Existentialism In A Country Doctor English Literature Essay

Existentialism In A Country Doctor English Literature Essay In A Country Doctor, several principles of existentialism are demonstrated via changes that takes place in doctor, the main character. Being an anti-existential character, the doctor has no control upon the situations that he is in. Even when he is given the opportunity to choose, he selects to fulfill the expectation his community has upon him then doing what he truly feels needs to be accomplished. However, a gradual transition takes place as he is faced with a number of absurd situations. Anxiety dominates him as things become unmanageable. Subsequently, notion of selfish human nature disgusts him which causes him to feel alienated from the entire community that he belongs to. Thus, plot and character development plays a major role in illustrating the existentialist point of view upon life as revealed in the story. Absurdity of events that occur to the main character causes him to feel helpless and insignificant. As mentioned previously, the doctor is an anti-existential character in the beginning of the story. Even when in position where he can decide upon what to do, he habitually does what the society expects of him. For instance, he abandons Rose in the hands of the groom whose sexual intent for her is obvious in order to save a patient. This demonstrates his tendency to primarily accomplish his responsibilities as a doctor no matter in what horrid problems he may find himself at the time. However, he grows tired of adhering to such obligation as series of strange events occur. A groom who is found in supposedly empty sty provides him with two horses in extremely good condition. And because the groom enables him to accomplish his duty as a doctor, the doctor loses his ability to prevent the groom from approaching Rose by making him accompany him on his journey. Despite his concern for Rose, the doctor has no choice but to leave her with the groom. This frustrates the main character to the extent where he cannot properly examine the patient. Further absurdities ensue as choir sings a song of his insignificance as a human being and people lay him in bed with the patient whose illness he cannot cure. And how is it that he happens to have a patient in such horrid weather right after his horse died? Endless continuation of the absurd events over which he has no control causes him to be upset. In the end, he finally makes a choice by running away- a shift toward existentialism. As shown, strange events that consist the plot reveals absurdity and the importance of having control of ones life. One of the characteristics of the main character that hints of existentialism is anxiety. The first indications of such disposition are the short sentences that consist the beginning of the story. This denotes his frustration at the difficult situation that he is in. Also, he feels powerless and dejected as revealed in the sentence but it was hopeless, I knew it, and stood there forlornly. Of course, who would lend a horse to such a journey? Even when he arrives at the patients house, his negative feelings do not disappear. He behaves passively as if he does not want to be there. For example, he permits the patient to take my fur coat from me, and he yields and drinks from the rum he has been given. Furthermore, he constantly worries about Rose and notices little details such as horses putting their heads in and out through the window. Due to such distractions clouding his mind, he is unable to check his patient properly. He first decides that the patient is fine as shown in the stat ement what I already knew, the boy was quite sound. As a matter of fact, the invalid is well beyond aids. And this is when he commences to question himself. Why is he doing this? What is the point of him trying so hard to have control over matters that keep on slipping through his fingers? Who is he doing this for? He realizes that he does not want to dwell in such situation and ends up running away. As indicated, the uncertainty, helplessness, and anxiety that is brought upon the main character by the absurd situation he faces illustrate existentialism. Development of sense of alienation in the main character further reveals existentialism. When the main character is in desperate need for the horses, no one helps him but the groom. However, this assistance is not offered to the doctor out of goodness of the grooms heart; the grooms true purpose lies in sexual approach to Rose. The main character is disgusted by the selfishness of human nature. Unfortunately, matters do not improve when he faces the patient and the community. The doctor thinks that despite the sacrifice he makes by choosing between Rose and the patient, people are feeling no gratitude for him. Due to such reason he comments that the whole district made my life a torment. He feels even more isolated when his thought reaches to the notion that he means nothing to the people but tools for saving their lives. This is when the doctor realizes that he does not have to be what other people expect him to be. As a result, he ceases adhering to his responsibilities and escapes . In this way, alienation manifests existentialism by assisting the main character in discovering perverse human nature and meaninglessness of life. In conclusion, absurdity, anxiety, and alienation accentuate upon the existentialist view of meaningless, desolate life in A Country Doctor. This is well demonstrated through the process of transformation of the main character from an anti-existential character to an existential character. Series of strange uncontrollable events that constitute the plot of the story triggers the main character to feel insignificant. Subsequently, two emotions that are strongly developed in the main character throughout the story denote the pointlessness of life. Anxiety caused by the continued absurd events induce the main character to pose questions upon whether it is worthwhile living as a being that other people desire him to be. Moreover, alienation that he feels from people who do not value him as a human being acts as a key factor that changes him into an existential character. Thus, A Country Doctor has a plot and development of the main character that emphasizes upon existentialism.

