The Norton Anthology of World Literature Essay - 659 Words

The Norton Anthology of World Literature not only makes available valuable lessons and words of wisdom, but it shares experiences from around the world. These ageless writings allow generations to encounter a heritage of tradition and culture all within the confines of its pages. The anthology’s variety offers multiple characters and ideas to explore, while each selection contains notable and impressionable material. The collection’s most memorable content presents larger than life characters and priceless lessons in Gilgamesh, astute ideas and guidelines to live by in Confucius, and the universal experience of an impassioned relationship outlined in Lyrics. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the†¦show more content†¦He exemplifies this in Book I as he demonstrates a way of detecting a man’s true conviction to his moral and ethical principles. Confucius attests that by comparing a man’s actions before and after his father’s death, eventually the true measure of his character comes forth (Book I: 11). Confucius means to convey that to self-govern, by knowing your core values and holding fast to them at all times, defines integrity in its purest form. By this, he implies that integrity exemplifies a notable concept to strive towards through a lifetime. The memorable content of Book II provides valuable words for guidance through life. The Master offers advice for the teen years, mid-life, and for the later years (Book II: 4). He first recounts how he spent his younger years learning. He then states that in his middle years, he developed a conviction which, in return, rewarded him with confidence. Finally, in his later years, he comes to understand that Heaven brings the process to an end and he makes peace with that recognition. Further along in the anthology, Catullus’ Lyrics shares an entire cycle of a romantic involvement that ends badly, the same type of relationship universally witnessed first- hand or through acquaintances. Catullus demonstrates the highs and lows of his impassioned emotions as he asserts that he loves and hates simultaneously (85: 1-2).Show MoreRelatedFrom The Norton Anthology Of World Literature Book The Epic Of Gilgamesh 865 Words   |  4 PagesThose Meddling Gods Through the sampling of readings from The Norton Anthology of World Literature book, one could come to the realization that in a majority of those stories, the deities seem to influence or even control the outcomes of the heroes, often in a negative manner. In the first epic, Gilgamesh encounters the gods at various times, and in The Iliad, the gods manipulate the Greeks and the Trojans for their own desires and wants. Two understand how the gods influenced our hero, GilgameshRead MoreEssay about The Classic of Poetry957 Words   |  4 PagesThe Classic of Poetry is a collection of old Chinese literature that has been rewritten and renamed into the Book of Songs/Odes. (â€Å"Norton Anthology of World Literature† 812) This collection of poems seemed to become popular around the beginning of Confucianism. Confucianism is the concept of centering one’s life or work on authority figures, family, and friends. The expression of Confucianism is best seen in the work of Tu Fu. Confucianism is wide spread throughout the Classic of Poetry.Read MoreThe Enlightenment Was A Time Of Rapid Changes That Took1306 Words   |  6 Pagesthis era of vast changes, literature was also influenced. Many writers were either for the new philosophies or against them. Molià ¨re and Voltaire were writers that were against the changes of the Enlightenment. They showcased this in their works Tartuffe and Candide. These works focused on the Enlightenment changes in society by religion and politics. The Enlightenment began in the seventeenth century according to Norton Anthology (3). The Norton Anthology to World Literature claims that the EnlightenmentRead MoreEast Vs. West Literature Essay931 Words   |  4 Pages2332 25 October 2016 East vs. West Literature Essay   Ã‚  Ã‚   Eastern and Western Literature has so many unique characteristics of their own. Eastern Literature usually deals with epics such as The Ramayana and Confucius. While Western Literature typically are epics like Beowulf, The Odyssey, and similar characteristics are also in Gilgamesh.   These types of literatures are so rich in their text and have so many different beliefs.   The Eastern and Western Literature compares throughout topics like genderRead MoreEssay on Mmmmmmmm734 Words   |  3 PagesRomantics in Their Time Literature does not occur in a vacuum but is generated in response to forces in the larger culture. Resource: â€Å"The Romantic Period† (pp. 1363–1884) in The Norton Anthology of English Literature Write a 1,400- to 1,750-word paper in which you develop specific answers to the following questions: †¢ Many possible forces can shape a society. Which forces is Romantic literature responding to? †¢ What answer or answers does Romantic literature offer regarding these forcesRead MoreSongs of Good and Evil1545 Words   |  7 Pagesprivately published his first collections of poems, Poetical Sketches, which Blake wrote over a period of fourteen years (William Blake Biography). In August 1782 Blake married Catherine Boucher, with whom he fell in love at first sight (Encyclopedia of World Biography). Blake taught Catherine to read and write, and she later became his assistant. Blake wrote Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience in 1794. With the help of his wife, Catherine, Blake hand-engraved his poems and paintings on a bronzeRead MoreNative Americans and Early American Colonists Essay652 Words   |  3 Pagesalliances with explorers and settlers to further their own interests and disputes with warring tribes and peoples. William Bradford (1897) describes quite a different account of his coming to the new world. He was part of a group of â€Å"pilgrims† seeking religious freedom. He likens their arrival to the new world, to the story in Acts were the apostles are met with such aggression from barbarians â€Å"who were readier to fill their sides full of arrows† (pg. 60). Later on in his account, he describes an attackRead More Waste Land Essay: Eliots Use of Different Speakers681 Words   |  3 Pagesof varying viewpoints, but also a sort of anthropological description of post-World War II Europe. For instance, Eliot gives a picture of the rootlessness experienced by many Europeans in line 13: Bin gar keine Russin, stamm aus Litauen, echt deutsch.    One of the most important aspects pictured through the use of multiple speakers in The Waste Land is the emptiness of sexual experience in the modern world. This is pictured, for instance, by Tiresias description of the seduction ofRead MoreWilliam Wordsworth and John Keats Essay1170 Words   |  5 Pagesselect two pieces by each writer and interpret how each writer feels about nature, and from my conclusions I will be comparing and contrasting their individual views. From Wordsworth I’ve chosen his â€Å"It is a beauteous evening† and his â€Å"The World is too much with us†; from Keats I’ve chosen his â€Å"Ode to a Nightingale† and his â€Å"Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art†. William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumberland in a lake district of modern EnglandRead MoreThe Universal Truths on the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Hebrew Bible596 Words   |  3 PagesChristopher Gilchrist Professor Ms. Alyse W. Jones World Literature I - English 2111 October 7, 2012 The Universal Truths on ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh amp; The Hebrew Bible’ The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Hebrew Bible are considered by their audiences’ as two of the greatest literary works of ancient literature. The universal truths on The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Hebrew Bible, are most fundamental when viewed from both the contemporary and traditional audiences. Fundamentally, both audiences