scholarly journals Man’s Helplessness Against Destiny in Ernest Hemingway’s The Oldman and The Sea

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Dr Mayurkumar Mukund Bhai Solanki

Ernest Hemingway, an American writer, produced considerable novels in the history of English literature. Hemingway’s The Oldman and the Sea is a story of an old man's struggle and his helplessness against destiny. Like Greek tragedians, Hemingway accepts the harshness of destiny in man’s life. It is very well said “Man proposes and God disposes" that denotes the role of destiny in man's life. The story of The Oldman and the Sea is universal because it reveals how human beings struggle to get something in life but sometimes crushed under the wheels of destiny. The old man has an indomitable spirit and sea experience yet he is unable to catch the fish for a few days. One day, he caught the big fish called the Marlin but it was too big for him to drag to the shore. The Old man tried to drag the Marlin to the shore but in a midway, its blood attracted the Sharks and he brought only its skeleton on the shore. So Hemingway talks about the helplessness of man against destiny through the character of an old man. This paper is a sincere effort to display man's helplessness against destiny through the character of an old man.  Ernest Miller Hemingway is known as Ernest Hemingway in English literature, was an American journalist, novelist, short story writer and sportsman. Hemingway wrote seven novels during his lifetime and among them, the popular novels are The Sun Also Rises, Farewell to Arms, and The Old man and the Sea. The Old man and the Sea brought him a good name and fame in literature. Hemingway’s works mainly deal with the themes of love, war, wilderness, and loss. Farewell to Arms deals with the theme of the futility of war. In A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway says, "The world breaks everyone and afterwards many are strong in broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.” (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest _ Hemingway) It seems that there is always conflict between good and evil in this world but some people remain strong in broken places. The greater power called destiny crushes everyone under its wheels impartially. In this connection, Omar Khayyam writes:

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 105-116
Author(s):  
Ritu Tandon

Spiritual humanism means thinking about the progress of human beings in all fields - social, cultural, political or economical and advocates that science and philosophy, art and literature, or anything that human beings have achieved by logical thinking and idealistic thoughts must aim at the well-being of humanity. Its principal aim is to achieve human freedom, cheerful life with development and prosperity without any kind of discrimination among human beings. Rabindranath Tagore was a great poet, dramatist, novelist, short-story writer, musician, painter, educationist, social reformer, philosopher, spiritualist and a critic of life and literature.   He wrote about the problems of women in most of his works – whether it is a poem, novel, play or a short- story. Rabindranath Tagore’s novel ‘Nexus’(Yogayog,1929) is an important story of a married woman Kumudini’s struggle for freedom against the brutality of her cruel husband, Madhusudan. Here, Tagore’s evolving attitude towards the role of a married woman, Kumudini   and her rebellious thoughts towards the domination of her husband are clearly presented in this novel. Rabindranath Tagore believed that the solution for all the problems of society lies in spreading the message of non-violence, truth, peace, love, and wisdom, which brings happiness among human beings. The present paper is an effort to investigate the major problems of married women of the nineteenth century Bengali society and the importance of Rabindranath Tagore’s philosophy of spiritual humanism in the emancipation of women, which made Tagore a multitalented novelist, writer and personality.


Author(s):  
Don Garrett

This chapter analyzes Spinoza’s ethical theory in the context of his philosophical naturalism, his doctrine that the actual essence of each thing is its striving for self-preservation (conatus), and his psychology of the emotions as it concerns both “bondage to the passions” and the active emotions such as intellectual joy. It explains how Spinoza’s ethical precepts are expressed chiefly through demonstrated propositions about good and evil, virtue, the guidance of reason, and “the free man.” Particular attention is given to questions about (1) the meaning of ethical language, (2) the nature of the good, (3) the practicality of reason, (4) the role of virtuous character, (5) the requirements for freedom and moral responsibility (especially in light of his necessitarianism), and (6) the possibility and moral significance of altruism. The chapter concludes by briefly assessing the significance of Spinoza’s ethical theory and its place in the history of ethics.


