To the Lighthouse Essay Example for Free

To the Lighthouse Essay Style for the writer as well as for the painter is a question not of technique, but of vision, says French writer Marcel Proust in his book Le Temps Retrouve. Proust belongs to the league of early 20th century writers who rebelled against the structures of Classicism on prose by employing revolutionary styles in the narrative. Critics of Virginia Woolf trace her influence to Proust, among other figures who share her distinct conception of reality and experience albeit the fact that there was no direct correspondence between the two writers. Virginia Woolf is a very individualistic and visionary writer (Friedman, 1955). The apparent similarity between her theory of reality and experience and that of the popular claims of some of her contemporaries can only be accounted for by the fact that Woolf draws much from the zeitgeist. The idea of stream of consciousness, for instance, is not unique to her as Bergson, who authored ‘durational flux’, proposes the same idea that time is a continuous flux which is the theoretical basis for stream of consciousness (Friedman, 1955). Nonetheless, her work remained distinctly hers specifically in terms of her style. It is because for Woolf the creation and fulfillment of a vision rather than a practice of technique matters most. Her bearing as a writer naturally followed her vision, her philosophy on life, reality and truth. In her body of work, she demonstrated what Proust claims to be the fountainhead of style. A very critical essayist, Woolf was very vocal about her vision. In her essay, Modern Fiction, published in 1925, she voices out her opinion on the issue of spiritualism versus materialism by critiquing her contemporary English authors H. G. Wells, Arnold Bennett and John Galsworthy. She coined the label ‘Materialists’ from their apparent lack of vision, their concern for trivial, temporal things, which to her escapes Life. She regarded their craft with respect but it was the objective to which their efforts were directed that she strongly opposed. She emphasizes the capturing of the spirit (or, as she put it, â€Å"life or truth or reality, whatever we call it†) to be the essence of art. The absence thereof incites the question whether that piece of literature is worthwhile and enduring. Woolf believes the preoccupation with trivialities is a manifest submission to the tyranny of the classics, the tradition and the canon. This would mean stagnation and death. Woolf puts it better when she writes: â€Å"Movement and change are the essence of our being. Rigidity is death, conformity is death† (Woolf, â€Å"The Common Reader†). Described as essentially a â€Å"lyrical novel†, To the Lighthouse reflects the totality of Woolf’s vision of capturing the evanescence of life into prose (Mayoux 214). Critics of the novel refer to its non-prose qualities, i. e. its deviation from the conventions of unity of time, characterization and linear plot development, to describe novel which has a very thin plot. Williams (204) writes that the novel is more akin to poetry than prose because it attempts to ‘[make] the moment something permanent. † According to him, this is a province of poets, musicians and painters and not of novelists (Williams 204). Interestingly, one of the characters in the novel, Lily Briscoe, is an actual painter and her character gives insight into the workings of the novel. The external plot of the novel is unusually thin for its length. Bennett aptly constructs the summary: â€Å"a group of people plan to sail in a small boat to a lighthouse. At the end some of them reach the lighthouse in a small boat†(200). The novel is divided in three chapters. The first chapter, The Window, begins in summer at a vacation house by the sea, owned by Mr. and Mrs.Ramsay. On that occasion, their family along with a few friends gathered in the house for a party prepared by Mrs. Ramsay. Mrs. Ramsay’s son insists on going to the lighthouse, but Mr. Ramsay disappoints him by announcing that the weather would not permit them. The rest of chapter describes the dinner interspersed with the thoughts of each character. The second chapter, Time Passes, is a description of the house and the memory imprinted in it after the characters introduced in the first chapter went their separate ways. The chapter is devoid of character action except for the incidental visitation of the house cleaners. In the second chapter, Mrs. Ramsay’s death is announced. The third chapter, The Lighthouse, happens years after the first chapter. Mr. Ramsay, together with his children and two of their guests, including Lily Briscoe, revisits the summer house. Lily contemplates the completion of her painting as Mr. Ramsay leads his children on a boat ride to the lighthouse. The novel ends as Lily completes her work.

Causes of World War Two Essay -- WWII WW2 World War 2

World War two has to be the most famous war of all time. It was the largest, most tragic, horrifying of them all, and the first to have millions of people killed in the duration of it. Is it just me, or does it seem rather ironic that the very thing that was meant to solve the first World War is the most important of all of the causes of the second? And that the people who were supposed to fix the problems that that war caused were only really helping another along? The "war to end all wars" did not do that at all. Things like expansion and appeasement and the rise of dictators were obviously all for the war as well. So. Let me start with appeasement. Why was it such a large part of this war? There were so many people wanting so much that others had, and those that had it were forced to roll over and let it be taken. Because they were frightened. They were so scared of getting blown up that they would have handed over just about anything if it kept them alive. And mainly what people wanted was? more land of course! That was the expansionism part. They were the two things tha...

