Please tell us what you found meaningful about one of the above mentioned books, publications or cultural events.
^(I wrote a school essay on two books I read before (sunset limited and no country for old men by cormac mccarthy). Will this essay answer the above question? PLEASE HELP MEE! OFC it still needs editing, but in general, does it work? Thanks for any feedback.)
How does one seek placidity anymore in this modernized society that has eclipsed any aspirations by presenting itself to be a defected failure? The antique yet essential considerations of goodness and genuineness has began its disintegration long enough for society's constituents to become omnipresent and insufferable eyewitnesses to the decline of culture, art, morality, and even purpose. The concept of development is inane to the civilization at hand. As a keen observer, Cormac McCarthy has explored thematically such philosophical aspects of this contemporary period within his myriads of literary works. To an extent, his bemoaning of the aspect of life is if anything, exaggerated; he remains an intrinsic man of inherent pessimism, not to mention a relative dimension of nihilism that showcases itself in his 2005 novel No Country For Old Men that takes an entity already transcribed in his opinion for what he sees as even a dystopian world. Derivative of identical ideas of human flaw and decline; Sunset, along with No Country, is centered on the characterization of vanity and hopelessness, coupled with an opposing force that symbolizes a distinct polar opposite.
"They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. I don't know what them eyes was the windows to and I guess I'd as soon not know. But there is another view of the world out there and other eyes to see it and that's where this is goin. It has done brought me to a place in my life I would not of thought I'd come to. Somewhere out there is a true and living prophet of destruction and I don't want to confront him." (No Country, 2) The proverbial wise old man Ed Tom Bell, which in some ways, perhaps symbolizes McCarthy himself, a witness to the "prophet of destruction", can only lament his inability to culminate the dissoluteness in which he sees. No Country For Old Men is a rendition of contemporary America, focusing on the arrival of drugs and unprecedented breeds of gangsters washing down on the country just decades ago. As a sheriff, Bell has been testament to the scene of crime in the country ever since he started. It would be more obvious to him than anyone else that indeed these new factions of crime are evolved, with new ways of dealing and killing that more than insinuates what is to come. "Forty years later. Well, here comes the answers back. Rape, arson, murder. Drugs. Suicide. So I think about that. Because a lot of the time ever when I say anything about how the world is goin to hell in a hand basket people will just sort of smile and tell me I'm getting old." (No Country, 196) The titular reference of No Country for Old men is literal in the sense that old men such as Bell himself, identifying the decrepit new ideologies and new criminals in the country, are disregarded by the younger generation, whom have not seen 40 years ago and thus is accustomed to a newer brutal convention in which they believe to be acceptable.
In a way, the adversities of this world's society and ethics are part of its motor, a pathway into the future, whether in good name or bad. Bell belongs to the country of old and of simpler times as the country has left him in its wake pondering and questioning along with others who seem unable to follow. The story is not one without bloodshed; ordinary and mundane looking Chigurh is the characterization of the neoclassic evil that has derailed modernity itself, one that Bell has symbolically unable to ever encounter. In each of the encounters, and murders, Bell always appears at the unhinged aftermath, never to be able to see the conspirators and the event itself. Bell is the epitome of morality and conscience as he is one who tries to resolve the conflict in which he is unknowingly powerless to. "Carla Jean, he said. Oh god, she said." He stood there, his hat in his hand. I'm sorry, he said. She raised her head and looked at him. Her crumpled face. Damn you, she said. You stand there and tell me you're sorry? My husband is dead. Do you understand that? You say you're sorry one more time and by God if I won't get my gun and shoot you." (No Country For Old Men, 247) Bell's vain apology in failing to protect Moss is majorly indicative once of his almost non-existent prowess in the affair, his inability to serve justice, despite being the true protagonist, the hero if you will. McCarthy realistically portrays contemporary society menially, as a dead end product no longer subject to civility or a moral compass; any mention of such moral codes is hypocritical and ultimately becomes inscrutably unsubstantial. The manner in which he designs his novels is not subject to clichĂŠd endings but to the world around him, a world in which the protagonist is nothing but a entity devoid of any meaning. The theme of the absolute disregard for any existence of humanity within society is the essence of McCarthy's philosophy, established in the utterance of Bell's demise.