The Use of Symbols and Symbolism in Homers Odyssey :: Odyssey essays

The Use of Symbolism in Homer's Odyssey There are three signs in the Odyssey which are quite significant to the epic and are symbolic of different things. The first sign is the scar, the second sign is the bow and the third sign is the bed. "Note the importance of signs in the works of Homer, such as the sign of the burning ship in the Iliad. Then there is a long flashback telling how Odysseus got the scar and the significance of it. The scar is symbolically important, for it defines who he is -- and what he is. The scar-flashback starts with the naming of Odysseus by his grandfather Autolykos, who was the world's greatest thief. There Autolykus says, since he has caused pain to people all over the world (the Greek verb odyussai) the boy will be called Odysseus. Odysseus is one who both gives pain and also suffers it. Then we get the long description of the hunt in which Odysseus gets the scar. This is a type of male initiation ritual, where the men of the family or tribe take the young man on an animal hunt so he can prove himself in the company of men. Such rituals often involve scarring or ritual mutilation, and here Odysseus achieves notable deeds by killing the fierce boar (giving pain) but also receiving pain and a scar as token of his accomplishments"(chss.montclair.edu/classics/ODYNOTES19TO24.HTML). "IN the folk-tale told about the husband who comes home after years of absence, so changed by time and Fortune's hard usage that he must adduce proof after proof of his identity before his wife will admit his claim, the first Sign to be exhibited is the scar. This he reveals first to an aged dame, his old nurse, perhaps the only woman then alive in the world who was familiar with its appearance and history. For naturally the first token must not be of a kind so intimate and convincing as to make the wife's unreadiness to respond to it appear capricious and unreasonable. To this extent Homer has adopted the ancient tale"(questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5372374). "The book ends with another sign of the great sympathy that exists between the two, as Penelope admits she could gladly spend all night talking with Odysseus. The beggar has accomplished his mission of winning her confidence and now can see the means by which he might kill the suitors -- the bow" (chss.

