Libraire Gallimard Essay Example for Free

Libraire Gallimard Essay With people nowadays trying find the meaning of their existence and the true way to live, one can understand why there would be confusion among the members of society since there will, inevitably, exist differences and approaches on how to find the answers one is looking for. Yet we tend to forget the basics and focus on the outside, on the world and let other people dictate how we are supposed to live our lives and who we are supposed to be. I, on the other hand, believe that existentialism is the only way to truly live one’s life. To live is to ‘hold the reigns’ and refuse to let other people define how you must act. Quoting one of the passages from the book by Albert Camus entitled The Stranger: â€Å"With death so near, Mother must have felt like someone on the brink of freedom, ready to start life all over again. No one, no one in the world had any right to weep for her. And I, too, felt ready to start life all over again. It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I’d been happy, and that I was happy still. † The protagonist in the novel clearly demonstrates the basic idea of existentialism—where man is free and is the author of his life and his decisions help shape his destiny, personality and where his life will lead him; a man who is free also asserts himself and does not conform and is â€Å"against totality or the collectivity or any tendency to depersonalization. † (Copleston 22). The protagonist, in the end, realized the indifference of the cosmos and accepted the fact that in the end, there is no meaning and letting one’s care (for how other people see him) control him entraps him in the label that is ‘unhappy’ when in fact he was happy all along. With these tendencies, it is not surprising that individuals themselves forget how to live and concentrate on pleasing others by living by the terms that are imposed by other people. In the novel, The Stranger, the protagonist was on trial for the murder of a man—what condemned him in the end was not the murder itself but for the fact that he refused to show remorse at his mother’s wake, which is absurd. Yet, if we think about it, in principle, those situations tend to happen, from simple gossip of ordinary people to the accusations hurled by powerful figures in the government. People tend to set a definition of good or evil, what is socially acceptable and what is not; the tendency is that people are trapped by these set definitions whereas in the total schema of things, life and the world itself is meaningless. There is no real definition since definition itself is manmade. In the end, the protagonist realized that he was happy and he was free despite the fact that other people have ‘defined’ him as a heartless murderer and an indifferent son. Most of us tend to take into consideration how other people see us; how we ‘fit in’ our society and refuse to be ostracized and be different; example is the wake of the protagonist’s mother in the novel. In a wake of a loved one, one is expected to show remorse. If one fails to do so, one is automatically branded negatively. If one would let go of these ‘cares’ and live life according to their definition, one can be happier and can truly live. What is ‘happiness’ or ‘being alive’ for us will and must be defined by none other than ourselves; for if we let other people set the standards for ‘happiness’ and ‘living’, it is not our ‘happiness’ and ‘life’ but theirs. Of course, one must never see existentialism as an excuse to murder a man or commit a wrong—one should always remember that even if ‘existentialists’ would live life by their own definitions, these people are still principled people and answer to themselves. Works Cited: Camus, Albert. The Stranger. France: Libraire Gallimard, 1943. Copleston, F. C. â€Å"Existentialism. † Philosophy Vol. 23, (1948): 19-37.

