Discuss attitudes toward nature expressed in philosophy, art, and politics through time. Both Confucian and Daoist philosophies show great reverence for nature, emphasizing a harmony between nature and mankind. Even though Confucianism is mainly concerned with human affairs, its values imply the great importance of respecting all life in nature; this attitude towards nature is most evident in many Confucian texts, which often make analogies relating human interactions with nature. For example, Mencius once said that “The woods on Ox Mountain were once beautiful. Because they were on the edge of a large country, they have been attacked with axes and hatchets, so how could they remain beautiful?” With communal responsibility as a core Confucian value, this quote implies that it is one’s duty to preserve nature so that future …show more content…
During this difficult time, one during which mass murder and rapings occurred, the Galloping Horse may seek to inspire patriotism among the Chinese, creating the momentum to endure and counter Japanese invasions. The horse is portrayed as young and strong, swiftly galloping with its tail flinging high in the air, symbolizing the unyielding spirit of the Chinese people in face of hardship. Furthermore, this painting carries a unique perspective, differing from the traditional flatter and more two-dimensional works. In the Galloping Horse, the horse seems to come out of the page towards the viewer, reflecting the unstoppable determination and unwavering perseverance of the Chinese people. While these two works of art were created during vastly different times, they are both filled with symbolism used to solve a contemporary problem; Xu Bing’s phoenix monuments aim to expose modern social disparities while Xu Beihong’s Galloping Horse aims to build patriotism during a harsh
In the short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, by David Herbert Lawrence, there is this family, as the family wants to keep their economic status, the mom want’s to have money all the time. The Mom has a mental mindset of the family being rich, as she believes that she has money, but in reality, the family is not rich and they have no money as they are in debt. The mom is unhappy as the parent's marriage is unsatisfactory, the mom thought she was lucky before she got married to her husband, so she thinks that her husband gave her bad luck. Both parents have no luck. The mom does not like her own children. The mom tells his son Paul, that she and Dad have no luck. This short story has many secrets that various of the characters keep from one another. In “The Rocking-Horse Winner”, the theme is a Moral Obligation as Hester the mom does not like her kids and only her and the kids know, Paul keeps from his mom that him, uncle Oscar, and Bassett have been betting on horse races and that the “Rocking-Horse” gives Paul luck.
The short story “Horses of the Night” by Margaret Laurence is told from the point of view of a young girl named Vanessa but mostly focused upon her older cousin Chris. Chris begins as an imaginative, optimistic, and hopeful boy set on his dreams for the world. As the story progresses, Chris is demoralized by life to the point where he no longer seems to be what he once was. The final breaking point appears when he begins to fight in the war and is sent home to a mental hospital after eventually going insane. A skillfully woven horse motif gives insight to Chris’s inner thoughts as well as the theme of the piece.
Let’s take David Henry Thoreau for instance. He was an old poet who lived in the beginning of the 1800’s. He loved writing and most of all, he loved being in nature. He lived in the wilderness on Walden Pond for almost two years. He experienced nature, wrote about nature, and in all technicality, escaped from the real world and society he was raised in to go explore and see what nature had to offer to him. Thoreau loves the goodness in nature and states that society as a whole can and is ruining it. A fellow colleague named Emerson also thought similar to Thoreau, and also sought out to see how beautiful nature is. Emerson in his writings, talk about how pure he thinks nature is and how he (and also Thoreau) believes that people isolated provides them to be essentially closer to nature and see they can see how pure it is and the purity it gives to people. To Emerson, being in nature can get rid of evil for he thinks that god gave nature to people as a present. He sees nature valuably and believed that men could essentially be completely relieved if only in and connected with nature. (Brandon
One of the emotional essentials of life is to be loved, and there are quite a few cases where material things can hinder receiving this much-needed love, the greatest culprit of all being money. D. H. Lawrence’s short story “The Rocking Horse Winner” tells of a boy, Paul, who desires love and affection from his mother, Hester, but she is so wrapped up in her concerns with money that she does not display any of this needed affection toward her son or any of her children. She has grown unloving and bitter due to her husband’s inability to meet her expectations, and she tells Paul his father is unlucky. Full of curiosity, Paul asks his mother what luck is, and she tells him, “‘It’s what causes you to have money. If you’re lucky you have money. That’s why it’s better to be born lucky than rich. If you’re rich, you may lose your money. But if you’re lucky, you will always get more money” (Lawrence, 2). Paul is quite intuitive and interprets that the only way he can finally obtain love from his mother is if he is lucky, much unlike his father. He proudly shares with his mother that he is lucky, but when she does not take his word seriously, he falls into a blinded rage as he madly rides his rocking horse, hoping it will take him to where the luck is, “‘Now take me to where there is luck!’” (3). By riding his rocking-horse, he knows which horse will win the derby. The association of love with money brings about the idea of a love for money, or greed, which is one of the seven
To ease one’s pain, humans will do anything to escape the negative emotions they feel, even if it is not healthy. In the novel Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, he effectively shows how Saul faces a journey of undoing years of isolation after his traditions and values are ignored by St. Jeromes, a residential school. This experience causes him a large amount of emotional pain. Therefore, Saul copes with his problems by escaping reality itself so he does not need to dwell on his negative emotions.
