The Forests Symbolisim in The Scarlet Letter - 998 Words

A Refuge from Prosecution: The Forest in The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter is a tale of constant trial and punishment. For Hester Prynne, there is no escape from the shame and belittlement she has been forced to endure within puritan society. However, like the puritans who had escaped prosecution by migrating from England to the New World, characters in The Scarlet Letter can escape the prosecution of puritan society by visiting the forest. It is a symbolic realm that embodies freedom and privacy, and the only sanctuary for those who seek liberty to express their true nature, whether it be through acts of love, or heresy. The forest as a symbol of escape from puritan society is persistent throughout the novel through its use by the†¦show more content†¦The forest is described as having ?became the playmate of the lonely infant (213) and ?put on the kindest of its moods to welcome her.? Pearl had never had any friends throughout the course of the novel and was always alienated and bullied by other children. In contrast, the fores t animals all seem to regard Pearl with indifference, if not a quiet admiration, as if she was a sprite that had been borne from nature itself. The narration goes so far as to say that a wolf ?offered his savage head to be patted by her hand.? (214) Pearl?s temperament seems to change as well, becoming more docile and showing a less hostile nature. She adorns herself with flowers, and is in ?closest sympathy with the antique wood.? (214) Through this description of Pearl, the forest takes on a sympathetic nature, and is portrayed as an environment where one can find peace with one?s surroundings and be in an environment where they feel amicability instead of antagonism. Of all the symbols in The Scarlet Letter, the forest is one of the most important. By providing an escape from the overbearing nature of puritan life, the forest allows characters to be presented in a different backdrop, it can serve as a place of both light and darkness, but above all, liberty. For every character that visits it, the forest is freedom, protection, and peace. Without it,

Yevgeniy Pastukhov Semchenkov. Eng 201-0908. Pr. Chrysula

Yevgeniy Pastukhov Semchenkov ENG 201-0908 Pr. Chrysula Norway 5/14/2017 Emancipation in The Awakening and â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† Kate Chopin’s the most well-known work The Awakening and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper,† both initially published in 1899, present astoundingly analogous stories of the role of women in society. Both texts are narrated from the point of view of a female protagonist who breaks away from the restraining conventions of a male-ruled society before eventually emancipating through separation from the thinking world, via suicide in The Awakening and insanity in â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper.† Some would argue that the narrators are unreliable and the stories are misrepresented simply because†¦show more content†¦Yet Edna and Gilman’s protagonist are women who receive their imperfections through their surroundings; the carnality and madness are the results of their oppression. Until the happenings of The Awakening, Edna has been married to Mr. Pontellier for a long time. She goes through her awakening after a vacat ion in the Grand Isle, but before, she has been a subordinate wife without any doubts in accordance to her role. Just as Mrs. Pontellier begins the story as an average, sensible woman, the main character of â€Å"The Yellow Wall-paper† begins as a mentally secure person. Gilman’s heroine depicts the â€Å"garden-- large and shady, full of box-bordered paths† (4), the â€Å"pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings† (5), and even â€Å"those sprawling flamboyant patterns† (5) of the wallpaper in an ultimately sensible manner, what serves as an indicator of her capability of thinking and speaking from a rational standpoint. What is more, she is sent away to the mansion not in a view of the fact that she has mental issues but because her husband believes that she has depression. She admits that she is of the opinion that if she â€Å"had less opposition and more society and stimulus,† she would get well sooner (4). Having concluded that both females are in complete possession of their mental capacities at the beginning of the stories, a collation of The Awakening and â€Å"The Yellow Wall-Paper† uncovers a similarity in the oppressiveness of the ruling male figures. Both husbands in

