Wednesday, March 18, 2020
The Fire Sermon Analysis Essays
The Fire Sermon Analysis Essays The Fire Sermon Analysis Paper The Fire Sermon Analysis Paper Sofilda Totoni March 3rd, 2011 Lit 216 ââ¬Å"The Fire Sermonâ⬠Analysis. This section, and the longest of Elliotââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"The Waste Landâ⬠, depicts poor, gloomy, lethargic scenery in which the themes of lust, sexual ambiguity, moral degradation, spiritual melancholy, abound throughout the poem. The poet himself often embodies the role of ancient and mythological figures to which he alludes in order to strike the readers infatuation. He continually reminds us that beauty, love, passions which was once food for the soul, are turned to slaves of our egoistical, materialistic, relished physical needs. The central character is the poet himself who often takes on the roles of the Fisher King and Tiresias in order to convey his message. The other characters, Actaeon and Dian replaced by Sweeney and Mr. Porter, Thamesââ¬â¢s daughters, The clerk and the typist, Queen Elizabeth with her suitor Earl of Leicester;-all these are foil and flat characters who although taken from, and alluded to past, famous literary works, their presence and revelation is to unveil the narratorââ¬â¢s major themes and ideas. These characters are stereotypes or archetypes throughout the work. The scenery and images implied in the work play a major role in describing and interpreting the contextual setting of a pictorial framework. Elliot opens this section with the image of a river in late autumn, or early winter: ââ¬Å"The Riverââ¬â¢s tent is broke; the last fingers of leaf clutch and sink into the wet bank. the nymphs are departed. Elliot cites here Spencerââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"Prothalamionâ⬠with the line: ââ¬Å"Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my songâ⬠. He takes us to Spencerââ¬â¢s Thames and ââ¬Ëbridal songââ¬â¢ that suggests celebrating life and happiness along Thames. He quickly changes scenery and contrasts this setting with the one heââ¬â¢s witnessing. Heââ¬â¢s sitting by the Leman-French for Lake Geneva, where he witnesses degradation, elements of the modern world-ââ¬Å"empty bottles, sandwich papers, cardboard boxes, cigarette endsâ⬠. Then Elliot starts weeping. His tears are reference to a passage from the Bible, Psalm 137, in which the people of Israel cry by the river as they remember Jerusalem. The image of death and urban decay is further revealed:-ââ¬Å"a cold blast, bones rattle, and a rat creeps through vegetation /dragging its slimy belly on the bankâ⬠. The rat symbolizes grossness, filth, moral corruption of the modern world. The rat also illustrates Elliotââ¬â¢s spiritual world; he feels disappointed, belittled ââ¬Å"fishing in the dull canalâ⬠, and just like the rat who creeps through trash in search for food, the poet himself is in search for food for the soul, he wants to infiltrate through the rubbish material he is presented, and find the spiritual muse for his further works. Elliot takes on the role of The Fisher King alluding to Jessie L Westonââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"From Ritual to Romanceâ⬠and its description of the Grail Legend. The poet also combines the ââ¬Å"Tempestâ⬠Shakespeareââ¬â¢s drama elements which are also used in earlier lines of ââ¬Å"The Waste Landâ⬠in referral to Grail Legend. Musing upon the king my brotherââ¬â¢s wreck/and on the king my fatherââ¬â¢s death before him. The ill, impotent King Fisher embodied by Elliot, describes the wasteland that stretches before him: -white bodies naked on the low damp groundâ⬠and bones scattered in a little dry garret/Rattled by the ratââ¬â¢s foot only, year to yearâ⬠Once again, the rats appear again to portray a hell setting. Elliot proceeds to the allusion of John Dayââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"The Parliament of Beesâ⬠that describes the tale of Actaeon and Diana accordingly referred by ââ¬Å"Sweeney and Mrs. Porter. ââ¬Å"The sound of horns and motors which shall bring Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the springâ⬠Later on he alludes to Verlaineââ¬â¢s Parisfal , where Parisfal resisted the seduction of Kundry which in turn as a sign of respect washed his feet paralleling with the adulteress who washed the feet of Christ to be redeemed. It is evident that throughout these lines the love motif becomes apparent and indicative of young, passionate emotions which later on turn to lust and immorality. The next four bizarre lines: Twit twit twit/jug jug jug/ So rudely forcââ¬â¢d Tereu; refer to describe the sound of Philomela as nightingale. Twit, twit twit ââ¬âseem to recall a birdââ¬â¢s song. It all goes back inâ⬠A game of Chessâ⬠to the story of the woman who was violated and took her revenge. ââ¬Å"So rudely forcââ¬â¢dâ⬠refers to Tereuââ¬â¢s violation. The moral degradation goes on as the narrator takes us to another scene and image description. The ââ¬Å"Unreal Cityâ⬠takes the reader back to London. Mr Eugenides , the Smyrna merchant, carrying a pack of of forbidden mysteries, invites the narrator to luncheon at Cannon Street hotel and a weekend at the Metropole. The narrator then takes on the role of Tiresias, the ââ¬Å"Old man with wrinkled female breastsâ⬠. Elliot does it again. He evives, recasts once again mythology as a modern aspect to compare cheap sexual encounters with the pure and noble young love. Tiresias, the blind prophet, ironically sits back and watches the young clerk and typist indulge in sex and lust, looking beyond the potential romance that any relationship carries. ââ¬Å"Endeavors to engage her in caresses â⬠¦flushed and decided , he assaulted at once; Exploring hands encounter no defence; After the passionate sex has been consummated, the young man departs as a stranger creeping