In world practice, there is probably no other topic, common, provocative, diverse, or centuries-old, as love or its absence. Hence, it is essential to consider how different authors have described love. Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway, depicts the story of a man and a female waiting for a train in Spain while having a beer and anise liqueur. The protagonist attempts to persuade his beloved to have an abortion, but she is doubtful. Their short, caustic conversation adds to the story’s intensity and overall retrospect to the concept of love (Damrosch 57). Therefore, in these two stories, the theme of love is portrayed in the same way; it is illuminated because of sadness and problems.
In many ways, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is the story of family life. At the beginning of the creative reading, one can read about several married couples sitting around a table, drinking gin, and the consequences of “what is love” (Damrosch 54). There is nothing supernatural about Carver’s stories, except that he writes about ordinary people. The author portrays lovers and family life as men tired of their wives, work, and suspicious bills and wives tired of their husbands, of their perpetual drunkenness.
In the short story Love in L.A., the topic of love is depicted differently. The main character is lonely, which is why he meets a woman and flirts with her. Thus, in Love in L.A., the theme of love is represented because of the protagonists’ desire to relieve loneliness rather than receive authentic feelings. The short story does not present pure and genuine love. However, in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love and Hills Like White Elephants, the authors describe authentic feelings, even if they have significant problems. The theme of the oppressiveness of marriage is described in Story of an Hour. The characterization of love and marriage is similar to the one Carver presented (Damrosch 82). Therefore, marriage and love are portrayed negatively, and Mrs. Mallard’s weak heart symbolizes the weakness of feelings and their union. In the sonnet Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? Shakespeare portrays the stability of love, which distinguishes it from previous authors. Accordingly, Shakespeare described love as the best feeling that could help overcome all challenges. Thus, all the authors except Shakespeare portrayed love through sadness and suffering.
Work Cited
Damrosch, David. How to Read World Literature. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.
Samuel Tilden In The Controversial 1876 Election
After the Civil War, a period of political instability began in the United States. The country faced the task of restoring relations between the federal government and southern states, and this political process was called Reconstruction (Conlin, 2013). By the 1876 election, the population was significantly tired of Reconstruction and the accompanying tensions (Greenfield, 2003). An unstable environment led to a controversial election, which Morris (2003) called stolen. New York Governor Samuel J. Tilden, a Democratic candidate, and Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, a Republican candidate, participated in the 1876 election (Conlin, 2013). Tilden won the general election and electoral college, but because of disputed votes in the territory of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, his victory was disputed. Congress created a commission to resolve the issue of the presidency, where Republicans gained an advantage (Conlin, 2013). Although Tilden could challenge the result, he decided to cede the post not to increase the tension in the country.
The 1876 election was among the most contested and debated. Many researchers conclude that Tilden won the election despite the commission’s decision and controversy (Greenfield, 2003; Morris, 2003). Morris (2003) claims that Tilden was a patriot and honest politician who advocated fair play and had numerous achievements, including the destruction of the Tweed Ring. However, due to the desire for fair rules, he did not challenge the result and could not become president. Although both parties used deceptive methods, in the end, the Democrats decided to concede (Greenfield, 2003). Tilden said he did not want a new war and the destruction of free government (Greenfield, 2003). Thus, the controversial election of 1876 can be considered stolen according to many researchers, but Tilden conceded the results without fighting for them.
References
Conlin, J. R. (2013). The American past: A survey of American history. Volume II: Since 1865 (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Greenfield, J. (2003). Hayes’s ride: In 1876, a Democratic candidate won the presidency, but, through a lack of nerve lost the recount. Sound familiar? Washington Monthly, 50-52.
Morris, R. (2003). Fraud of the century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the stolen election of 1876. Simon and Schuster.
Importance Of Dreams Analyzing
Introduction
Dreams are natural experiences whereby people can picture themselves doing various activities while asleep. According to the self-organization theory, dreams are due to the organization of incongruous and discontinuous neural signals to form a narrative while asleep (Zhang & Guo, 2018). Although dreams are independent from a person’s function, they represent the dreamer’s psychosocial and psychological activities, such as emotion, memory, and how they perceive external stimuli. This study will analyze a sleeping journal and use theories to interpret dreams.
Analysis of the Journal
One notable thing is that I do not go to bed at the same time every night. Sometimes I go to bed as early as 8 PM, while on other days, I may be late and sleep at 9:30 PM. I noticed that I would likely go to bed early when l was tired. However, when I am not tired, I tend to stay awake for long hours before going to bed. On average, I sleep for 8-9 hours which is enough sleep to give the body a rest. I noticed that I had a high possibility of dreaming when I was tired. According to Zhang & Guo (2018), the best sleeping hours for an adult is between 10 PM – 11 PM because it has health benefits for the heart. During this time, the body achieves the optimum benefits because it matches well with the cardiac rhythms and daytime exposure. Thus, to improve my sleep, I should change my sleeping time from 9 PM to 10 PM so that I can gain health benefits from sleep.
I analyzed my dreams and found that they would likely match my daytime events or thoughts. On day one, I dreamt with my friends playing football because we had a lengthy sports day in school. I can easily connect the dream with the day’s events because the characters in the dream were dressed the same way they were during the day in the sports event. The third dream was about classwork and connected to my daytime activities because I had spent the whole day in class.
Application of Theory
There are various theories which explain and interpret why people dream. Simgud’s theory states that dreams represent people’s desires, motivations, wish fulfilment, and thoughts (Zhang & Guo, 2018). Thus, people are driven by unconscious longing such as sexual and aggressive insticnts. This is evident because most of my dreams were driven by my daily activities, which act as my thoughts and motivations. For instance, on a sporting day, I dreamt playing football because we had spent the better part of the day playing ball.
In addition, dreams aide in memory according to the process information theory. The theory states that when people are asleep, they consolidate and process information collected during the day. Thus, when a person dreams, they process or organize information. During this process, memories are either strengthened or weakened depending on their importance. The important memories are strengthened through dreaming while weaker ones fade away. This is evident because, on the third day, when I dream of having exams, I strengthened my memory of the context learned and could remember it vividly on the following day.
Conclusion
According to Sigmund’s theory, dreams have a significant meaning in life as they help keep the most important memories and let the less important ones fade. However, when a person is more tired, they are more likely to dream than when they are not tired; which implies the body and mental activities of the day determine a person’s ability to dream. Thus, this study has found a connection between daytime activities, meomories, motivation and dreams.
References
Zhang, W., & Guo, B. (2018). Freud’s dream interpretation: A different perspective based on the self-organization theory of dreaming. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(1553).