Speech - The Meaning of Life Essay Example for Free

Speech The Meaning of Life Essay Is human life just a dream, from which we never really awake, as some great thinkers claim? Are we submerged by our feelings, by our loves and hates, by our ideas of good, bad, beautiful, and awful? Are we incapable of knowing beyond those ideas and feelings? Is the reality we know a reality imposed to us by nature? Are the reality and the meaning of life a creation of men, such as music, or love or colors? When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity that lies before and after it, when I consider the little space I fill and I see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am unaware, I rest frightened, and astonished, for there is no reason why I should be here rather than there. Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time have been ascribed to me? Love gives meaning to our lives as do friendship, or art or faith in God. These are factors of true happiness, of inner peace, of feelings of harmony, allowing meaning to our existence. But there is the other side. There is the cruelty of life, the pain, the evil, not to talk of death. When the Tsimtsum sank, not only was Pi shoved face to face with the unknown, but he also lost his family, the core of his human context. Instead, he had to try to survive. Life of Pi is a story about struggling to survive through seemingly insurmountable odds. Throughout the novel, characters are seeking the meaning of life. Pi abandons his lifelong vegetarianism and eats fish to sustain himself. Orange Juice, the peaceful orangutan, fights ferociously against the hyena. Even the severely wounded zebra battles to stay alive; his slow, painful struggle vividly illustrates the sheer strength of his life force. As Martel makes clear in his novel, living creatures will often do extraordinary, unexpected, and sometimes heroic things to survive. However, they will also do shameful and barbaric things if pressed. Exactly like humans. It is between these pendulums the positive, the one that gives happiness and meaning, and the negative that our lives are lived. And when we meditate about all that, we arrive at a diverse and disagreeing set of thoughts about the meaning and purpose of life. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your time and attention. I hope I have clarified the thoughts of some, to be aware of the vast world we live in and the astounding beings we truly are. Speak to others of your thoughts and knowledge; I am sure they will be willing to listen.

Celies Life and Hard Times. :: English Literature

Celie's Life and Hard Times. Alice Walker vividly portrays the sad but apparent reality of life in the black rural communities of America during the mid-twentieth century. It is a time when the impacts of slavery are still prevalent. The relationships within families - as reflected in the novel - also feel this impact. In search of a means to overcome their inferiority in a society dominated by whites, men usually have their womenfolk provide them with the feeling of importance that they desire (such as the practice of addressing their husbands as Mr.______). This attitude towards women is made obvious on the very first page, depicting Celie's perception of her stepfather, "He never had a kine word to say to me. Just say You gonna do what your mammy wouldn't" (1). As Celie's life progresses, having given birth to two children - both of whom were taken away by her father - she is wed to Mr.______ unceremoniously. Pa, one the basis that she was too young, rejected the request for Nettie's hand in marriage to Mr.______. Instead he offers Celie, claiming she was the more viable candidate on the following grounds: She ugly. He say. But she ain't no stranger to hard work. And she clean. And God fixed her. You can do everything just like you want to and she ain't gonna make you feed it or clothe it. (9) Beginning from that day on Celie's life took an ever-downward sloping turn. She endures seeing Olivia with a new mother, the animosity of Harpo, taking care of Mr. ______'s children, and his abuse. Her relationship with Mr.______ is such that it could hardly be called a marriage. She was to do just as he said, without so much as uttering a word of disagreement. She no longer possesses a zeal for life: "My life stop when I left home . . ." (85). Each day is just another chore During this time Nettie had also experiences some trouble at home with Pa. After she realizes that to remain at home any longer would be a compromise to her safety she runs away to Mr.______'s home. There she is welcome since Mr.______ still thinks Nettie to be very attractive - but for a while only - as Nettie does not give in to his demands. When Mr.______ drives Nettie away, Celie experiences a loss so profound that it would take many years to undo the damage done. Up until that stage in Celie's life none had ever expressed any concern over herself. It was Nettie who ensured that Celie was literate, that Celie received an education, that Celie was not pushed around by