Argumentative Essay In Favor of Euthanasia Essay

â€Å"Euthanasia is the administration of a lethal agent by another person to a patient for the purpose of relieving the patient’s intolerable and incurable suffering†. When we talk about euthanasia it is meant as a means to help someone to achieve a good death. The majority of those who seek euthanasia are terminally ill and do not have any other options. Either they stay alive and suffer from the severe pain, the symptoms, and the side effects like bedsores, or they decide to end their agony and choose the only other alternative. Unlike what some people think, euthanasia is used as a last resort and is only meant for people who face an imminent death. It is not meant â€Å"to kill†, but to help the dying die with dignity. Given that everyone has the right to die with dignity, as soon as the suffering comes to a decision to shorten his or her last days or weeks in order to end the unbearable pain, the society should accept it and do everything in their power to make it possible. Euthanasia is considered accepted among its supporters only if the following ethical guidelines are met. The person must be an adult in a rational state of mind, whose terminal suffering happens to be unbearable despite the best medical efforts. Secondly, the person must have clearly made a considered decision. As Timothy M. Quill illustrates in his essay â€Å"Death and Dignity† Diane, a woman diagnosed with terminal leukemia, her husband, and her son talked about her disease and the options including treatment extensively; however, â€Å"She remained very clear about her wish not to undergo chemotherapy and to live whatever time she had left outside the hospital†. An individual can express his or her preferences about healthcare at the end of life, for example by writing a living will, or even, in today’s more open and tolerant society, freely discuss the option of euthanasia with a health-care professional or a family member. Timothy M. Quill notes in the same essay Diane’s wish to die, once she â€Å"lost control of herself and her dignity†. She discussed this wish with her family and her doctor and asked them for their help and support. They were not happy about this, but they agreed to respect her choice, and that is what they did. Her doctor had regular meetings with her and talked to her about â€Å"the philosophy of comfort care†, but also about the â€Å"Hemlock Society†. As her condition worsened, she called up her closest friends including her doctor and said goodbye to them. Two days later she  asked her husband and her son to leave her alone for an hour after saying goodbye to them. After an hour, they found her dead â€Å"covered by her favorite shawl†. Euthanasia should not be carried out at the first knowledge of a life-threatening illness, and the individual must seek reasonable medical help to cure or at least slow down the progress of the terminal dise ase. Life is precious and is also worth a fight. Euthanasia is only an option when the fight is hopeless and the agony unbearable. However, once the decision is made, the treating physician must be informed and his or her response should be considered. It is always possible, that the diagnosis has been misheard or misunderstood; furthermore, the individual’s decision could have been triggered by major depression or any other curable mental illness. I think everyone would agree that each physician confronted with a patient seeking help to commit suicide should involve psychiatric consultation in order to rule out major depression before euthanasia should even be considered. After excluding any form of a treatable illness, it should be the physician’s choice whether or not to assist the patient to commit suicide. Under normal circumstances we do not have the right to kill or to let someone die, but there are some exceptions to this rule. A physician is permitted to withhold treatment and let the patient die, if it is so desired by the patient or a legal representative. However, if the same person under the same circumstances wishes to be helped directly in order to end his or her suffering, the physician is not allowed to assist this person put an end to his or her life. According to the American Medical Association â€Å"The physician who performs euthanasia assumes unique responsibility for the act of ending the patient’s life†. On the other hand the AMA also states â€Å"Physicians have an obligation to relieve pain and suffering and to promote the dignity and autonomy of dying patients in their care. This includes providing effective palliative treatment even though it may foreseeably hasten death.†The above statement shows us that AMA prohibits active euthanasia, â€Å"the administration of a lethal agent by another person to a patient for the purpose of relieving the patient’s intolerable and incurable suffering.†, yet allows passive euthanasia, â€Å"at least in some cases, to  withhold treatment and allow a patient to die†. James Rachels argues for why physicians should place passive euthanasia in the same category as active euthanasia. First, techniques of passive euthanasia extend the suffering of the patient, because it takes longer to passively allow the patient to die than it would if active measures were taken. Second, Rachels argues that passive euthanasia encourages the physician to make decisions on irrelevant grounds. For example, children born with Down’s syndrome often have correctable congenital defects, but sometimes the parents refuse the surgery, because they do not want a child with Down’s syndrome; therefore, they let the infant die. Rachels’ example might be a little extreme, but if we really want to be honest with ourselves, we should recognize that active euthanasia seems to be more humane in some cases than passive euthanasia. Advances in medical technology brought about a number of miracles to keep us healthy and to help us live longer; however, modern medicine has not entirely solved the problem of terminal illness and pain. It has even contributed to the complication of the decisions we might be confronted with towards the end of our life, or the life of a loved one. We are going to face life-and-death decisions, we should always choose life over death when life is truly possible, but tragic circumstances can make the afterlife a better life for some people. Euthanasia is an option not a destination. After all â€Å"No one wants to live to be one hundred, until you ask the man who is ninety-nine.† Reference pagehttp://www.starcourse.org/euthanasia.htmhttp://www.togopeacefully.com/http://www.missouri.edu/~philwb/Quill.HTMTimothy E. Quill, M.D. Death and DignityA Case of Individualized Decision MakingPrinted in The New England Journal of Medicine,March 7, 1991, Vol. 324, No. 10, pp 691-694. http://www.banned-books.com/truth-seeker/1994archive/121_5/ts215n.htmlDeath and Dignity: Making Choices and Taking Charge by Timothy E. Quill. W.W. Norton & Company, New York.  ©1993The American Medical Associationhttp://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/8458.htmlhttp://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/8457.htmlhttp://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/8459.htmlJames Rachels : Active and Passive