up in darkness ââ¬Å"gropes his way, finding the stairs unlitâ⬠. The young woman barely notices his departures, showing a gesture of indifference ââ¬Å"Well now thatââ¬â¢s done: and Iââ¬â¢m glad itââ¬â¢s overâ⬠-she feels alone, empty in vague, and lost in confusion-ââ¬Å" Paces about her room again, alone/smoothes her hair with automatic hand, And puts a record on the gramophoneâ⬠The musicality of the poem takes the poet and the reader to quiet, peaceful and relaxing places:-a public bar in Lower Thames/The pleasant whining of a mandolin/Where fishermen longue at noon/the walls of Magnus Martyr hold inexplicable splendor of Ionian white and goldâ⬠The splendor serenity is disrupted by the lamented song of Thames three daughters â⬠Weilalala leia-Wallala leialalaâ⬠. The poet here takes the theme and the story from Spencerââ¬â¢s Gotterdammerung ââ¬Å"The Rhine daughtersâ⬠. The three daughters sing and weep about their mournful love stories and betrayals. One of them recalls the promises her lover made ââ¬Å" He wept. He promised ââ¬Å"a new startâ⬠. She scornfully recalls and regrets those times with deep shame and embarrassment:- ââ¬Å"I can connect nothing with nothing. The broken fingernails of dirty handsâ⬠. Among the Rhineââ¬â¢s daughterââ¬â¢s tragic stories, Elliot recalls and brings back Queen Elizabethââ¬â¢s and Earl of Leicester relationship which although in reality characterized by a pure and noble-natured relationship, in the poem is depicted as heroic and passionate, thus following the trend of contemporary life. The author again alludes to past authoritative figures by means of irony and parody to whip the social occurrences and trends that ruin such purity and nobility. The poem ends with the references to St Augustineââ¬â¢s Confessions and Buddhaââ¬â¢s Fire Sermon which represent the western and eastern asceticism. Just as the title of this section of poem suggests, Buddha warned against surrender to the senses which are ââ¬Å"on fireâ⬠. When the disciple becomes purged of passion , he becomes freeâ⬠-Through metaphor, symbolism, and allusion the sermon thus serves as a lesson preached and delivered to the reader with a strong message: ââ¬Å"Do not surrender to the dangers of youthful lustâ⬠Elliotââ¬â¢s style, language and form makes him the father of modernism. His use of irony, satire, dramatic monologues, language slangs and shifts to foreign phrases; the quotations and citations to mythology, Old Testament, historical figures; the intensive notes which are deep and obscure, the musical tones that penetrate the poem;-these and other artistic elements give the poem a disjointed nature but unique at the same time. Citations and References: Elliotââ¬â¢s footnotes Eliot, T. S. (1963). Collected Poems, 1909-1962. New York: Harcourt, Brace World Gish, Nancy (1988). The Waste Land: A Students Companion to the Poem. Boston: The sixth edition of The Norton Anthrology of English Literature. Jennifer Sorensen Emery-Peck ââ¬Å"Tom and Vivien Eliot Do Narrative in Different Voices: Mixing Genres in The Waste Landââ¬â¢s Pub
Monday, March 2, 2020
Free Enterprise and the Role of Government in America
Free Enterprise and the Role of Government in America Americans often disagree about the appropriate role of government in the economy. This is demonstrated by the sometimes inconsistent approach to regulatory policy throughout American history. Asà Christoper Conte and Albert Karr point out in their volume, Outline of the U.S. Economy, the American commitment to free markets continually endured since the dawn of the 21-century, even asà Americas capitalistà economyà remained a work in progress. History of Large Government The American belief in free enterprise does not and has not precluded a major role for government. Many times, Americans have depended on the government to break up or regulate companies that appeared to be developing so much power that they could defy market forces. In general, government grew larger and intervened more aggressively in the economy from the 1930s until the 1970s.à Citizens rely on the government to address matters the private economy overlooks in sectors ranging from education to protecting the environment. Despite their advocacy of market principles, Americans have used government at times in history to nurture new industries or even to protect American companies from competition. Shift Towards Less Government Intervention But economic hardships in the 1960s and 1970s left Americans skeptical about the ability of government to address many social and economic issues. Major social programs (including Social Security and Medicare, which, respectively, provide retirement income and health insurance for the elderly) survived this period of reconsideration. But the overall growth of the federal government slowed in the 1980s. A Flexible Service Economy The pragmatism and flexibility of Americans have resulted in an unusually dynamic economy. Change has been a constant in American economic history. As a result, the once agrarian country is far more urban today than it was 100, or even 50, years ago. Services have become increasingly important relative to traditional manufacturing. In some industries, mass production has given way to more specialized production that emphasizes product diversity and customization. Large corporations have merged, split up and reorganized in numerous ways. New industries and companies that did not exist at the midpoint of the 20th-century now play a major role in the nations economic life. Employers are becoming less paternalistic, and employees are expected to be more self-reliant. Increasingly, government and business leaders emphasize the importance of developing a highly skilled and flexible workforce in order to ensure the countrys future economic success.
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