An Essay on Man 6/30/13

In An Essay on Man, Alexander Pope discusses his reasoning behind the negative things happening in the world and in nature, in regards to Man and Heaven. He argues that Nature, if left to its own devices, would be a positive influence on Man. The reason that bad things happen, as far as disasters and catastrophes are concerned, is because humans do bad things and Nature reflects this. God and Heaven are inherently good and wish to extend their positive qualities to the world, but because humans are not always capable of being good, God allows Nature to also cause negative influences back on man to create a balance between the two. This balance is illustrated in the lines “The general ORDER, since the whole began, / Is kept in Nature, and is kept in Man” (Pope 171-172). He does not clearly clarify whether or not Nature would remain positive if Man was able to always do the same, yet it is implied.

This argument attempts to answer one of the great mysteries that most religions strive to answer. The question of “Why do bad things happen to good people?” is asked often by those who are questioning religion or the will of God. In a religious context, Pope's argument is a believable one. The idea that all of mankind is punished for the actions that all of mankind perform is realistic and may have settled the minds of people who were beginning to question religion in light of all of the scientific advancements that were being made during Pope's time. For someone who had already renounced Christianity, however, the argument appears weak. It is as easy to simply say that Nature runs on her own schedule and that things happen because they do rather than attempt to balance these natural disasters with mankind's own negative actions.

Works Cited

Pope, Alexander. "An Essay on Man." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. Shorter 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 2013. 90-97. Print.

Montaigne 6/22/13

In his Essays, Michel de Montaigne discussed the cannibals of Brazil and the ways that they differed, culturally, from the people he was familiar with in Europe. A very poignant statement that he made within this portion of the work was “I am not sorry that we notice the barbarous horror of [cannibalism], but I am heartily sorry that, judging their faults rightly, we should be so blind to our own” (1656). The more time a person spends studying cultures and becoming acquainted with people from other nationalities, the more they grow to understand what he means by these words and how true this statement is.

In America, the bodies of the dead are either buried or they are cremated. The body is honored and is revered as the vessel of the person. Because of this, certain steps are taken to ensure that the body does not look pale and so the decay of the body happens slower than it would naturally. In other countries, this practice is considered barbaric because these chemicals are disrupting the natural order of life and death. In Tibet, the dead are hung on mountaintops, with specific portions of the body cut to make the body easier for animals to reach and consume. To them, there is no need to preserve the body because the spirit has moved on and the body is now nothing more than an empty vessel. This practice is also common because the country is mostly very hard ground, eliminating the possibility of graves, and the fuels used in cremation are very scarce there. Because of these things, these sky burials became the common practice and therefore a very important part of their culture. For Westerners, this practice seems barbaric, as the body only lasts a short time before it has been consumed by nature. For Tibetans, it is a natural way to dispose of the body as well as to honor the spirit that has already moved on.

Works Cited

De Montaigne, Michel. "Essays." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. Shorter 3rd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 2013. 1650-65. Print.

Sunjata 6/16/13

The evolution of the bride song in Sunjata was reminiscent of other epic stories and their need to explain the origins of traditions. Each description of the bride was accompanied with a song and the explanation that this was the origin of such traditions and portions of the song. In other cultures, such stories explain everything from the change of night into day to the reason that cats wash themselves after they eat instead of before. These origin stories are an important part of a culture, and how the traditions began is a way of separating one culture's history from another. In Sunjata, the description of the ceremony is presented in order, with the reveal of the bride's handicaps and the way that her escort adapts the song and their actions in order to present her to her groom as an eligible woman. The insistence with each piece that the tradition started here is emphasized and important for the cultural considerations of the people to their story and their origins.

Every country has their own wedding traditions. In Russia, rather than presenting the bride to the groom, the family keeps her locked away from him. The groom must arrive at the home and pay a ransom of small trinkets, gifts, and money to be permitted to marry his bride. Sometimes the groom must even go through tests of strength, wisdom, or manliness before the family will agree that he is worthy of receiving his bride. In Sunjata, the bride is presented to the groom after a ceremony of song and presentation. The bride is a gift to the groom. This is a stark contrast to the Russian tradition of the groom purchasing the bride with his own wealth and virtues.

Works Cited

Sunjata. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. Shorter 3rd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 2013. 1517-76. Print.

Bashō 6/8/13

Japan is a fantastic place. It seems that many of the depictions of Japanese culture in America center on the electronics and technology of the country, and the stereotypes of the Japanese schoolgirls that watch anime and the businessmen who read comics on the bus are rampant. Websites tell about the vending machines on every street corner and singing toilets in every bathroom. In fact, Japan seems to be an old world country in most aspects, rather than the cutting-edge world that Americans imagine when they think of Tokyo. Much of the country is farmland and traditions are old and die hard. Families have had the same home for many generations and prepare to pass it on to their children or grandchildren before they have even been born.

The video below really does a fantastic job of emphasizing the history of Japan. The silkscreen prints shown depict life as it was and how it still is for much of the rural area of the country. The landscapes, filled with forested hills rising out of the sea, despite the unnatural qualities that they possess, are true to life and dot much of the coast of the country even today. The imagery of the sakura (cherry blossoms) is a sacred one for many people in Japan, and families will travel far and wide to the most well known orchards to see the trees when they are in full bloom. The koto music is iconic for Westerners and to the Japanese as well, because the instrument (along with the Shamisen and the Taiko Drum) is native to the country and is deeply ingrained in the culture.

All of this imagery is interspersed with quotations from Matsuo Basho's poetry. The works chosen for the video are snapshots of daily life for the people of Japan. The poetry is beautiful and the imagery reads as though Basho is observing and writing throughout the daily activities of the people and animals around him. The combination of Basho's works and the imagery of the silkscreens and the music really are able to create a solid image of Japan. Although Basho's works and the silkscreens utilized are hundreds of years old, they are able to show the viewer where Japan was as a country and who the Japanese people of the time were. In many cases, the imagery and the poetry are able to show the viewer what rural Japan still is and show that the traditions that the people still follow are much older than one may initially believe.

Classic of Poetry 6/2/13

In the poem “Boat of Cypress” from the Ancient Chinese works Classic of Poetry, the speaker of the work is traveling to a new place and leaving her home. This poem teaches important accepted morals of the time, as the girl describes the way she is feeling as she is traveling. She is upset about the way she is forced to leave her home and travel, as she expressed to her brothers (“Boat” 9-12). She has these doubts and frustrations about what she is doing and her path, yet she is still on the boat traveling away from her home. This woman was upset and showed her feelings, but she still went through what was expected of her. In Ancient China, women were expected to do as they were told. If they had reservations about it, they were expected to be seen and not heard. This woman, by the fact that she was on the boat at all, showed that she did as she was told. However, she describes her misery with the lines “This heart of mine is no mat; / I cannot roll it up within” (“Boat 15-16). Unlike most women of the time, she does not feel as though she can be expected to keep her reservations inside. She describes the woes that she has felt and those that she is still expecting to feel.

By continuing to travel even though she does not agree with the decision, she is showing that she is a virtuous woman. However, she is not willing to remain quiet about her reservations about the situation. Because of this, she is not as virtuous as women were expected to be in Ancient China.

Works Cited

"Boat of Cypress." Trans. Stephen Owen. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. Shorter 3rd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 2013. 761-62. Print.