Tolstoy

Isolation: The Struggle to Find One’s Self In Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer investigates a young man’s struggle between isolation and forgiveness. This book shows the compelling, incredible adventure of Chris Mccandless, who leaves his home, family and money to disconnect himself from society and live the life he has always wanted. A simple young man, McCandless has a burning desire to live a simplistic nomadic lifestyle and explore the United States. This is a characteristic his family, his…

making this, a theme Krakauer asks the reader to treat Chris’ adventures the same way one would treat anyone’s college misadventures. Krakauer implores the reader forgive Chris for his youth and find meaning in his journey. London, Thoreau and Tolstoy are three men who all escaped Chris’ judgement. All three writers influenced…

in the Tropics, introduces ideals of divorce and infidelity. The play is about a Cuban family of cigar rollers and their lives following the inclusion of a lector, Juan Julian. It is set in Florida, in 1929. Juan Julian reads Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy, and each character reacts differently to the story. Marela, daughter of the owner of the cigar factory, is fascinated with the romantic nature of the novel. Cheché, half-brother to the cigar factory owner, has hatred towards the Juan Julian…

“Turn on the TV, press 5 on the remote control and turn up the volume so that I can hear the horoscope for today. If I am not back in time or I miss something about my sign, pay attention because I will ask you later on to tell me.” – This was how my day used to start until some months ago. The same sentences I would hear from my mum with the same unchanged enthusiasm every day, and I too, would not get tired wondering how astrology could have such a great importance in a person’s way of…

The study of the good life put’s prominence on finding our own individual path to happiness, while at the same time, being able to be aware of our surroundings. Human beings are adaptive creatures, meaning we unconsciously “fit in” with the culture we abide in. However, at what point does the pursuit of one’s good life become an extension of societies suggestions? In Clive Thompson’s article “I 'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You”, he describes a modern society that has conformed to the hands…

Access to special privileges was an essential part of soviet life underneath the regime of Joseph Stalin. Under Stalin acquiring goods became all about who you know. In her research Sheila Fitzpatrick comes across a quote from one of the participants in the Harvard Project who sums up the system, “One must have not 100 rubles but 100 friends.” Those lucky enough to have connections had access to special privileges and goods that were hard to come by. These privileges ranged from access to food,…

Broadly defined as ‘the faithful representation of reality’ or ‘verisimilitude’, realism is a literary technique practised by many schools of writing. Although strictly speaking, realism is a technique, it also denotes a particular kind of subject matter, especially the representation of middle class life. In arts and literature, realism may be defined as an attempt to represent life truthfully and also avoiding all such literary techniques which make…

The novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald displays the protagonist, Gatsby, recklessly concentrating himself on Daisy while impacting everyone else without reflecting on his actions which produce negative consequences. Winston Churchill once said that “The price of greatness is responsibility.”, and the lack of Gatsby’s responsibility throughout the novel makes his greatness an illusion covered in wealth and power, which easily fades away at his plight, when he loses his green light,…

Sonny’s Blues Light and Darkness motifs One of the most revered of James Baldwin’s stories is Sonny’s Blues; wildly debated for its variety of topics the short story embodies. Racial discrimination, emotional respite through music (Jazz), Harlem’s quandary and Light and Dark imagery are some of the various topics he conveys in this story. James Baldwin contrasts light and dark motifs to denote the narrator’s feelings about different situations he faced in his life. The narrator employs light and…

I still remember the first time I was in America. I wore a pair of sweatpants on the first day of school. However, I saw almost everybody else was wearing sports shorts and jeans! A depressing feeling suddenly filled me and it made me feel like I was the “odd one” in that place, so I bought two pairs of new jeans and wore one to school the very next day. I have to say those jeans cannot compare with my sweatpants in terms of comfortable, but they gave me a feeling that I am not an outsider…