Antony and Cleopatra :: essays research papers

‘Antony and Cleopatra’. The simplicity of the Jacobean Stage and its lack of scenery focused the audiences’ attention on the actors. Discuss how Shakespeare created the grandeur of the Worlds of Rome and Egypt, and the magnificence of the protagonists, through his use of imagery in ‘Antony and Cleopatra’. The play of ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ was written in 1606, and is mainly set in their respective worlds of Rome and Egypt. ‘Antony and Cleopatra,’ like Shakespeare’s other plays was written to be performed on the Jacobean Stage. In Shakespeare’s time there was a lack of scenery and stage props, but he compensated with his use of language that he gave to the audience, to assist them, bring to life the characters, plot and the setting in their own minds. That was the past, here and now in the present, we go to the Cinema, which is full of special effects, computerised graphics, and exciting camera shots, which all goes towards creating a typical Hollywood blockbuster film. With ‘Antony and Cleopatra this is not necessary as it is still more effective on the stage than on screen, which is due to the elaborate language used, which tests our imagination. Shakespeare’s plays are written in dramatic verse and his use of imagery is very effective, as it engages the audiences’ attention, to give them a deeper meaning and reality to each and every character. In order to analyse how Shakespeare uses imagery to describe Antony and his world of Rome, and Cleopatra and her world of Egypt, it is necessary to look at how he breathes life into their larger than life personalities by the use of powerful, vivid language. The opening speech raises the audiences’ awareness of the Roman view towards Antony and Cleopatra’s relationship. â€Å"You shall see him The triple pillar of the world transformed into a strumpet’s fool,† which ultimately means that Antony is Cleopatra’s jester, that would do anything for her and that his imminent downfall is due to Cleopatra the â€Å"Strumpet†. Mark Antony’s character at the beginning of the play, is that of a great, powerful, triumvir whose heart has been entrapped by Cleopatra’s enchanting personality. The audience hears many good things about Antony’s character, which is shown through his great past, â€Å"It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh which some did die look on,† which informs us that he was a great warrior which evoke feelings of respect towards him.

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

There are around 5000 languages in use today, and each is quite different from many of the others. Many thinkers have urged that large differences in language lead to large differences in experience and thought. They hold that each language embodies a worldview, which speakers of different languages think about the world in quite different ways. At first I didn’t really understood what was being said, and I was really against it, but after asking myself, really? Knowing a different amount of words to describe things would allow us to better understand and communicate, interesting than as we started the color activity it became clear to me.Then immediately I started making connections to friends of mines form other foreign countries. Sometimes we have difficulties explain things to each other, things that are often the same, but because of where he’s from and the way their communication methods (Grammar, metaphors, Pragmatics, Semantics, Lexicon) are structured makes it difficult, to understand him being I’m form a different part of the world, meaning a different form of communication method, with a different set of rules.Form what I have read and understand the most important discussions of the linguistic relativity hypothesis have focused on grammar and lexicon which seem to be the most valid in my opinion. Why? I’m guessing it have something to do with the way we talk, and the influence it have on a lot of how much we understand, based on our vocabulary choices and makeup. For example a typical word order may vary in English; the common order is subject, verb, and object.In Japanese it is subject, object, and verb, and in Latin several different spin (word order). Languages can differ in whether they make a distinction between intransitive verbs and adjectives; there are many subtler sorts of grammatical difference as well. Grammar here does not mean the grammar we learned in grammar school, but the syntactic structure of a languag e; in the sense that grammar contains a set of rules that can generate all and only the sentences of a given language.

Converting Yards to Meters - Example Problem

This example problem demonstrates how to convert 100 yards to meters. Both yards and meters are common units of length, so the conversion is simple: Yards to Meter Conversion Problem   An American football field has 100 yards of playing field. How far is this in meters?SolutionStart out with a conversion factor: 1 yard 0.9144 metersSet up the conversion so that the desired unit will be canceled out. In this case, we want m to be the remaining unit.distance in m (distance in yard) x (0.9144 m/1 yd)distance in m (100 x 0.9144) mdistance in m 91.44 mAnswer100 yards is equal to 91.44 meters.Many conversion factors  are difficult to remember. Feet to meters would fall into this category. An alternate method to perform this conversion is to use multiple easily remembered steps.1 yard 3 feet1 foot 12 inches1 inch 2.54 centimeters100 centimeters 1 meter Using these steps we can express a distance in meters from yards as:distance in m (distance in yd) x (3 ft/1 yd) (12 in/1 ft) x (2.54 cm/1 in) x (1 m/100 cm)distance in m (distance in yd) x 0.9144 m/ydNote this gives the same conversion factor as above. The only thing to watch out for is for the intermediate units to cancel out.