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Trauma

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       "I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed upon my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating presence, because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew." (Conrad 1052)      This excerpt takes place upon Milow's return to London from the Congo. During his time in Africa, he experienced many traumatizing events, such as the oppression of the Africans and an attack upon his steamboat in which his helmsman died at his feet. This journey left a deep impression upon him that lasted long after he had returned.           This passage reflects upon the interesting concept of trauma and its lasting effects. Things that once seemed normal are no...
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Butterfly Effect

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      "That was memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day" (Dickens 58)                                  - Pip, Great Expectations      Pip writes this after recollecting his first day visiting Miss Havisham. This day was very important to the course of the novel, as it is this visit that inspired Pip's dream of being a gentleman and where he met Estella. Without this, Pip's life would have turned out very differently.     The butterfly effect is a law of sorts stating that seemingly minuscule events can drastically change ...
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The Danger of First Impressions

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                                                                         "How despicably I have acted!" she cried. -"I, who have prided myself on my discernment!-I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity in useless or blamable mistrust!-How humiliating is this discovery!-Yet, how just a humiliation!-Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly.-Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment I never knew myself." (Austen 154)     This monologue from Jane Austen's Pride ...
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The Power of Nature

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  The Power of Nature The Wye Valley (Country Life) 150     "If I should be where I no more can hear 151     Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams 152     Of past existence-wilt thou then forget 153     That on the banks of this delightful stream 154     We stood together; and that I, so long  155     A worshiper of Nature, hither came 156     Unwearied in that service: rather say 157     With warmer love-oh! with far deeper zeal 158     Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget, 159     That after many wanderings, many years   160     Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs, 161     And this green pastoral landscape, were to me 162     More dear, both for themselves and thy sake!"   (Wordsworth lines 150-162)      This excerpt from the po...
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