Krysztof Kieslowski Free Essays

Introduction Krysztof Kieslowski‘s genius germinated as a truly original and thought provoking film director was deeply influenced by the presence of Communism in Poland,. Later to join the ranks of the world’s greatest filmmakers, Krysztof was quoted as saying asking questions about our existence was more important than being concerned with political reality ; â€Å" why get up from bed ?!† – If one was not at all concerned about the metaphysics of things. In this context his fascination towards the parameters of memory and complexities of survival developed and was later manifested in his works. We will write a custom essay sample on Krysztof Kieslowski or any similar topic only for you Order Now The land of his birth, Poland, was the background for many of his movies. He shifted his focus from documentary reality as a filmmaker working in his country. The gaze of his camera shifted from documenting reality to the probing the inner life of human beings, deeply affected by their reality in different ways.   The oeuvre of Kieslowski straddled over many concerns. Two of his recurring themes were the persistence of memory and survival amidst the harsh realities of life. Death and violence was a feature of life in communist Poland. Every vestige of idealism was stripped away in the wake of mind numbing regimentation and the murder of freedom and humanity – almost reducing people to bare survival level.   On a spiritual level the characters in Kieslowski’s works seem to agonizingly grope their way forward out of this darkness. Each in their own way resolve a dilemma of existence, to find reunion, stark truth, even death, happiness and yet the films never work their way to some artificial conclusion – ambiguous as life is, in fact. An examination of the director’s projects will throw up evidence of these recurring themes. Yet, the films are never completely pessimistic, even if some might go deep into the dark side of human nature or seem to be concerned with erotic obsession. Thus in one hand it magnified memory or the reconstruction of memory and on the other hand he juxtaposed the manifestation and complexities of survival. However, the director was himself a very warm person who simply felt that depicting fictionalized reality was simply a better, if oblique, way to show reality. One tends to get an impression from the whole body of work that a lot is being said in the films but very subtly. Of course, helping Kieslowski was his immensely talented cast who seem to draw every shade of feeling out in films as diverse as No End and The Double life of Veronique.   On the face of it nothing very much seems to be happening in these films.   It is all subtle emotional underplay and a strongly controlled interplay of human conflicts and deeply moving responses. (Dollard, 89-92) Two of his films are representative of the aforementioned themes: Three Colors: Blue and Decalogue 2 Three Colors: Blue (1993) ‘Blue’ is a work of such intensity that one is eternally grateful that Juliette Binoche plays Julie Vignon De Courcy, the protagonist of the film with such a fine texture of emotions. Blue is the Polish director’s penetrating and highly involving work on loss and freedom and is also the dominant hue of his film. It is also part of a trilogy, Red, White and Blue the director made. A bluish candy wrapper in a small girl’s hand, reflects, sunlight through a car’s window; the next shot cuts to a leaking pipe, hinting at the imminent accident involving the car. Julie Vignon is the only survivor in the accident, which kills her daughter and husband. Fortunately for viewers, the car crash is heard not seen. The rest of the incident is shown in fragments and slivers of shattered glass. This reflects the state of the injured Julie in hospital. Extremely painfully she recollects the incident in fragments. The fragments hint at her life so far. She is the wife of a well known musician. The husband has been lately rumored to have run out of original ideas for composition – his scores are said to have been penned by his wife. Julie seems to fighting these memories off almost as if they cause great suffering. She seems to find it difficult to survive. Through these initial terse cuts , Kieslowski draws us wide eyed into a private world of pain and suffering mad acute by lingering memory   this is a devastated world , and very subtle action depicts this . Dialogue would be utterly contrived in this situation. A typical approach would be to take the path of resolution of this pain shown in quick recovery. True to his commitment, the director does not make it so easy. In the hospital, Julie attempts suicide by an overdose of pills but does not really go all the way – she survives.   Here there is a further ‘hardening’ of the situation. (Lamb, 243-245) After her release from hospital, Julie wants to kill herself off psychologically by withdrawing from the world. Her grief in fact, is so intense that she can neither cry nor even feel.   Yet, her body language reveals that she is still in great pain. Her mouth quivers as she watches her family’s funeral on television and her daughter’s casket. She visibly goes limp as she approaches her husband’s study. This is depicted with an economy which truly emphasizes the slow build up of grief.   