Definition and Examples of Speakers in Language Studies

Definition and Examples of Speakers in Language Studies In linguistics and communication studies, a speaker is one who speaks: the producer of an utterance.  In rhetoric, a speaker is an orator: one who delivers a speech or formal address to an audience. In literary studies, a speaker is a  narrator: one who tells a story.   Observations On Speakers The average adult English speaker has a vocabulary of around thirty thousand words and speaks ten to twelve sounds per second. Most of us in modern America, apart from the very solitary and the very garrulous, speak anywhere from 7,500 to 22,500 words a day. Grabbing these words, one every four hundred milliseconds on average, and arranging them in sequences that are edited and reviewed for grammar and appropriateness before theyre spoken requires a symphony of neurons working quickly and precisely. Pronouncing (or signing) words in any language requires that your brain coordinate with your body in order to turn the electricity of nerve impulses into waves of sound (or, if you sign, of gesture and motion). So far, scientists have been able to draw only simple models of how the control of language toggles back and forth between the brain and the body.(Michael Erard, Um, Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean. Random House, 2008)Since native speakers of a language can not have memorized each phrase or sentence of their language, given that the set of phrases and sentences is infinite, their linguistic knowledge cannot be characterized as a list of phrases or sentences. . . . If a list of phrases is insufficient, then how can we characterize the native speakers linguistic knowledge? We will say that a speakers linguistic knowledge can be characterized as a grammar consisting of a finite set of rules and principles that form the basis for the speakers ability to produce and comprehend the unlimited number of phrases and sentences of the language.(Adrian Akmajian, et al., Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication, 5th ed. MIT Press, 2001) We thus make a fundamental distinction between competence (the speaker-hearers knowledge of his language) and performance (the actual use of language in concrete situations). . . . A record of natural speech will show numerous false starts, deviations from rules, changes of plan in mid-course, and so on. The problem for the linguist, as well as the child learning the language, is to determine from the data of performance the underlying system of rules that have been mastered by the speaker-hearer and that he puts to use in actual performance.(Noam Chomsky, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT Press, 1965) Pronunciation: SPEE-ker Etymology: From the Old English, speak Source: Adrian Akmajian, et al., Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication, 5th ed. MIT Press, 2001 Michael Erard, Um, Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean. Random House, 2008 Noam Chomsky, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT Press, 1965

