Purgatory

In the second decade of the sixteenth century, a religious movement began in Europe. This movement, later referred to as the Reformation, was to fix and reform the church, which had turned to corruption. Many leaders came along during the time of the Reformation, but not one so powerful as Martin Luther whose teachings and views played such a large impact in the Reformation. He inspired others with his action and beliefs in a way many others couldn 't do as effectively at the time. Martin…

Introduction: Flannery O’Connor ambitiously sets out to make a reader face the grotesque nature of society and all it’s commonly concealed evils. In “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction” Flannery O’Connor refers to herself as a “realist of distances.” Which means in order for her to explore the difficult and mysterious aspects of human existence she exaggerates the characters and ideas created in her stories. She considers the truly grotesque aspects of writing to be the most…

Brain on Fire In her memoir, Brain on Fire, Susannah Cahalan undergoes psychosis, seizures, and hallucinations. She describes her condition as “an existence in purgatory between the real world and a cloudy fictitious realm made up of hallucinations and paranoia” (p. 41). Doctors, her family, and she herself are unaware of what is causing these symptoms and what should be done to treat them, but they are determined to get her back to the intelligent, vibrant woman she was before. Under this…

This paper will discuss Woterstorff’s refection on the death of his son, Eric, in the story Lament For a Son. How Woterstorff experiences the five stages of grief will also be addressed. In addition, the meaning of death based on the Christian narrative will be explored, and conclude with how resurrection can bring hope. Death can be an extremely difficult situation to handle. When the person who dies is a family member and/or passes unexpectedly, it can prove to be more challenging. In the…

What to do with a Corpse: An Analyses of Cultural Funerary Practices and Their Applications in Amazonian, Borneo and Western Societies It is a universal constant that all people die. However, the question of what to do with the body of the deceased is less directly answered. Funerary rituals are shaped by culture, and this “death culture” varies greatly in terms of practice, significance, and meaning, to those who exercise them. This idea of unique variation can be prominently seen in the death…

Content Summary The book, The Great Divorce, was written in 1945 by C.S. Lewis. Lewis wrote the book as a response to William Blake’s book, Marriage of Heaven and Hell. In many ways, it is a refutation of Blake’s book; there is no marriage of heaven and hell. The book begins in a sad, dark, desolate place. The reader is led to believe that this place is hell. The narrator takes the reader throughout the streets of this peculiar place. Eventually, he stumbles upon a bus station, along with many…

Alighieri wrote a famous book called Dante’s Divine Comedy in the 1300s that is still used in classrooms today. The most famous text of Dante’s Divine Comedy is an epic poem called Dante’s Inferno. In this epic poem Dante makes a trip through Hell, purgatory, and heaven. Virgil serves as Dante’s guide through the underworld. Dante uses Virgil as his guide because Dante says that Virgil is the best poet of all time. Virgil and Dante are both Roman Catholic. Virgil wrote many important texts, the…

Euthanasia on People and Why It Should Be Legal Euthanasia is the act of killing a living being with chemicals that will kill the animal or person painlessly. Currently this is illegal when it is being used on a person; even if the person wants to die the hospitals cannot euthanize a human. This is currently being debated on whether or not people should have the choice to have themselves euthanized or to live. This should be legal because it saves the resources we use to keep these people…

In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, revenge is possibly the biggest theme topic in the entire play. A large part of the revenge that is spoken about, comes from Hamlet and his desire to get vengeance against the current King, Claudius, for murdering his father. There are many speeches that convey the idea of revenge within the play, but I have gathered two of them that I feel represent the theme in a way that explains why it occurs so often. The first of the two speeches is orated by a…

questions asked in most religions, most preach of heaven or a paradise after death; this concept of being reborn almost. With death, no one knows for sure about what awaits us on the other side of life, some preach of an eternal life in paradise or purgatory, some preach that…