2021 ◽  
pp. 132-173
Author(s):  
Megan Faragher

As contributors to Mass-Observation, Naomi Mitchison and Celia Fremlin emphasize the important, and often undervalued, role of qualitative analysis in the assessment of public opinion throughout their fiction. While the British Institute for Public Opinion often excluded women as both researchers and research subjects, Mass-Observation’s (M-O) structure was more open to input from women as both observers and subjects of observation. After she touted the political value of mathematics in her Greek-inspired short story collection The Delicate Fire, Mitchison uses her novel We Have Been Warned to imbue more skepticism about the egalitarian value of statistical analysis; the protagonist, Dione Galton, learns only too late that her own instincts about the rise of fascism in England, ventriloquized through the ghost Green Jean, were far more accurate than the polling cards she used to predict her husband’s eventual electoral defeat. Likewise, Celia Fremlin’s postwar novel, The Hours Before Dawn, validates the supposedly irrational fears of her protagonist, Louise Henderson, who must contend with patronizing experts in her effort to thwart the violent impulses of her new tenant Vera Brandon. Both novels, influenced by the authors’ experiences working for M-O, contend that quantitative analysis alone is insufficient to capture the complexity of women’s wartime experiences. This chapter argues that the contributions of M-O researchers and novelists like Fremlin and Mitchison present the possibility of a road untrodden in the history of social psychology research, as the fetishizaton of data over experience eventually drowned out the possibilities of more holistic and qualitative methods.


Author(s):  
J. Andrew Dearman

This chapter explores plot and theme in the book of Ruth as an example of narrative analysis. The book is identified as a short story with a dilemma facing the family of Elimelech from the town of Bethlehem and the tribe of Judah. The family history of Elimelech and the role of the Moabite Ruth in it are examined first as a self-contained narrative and then in the context of Israel’s national history. The family dilemma is resolved with the birth of an heir for the family of Elimelech and the contribution of the family to the tribe of Judah to Israel’s national storyline is further revealed in the kingship of David, a descendant of Elimelech and Ruth.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 6-9
Author(s):  
Sanju Rawal ◽  
Sadhan Mukhi ◽  
Sandip Subedi ◽  
Surendra Maharjan

INTRODUCTION: Headache is one of the universal experience and one of the most common symptom in medical practice. It is most frequently suffered illness by human beings. As much as 90 percent of individuals have at least one episode of headache each year and severe headache is reported to occur at least annually in 40 percent of the population. Population based estimates suggest that about 4 percent of adults have daily or near daily headache. Since majority of patients who present with chronic or recurrent headache have no significant intracranial abnormalities to be detected on neuroimaging. The main objective of our study was to obtain socio demographic status of patients presenting with history of chronic headache and to assess the role of CT scan in evaluation of such patients presenting to radiology department from various departments of Universal College of Medical Sciences & Teaching Hospital (UCMSTH). MATERIAL AND METHODS: All patients with complaints of chronic headache and referred to Department of Radiology from August 2013 to April 2014 were included in the study. Total of 193 cases were included. Intravenous contrast medium was given in all 193 cases. Patients were divided into two groups with normal and abnormal CT findings. Results were tabulated and analyzed for the diagnostic yield from imaging in evaluation of patient with history of chronic headache. RESULTS: Out of 193 patients, 182 had normal CT (94.31%) and 11(5.69%) had abnormal CT findings. Contrast enhanced CT scans did not improve lesion detection .Out of 11 abnormal CT findings 3 of them had intracranial space occupying lesion, 3 had calcified granuloma, 2 of them had sinusitis, 1 had hydrocephalus, 1 cerebral atrophy and 1 with persistent cavum septum pellucidum. CONCLUSION: The proportion of intracranial abnormalities detected by CT in patients with history of chronic headache in this study was similar to that of previous studies. This corroborates the evidence that the ability of CT scan in detecting intracranial pathology is low in patient with chronic headache with exclusion of any neurological abnormality.


2006 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-80
Author(s):  
Benjamin Myers

John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667) offers a highly creative seventeenth-century reconstruction of the doctrine of predestination, a reconstruction which both anticipates modern theological developments and sheds important light on the history of predestinarian thought. Moving beyond the framework of post-Reformation controversies, the poem emphasises both the freedom and the universality of electing grace, and the eternally decisive role of human freedom in salvation. The poem erases the distinction between an eternal election of some human beings and an eternal rejection of others, portraying reprobation instead as the temporal self-condemnation of those who wilfully reject their own election and so exclude themselves from salvation. While election is grounded in the gracious will of God, reprobation is thus grounded in the fluid sphere of human decision. Highlighting this sphere of human decision, the poem depicts the freedom of human beings to actualise the future as itself the object of divine predestination. While presenting its own unique vision of predestination, Paradise Lost thus moves towards the influential and distinctively modern formulations of later thinkers like Schleiermacher and Barth.


Author(s):  
Tim Xu

As one of the notable figures in 20th Century American literature, F. Scott Fitzgerald has been studied widely by authors, critics, and historians alike. This paper addresses the role of Fitzgerald's time abroad in creating the inspiration for his work as well as Europe's part in catalyzing his eventual decline in the public eye. As a member of the so-called "Lost Generation" of American writers who took up residence in Paris during the 1920s, Fitzgerald was profoundly influenced by his peers, notably Ernest Hemingway. Another guiding factor in Fitzgerald's writing was the presence of Zelda, Fitzgerald's wife, whose mental illness placed both an emotional and financial strain on Fitzgerald. This paper examines the ups and downs of Fitzgerald's life while incorporating the analysis of several of his Europe-inspired works, including his last completed novel Tender is the Night and his famed short story "Babylon Revisited." Fitzgerald's life and work support the claim that Europe was fundamentally a double-edged sword - while Europe provided the thrilling lifestyle that fueled Fitzgerald's writing and widespread notoriety, it also brought about his ultimate disintegration.


