were here, the integrity of our existence. Its for this reason that Ive chosen to bring together two articles which, in their own way, relate the story of just such an occurrence- where a somebody comes to the realization that the world is absolutely different than what their influences in life have led them to think of it as. The first is an excerpt from a book, which acquaints us with the history of the Buddha, his photo and realization of the vagaries of life, and his subsequent pursuit of enlightenment thereafter. The second is the story of a man on death row in San Quentin prison who, very comparatively, through the study of meditation and spiritualism, raises his perception of life to a new level and begins to see through his own veil of thought, recognizing the horrible falsehood of his past.These two texts all the way illustrate the potential every person has to change themselves, their lives, by simply turning around and evaluating the way they see and interpret the world. Together they demonstrate how anyone can rise over the problems of their past, reject what theyve grown accustomed to thinking of as normal, in an effort to better themselves.From the book The Worlds Religions, the excerpt Buddhism by Huston Smith gives us an informative, yet summarized look, into the life of a man named Siddhartha Gautama. Born of a king into a life of luxury, in what is now Nepal around 563 B.C., Gautama was prophesized to be the world redeemer(par. 9), the one who would see the truth of existence and eventually lead people from Brahmanism and the vagaries of life. This story has been told by many authors countless times, there is no real unique quality in Hustons telling, but this version of the narrative, with its clarity and straightforwardness, makes it a perfect selection to use for the telling of the Buddhas past.