A Life Lived

Annie Dillard, in Holy the Firm, digests the world around her and uses this as fuel in her journey to defining God and what God means to her. Although this novel takes place over only three days (examined in the three parts of the book) her thoughts are stated extensively throughout the text. Although it may seem difficult to understand at times, Dillard’s exploration of nature (which is caught up with her search for enlightenment) is shifted to reflect her journey’s stage at each section of this novel. The first section of the book is named Newborn and Salted. Dillard begins the passage with describing each day as a god. She sees every day in terms of the nature which is in it. Dillard states, ‘The god lifts from the water’ (12). Instead of describing the day in regular terms, Dillard describes the day and what she sees as the presence and manifestation of God. She introduces where she lives- Puget Sound and describes the Pacific, the god’s breasts rising from pastures, his finge...

“Poetry is finer and more philosophical than History; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular,” once stated the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Derek Walcott has explored a variety of themes and ideas in his plays and poetry. Of note, however, is the emphasis which Walcott places on not only the History of the Caribbean but the construction of the identity of the Caribbean person. The Nobel Prize in Literature 1992 was awarded to Derek Walcott "for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment". Derek Walcott’s laureate speech reflect the construction of the Caribbean identity as expressed in a number of his poems. The construction of the Caribbean identity begins with acknowledgment and acceptance of the past. Construction means the action of building something and comes from the latin word construee which means to heap together . Walcott demonstrates in his poetry that bef...

There once was a poor Indian man named Raj who lived with his wife Baby in a village called Moruga in the deep south of Trinidad. They lived in a small house surrounded by lush green grass and steep, brown hills. In fact, they had no neighbors for miles except a quiet, old lady who lived alone on the other side of the hill in an even smaller house. She never came outside and there were even rumors that she was a  soucouyant .  Raj and Baby  were married for a long time and longed bitterly for a child. Raj wo...