Punishment and the Damned
Essay - 4 pages - Philosophy
It can be questioned whether the Greek and Roman people ever believed in their own gods. However, even such questioning cannot undermine the didactic value of their religion. Greek and Roman mythology thrived on storytelling; bards assumed the role of primitive priests, teaching moral...
"You are Defined by Those that Oppose You."
Thesis - 5 pages - Philosophy
It is arguable that today it is commonly, if subconsciously, accepted that nationality is the most important aspect of one's identity. Whether it is a national sports team, a national representative at Eurosong, a national author etc. one's nationality has become the most basic marker of...
William Butler Yeats and Gerard Manley Hopkins as Innovators
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
In literature there can be two major types of innovation, innovation in style and innovation in content. At the turn of the 18th Century innovations were huge as writers were creating what we now refer to as modernist poetry. Gerard Manley Hopkins and William Butler Yeats are two of the central...
Death and Identity in Ladakh and Rondônia
Essay - 3 pages - Philosophy
Every culture defines different entities and ideas in relation to which the individual can experience his or her identity and physical or mental substances on which one's identities are located. Mortuary rites described in Hiroaki Mori and Yukari Hayashi's film The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way...
Unconscious discord: The battle between modern Greece and its ideal in the mind
Essay - 4 pages - Modern history
In the 18th and 19th centuries, many men from the West journeyed to Greece, trading in their comfortable existences in Europe and America for exciting adventures where many risked their lives in the face of pirates, brigands, and plague; and for some of these men, traveling to Greece was by...
Racial stereotypes and their role in the concept of Manifest Destiny by Justin Herndon
Book review - 6 pages - Literature
The modern connotations of the concept of Manifest Destiny are generally of two diverging camps; One is a romanticized image of devout pilgrims, such as the Mormons, who left the crowded and sinful cities of the East for the freedom of the West, hoping to find a new promised land, or...
Matthew Barney or the Gesamtkunstwerk of the 21st century
Essay - 5 pages - Arts and art history
When talking or writing about the American artist Matthew Barney, critics and historians of art always start with the traditional biographic descriptions which in the case of Barney are quite pleasant and are justified by the fact that the artist himself uses autobiographic references in his own...
The ancient culture and history of the Mayan civilization
Thesis - 12 pages - Ancient history
The Mayan civilization was a densely populated and highly advanced civilization that thrived in Mesoamerica from the second century B.C.E., until the arrival of the Spanish in the 15th Century B.C.E. They had their base in the Yucatan and spread over present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala,...
The Odyssey in Song of Solomon
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon has a small but important feature that distinguishes it from its predecessors: unlike Sula and The Bluest Eye, its protagonist, Milkman, is male. While Sula and The Bluest Eye center on female characters, and locate themselves in domestic spheres, Song of Solomon...
Plato as a proto-feminist: Tendencies towards the development of feminist thought
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
The idea of Plato's Republic being one of the true first pro-feminist arguments seems to have some steam in modern times. However, there seems to be major flaws with these theories. The fact that modern feminism is not grounded in Platonic feminism is perhaps the most striking issue. For, if...
Ancient Egyptian astronomy
Thesis - 3 pages - Ancient history
Ancient Egypt is a very interesting culture. Like most ancient cultures, ancient Egypt placed lots of importance on the sky and the heavenly bodies. Unlike anything on Earth, the heavens seemed to be unchanging and all-powerful. The idea that the heavens were all-powerful was reinforced by the...
Abraham: Father of monotheism
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
The story of Abraham is one of the most important and prominent stories in Islam, Christianity and Judaism. This can be clearly seen by the fact that these three religions are often referred to as the Abrahamic religions. Abraham is often considered the father of the great monotheistic traditions...
Get thee behind me, A-bomb: Inverted Christianity and nuclear influence in a Canticle for Leibowitz
Thesis - 2 pages - Social, moral & civic education
It comes as no surprise that the thematic bulk of Walter M. Miller Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz is drawn from traditional Christian mythology and lore. Age-old Catholic hierarchy, the Latin language and Biblical quotations are used liberally to set an appropriately pious scene. From...
Assigning sex: The ethics of performing surgery on inter-sex infants
Thesis - 3 pages - Social, moral & civic education
Hermaphrodites have throughout history been in the center of mythology, scandal, and the perverse fascination of the public eye. They have been misunderstood and persecuted for centuries by those who are confused by their ambiguous genitalia. Today, such people possessing to some degree...