The virtuous cycle, according to Sherry Turkle in her essay “The Empathy diaries” consists of three main components, first solitude, second conversation and finally self-reflection. These components can be seen clearly in Yiyun Li’s essay “Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your life.”, where Li shares with us her experience with identifying her own self which is linked to solitude, opening up to others which is the conversation and finally her disagreement with people’s view of herself which is self-reflection. Showing us how she works through the virtuous cycle with the added component of time; the before and after concept in Li’s essay can be compared to the beginning and the ending of the virtuous cycle. However, human interactions and emotion cannot fit perfectly into a “cycle”, solitude will not always lead to confidence in oneself and conversation will not always provide rich material for self-reflection to provide for a more productive solitude. The virtuous cycle can break at any one of its phases.
The main concept in Li’s essay is her relationship with time and how it relates to different personalities. In the beginning of her essay, Li describes to us her fascination with the “before” and “after” concept saying “The certainty in that pronouncement-for each unfortunate of inconvenient situation, there is a solution to make it no longer be-both attracts and perplexes me”(Li 109). Finding a solution to every problem fascinates Li. Incorporating this
Time is a permanent fixture in our world. It is with us the moment we take our first breath and when we close our eyes for the last time. We use it to arrange events, change our appearance to look as if time has had no effect on us, and attach it to special moments in our lives . Szymborska explores our relationship with time, and our aspiration to rebel against it, in her works “Museum” (30), “Landscape” (70-71), and “The People On The Bridge” (218-219) found in Poems New and Collected (Szymborska, 1998) by portraying time as an antagonist, showing how humans fight time, as well as their attempts to achieve immortality through detritus objects and art.
time, the expression of thought and feeling through art and literature, and the political and
In the excerpt from the essay, “The Telephone” by Anwar F. Accawi, uses a variety of rhetorical forces that are expressed throughout the text. These rhetorical forces help the reader understand his positive attitude towards time. Although there are many present, some of the most prominent forces are stylistic devices like imagery, repetition, and similes He also displays a unique syntax, and rhetorical appeals like pathos occur in his text. His use of all these forces demonstrate the values he had as a child and how his traditions have shaped how he perceives life and time.
People are becoming busier as the technology developed, they use technology to work and live. As they access the technology, they would like to use imagination to create a virtual world and stay away from the real world. In the article “ Alone Together” written by Sherry Turkle, she argues that technology create imagination would affect the whole society in the virtual world and authenticity. She talks that technology developed makes human doute about intimacy, connectivity, authenticity and solitude. However, which is also happened on busyness. As human are busier than before, they begin to think about their imaginary playmate. In the article” Bumping Into Mr. Ravioli” by Adam Gopnik, he talks about his daughter’s imaginary friend Charlie
Theme: Time can be the perception of each person at each different event in their life
The main idea Stanley Kunitz brings to light is that life is a journey and it is always moving so living in the past is only holding you back. In Stanley Kunitz poem “The Layers” readers should learn that even though the uncertainties of the past is what has created you and what holds you down people
In Chapter 11, Sherry Turkle claims that the online words and massive multiplayer online role-playing games, gives virtuosity and fantasy- and something more; your performances put you at the center of a new community with virtual best friends and a sense of belonging. Most people that play the virtual game “A Second Life,” feel like their avatars are used as “practice” for real life. Their lives on screen may be play, but they are serious play.
