story insinuates that women are desirable in two ways: sexually and religiously. Her story also sheds light on which mode of desire appears to reign supreme. The character, Zossima, represents how Mary, and women, are desired religiously. Zossima is a pretentious monk who ponders if anyone can teach him: “Zossima used to tell how when he was hardly weaned he was placed in that monastery, where he lived until his fifty-third year, following an ascetic way of life. It was then that he began to…
and Separatist Pilgrims’ Immigration to America William Bradford wrote of his close friend and mentor, “[Elder William Brewster] would labor with his hands in the fields as long as he was able; yet when the church had no other minister, he taught twice every Sabbath, and both powerfully and profitable, to the great contentment of his hearers” (qtd. in Gragg 291). This hard work and dedication of my ancestor, Brewster, was greatly admired. The work ethic he exhibited made the Pilgrims’ situation…
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer tells the story of a diverse and peculiar group of pilgrims. In the prologue, Chaucer the Narrator provides a description of these pilgrims, and a contest is proposed to help pass time on this long journey; each of the pilgrims were to tell a few tales, and the pilgrim with the best tale would get a prize. Although Chaucer did not finish writing all of the pilgrims' tales or name a winner of the contest, the tales told by the Miller, the Pardoner, the…
new land the Pilgrims did go, but it wouldn’t be as easy or comfortable as they had hoped or even imagined, rather it was a hard journey for all. However, once the difficulty of the trip had passed, they started anew and made acquaintances that would later become valued friends. The faith of the Pilgrims was strong, despite harsh conditions on a voyage or the perils and struggles of everyday life, their belief in God was their fragment of hope and was what kept them going. Pilgrims believed that…
Knight and his son, the Squire. The Squire, quite like the other pilgrims in the tales, emerges as an idiosyncratic personality due to Chaucer’s use of literary devices to distinguish characters. Evident in The Canterbury Tales and in the individual the Squire, Chaucer creates distinctive characters in his pilgrims through the use of several literary devices such as imagery, characterization, and simile.…
The pilgrims went through a scary storm which caused the ship to be shaken apart. The ship was already in bad shape. The master agreed to continue the journey. They fell upon a land called Cape Code. In lines 74 -77 it states “they fell upon their knees and blessed…
Like many countries in the world, England did not grant its citizens to have freedom of religion. Therefore the pilgrims felt discriminated by the England’s government. Ergo, their immediate response was to flee to another country ; however, that did not work out for them as well. In Holland, the country that they fled to, the Pilgrims confronted countless hardships. After that, they had the desire to go to a new place where they saw hope. They hazarded their life and sailed the ship and…
Canterbury Tales is a book of stories told by a group of pilgrims as a storytelling contest. The story takes place at an inn where all the pilgrims meet. The pilgrims are met by a gentleman name Harry Bailey. Bailey thought it would be entertaining to challenge the pilgrims to a contest. Bailey suggested that the pilgrim travel together and during their travel each pilgrim tell four stories, two stories on the way to Canterbury and two stories on the way back from Canterbury. Whoever told…
In Bellah’s article “American Civil Religion,” Bellah describes the way that the United States government not only interacts with religion, but actually has religion ingrained in it. From the America’s founding documents, to holidays, to the Pledge of Allegiance, to the phrase “In God We Trust,” religion everywhere in our government even when it isn't supposed to be anywhere within our government. However, Bellah makes the argument that even though there is religion in our government it serves…
Occurring both in fiction as well as the real world, people and characters are subjected to factors that affect how they think, act, and behave. As such they often have sides that are unknown to others through mere observation. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and The Wars by Timothy Findley both utilize characters that display inconsistent personalities in public contrasted to how they act in private. Especially in wartime, humans are pushed to their limit and more than often emerged…