A Comparison of the Magic in The Rocking-Horse Winner and A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings :: Rocking Horse Enormous Wings Essays

A Comparison of the Magic in "The Rocking-Horse Winner" and "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings"   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Magic arises out of the two main characters of D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner" and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Paul, in the first story, pulls out higher forces to help him decide who the winner of the next horse race will be. In the Marquez story, a nameless and elderly angel lands on earth to experience first hand the human behavior he strives to correct. The magic in the air gives these stories a feeling of suspense. They are horrifying, if not in the Stephen King horror genre. These tales encompass an undeniable amount of magic, faith, greed, vindication and misunderstanding.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pelayo and Elisenda, in the Garcia Marquez yarn, find the soul retriever on his way to take their child to heaven, or so it is thought. The magical angel's identity had to be discovered by a neighbor of the couple because they didn't think that an angel could wind up on their land. Who would think of an angel landing? Meanwhile, Paul doesn't show when he discovers the magical power of the rocking horse he received as a gift one year. He does ride it often as Lawrence describes. The stories are bound by the fact that the magical things they discover are unbelievable at best. They often criticize Paul for his affection for a horse he should have outgrown long ago. No one would believe that the rocking-horse essentially talked to him. Although the characters in "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" believe that an angel is in their presence, they have no idea what to do with him. No one had ever dealt with a spirit on this level before.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As he rocked back and forth on his rocking horse, Paul had faith in finding the winner of the next horse race. For some reason they could not explain, Paul's uncle and Bassett had faith in him to pick it. They kept making money on the young boy with faith. The boy, whose parents had no luck, also had the faith that they did not have. Sadly, his faith killed him. He wanted so much to rid the house of the voices he heard that he drove himself to death from the intense pressure he placed upon himself. When he died, he killed the voices as the spiritual world claimed the only member of the family with luck.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" shows that the people in this small fan can have some level of faith without directly showing it.

Ethics: Hedonism and Pleasure Essay

1) The difference between physical and attitudinal pleasure is that one is something that you can hold and grab, while the other is something that is in your mind. To expand, physical pleasure is a temporary thing. For an example: Eating key lime pie. Eating this specific pie for some people give them pleasure because it tastes good; however, when the consumption is complete, the taste eventually goes away along with the pleasure. On the other hand, attitudinal, or psychological pleasure, is a perpetual kind of happiness instead of the momentary pleasure that physical pleasure gives you. Hedonists take the side that attitudinal pleasure is intrinsically valuable; however this distinction is solely based on the fact that attitudinal please has a more lasting effect then that of its counterpart. Yet, hedonists attract and claim this position because each person is different, and the freedom to follow what makes for a good life is individualistic. 2) The Hedonism theory claims that all pleasures are intrinsically good, and that nothing other than pleasure is intrinsically good. However my objection to this statement is that the overall life satisfaction is not acquired through experiencing constant pleasures, and that experiences life only through chasing pleasurable actions will only end unpleasant. Also, hedonism states that good is pleasure and bad is pain. In distinction, if having an appetite is painful (bad) and satisfying an appetite is pleasant (good), a person will experience both pleasure and pain when satisfying an appetite. Therefore feeling pleasure and feeling pain are not the same as doing well and doing badly. Page40-41 2) If I had the chance to get into the â€Å"experience machine† I would not, because the experience machine is known to counter ethical hedonism. Doing so would only be contradictory towards my belief of hedonism. One of the arguments against plugging into the experience machine is that the experience machine limits people to a man-made reality. Gaining enjoyment without actions defeats the purpose of experiences; therefore, residual happiness is destroyed because you had no drive or will to gain that happiness. 5) I believe the strongest objection towards hedonism is that feeling pleasure and feeling pain are not the same as doing well and doing bad. A hedonist would state that all pleasure is good and pain is bad; however, one can experience pain and pleasure at the same time, which makes neither of them good or bad.

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