She withdraws herself completely from the world around her and shifts from the family’s country estate to an apartment, in her maiden name. She wipes out all traces of the past, even of her family except a few slivers of glass. Reflections in glass are a persistent device used in the film – meant to convey the distance Julie is creating for herself and her memories. But the distance Julie wants to create cannot really stave off her past, try as she might; her reaction is to further withdraw into an enigmatic silence. At this point, her husband’s business partner, Olivier, searches her out and offers to complete her husband’s unfinished symphony as a tribute to his memory. Here is the working out of a cathartic device. The audience would find it relieving to have Julie come out of the prison of grief and re attach to the world. The resolution of the film’s mesmerizing tone of grief is toward a brighter shade. Blue is the color of grief but Juliet’s slow emergence back into personal peace helps to overcome this. Olivier’s role is cathartic meant to bring a closure. Towards the end of the film, she decides to collaborate on finishing her husband’s symphony and gives off the family’s country estate to her husband’s mistress. (Fletcher, 188) Losing everything can be freedom too. DECALOGUE 2 Decalogue was a series of ten I hour films, each based on one of the Ten Commandments. The work was however, no rendering of the Biblical story but a reframing of the commandments to contemporary Poland. Each sin attributed to a particular moral lapse in each of the ten films. These films offered Kieslowski the convenience of working with some of his favorite themes and some new ones.   They obliquely refer to Kieslowski’s religious concerns but in a way totally in synch with the director’s typically understated and subtle style. They are tightly made and form a work of considerable cinematic importance. The central theme of Decalogue 2 is of the purest moral dilemma. Dorota’s husband is seriously ill and in hospital. What she needs to know from the doctor is whether he will survive or not. She is pregnant by some one else and if her husband survives, she will abort the child .If he dies, she will keep the child. The doctor denies any knowledge of her husband’s prognosis saying he doesn’t clearly know how to answer her.   The doctor’s story is then told in flashback and we find that his family has been killed in a World War 2 bombing raid.   His tragic loss in the past and his memory of it makes him conscious of another life at stake. Here we have a clear glimpse of the director’s humanity and his strong convictions as a person even when working or dealing with a lot of abstraction in his films. The doctor’s dilemma is;  Ã‚   should he tell her the husband will be well thus making Dorota abort the child? In the end the doctor‘s brilliant answer will help to save two lives (Dorota’s and the child’s). The film is embellished like the others in this collection with the many small details that help build up the situation in a one hour film – details that keep audiences involved in the story unfolding. The film reveals that the doctor lives in the same apartment block as Dorota, walks to work. There are scenes involving Dorota’s smoking which obviously increases the danger to her. The theme of survival is cleverly shown in scenes where a bee tries to draw itself out of a bottle on a table in the husband’s hospital bed, making the connections to the issue of the fragility of life and strong survival instincts at work both within the film and in living beings. Human beings seem to be longing for contact or withdrawing in their own private world. Meaning is ambiguous in these films: there are the sub themes to consider – violence, chance, fate, and destiny.   Dream sequences are an extension of memory giving us a glimpse of the depth of anguish or obsession which different in the human beings. (Kar, 145) Rather, as his other creation like The Double Life of Và ©ronique, the films take on a life of their own with individuals in a society, in a state, in a family. More is happening to these characters than the films makes apparent. The director does not observe from the wings but probes deep in to what makes human conflict, what goes on in their minds. Thus the aspects of memory and complexities of survival become evident again and again. Conclusion Throughout the latter part of his career, Kieslowski reveals a streak of pessimistic humanism. The works show a fascination for the inner life of human beings and a spiritual quest for the meaning of existence, with carefully structured camera compositions and an almost sparse narrative. The deeper truths lie beneath the surface of reality and the unraveling of it is as unpredictable as life – the creator does not contrive situations to fit his view. However, he remained loyal towards his belief of greater truth regarding memory and complexities of survival. (King, 126) Works Cited: Dollard, John; Krysztof Kieslowski looks into Tomorrow. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 2006) pp 89-92 Fletcher, R; Art: Beliefs and Knowledge; Believing and Knowing. (Mangalore: Howard Price. 2006) pp 188 Kar, P; History of Cinema Market Applications (Kolkata: Dasgupta Chatterjee 2005) pp 145 King, H; Art Today (Dunedin: HBT Brooks Ltd. 2005) pp 126 Lamb, Davis; Cult to Culture; (Wellington: National Book Trust. 2004) pp 243-245 How to cite Krysztof Kieslowski, Essay examples