Following in The Sunset Limited, the story spans over a entrenching conversation with the character Black representing a quanta of faith and religion whilst the character White a depression ridden pessimist who believes death is the exit to a life that entangles nothing but pain. Once again, McCarthy has seemingly placed his eloquence within a character, this time in White, a character that oozes a set of nihilistic principles that qualifies as exuberant. "If people saw the world for what it truly is. Saw their lives for what they truly are. Without dreams or illusions. I don't believe they could offer the first reason why they should not elect to die as soon as possible." (136, The Sunset Limited) As opposed to Black's dictum, White has collaborated in what is another classic showdown of faith vs reason. As the contemporary world has oft resorted to logic and science as deputies of explanation, it is not surprising that White trumps Black in the end. Befittingly so, White exerts a nonchalant and superior status quo within this encounter; Black often comes to "Stay for more coffee" to persuade White to stay and to live, Black is also often dumbfounded by the intellect as shown from White's responses to Black's interrogatory approach. A Sunset Limited does not portray imagery of much kind, but rather with impulsive dialogue that more directly radiates McCarthy's polarizing views. "The darker picture is always the correct one. When you read the history of the world you are reading a saga of bloodshed and greed and folly the import of which is impossible to ignore. And yet we imagine that the future will somehow be different. I've no idea why we are even still here, but in all probability we will not be here much longer." ( A Sunset Limited, 112) In this context, history is the correct, factual picture, but also a dark one of "bloodshed" and "greed". The credence is that human nature is irrevocable, an unchangeable malice that have in turn decomposed society, bringing into account an existential viewpoint of redundant moral codes that in the end reap no products as the irony rests within the very men that create such codes. With that said, aspirations for a less maligned future, one that does not trek down a similar path as our history did, is irrational. One then, upon realizing the curse that is living, would come to "one thing above all else and that one thing is futility." (A Sunset Limited, 136). Coming to the cornerstone of McCarthy's beliefs, death would then be a resolution, an aspect now greeted with graciousness and fearlessness, an end to a dwindling path of interminable pain, referring to the course of humanity itself. "Open the door." ( A Sunset Limited, 141) White ultimately wins a debilitating debate and wins the right to die. It is a defeat that is made clear for Black, as he is "on the floor" and "crying". Circumspectly reviewing Black's symbolism, the climax of the encounter is one of pathos and ethos, as the audience is almost self-instrumented in expressing partiality for a man who was once so resilient, and now, pitiful. Despite Black's overall greater appeal as a character of positivity and optimism, it is to McCarthy's manipulation to once again show the mechanics of contemporary society; one governed by human nature and its tendencies to head down a path of self destruction, not irrationally though.
Relating back to Mexican-American landscape of No Country for old men, Bell's realization of such a concept, that efforts to reform a defunct society is melancholic to say to least, sees him give up. "I've had two dreams about him after he died. -The second one it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin through the mountains. Never said nothing. He just rode on past and he had this blanket wrapped around him and he had his head down and when he rode past I seen he was carryin fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it. About the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was goin on ahead and that he was fixin to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. And then I woke up." (309, No Country For Old Men) Ed Tom Bell's retirement is enough to signify his inability to act as a patron of justice, a sheriff, to protect his townsfolk. His dream here can be arbitrarily interpreted, but in a sense, his dream is his acceptance of his role. His father, dead and buried, "would be there whenever I got there". Bell visualizes death, sugarcoated with the prospect of meeting his father, of course, McCarthy relinquishes the purpose of the moral characterization of the book, in accordance to a new social spectrum containing people such as Anton himself, rendering it unpredictable and intangible. The path in which White and Bell heads down is veneration to what is illustrated by McCarthy to be the natural order of society, one that thrives on the core of existential nihilism.
Somewhere in 2011, an interviewer managed to invite the hermetic man for a very rare and on record discussion. "As far as being - as far as painting the world as grim, I don't know. If you look at classical literature, the core of literature is the idea of tragedy, and that's - you know, you don't really learn much from the good things that happen to you. But tragedy is at the core of human experience, and it's what we have to deal with. That's what makes life difficult, and that's what we know about. It's what we want to know how to deal with. It's unavoidable. There's nothing you can do to forestall it. So how do you deal with it?" (Connecting Science with Art) Presupposing McCarthy's endearing pessimism, it is not unsubstantiated to mention of his status as a World War II veteran. The quintessential nature of war easily erodes away sentience, and in effect sculpts a product such as McCarthy, one that embraces and juxtaposes tragedy as commonplace. How McCarthy perceives tragedy to be "unavoidable" establishes him as perhaps one of most peripheral of us, but simultaneously, one of the most clear-sighted.
Despite McCarthy's die hard principles and beliefs, his blatancy could be said to be as merely a reciprocation of the world in which we take residence. Alas, the living of life is marred by the meaninglessness of doing so that has burgeoned. Through his anarchic and courageous story telling that defies any recognizable formula, he recalls and reiterates a unique telling of a grim reality that the world cannot escape from.