Author(s):  
Vanessa Guignery

Julian Barnes (b. 1946) is an English novelist, short story writer, and essayist who received considerable praise in 1984 with the publication of Flaubert’s Parrot, a book that, together with A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters (1989), defies categorization. Barnes belongs to a generation of British writers (including Martin Amis, Pat Barker, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, and Graham Swift) who came to prominence in the 1980s at a time when suspicion toward the main tenets of realism, foundational grand narratives‚ and the figure of the stable and reliable narrator led many authors to disrupt and subvert conventional modes, favor historiographical metafiction and postmodernist skepticism‚ and experiment with narrative strategies. Thus, a number of scholars have examined Barnes’s work through the prism of postmodernism on the grounds of the metafictional dimension of some of his books, his transgression of realist strategies and reliance on various forms of intertextuality, and his mistrust of truth claims and fondness for fragmentation, polyphony‚ and generic hybridity. Several of his books (fictional and nonfictional) have been analyzed for the way in which they challenge the borders that separate existing genres, texts, arts‚ and languages and, thereby, oscillate among novel, essay, biography‚ and meditation. However‚ the restrictive label of postmodernism can apply to only part of Barnes’s production‚ as other novels published throughout his career are inscribed within a more conventional and realistic framework—in particular, such early books as Metroland (1980), Before She Met Me (1981), and Staring at the Sun (1986)—and his most recent production is marked by a less ironic and subversive mood and a more personal, subdued‚ and melancholy tone, for example in The Sense of an Ending (2011), which won the Man Booker Prize; The Noise of Time (2016); and The Only Story (2018). Barnes has also been praised for his art as an essayist and a short-story writer. Drawing from a variety of critical and theoretical approaches, scholars have examined such recurrent themes and concerns in Barnes’s work as memory, art, love, longing, death, or Englishness. They have also probed his self-reflexive questioning relating to the evasiveness of truth, the irretrievability of the past, the construction of national identity‚ and the relationship between fact and fiction.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 3214-3217
Author(s):  
Sadia Nazir ◽  
Iram Nazir ◽  
Rida Khan ◽  
Gulfam Ahmad ◽  
Mahwish Shahzad ◽  
...  

Background: Endometriosis has a complex multifactorial pathophysiology and is a leading cause of female infertility. Emerging evidence suggests the role of endocrine disrupting chemicals and environmental factors such as Diethyl phthalate (DEP) in the pathophysiology of the disease. Aim: To investigate the serum DEP levels in females with infertility having endometriosis and normal healthy counter parts. Methods: Married females (n=50) age 20-40 years, diagnosed with endometriosis and having history of >1 year of infertility, were selected as cases. Age matched women (n=50) with proven fertility and screened negative for endometriosis were included as controls. Females on any medicine, having co morbid conditions were also excluded from the study. DEP concentration in serum was determined by using High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Results: Significantly higher levels (p=0.003) of DEP were seen in endometriosis females (3.76± 1.28 ng/ml) as compared to controls (2.61± 1.72 ng/ml). The comparison of DEP levels between different stages of endometriosis revealed an increasing, but no significant trend with advancement of the disease. Conclusion: High serum DEP levels in patients substantiate their role in disease pathophysiology. Therefore, it may be advisable to pay attention while using such compounds. There is an increased need to regulate the levels of such industrial compounds manufactured for daily use of human beings by efficient and judicious quality assurance plastics and by using the standards set by WHO and/or FDA. Keywords: Phthalate, Endometriosis, Diethyl phthalate, plasticizers, Infertility


Author(s):  
Lucia Ovidia Vreja ◽  
Sergiu Bălan

This chapter presents the role of nature and nurture in shaping the behavior of human beings toward sustainability identifying instances of both dramatic extinctions of species and collapse of entire societies, as well as successful, peaceful, and healthy adaptation of human communities to their environment, in an attempt to presents the imperative conditions necessary for attaining sustainable development. A very long and intriguing history reveals that from the nature's point of view humans are rather destructive, interested in their own short-term survival. Nevertheless, the same long history of human species bears valuable lessons and examples of adaptive behaviors grounded by nurture, and based on these examples, the chapter aims at advancing a new perspective of thinking sustainable development that could lay the foundation of a new education curriculum.


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