Fear motivation Essay

If you remember the movie Office Space, you might remember this great line where Peter (the guy trying to get fired) says â€Å"If you motivate people by fear, they will do just enough to get by and not get fired. This is the saddest of all motivational factors. Fear of rejection, fear of loss of respect, loss of money and country club status. It’s related to the above motivations, but from a different perspective. People who are motivated by fear are motivated from a position of having made it and are afraid of losing it. Its real difference is in its motivational power. Fear can be a strong motivator. . It’s one of the oldest forms of motivation and one of the most powerful†¦in certain situations. Most fears today are intangible fears. They are extremely powerful for the very reason that they are hard to find. Humans react to fear or threat in many ways, but those reactions can usually be divided up into the two categories of Fight or Flight. That is to say that when people are threatened they will either attack the threat or run away from it. This of course can be done physically or mentally. As a tool to motivate people, fear has many disadvantages. Fear based motivation causes resentment resistance and revenge. It is seen for what it is, an attack. By its very nature, fear is not sustaining or sustainable without negative consequences. People who are motivated by fear will seek ways to extricate themselves from the situation that causes the fear. This will not always be done by fulfilling the desire of the ‘motivator’. Threatening someone that they will be fired if they do not do their job correctly may have an impact upon the person causing them to try to improve their performance. However, that motivation is based on external forces and it requires that someone always be there to impose the threat. Because of these things, Fear motivation is the weakest force in our motivation definitions list and is reserved for the week and uneducated individuals who attempts to gain power by force.

an analysis of the qualifications of an Epic Hero - 887 Words

An epic hero is someone who goes down in history as being brave, courageous, and obviously heroic. They don’t have to be asked to save the day, and often times, they aren’t even saving their own people. There are several epic poems that come to mind when thinking about European culture and where it came from. These stories are held as sacred to many different people, and will always be studied whenever the topic of government or culture comes up. In these poems, or stories, there is always a hero that the story is centered around, often times even named for. These heroes include Achilles, Odysseus, Aeneas, Socrates, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, and Arthur; there are certain things about these men that make them heroes. Achilles is the ideal hero,†¦show more content†¦439) Unlike Achilles, Odysseus is a king. He rules his country with a firm hand, but cares for his subjects. During the Trojan War, he is one of king Agamemnon’s highest ranking officers, and is a man who is constantly sought after for advice. One thing that makes him a hero unlike others is that he is willing to ask for help and is humble enough to take advice. â€Å"Odysseus is one of the first Greek mythic heroes renowned for his brain as well as his muscle.† (Education Foundation) This makes him all the more powerful as a ruler. Aeneas is one who few think of when naming epic heroes, but his story is much like that of Odysseus. â€Å"While the figures of Homers work might have been praised by the Greek tangibility Publius Vergilius Maro, a statesman and poet during the Pax Romana under Augustus would come to harshly criticize the Greek epic ideal and redefined what it meant to be a man with his hero Aeneas.† (Krause) He goes through struggle after struggle, and is constantly tested. His bravery is what defines him as a hero. He can seemingly endure anything. He must take a journey to the underworld, similar to that of Odysseus. When one thinks of an epic hero, they thing strong, brave, and handsome; Socrates is not the man who comes to mind. When it really comes down to it though, Socrates is more of a hero than the others previously mentioned. HeShow MoreRelatedFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 PagesHRM 28 PART 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 THE LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONTEXT OF HRM Equal Employment Opportunity 56 Employee Rights and Discipline 84 PART 3 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 STAFFING THE ORGANIZATION Human Resource Planning and Job Analysis 110 Recruiting 132 Foundations of Selection 154 PART 4 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Socializing, Orienting, and Developing Employees 182 Managing Careers 208 PART 5 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 MAINTAININGRead MoreMarketing Management130471 Words   |  522 Pagesmixer of ingredients. The ingredients in Borden s marketing mix included product planning, pricing, branding, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, promotions, packaging, display, servicing, physical handling, and fact finding and analysis. E. Jerome McCarthy later grouped these ingredients into the four categories that today are known as the 4 P s of marketing, depicted below: Marketing decisions generally fall into the following four controllable categories: †¢ Product †¢ †¢ †¢ Read MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pageslamentable. Taken together, the key themes and processes that have been selected as the focus for each of the eight essays provide a way to conceptualize the twentieth century as a coherent unit for teaching, as well as for written narrative and analysis. Though they do not exhaust the crucial strands of historical development that tie the century together—one could add, for example, nationalism and decolonization—they cover in depth the defining phenomena of that epoch, which, as the essays demonstrate