The Role Guilt Plays in Franz Kafkas The Trial Essay -- European Lite

What is guilt? Is Josef K. guilty? What is he guilty of? All of these questions come to mind when you read The Trial by Franz Kafka, but they are not easily answered. The question of guilt is a theme that runs through the entire novel, and it serves to enlighten the reader as to what, I believe, Kafka is trying to say. So what is Kafka trying to say? If one looks at the opening sentence, in the light of the rest of the novel, I believe that it helps to clue us into Kafka's message. The fact that K. believes he has not done "anything truly wrong" (3) harkens back to the question of guilt. So because K. feels he is not fully guilty of anything, why is he hounded by the law? This is where the main theme of the book comes into play in my opinion. Kafka wants us to recognize, with the help of the opening sentence, that K. has done something wrong: he has lived an unexamined life dominated by routine, normalcy, and other people. This is what K. is guilty of. Is living an unexamined life "truly wrong?" I think that Kafka is arguing that it is wrong because by leading that type of life one is merely walking through life blind and not reaching our full potential. The first inkling of the fact that K. lives his life with blinders on, focused merely on the day to day, is his lack of recognition about a number of things. He does not know if he might have committed some minor infraction for which he is now being arrested. He does not realize that the guards are men that work at the bank with him. Later on his way to the court for the first time he makes the realization that he noticed something he normally would not have. All these things point to the fact that K. just goes about his business and day to day affairs with out care for his su... ...comes quite evident. Kafka is calling for all of humanity to stand up and take control of their own lives. Through self-examination, Kafka believes, that we can come to terms with some personal truth that gives this life meaning. For years people have looked to worldly and spiritual vehicles to find meaning, Kafka is urging that we instead turn inside to within and find something in our own humanity that gives this life meaning. Much like Goethe, Kafka believes our free will is what makes us human, and the exercise of free will is what makes or lives truly meaningful. So, do not rely on the whims of the governing or even the church; make your own decisions. Kafka urges to decide every day how you are going to live your life and then do it because you never know when the Day of Judgment may come. Works Cited Kafka, Franz. The Trial. New York: Schocken Books, 1998.

Belief Systems: Self Uniqueness Meets Religion

In noting one’s particular belief or belief system, it is important to establish that this system of beliefs must not necessarily collide with or fit into one of society’s major organized, historical, cultural, and traditional religions, such as Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, or Islam.Every person’s unique belief system is different from person to person, even within these larger religious groups, and my own personal beliefs, although able to be described as religious, must not certainly be so described, as each person is definitely unique and learns about life and creates one’s beliefs based on a multitude of personal lifelong and complex experiences, sources, and associations.In addition to the uniqueness of belief varying from individual to individual based upon the differences in self and environment by which a person moves through life, there is also the element of mental assimilation and accommodation as an ongoing process which needs to be viewed in full consideration. If beliefs change based upon knowledge obtained or formed and events experienced, even also in the biology of the person, then the movement of a person through time and development must also be considered.No person, place, situation, or belief system is static, rather it evolves and morphs with the colorful variation and change of humanity on a grand scale as well as on an individual scale. The uniqueness and changeability of the universe from day to day lends insight into the uniqueness and changeability of personal views. This is not to say that there are not beliefs and truths which are more constant or reliable, however, one must be ready to adapt these more constant truths to modern human society, which is always in flux.One belief, out of the hundreds or thousands interrelating ones which I probably have, is the unnecessary nature of school and educational institutions in general. Although this belief may change in time, as of this moment, I see forced s chooling as being a ridiculous concept, as are all forced or mandatory activities which strip the individual of free choice.My belief in unschooling, best illustrated by John Holt’s theories and the Unschooling. info website, basically suggests that each person should be free to live and learn on one’s own terms, handing over the precious responsibility of self direction in education to parents and their children, and rightly stripping from the hands of the government and other agencies towing the line of forced education, learning, or belief structures.If one must characterize this belief of mine in unschooling as being religious in the sense that it is practiced or believed regularly, then it is right to acknowledge that my belief in and positive regard of unschooling has been fairly regular and constant for the past several