^(I wrote a school essay on two books I read before (sunset limited and no country for old men by cormac mccarthy). Will this essay answer the above question? PLEASE HELP MEE! OFC it still needs editing, but in general, does it work? Thanks for any feedback.)
How does one seek placidity anymore in this modernized society that has eclipsed any aspirations by presenting itself to be a defected failure? The antique yet essential considerations of goodness and genuineness has began its disintegration long enough for society's constituents to become omnipresent and insufferable eyewitnesses to the decline of culture, art, morality, and even purpose. The concept of development is inane to the civilization at hand. As a keen observer, Cormac McCarthy has explored thematically such philosophical aspects of this contemporary period within his myriads of literary works. To an extent, his bemoaning of the aspect of life is if anything, exaggerated; he remains an intrinsic man of inherent pessimism, not to mention a relative dimension of nihilism that showcases itself in his 2005 novel No Country For Old Men that takes an entity already transcribed in his opinion for what he sees as even a dystopian world. Derivative of identical ideas of human flaw and decline; Sunset, along with No Country, is centered on the characterization of vanity and hopelessness, coupled with an opposing force that symbolizes a distinct polar opposite.
"They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. I don't know what them eyes was the windows to and I guess I'd as soon not know. But there is another view of the world out there and other eyes to see it and that's where this is goin. It has done brought me to a place in my life I would not of thought I'd come to. Somewhere out there is a true and living prophet of destruction and I don't want to confront him." (No Country, 2) The proverbial wise old man Ed Tom Bell, which in some ways, perhaps symbolizes McCarthy himself, a witness to the "prophet of destruction", can only lament his inability to culminate the dissoluteness in which he sees. No Country For Old Men is a rendition of contemporary America, focusing on the arrival of drugs and unprecedented breeds of gangsters washing down on the country just decades ago. As a sheriff, Bell has been testament to the scene of crime in the country ever since he started. It would be more obvious to him than anyone else that indeed these new factions of crime are evolved, with new ways of dealing and killing that more than insinuates what is to come. "Forty years later. Well, here comes the answers back. Rape, arson, murder. Drugs. Suicide. So I think about that. Because a lot of the time ever when I say anything about how the world is goin to hell in a hand basket people will just sort of smile and tell me I'm getting old." (No Country, 196) The titular reference of No Country for Old men is literal in the sense that old men such as Bell himself, identifying the decrepit new ideologies and new criminals in the country, are disregarded by the younger generation, whom have not seen 40 years ago and thus is accustomed to a newer brutal convention in which they believe to be acceptable.
In a way, the adversities of this world's society and ethics are part of its motor, a pathway into the future, whether in good name or bad. Bell belongs to the country of old and of simpler times as the country has left him in its wake pondering and questioning along with others who seem unable to follow. The story is not one without bloodshed; ordinary and mundane looking Chigurh is the characterization of the neoclassic evil that has derailed modernity itself, one that Bell has symbolically unable to ever encounter. In each of the encounters, and murders, Bell always appears at the unhinged aftermath, never to be able to see the conspirators and the event itself. Bell is the epitome of morality and conscience as he is one who tries to resolve the conflict in which he is unknowingly powerless to. "Carla Jean, he said. Oh god, she said." He stood there, his hat in his hand. I'm sorry, he said. She raised her head and looked at him. Her crumpled face. Damn you, she said. You stand there and tell me you're sorry? My husband is dead. Do you understand that? You say you're sorry one more time and by God if I won't get my gun and shoot you." (No Country For Old Men, 247) Bell's vain apology in failing to protect Moss is majorly indicative once of his almost non-existent prowess in the affair, his inability to serve justice, despite being the true protagonist, the hero if you will. McCarthy realistically portrays contemporary society menially, as a dead end product no longer subject to civility or a moral compass; any mention of such moral codes is hypocritical and ultimately becomes inscrutably unsubstantial. The manner in which he designs his novels is not subject to clichĂŠd endings but to the world around him, a world in which the protagonist is nothing but a entity devoid of any meaning. The theme of the absolute disregard for any existence of humanity within society is the essence of McCarthy's philosophy, established in the utterance of Bell's demise.