Analysis of “The Overachievers” Essay

College application season can be the most stressful period of time for any high school student. The combination of regret for not doing better in school, doubt in your own chances of admission, and the fear of rejection is enough to break even the most stable students. Author Alexandra Robbins, however, realized that the stress of college admission starts well before, as well as lingers well after, the actual application period. Through her observations, she concludes that the current education system is transforming students into GPA-obsessed, narrow-minded beings, and that the stresses of applying to a so-called â€Å"prestigious† university have a multitude of negative side effects. Her first argument concerns how colleges and the entire application system as a whole is systematically turning flesh and blood students into merely sets of numbers. She explains how students nowadays are only concerned about three numbers: their SAT scores, their GPAs, and their class ranks. She goes on to explain that the obsession with these three numbers is causing students to lose sight of what high school is really meant for; getting a sufficient learning experience while preparing oneself for the trials of college life. Instead, high school has become a mad dash for the best chances of being accepted into colleges. This trait is exemplified in AP Frank who, forcefully urged by his mother, took all 17 AP classes Whitman high have to offer, an inconceivable workload that required he skip his lunch period everyday. Going off on a tangent, Robbins also makes a point about the â€Å"no child left behind† policy and severely criticizes it for forcing teachers to focus more on test scores rather than actually teaching. Early in the book, Robbins personifies her aversion to turning students into numbers in the form of college admissions counselors. She believes that this group of people is the epitome of why the application systems are so flawed, and first puts forth this idea by introducing the reader to Julie’s college counselor, Vera. Vera is so obsessed about her personal image and is so convinced that Julie will never be accepted into her dream college based solely on her grades and test scores that she drops Julie as a client. Robbins’ second argument that makes multiple appearances throughout the course of the book is the assertion that the high amounts of stress experiences by high school students today is actually deadly. In the quest to be accepted into a prestigious college, students today take workloads that at times is too much, causing them to mentally snap. In this case, an unimaginable workload is put onto AP Frank by his oppressive mother, which Robbins states is quite common in East Asian countries, but not all the overachievers have had their workload put onto them. Audrey, the perceived â€Å"Perfectionist† doesn’t necessarily have as many reasons to be stressed as some of her classmates, but her mental state of having to do everything perfectly causes her to be under unnecessary stress. For example, it wasn’t mandatory that she spend all of her weekends and free time constructing the perfect bridge for her physics class, but her tendency to always want to be the best made it so. She spent time in which she could have been relaxing or decompressing on working vigorously. The resulting stress has been known to cause student suicide rates to rise around the world. Back at home, Julie also feels the effects as she notices that her hair has begun to fall out. She dismisses it as merely the side effects of her academically demanding life, but what she fails to realize is that stress-induced symptoms are the first signs of serious permanent damage and an increased likelihood that she will one day mentally break. Overall, Robbins points out increasingly detrimental flaws in our current education system, such as turning students into data and burdening them with potentially fatal workloads. She also presents the information in a sense that allows the reader to connect with the students of Whitman High on an emotional level, which, in the long run, better help the reader understand the severity of the situation.

The Dark Path Ahead - 1205 Words

Sneaking out of a window sounds easy enough. However, when it is the window of one of the most renowned thieves guild owners in this area of the world, it becomes much more difficult. Add to it that this infamous person is my mother, and it becomes a terrifying and dangerous adventure all on its own. That is correct, I, Tinuviel Goldstar, am the daughter and only child of the great Antinua Goldstar. She is always caught up in some plot, heist or party. Fabulously dressed all the time and running everything in and around our fair city of Shadeport, she is always off in her own little world. I have had enough of all the plots, plans, and rules for my life. I am not my mother and do not enjoy all the parties and craziness that is associated with them. With this in mind, I have decided to run away. I will discover my path and have all the adventures Ive been dreaming about for the last fifty years of my life. There are good things about growing up with a mother like mine. I have had training to rival most of the thieves in the guild. I have practised climbing in and out of buildings since I was big enough to have any interest in it. Unfortunately, my mother was the one to design our house, so it is a daunting challenge even for me. Luckily, with all that training, I have been gifted with some of the best climbing equipment available, legally or not, known to man or elf. Twenty tiring minutes later, I am safely on the ground, out of breath but exhilarated. Avoiding all theShow MoreRelatedEssay about Traveling Through the Dark by William Stafford1096 Words   |  5 PagesTraveling Through the Dark by William Stafford In his poem, Traveling Through the Dark, William Stafford presents the reader with the difficulty of one mans choice. Immediately, the scene is set, with the driver, who is traveling though the dark (line 1) coming upon a recently killed deer. 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This story contains a motif, which is the continuous walking of Phoenix Jackson throughout her journey. She lives in the pinewoods and faces the challenging experience of walking through the snowy, frozen earth to get to the hospitalRead MoreJourney Of Journey1383 Words   |  6 PagesIn â€Å"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening†, the speaker stops his horse in the woods that belonged to someone else to watch the snow fall through the trees before his long journey ahead of him. While we are busy with our everyday life we forget to stop and look around. For example, Frost says â€Å"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep. And miles to go before I sleep† (Schilb, 1300). People sometimes are too busy with getting their jobs done and fail to notice the beauty thatRead MoreThe Book The Seven Basic Plots : Why We Tell Stories1246 Words   |  5 Pagesplot types. However, this is not the type of death that concerns the tragedy. In this plot type, the death is â€Å"violent, premature, a death that is ‘unnatural’†. In other words, â€Å"tragically wrong†. This is the tragedy: the hero turns dark, twisted, and falls onto a path ultimately leading to his demise (Booker, 156). But simply having a tragic ending does not qualify a story as a tragedy. Booker claims that all tragedies must follow a simple formula consisting of five general stages: 1. AnticipationRead MoreSymbolism of the Journey989 Words   |  4 Pagesjourney as I tell of two short stories, â€Å"A Worn Path† and â€Å"I Used to Live Here Once†. One story will keep you in suspense wondering about this little old ladies purpose of walking a dark path, while the other story seems to be taking the character back in time to find she is only having an after death experience. As you read of the two stories, you will find they are similar in the fact that both have a symbolism of death. The short story â€Å"A Worn Path† surrounds the character Phoenix Jackson. The