years, and I find affirmation in the stories of other people who also share my beliefs. I subscribe to groups, learn from online resources, and mingle with individuals who share this belief system.The belief I have in unschooling is rooted primarily in my dissatisfaction with other people telling me what to do from day to day for so long in my life, the primary group of which were teachers and professors in schools and universities. Unschooling, to me, is the perfect way to live life and raise children, offering learning and education as a self owned right, protecting the basic right to freedom of thought, for oneself and one’s children.I aim to support and encourage myself and others in so far as possible striving to embrace beliefs, learning, and thinking as a basic right of human life from conception to death, taking the primary role of learner securely back into the realm of the individual and out of the hands of overlords. Unschooling family members support themselves and one another in lifelong learning which naturally springs forth from both random and purposeful self directed experiences and choices.There are no topics or subtopics or interrelated topics which cannot be learned from a huge variety of sources and in a huge variety of ways. In is well worth time for universities and schools to reconsiders the musts of their students and for individuals to recognize that learning is their right and under their own control.Perhaps testing for knowledge or job readiness is appropriate when working with others, however, a diploma or a degree is not necessarily an adequate mark of what is learned, nor is it an adequate mark of what knows in comparison to others without diplomas and degrees. Mostly, it proves one jumped through other people’s hoops and paid a lot of money. So far, I haven’t had any disadvantages to having this belief system, which, supposedly, could be termed as a religious belief, and the advantages are always new, evolving, and ever springing, it seems.Spending time with my children would be a benefit, as do traditional homeschooling mothers, learning and helpin g my children to learn on our own terms and in our own ways is certainly a benefit, and liberation of thought from the mechanical systems of education is also a great plus. The perceived downsides which other people may hold but which I do not share is that unschooling requires time and energy for parents of young children, unschooling prevents full time or out of home work for one or both parents, and parents are unqualified to help their own children to learn.In disputing these what I view to be false downsides, I have to claim the belief that I think spending time and energy on children is absolutely fabulous and to be cherished, that of course children need the constant or near constant presence of the mother or other caregiver and that families can choose to support and encourage this, and that parents are very much qualified to teach their own children. Who else should be the primary judges of what people think and belief, of how they live their lives?If government or the stat e is apt to be selected as the answer to that question, then we may very well kiss individuality and the right to personal thought goodbye and swirl into the darkness of force and socialism. The role of tradition in religion in general to keep a group of people together in what they do and how they do things, how they express their beliefs, primarily in God. Traditions in religion such as going to mass at church on Sunday are similar to the weekly unschooling groups of individuals and families at the park.People need community support in what they do and what they believe, on a very basic level, so that one doesn’t feel isolated and alone. Traditions are fairly regular ministrations of keeping beliefs and ideas alive through purposeful actions. The best thing that I can do in keeping alive the traditions of unschooling is to continue to be active within this society or culture of people, sharing my experiences and beliefs as regularly as necessary through purposeful actions w hich support and encourage my way of life.Contributing to groups through conversations and literature are ways in which I can stay connected, either in person or through the virtual online world. It is very important to know what the beliefs of others are, both to keep one’s mind open to new ideas as well as to diplomatically handle differences of opinion and belief when interacting with people who do not share all or most or even a few of the same beliefs as oneself does. It is very often that people differ in opinions and beliefs, and it would even be safe to assume that no two people on this Earth do in fact share all of the same beliefs.Having two identical minds on one planet seems near to impossible, given the varied and colorful lifestyles and experiences, places and regions, times and spaces, wherein one’s individual point of view springs forth. Although it can be difficult to interact with people who are strictly aligned with a highly structured and formal bel ief system, it can also be difficult to interact with people who are flip and find not much purpose in any beliefs whatsoever.To me, a good balance point is knowing what one believes, knowing that beliefs are flexible, and being able to converse on an appropriately calm level about any and all posed ideas with others, unless one wishes to opt out of the conversation or proposed idea, which is also quite ok. References Unschooling. info. (2009). Retrieved on 3/1/09 from http://unschooling. info.