Percent Yield Definition and Formula

Percent Yield Definition and Formula Percent yield is the percent ratio of actual yield to the theoretical yield. It is calculated to be the experimental yield divided by theoretical yield multiplied by 100%. If the actual and theoretical yield ​are the same, the percent yield is 100%. Usually, percent yield is lower than 100% because the actual yield is often less than the theoretical value. Reasons for this can include incomplete or competing reactions and loss of sample during recovery. Its possible for percent yield to be over 100%, which means more sample was recovered from a reaction than predicted. This can happen when other reactions were occurring that also formed the product. It can also be a source of error if the excess is due to incomplete removal of water or other impurities from the sample. Percent yield is always a positive value. Also Known As: percentage yield Percent Yield Formula The equation for percent yield is: percent yield (actual yield/theoretical yield) x 100% Where: actual yield is the amount of product obtained from a chemical reactiontheoretical yield is the amount of product obtained from the stoichiometric or balanced equation, using the limiting reactant to determine product Units for both actual and theoretical yield need to be the same (moles or grams). Example Percent Yield Calculation For example, the decomposition of magnesium carbonate forms 15 grams of magnesium oxide in an experiment. The theoretical yield is known to be 19 grams. What is the percent yield of magnesium oxide? MgCO3 → MgO CO2 The calculation is simple if you know the actual and theoretical yields. All you need to do is plug the values into the formula: percent yield actual yield / theoretical yield x 100% percent yield 15 g / 19 g x 100% percent yield 79% Usually, you have to calculate the theoretical yield based on the balanced equation. In this equation, the reactant and the product have a 1:1 mole ratio, so if you know the amount of reactant, you know the theoretical yield is the same value in moles (not grams!). You take the number of grams of reactant you have, convert it to moles, and then use this number of moles to find out how many grams of product to expect.

Examining the Stages of Interpersonal Communication Assignment

Examining the Stages of Interpersonal Communication - Assignment Example Someone was playing a prank on him and had taken away his clothes as he was swimming. He did not have a locker there since he was not a member so he had left the clothes on the benches when he went to the pool. It can then be considered that the first meeting was a bit funny and also sad. This was the initiating stage and it was characterized by us meeting in the pool area and the changing rooms and exchanging pleasantries whenever we could. I had the idea that he wanted to be my friend since he always said hello whenever we met and seemed more comfortable putting his clothes and bag near where I kept mine. When he asked me for my number so that he could get in touch and we could be swimming together, I knew that he wanted us to be friends. In the experimenting stage of our relationship, we began calling each other and planning for swimming together. This stage was definitely experimenting since we were always trying to know more about each other. I particularly wanted to find out where Tim lived, his hobbies, whether he had brothers and sisters, which school he went to and so much more. Later I came to realize that he also wanted to know the same and this was a way that would help us to reduce uncertainty (Adler & Proctor, 2012, p. 256). At this particular stage, I tried my best to appear as a good person so that Tim would be comfortable being my friend and he even let me know that there had been some guys at the gym that had always bullied him and played pranks on him and that was what had happened the first time we had met. As this stage progressed, we had more time around each other especially when going swimming since I had come to realize that Tim liked swimming the same way that I did. Severally, we visited each others’ houses and in the process I met his parents and siblings and when he came to my place, he got the chance to meet my parents and my brothers too. In this stage, I tried to be as direct as possible and told Tim the things that

Exercise Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Exercise - Assignment Example Cognitive linguistics assumes that the interactions of human beings are mediated by the mental informational structures. This is to say that the human beings perceive things or ideas based on how the natural language presents them to the society. In principle, this notion implies that cognitive linguistics is not just a science of language rather it is an experience of the universe as presented by language. The second assumption is that the cognitive linguistic forms an unchangeable part of an innate aspect of the human cognitive awareness. This is to say that the part of the human mind which informs on other things also informs the same human being on the aspects of the natural language. In retrospect, the underlying principle and argument is that the cognitive part of the human brain informs the language patterns as well as other things in the human being (Lee, 2001). For instance, if a term has a specific meaning, it is innate in that form as presented by the language and the mental construction of the same word. Perspective in its aspect and broadest notion refers to an opinion or view which has no absolute meaning or implication. This is to say that a perspective varies from one person to the next based on the preferences of the person or individual inclinations which inspire the person to believe something and dispute others. According to the arguments and ideas put forth by Fillmore on case grammar, it conceptualizes that language is constructed and border within set semantics frames. This is to say that if a concept or a system of ideas is introduced in a text, then the other parts of the ideas would obviously and automatically fit in the text. Similarly, the flawed intuition was based on predicates, arguments and semantic frames. For instance, if a sentences such as Mark opened the opened today. Mark did open the lock using a key. The lock opened. All these three sentences have a