Following in The Sunset Limited, the story spans over a entrenching conversation with the character Black representing a quanta of faith and religion whilst the character White a depression ridden pessimist who believes death is the exit to a life that entangles nothing but pain. Once again, McCarthy has seemingly placed his eloquence within a character, this time in White, a character that oozes a set of nihilistic principles that qualifies as exuberant. "If people saw the world for what it truly is. Saw their lives for what they truly are. Without dreams or illusions. I don't believe they could offer the first reason why they should not elect to die as soon as possible." (136, The Sunset Limited) As opposed to Black's dictum, White has collaborated in what is another classic showdown of faith vs reason. As the contemporary world has oft resorted to logic and science as deputies of explanation, it is not surprising that White trumps Black in the end. Befittingly so, White exerts a nonchalant and superior status quo within this encounter; Black often comes to "Stay for more coffee" to persuade White to stay and to live, Black is also often dumbfounded by the intellect as shown from White's responses to Black's interrogatory approach. A Sunset Limited does not portray imagery of much kind, but rather with impulsive dialogue that more directly radiates McCarthy's polarizing views. "The darker picture is always the correct one. When you read the history of the world you are reading a saga of bloodshed and greed and folly the import of which is impossible to ignore. And yet we imagine that the future will somehow be different. I've no idea why we are even still here, but in all probability we will not be here much longer." ( A Sunset Limited, 112) In this context, history is the correct, factual picture, but also a dark one of "bloodshed" and "greed". The credence is that human nature is irrevocable, an unchangeable malice that have in turn decomposed society, bringing into account an existential viewpoint of redundant moral codes that in the end reap no products as the irony rests within the very men that create such codes. With that said, aspirations for a less maligned future, one that does not trek down a similar path as our history did, is irrational. One then, upon realizing the curse that is living, would come to "one thing above all else and that one thing is futility." (A Sunset Limited, 136). Coming to the cornerstone of McCarthy's beliefs, death would then be a resolution, an aspect now greeted with graciousness and fearlessness, an end to a dwindling path of interminable pain, referring to the course of humanity itself. "Open the door." ( A Sunset Limited, 141) White ultimately wins a debilitating debate and wins the right to die. It is a defeat that is made clear for Black, as he is "on the floor" and "crying". Circumspectly reviewing Black's symbolism, the climax of the encounter is one of pathos and ethos, as the audience is almost self-instrumented in expressing partiality for a man who was once so resilient, and now, pitiful. Despite Black's overall greater appeal as a character of positivity and optimism, it is to McCarthy's manipulation to once again show the mechanics of contemporary society; one governed by human nature and its tendencies to head down a path of self destruction, not irrationally though.
Relating back to Mexican-American landscape of No Country for old men, Bell's realization of such a concept, that efforts to reform a defunct society is melancholic to say to least, sees him give up. "I've had two dreams about him after he died. -The second one it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin through the mountains. Never said nothing. He just rode on past and he had this blanket wrapped around him and he had his head down and when he rode past I seen he was carryin fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it. About the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was goin on ahead and that he was fixin to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. And then I woke up." (309, No Country For Old Men) Ed Tom Bell's retirement is enough to signify his inability to act as a patron of justice, a sheriff, to protect his townsfolk. His dream here can be arbitrarily interpreted, but in a sense, his dream is his acceptance of his role. His father, dead and buried, "would be there whenever I got there". Bell visualizes death, sugarcoated with the prospect of meeting his father, of course, McCarthy relinquishes the purpose of the moral characterization of the book, in accordance to a new social spectrum containing people such as Anton himself, rendering it unpredictable and intangible. The path in which White and Bell heads down is veneration to what is illustrated by McCarthy to be the natural order of society, one that thrives on the core of existential nihilism.
Somewhere in 2011, an interviewer managed to invite the hermetic man for a very rare and on record discussion. "As far as being - as far as painting the world as grim, I don't know. If you look at classical literature, the core of literature is the idea of tragedy, and that's - you know, you don't really learn much from the good things that happen to you. But tragedy is at the core of human experience, and it's what we have to deal with. That's what makes life difficult, and that's what we know about. It's what we want to know how to deal with. It's unavoidable. There's nothing you can do to forestall it. So how do you deal with it?" (Connecting Science with Art) Presupposing McCarthy's endearing pessimism, it is not unsubstantiated to mention of his status as a World War II veteran. The quintessential nature of war easily erodes away sentience, and in effect sculpts a product such as McCarthy, one that embraces and juxtaposes tragedy as commonplace. How McCarthy perceives tragedy to be "unavoidable" establishes him as perhaps one of most peripheral of us, but simultaneously, one of the most clear-sighted.
Despite McCarthy's die hard principles and beliefs, his blatancy could be said to be as merely a reciprocation of the world in which we take residence. Alas, the living of life is marred by the meaninglessness of doing so that has burgeoned. Through his anarchic and courageous story telling that defies any recognizable formula, he recalls and reiterates a unique telling of a grim reality that the world cannot escape from.