Every human to exists on earth experiences a moment in their life when they have felt immense despair, sorrow, or hopelessness. Whether it is from bereavement, depression, abuse, or trauma, the bitter feelings accompanied by those instances can quickly take over one’s life and suddenly, one becomes buried in dark emotions. At that moment, all the joy and happiness from previous instances in life diminishes, and suddenly the world seems dim. In the book, Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, Saul Indian Horse experiences similar emotions since the time he was captured by the white Canadian men and taken to St. Jerome’s Residential School. From the appalling abuse as a child to the ruthless racism as a young adult, Saul’s majestic Ojibway life that
One 's actions are first sparked by their goals and passions, but as they grow, outer forces invade those thoughts and make them clouded, their passions start to fade and eventually disappear. As children, we dream about what we want to be when we grow up. We have hope in our eyes, and nothing can hold us back. As we grow and learn, we are forced into realization of the harsh realities we live in, making our dreams sink. We must decide if we are going to let these forces knock us down, and conform to them, or stand strong and not take 'no ' for an answer. Margaret Laurence allows us to follow the development of Chris and how outer forces effect him in the short story "Horses of the Night".
Paul Taylor approaches “respect for nature” as a moral attitude, meaning that if an individual is unable to comprehend the “meaning and conditions of applicability” of the attitude, they are also unable to have the attitude as a part of their “moral outlook” (Taylor 103). “Respect for nature” is defined by two essential concepts, the good of a being, and the concept of inherent worth.
Adversity to give a person a valuable opportunity. Only the person who stands the test environment can be really strong. In the novel Indian Horse written by Richard Wagamese, the main character Saul Indian Horse is an Indigenous Canadian. He was forced to be separated from his family and sent to the residential school. There Saul was treated unfairly.
John Grady Cole, the last in a long line of west Texas ranchers, is, at sixteen, poised on the sorrowful, painful edge of manhood. When he realizes the only life he has ever known is disappearing into the past and that cowboys are as doomed as the Comanche who came before them, he leaves on a dangerous and harrowing journey into the beautiful and utterly foreign world that is Mexico. In the guise of a classic Western, All the Pretty Horses is at its heart a lyrical and elegiac coming-of-age story about love, friendship, and loyalty that will leave John Grady, and the reader, changed forever. When his mother decides to sell the cattle ranch he has grown up working, John Grady Cole and his friend Lacey Rawlins
Confucius’s complimentary behavior not motivated his disciples but also set forth the example of decency and citizenship within society. “I can try a lawsuit as well as other men, but surely the great thing is to bring about that there be no going to law.” (Confucius p. 70) Confucius stresses not only the importance of bearing down society with avoidable lawsuits, but also that the relationships between neighbors should be above petty differences and disputes. He continues to encourage the importance neighbors by counseling his followers about the perspective in which we view others. “The man of noble mind seeks to achieve the good in others and not their evil. The little-minded man is the reverse of this.” (Confucius p. 70) The goodwill of which Confucius wishes to implant in his followers is evident in his statements as he encourages optimism and
The people nowadays also abuse on what nature can provide to them. People are influenced by the western Culture, Man is more powerful and can have dominion over nature and that nature as they see become merely an instrument to satisfy human needs and wants. This kind of thinking or we can say attitude towards nature is called the “Anthropocentric Attitude”. Man reduce the value of nature as it is and it’s important because nature has made all things specifically for the sake of man and that the value of non-human things in nature is merely instrumental. An opposite thinking would be the Eastern Culture, for they value nature very well and they treat nature being one with them. This thinking or attitude is known as “Ecocentric
Confucius taught us to love others from the within the family to everyone else in the society. A man’s
While Qiu’s work depicts the prosperity of Suzhou in the middle era of the Ming dynasty, Zhang’s painting shows the daily life of people in Kaifeng during the Song dynasty. Qiu Ying’s buildings are more structured and grand, even the shops appear more spacious. The scenes in this painting represent an important page in Chinese history by combining the history and reality of a genre painting. So many landmark buildings in Suzhou are clearly recognizable which show the developed economy and traditions of the Ming dynasty and the artist’s own style. Qiu Ying uses the traditional blue-and-green style in this painting, leading to a beautiful picture which is filled with bright green mountains and clear blue
"What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument."