's
"" is a nuanced story highlighting the culture clash between the American-raised Das
family and their Indian tour guide Mr. Kapasi. These culture differences are revealed through
several symbols in the story:
(1) Mr. Das camera--Mr. Das sees the world
through his camera lens. He represents the typical American tourist who distances himself from
interacting with the people and the culture by taking pictures. He is callous and insensitive
in taking a picture...
: Or, All for the Best
is a French satirical novel written by(1694€“1778), first published in 1759. In
Candide, Voltaire satirizes the philosophical cult of the theory of
optimism, which was popularized by German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz (1646€“1716).
The most notable and pervasive of the logical fallacies
in Candide is the idea developed by Leibniz and espoused by Doctor Pangloss
throughout the novel that "all is for the best." The logical fallacy is based on the
philosophical premise (wholly unsupported by fact) that everything happens for the best, even
the most horrendous and evil of occurrences, because out of all of the possible worlds in the
universe, God had chosen the one in which people lived at the time as "the best of all
possible worlds."
Another logical fallacy that Doctor Pangloss promotes
is that of false or questionable cause-and-effect.
"It is demonstrable," said he [Pangloss], "that things cannot be
otherwise than as they are; for all being created for an end, all is necessarily for the best
end. Observe, that the nose has been formed to bear spectaclesthus we have spectacles. Legs are
visibly designed for stockingsand we have stockings. Stones were made to be hewn, and to
construct castlestherefore my lord has a magnificent castle; for the greatest baron in the
province ought to be the best lodged. Pigs were made to be eatentherefore we eat pork all the
year round."
Doctor Pangloss falsely concludes that
one thing (noses) necessarily caused another (spectacles), simply because the two things are
associated with one another and therefore seem to form a cause-and-effect
relationship.
This logical fallacy is carried to the extreme in chapter 6,
"How the Portuguese made a Beautiful Auto-da-fe, to prevent any
further Earthquakes."
After the earthquake had
destroyed three-fourths of Lisbon, the sages of that country could think of no means more
effectual to prevent utter ruin than to give the people a beautiful
auto-de-fe; for it had been decided by the University of Coimbra, that the
burning of a few people alive by a slow fire, and with great ceremony, is an infallible secret
to hinder the earth from quaking.
The "logic"
which the Lisbon sages apply to the earthquake problem is the same cause-and-effect fallacy that
Doctor Pangloss applied to noses, legs, stones, and pigs.
Since the the
Lisbon sages believed that the earthquake happened after disbelievers committed sins, they
concluded that disbelievers should be burned to death in order to prevent them from sinning and
thereby prevent the earthquake from happening again.
In this same chapter,
Candide is whipped, and he watches as Doctor Pangloss is hanged.
Candide, terrified, amazed, desperate, all bloody, all palpitating, said to
himself:"If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the
others?"
Odysseus'
wife, Penelope, has suitors because she is physically attractive and possesses great wealth. In
other words, she is both beautiful and rich.
There is another reason Penelope
has suitors, and it is cultural in nature. The ancient Greeks viewed marriage as both a
necessity and privilege for women. Young women of childbearing age were expected to marry. For
their part, suitors wanted wives who were fertile and who came equipped with adequate
dowries.
Widows were in a more precarious position. Bereft of their husbands,
they were expected to remarry. If they chose to remain single, their sons (as in
) would become their de facto guardians.
So, another reason Penelope has suitors is because she is expected to remarry. At the
beginning of the story, we are told that Penelope has not made her intentions clear to the
suitors. She is still in mourning and is likely in shock. Penelope has been given the news that
Odysseus is dead. However, she has difficulty accepting this. Of course, Odysseus is not really
dead, but Penelope does not know this.
At this point, Penelope has little
appetite for courting. So, her suitors have chosen to take advantage of her reticence on the
matter.
"...heaven has laid sorrows upon me of yet
another kind; for the chiefs from all our islands, Dulichium, Same, and the woodland island of
Zacynthus, as also all the principal men of Ithaca itself, are eating up my house under the
pretext of paying their court to my mother, who will neither point blank say that she will not
marry, nor yet bring matters to an end; so they are making havoc of my estate, and before long
will do so also with myself."
Now, Penelope has not
made her intentions clear for two reasons:
1) She is in mourning and has
little appetite for courtship to any of her thoughtless suitors.
2) She knows
that she is expected to abide by conventional norms to remarry. However, she does not desire
remarriage and has little appetite for the social disapproval that will result from her
decision. So, she is choosing to bide her time. In the meantime, she chooses to accept
Telemachus' authority over her.
In Paulo's
Coelho's , the King of Salem (Melchizedek) tells Santiago the story of a
boy who is told by the "wisest of wisemen" that he must carry oil on a spoon while he
sees the world, and yet not spill the oil.
The message I get from this is
that while there is much to be seen in the world, we must not lose sight of our primary
responsibilities in life. For Santiago (according to the King of Salem), every person has a
responsibility to pursue his or her Personal Legend. Nothing else can be as important. In doing
so, all the things that are significant in life will eventually come to the person who stays
focused anyway. When the boy in the story does not spill the oil, he has missed everything
around him. If the boy is spilling the oil, he is losing sight of his original goal, losing
focus because of the things he sees in the world as he moves about. Soon, his task of carrying
the oil safely has been forgotten, and the oil gonemuch like the loss of an exceptional
opportunity when one is distracted from one's purpose.
"'Well there is only one piece of advice I can give you,' said the wisest of the
wise men. €˜The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never forget the
drops of oil on the spoon'.
The King of Salem is telling
Santiago to see all that he can of the world. (This make sense, for how can Santiago follow
omens or learn the Universal Language, etc., if he does not observe the world around him?)
However, Melchizedek is also reminding Santiago not to be distracted by what he sees so much
that he loses sight of his purpose in life: he must maintain a balance on his
journey.
In
chapter 9, a tropical storm rages over the island, andand his hunters engage in their ritual
dance as heavy rains bombard the beach. During the chaotic ,emerges from the forest, and the
boys mistake him for the beast. Every boy, including , , and , join in the ritual frenzy and
brutally murder Simon. This significant moment signifies the complete loss of
innocence on the island and emphasizes the barbarity of the boys.
Simon is a symbolic Christ figure throughout the novel, and his death reflects Christ's
brutal crucifixion. The fact that the boys have committed such an atrocious, brutal act
signifies their complete descent into savagery. Essentially, Simon's death represents the loss
of civility on the island and the point of no return. After Simon dies, there is no hope for the
few boys who cling to the idea of creating a civilized society on the
island.
booksnake
is anof the Russian Revolution. This means that the events in
Animal Farm are meant to directly represent the events of this
revolution.
When looked at in this way, it becomes clear that Farmer Jones
represents Czar Nicholas II, the head of the old Russian regime, because they are
each...
There is a
difference between opened and closed environments in a management information system. In an open
environment, the various components of an organization will communicate and share information
with each other and possibly with others outside of the organization. This could include sharing
information, ideas, and even resources. In an open system, an organization will take inputs from
within and from outside the organization, and its actions will produce outputs that impact the
internal environment and the environment outside of the organization. An open environment is
more flexible than a closed environment.
In a closed system, there is very
little sharing between the various components of the organization and certainly little to no
interaction with the environment outside of the organization. Each component performs its
functions without communicating its activities to the other components of the organization.
Sometimes, the need for a closed environment exists if the organization is working on developing
a new product, idea, or concept.