This essay had alot of really meaningful sentences that really hit me and made me wonder certain things. When Alex said “humans are mere puppets on a string under the control of time and on the stage of earth”, it made me think of pinocchio and of the muppets, but it also made me think of how we aren't in control of time. Alex the author talks about how time feels like it slowly goes away when you have a hobby and i can totally relate to this because when i'm doing something i like i get so caught up in the moment that i don't even feel the time pass by. The author also says how when he was little, he was able to develop that mindset. How he was able to have fun and play outside and it felt like time stopped, but at the same time he wanted
We are cultured to believe that we must continuously be following the rules that have been set before us and we must respect our elders because they know what is best and we obviously do not. Mihaly Csikszentmihayli, a Hungarian psychologist who graduated from Clarement and the author of “The Evolving Self”, wrote an article which discusses the need to recreate ourselves into the best person that we can be as well as the many struggles that we face in trying to achieve the perfect self. His essay recognizes our own individual uniqueness as we try to generate some sort of harmony amongst ourselves. Csikszentmihayli mentions many ideas about both of these factors while Barbara Mellix, who has a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and taught
We can be in the company of other people or not but, can make a difference to the quality of experience we have; “If we learn to make our relations with others more like flow experiences, our quality of life as a whole is going to be much improved.” (pg.164). Culture seems to play a lot in optimal experience; “One of the major functions of every culture has been to shield its members from chaos, to reassure them of their importance and ultimate success.” (pg.11). If people start to believe that the progress is going to happen to matter what, then they can quickly lose courage in the first signs of adversity. It is not hard to observe these symptoms. Religions are seen to be something as successful for a short while to help cope with the meaning of life. We fear ourselves, we try to cover it up by with using many objects and ideas, but also with religion. Crimes, diseases, and many bad acts are increasing in numbers. We all have a future whether it be tomorrow or the next sixty years of an individual 's life. Though what can we do to improve our future? One answer to that question is to become independent of social environment to the degree that we no longer use rewards or punishments. To achieve this a person has to learn to provide the rewards for them self. There are many points to make throughout this book; that main point would have to be the human experience of joy and creativity in which the process is called
Memories are a humans’s small time-machines for traveling to their past at anytime. The relation found in Li’s story also in Villawood Mum’s about how they crossed boundaries physically but they kept holding on to their memories, their memories were the only bridge to their old lives. Crossing a specific boundary may not be just physical, it is also metaphorically and that’s has a giant impact on the psychological state. So when Li left his family and moved on to start his career in the Ballet Academy, he spent the first years in the school in remembrance of his old life and he didn’t move forward because he was stuck between his past and present. His family was always there with him and he mentioned that in this line: “I couldn’t stop thinking of my family back home.”(-p.118), his memories lived within him and the evidence is the acknowledgment of many details, stories and photos that are found in his autobiography. Photos are the best way to translate a moment and keep it alive for ever. Li had all his pictures kept and they are shown in his autography, and this can be related to the Villawood Mums, they’ve kept all their old photos and that’s clearly shown in the film, when Maria and Zahoor were talking about their old lives. The technique used is ‘symbolism’, because they used the images to present the importances of their memories that they had kept. So crossing the boundaries
In a self-exploration of one’s own past, Alice Carry analyzes the difference between her beloved past and the present. With time and age, things do not stay the same, because it is the natural cycle that cannot be avoided, however, it is those experiences from another time that make character set in stone. In her poem “Contradiction”, the speaker reminisces on her beautifully simple lifestyle growing up in a secluded town as opposed to the city life, but realizes that it has not changed her, despite the influences that come with a new environment. With stunning imagery of nature and evocation of the universal idea of home, Carry preaches how one has to accept that fate is inevitable.
In the reading, “Modern Perception of Time and Acceleration of the Pace of Life”, the author’s argument is that it is essential to pay more attention to the influence of ongoing changes on the life and activity of an individual, on the
The world goes by right before me. The movement of stitches of current people and events reveals moments of time that I had the privilege to see in my time. I no longer question why my existence was best place in this time, but rather, how I can best suit this destiny that was given to me. Inevitability of death is not fine print limp in the gift of life, but rather a push to craft morality that I can plant in this earth when I depart. The hardship that I face in my life is the disconnection of myself to others. Villon’s poem, “Everything but Myself”, reveals the ideas of witness the moments with in time, and being able to understand it’s existence, but lacking to connect it to one’s self. Currently, I am a stage Manager for a show at Mask
Erik Erikson, born in 1902, is a key German psychoanalyst primarily known for his theory of psychosocial development. His theory is laid out in eight stages with each stage focusing on a crisis. These crisis’ are major and are argued to be determining factors of a human’s social personality. Additionally, Erikson looks at virtues, who the person’s significant relationship is with at each stage in life, and what existential questions they are asking themselves. With this comprehensive theory however, we will see many stones unturned and his peers argue that it is too generalized. This paper will discuss each stage, where this theory has