Removal of the Cherokee Essay Example For Students

Removal of the Cherokee Essay In The Cherokee Removal, Perdue and Green show the trials that the Cherokee faced in the years from 1700 to 1840. This book shows how the Americans tried to remove these Indians from the southeastern part of the United States. The Cherokees tried to overcome the attempts of removal, but finally in 1838, they were removed from the area. The Cherokees lived in the valleys of rivers that drained the southern Appalachians (Perdue, 1). The British first came into Cherokee country in 1700. They came for two major reasons: deerskins and war captives. They brought guns and ammunition, metal knives, hoes, hatchets, fabrics, kettles, rum, and trinkets. They took the Cherokee and made them slaves. The British built two forts to protect the Cherokees while they were fighting the enemies of the British. The Cherokees entered the French and Indian War on the side of the British (Perdue, 6). Attacks on Cherokees by white frontiersmen and duplicity by colonial officials caused the Cherokees to shift their allegiance to the French. During the war, the British destroyed many Cherokee towns. The war the American Revolution caused many British settlers to push westward. These settlers began to compete with the Cherokees for land. The Cherokee were glad when the Proclamation of 1763 was put into effect. This prevented settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. Most of the settlers became enemies. The settlers attacked the Cherokees, destroying many towns and killing many people. This attack caused the Cherokees to end their participation in the American Revolution. The American colonist continued to take over the Cherokee land. In 1783, the American Revolution ended. Since most of the Cherokees helped the British in the Revolutionary War, the Americans needed to make peace with them. Then in1785, the treaty of Hopewell was signed (Perdue 8). This was a peace treaty between the Cherokee and the Americans. This treaty defined the Cherokees boundaries and it gave them the right to get rid of unwanted settlers. The states of Georgia and North Carolina ignored this treaty. The people of these states expanded into Cherokee land, and the Cherokees continued to resist. The Americans needed to come up with another system. Henry Knox was gave the task to come up with this new system. Knox came up with a system that would make expansion possible without detriment to the Indians (Perdue 10). Knox hoped to end the fighting between the Cherokees and the Americans that was caused by expansion. Knox, along with George Washington, believed that the Indians were uncivilized. However, this lack of civilization was cultural, not racial. They thought that the Cherokees could become civilized if they were taught how to become civilized. They also believed that the United States should buy the land that the settlers illegally took from the Indians, and strictly obstruct further encroachment. This new system was called the Treaty of Holston (Perdue 11). It went into effect in July 1791. This treaty called for the civilization of the Indians. The civilization program was a major part of this new treaty. The Cherokee culture went through some drastic changes. Schools were set up to instruct the Indians. Men farmed instead of hunting. They established some of their own laws. In 1827, the Cherokees wrote a constitution that provided for a bicameral legislature, a chief executive, and a judicial system (Perdue 13). The Americans tried to make the Indians become Christians. They developed their own writing system. They even began to publish their own newspaper called the Cherokee Phoenix (Perdue 14). The Cherokees became more civilized than in the past. The Cherokees tried to become civilized to make their relationship with the Americans better. .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9 , .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9 .postImageUrl , .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9 , .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9:hover , .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9:visited , .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9:active { border:0!important; } .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9:active , .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9 .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ud35a24ca3260c295efce218c2ef096d9:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: The Color Purple - The Struggle To Express Themselves EssayAmerican views on the Indians changed. They became racially prejudiced against the Cherokee. They now thought that Indians could never become fully civilized. The Americans thought the Cherokees had no place in the American society. The Americans wanted to justify removal of the Indians to lands in the west. This would make more room for the increasing population of the Americans. The Americans insisted that the Indians sell their land. Most of the Cherokees refused to sell their land, but a small number of Cherokees accepted the offer and moved west. Since the Cherokee refused to sell the land, the Americans thoug ht the only way to get rid of them was to remove them. When Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828, he begged Congress to adopt the removal plan. There was no other way to take control of the Cherokee land. The law stated that land could be purchased only by treaty. The Cherokee did not agree to sell their land through a treaty. So the Indian Removal Act was passed on May 28, 1830 (Perdue 18). The Cherokees would not go down easily. They went to the United States Supreme Court to protect their rights. In Worcester v. Georgia, the Court ruled in favor of Cherokee sovereignty (Perdue 19). Georgia went ahead and established a land lottery. This allowed citizens to take over Cherokee land. This only caused more trouble between the two cultures. The Cherokees began to have mixed feelings about removal. A group of Cherokees called the Treaty Party wanted to negotiate a treaty for removal. In the spring of 1836, the Treaty of New Echota was ratified (Perdue 20). It gave them two years to prepare for removal. Many of the Cherokees, led by John Ross, protested this treaty. However, in the winter of 1838-1839, all of the Cherokees headed west toward Oklahoma. This removal of the Cherokees is now known, as the Trail of Tears was a very gruesome event. During the trip from the southern United States to current day Oklahoma, many of the Cherokees died. Shortly after their arrival in Ok lahoma, they began to rebuild. They began tilling fields, sending their children to school, and attending Council meetings (Perdue 170). The Cherokees were very civilized in dealing with the trails of removal. These people endured more than any other group of people throughout history. They played within the rules in their struggle. They did not want to start a war with the Americans. The Cherokees resisted removal and took it to court. Despite all of their tries to keep their land, they were removed. Work CitedGreen, Michael D., and Theda Perdue, eds. The Cherokee Removal: A brief History with Documents. New York: Bedford Books of St. Martins Press, 1995.