How should we live, in order to "live a good life"? For someone such as Albert Camus, author of The Myth of Sisyphus, living a good life would involve living freely. Camus believed strongly that we as humans should not hope for anything. Nothing is guaranteed to us; we could literally drop dead at any moment. Camus believed everyone should live in the moment. His essays suggest we should accept whatever our actions result in, no matter how bad it is; as long as we find happiness in the present,…
The book first opens up to Mary Hunter diving into Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. In Hunter’s words this opera participates in what she calls a theatrical conversation which involves the composers, librettists, performers, and the audience. Ms. Hunter attempts to eavesdrop on said conversation to show the reader how the opera buffa was able to behave as entertainment in Vienna. She also states that studying opera buffas as entertainment does not mean that these works have any less artistic value…
Research Note #2: “The Most Photographed Barn in America” Paragraph A: In this passage extracted from the novel White Noise, the author, Don Dellilo describes Jack and Murray’s visit to a tourist attraction known as the most photographed barn in America to exhibit the significance of perception in addition to humanity’s lack of awareness regarding reification. The first paragraph establishes the scene in a countryside with a “MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA” sign, the presence of animals and…
People are intrigued by the thought and sight of a disaster occurring in the world around them. The more horrible images people see and stories they hear, the more legitimized they feel as human beings. In Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise, characters are often mentally drawn towards events and thoughts of disaster. I myself have witnessed and experienced disastrous events that have shaped my gratitude toward life. When reflecting on the calamities that I have been apart of, I feel grateful to…
What caused the explosive confrontation, in public, between the Cossacks and the Bandidos? Motorcycle clubs in America have a long history of civil conflict. In this outlaw culture, violence is normal and frequent; however, these stories rarely make the news due to witness intimidation and the clubs’ inferred code of silence. Outlaw motorcycle clubs live by their own set of laws, and the patches that they wear are held sacred; any act of disrespect toward a clubs patches is considered to be the…
In 1971 Don McLean wrote “American Pie” to remember America as an idyllic country in the 1950’s. McLean wanted to give listeners a snapshot of what the 50’s and 60’s was like while touching on a few of the more memorable events of the era, from his perspective, it was a time of fantastic music and great musicians that McLean wanted to pay homage to. “American Pie” had a deep personal meaning to McLean, it was going to be the last album that his producers were authorizing him to record and he…
Christian Martinez Professor Ingrid Jayne English 205 July 25, 2016 Living a Simulated Life in White Noise Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise is an outsider’s look inside small town America through the eyes and ears of its first person narrator Jack Gladney. Jack is a middle-class, middle-aged white male academic, who basks in the achievement of having created a department of Hitler Studies. He lives with his current wife, Babette, and an assortment of children from their previous marriages.…
In “Mutability”, by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and “She Walks in Beauty”, by Lord Byron, the sonnets show the simple beauty of natural humans and how complex it can be. In “She Walks in Beauty”, the woman is analyzed through contradictions from “dark” and “bright”. The sonnet emphasizes on how someone’s beauty is perfection because amongst all the darkness, she still illuminates with her purity. Byron is viewing this woman through exaggeration of unnatural beauty, but somehow her contradicting…
As with anything surrounding the genius and mystery of Mozart and his creations, we can really only guess at the truth. We don’t have any certain way of knowing what happened or how any of his pieces were actually composed. We have only to guess. Bearing this in mind it is best to play it conservative and use the few facts and accounts we are given, take it with a grain of salt, and imagine what it could have been like to see Mozart work. One such piece especially shrouded in mystery is The…
ever be recognized as much as he is today for his work. There were three poems from Lord Byron that were studied during class. There were three main messages in She Walks in Beauty, From Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage Apostrophe to the Ocean, and From Don Juan. First of all, there was one main message in Byron’s poem, She Walks in Beauty. The message that was most apparent in my opinion, was that in most cases, guys want the one thing they cannot have. It becomes apparent that the more a person…