Tolstoy's War and Peace evokes powerful contemplation about the meaning of life, of the nature of the human soul, and of the nature of suffering. In these excerpts alone readers can understand what Tolstoy was trying to convey through his characters' experiences. Both passages address the motif of h...

When Does Death Take Place Aging is inevitable. It is so important because, associated with aging is death. The death it is associated with however is a bodily death. In my opinion, there are many types of demise one has to deal with before they are actually dead. There is the death o...

Miracle The Afterlife is an area of human consciousness we all enter upon leaving the physical world at physical death. Throughout history we've questioned if there is a life after death. Along the way, our religions and various philosophers offered beliefs and opinions to answer this commonl...

Chillingworths physical appearance after living with Dimmesdale Chillingworths physical appearance ties directly into the meaning of the poem and the theme of retribution. It refers to the meaning of the poem because it directly shows that there is a punishment for all. Whether ones crime is ph...

EUTHANASIA IS IRREVERSIBLE: The writer starts by clearly defining the differences between direct and passive euthanasia and natural death, terminology that is essential to understanding the issue at hand. However, once established by the writer, these concepts seem to have little relevance to the re...

Jesus and Buddha both had dramatic experiences that transformed them into teachers and eventually led the founding of religious traditions. Both became teachers of an enlightened wisdom. Jesus became a wisdom teacher and social prophet, while Buddha's teaching became individualistic. This di...

Do we have an immortal soul? The point of the matter is that we never questioned the fact as humans in regards to what happens to our souls when we leave this earth. When we die many have wondered will my soul die or live on to some other place. The Bible states that when a person dies, "The s...

One indication of the protagonist's oppression is in the first sentence where she is named "Mrs. Mallard". Her husband is given a first name, but the protagonist's first name isn't revealed until much later in the story; she is only referred to as the wife of Brently Mallard. Later, as she is p...

Throughout the centuries mankind has displayed the Western attitude that nature must be conquered. In attempting to vanquish nature, our natural environment has been gradually destroyed. Because of man's attitude toward our planet, the earth's capacity to sustain life is jeopardized. In...

If you ask almost any group of adolescent girls what they think of themselves or their physical appearance. One word you probably never hear them say as a response is perfect. An adolescent girl can always find something wrong with their appearance or just themselves in general. That is because ...

Death is certain in life. No individual is guaranteed to live forever, at least on earth; therefore, death as well as immortality is a concern to every individual, including Emily Dickinson. She as well as many other writers creates images of death in their writings. Death poses many questions: D...

A Rose For Emily After World War II, there were many changes occurring in the world. Man's inherent need to follow tradition was now being challenged by a changing, modern world. The past and the present often conflicted. William Faulkner, a southern born writer, based a story...

All of us have baggage that we choose to proudly carry or shamefully shove in our deepest, darkest closets. We have possessions that are extensions of our own personalities and each have our own sob stories just the same. They all tell their own tales and have great meaning. In the first chapter...

Tuesdays with Morrie Do all good books that start with a question, end with an explanation? Or does trying to cap an explanation on to the end of a story prohibit the reader from being able to apply it to his or her own life. Do you ever have that question in the back of your mind? What does...

Poverty Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not being able to go to school, not knowing how to read, not being able to speak properly. Poverty is not having a job, it is fear for the future, it is living from ha...

In Chapter nineteen, natural forces that convey truth are represented through physical appearance. When Hester removes the "A", she experiences natural changes, similar to when Pearl is playing in the woods by herself and is naturally attracted to the flowers of nature. Hester becomes yout...

Mary Shelley's masterwork, "Frankenstein," tells the gothic tale of a curious scientist, Victor Frankenstein, yearning to mimic the life-giving act of Mother Nature. His creature does not turn out to be all that he expected, and the story deals with the conflict between Victor and his creature...

In "After Life," by Joan Didion, the author documents her experience of grief after losing her husband, John. Didion's purpose in her memoir is to understand her husband's absence and investigate the events that led up to his death. Through careful examination, it is revealed tha...

In The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, observation and investigation of life through physical facets prove inadequate in determining reality. As the narrators are forced to discover, infatuation-driven scrutiny leads to a flawed account of truth. The "acquainted" Lisbon sisters are...

We are living human beings, one species out of a million others that exist simultaneously on this planet. Life is something that has been a mystery to us higher beings since the beginning of our existence. Are we merely living beings, or do we have an afterlife existence? The precision of the bio...

Youth, a cherished period in one\'s life, is often encapsulated in words by scholars and poets. As early as the last century, Hiller, the famous German poet once said that the most important thing in one\'s life is to be loyal to his dreams during his youth. The author of this elegant piece of the a...

Plato contended that all true knowledge is recollection. He stated that we all have innate knowledge that tells us about the things we experience in our world. This knowledge, Plato believed, was gained when the soul resided in the invisible realm, the realm of The Forms and The Good. Plato's theory...

"The Necklace," a short story by Guy de Maupassant, is an example of how telling the truth can make all the difference in a person's life. In the story, Mathilde Loisel is introduced as "one of the pretty charming girls" (105). Because of her beauty, Mathilde believes that...

**Compare the Jewish laws and traditions surrounding death and mourning to those of another religious tradition: Death and Mourning are very difficult and personal times; they are times that require strength and courage. These times are faced in many different ways, depending on personal beliefs,...

since I was a child, I always wondered how the world was created. I can remember my mother taking me to church, where I learned about God and how in six days the world was made. But, it always seemed like the story being told to me was incomplete, or maybe I just wasn't willing to accept th...