Music history - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2078 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2019/10/10 Did you like this example? Introduction As much as music is a universal thing, it is so subjective and relative such that to one person it may be music but to another person it may not be. This therefore complicates the whole issue of the origin of music, which most people speculate to be from those early ages, yet they cannot specially say the dates. In the same way, music is a depiction of art, emotions, culture and ideology of a specific society at a certain period and the styles of music, the sounds and the instruments that accompany it keep on evolving as the society evolves. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Music history" essay for you Create order The basic element of music, which is indispensable when people are dancing, is rhythm. Therefore, a dance is always accompanied by a certain rhythm that most probably guides the dancers’ styles and speed of body movement. This therefore means that music and dance are great partners from the early history of human life. In the corner of everyday life, there lurks music of all forms. For instance, any blow on objects like shell whistle, reeds, and bamboos produce some moan. To some extent, the wind also does that when in high speed, producing some kind of rhythm. However, the most outstanding the human voice that has the ability to delightfully go up and down at his/her will. There are several periods of historical music and how it evolved as discussed below. Beginning with pre-historic music, the earliest form of music was majorly based on natural instruments that were readily available in those days like sticks, rocks, hones, reeds among others. These simplest forms of music are assumed to be used when the people were performing religious ceremonies like animal sacrifice and others. However, there is no writing or notations of such kind of music but it can only be extrapolated from the music of native Africans and red Indians in America who still perform such kind of religious practices and embrace those ancient songs. The evolution of instruments of music was very slow but steady in the early years. However, it is suggested that the voice of man was probably the first instrument of music when he wanted to imitate the nature’s rhythm or to get along with the ancient rituals. This was followed steadily by the clapping of hands or heating two objects together just to supplement the rhythm of the voice.   Ancient music is a name g iven to the music produced at the times when writing begun to develop among the humans. Therefore, the development of writing helped record musical practices and thus helping us know the invention of music notation system, and the record of the instruments of this period. The more elaborate form of early music can be traced to the civilization of the Greeks who drew much from the Egyptian and the Mesopotamian culture. Arguably, by the time of Greek’s emergence on the historical stage, these two ancient civilization had made several inventions of most musical instruments for families like strings, reeds, drums, flutes and brass. During this early period, music had basically two major roles in the society of man: entertainment and ceremony like social, religious or civic. The most popular instruments to the Greeks at this time were the aulos, which looked like a bow and the lyre, which looked like a harp. The view of Greek philosophers on music was that it was the harmony under lying the universe and some added an argument that music performance has an influence on the behavior of man. The knowledge of music in the bible if mostly referred to the culture and traditions of the Israelites. The music and religion Historian named Leckyer Herbert says that both vocal and instrumental music in the bible were cultivated among the Hebrews and it is evidenced in the writings of the bible. Therefore, the Old Testament is a revelation of the devotion of God’s people through the practice of music as it is held in the prophetic books of the bible. Even the prophets of the bible were themselves musicians like Miriam the prophetess took her tambourine during the Exodus and led the women in dance, song, and celebration for the Lord’s triumph over the Egyptians. King soul also comes to an encounter with prophets of the sanctuary who gave prophecies while accompanied by instruments. Additionally, the bible quotes Ezekiel the prophet as a person with a very beautiful voice played an instrument perfectly well. In the same way, King David performed religious music because he wrote the book of Psalms full of religious songs and messages that are sung up to date. The study of ancient biblical music has been majorly on the instruments of Israelites and Palestine. From the data of archeologists, it is clearly demonstrated that music was one of the basic things of life in the ancient Israeli community. This therefore means that even during the biblical times as it is recorded, music was used to communicate important messages apart from being used as a worship and entertainment. Moreover, it is during the Middle Ages that the tradition of western music begun due to the developments in the social and religious status in Europe. Due to the domination of the Catholic Church in this period, the most prevalent form of music was the sacred music. However, it was during the 12th century that organum music developed from sacred music and performed in Paris. There was a fluorescent of secular music by the French people and the period culminated until the genius western secular music was composed. The Christian church of this period derived their music styles and hymns from the already existing Jewish religion. In a certain time during the 9th century, the musicians’ theorists in the church tried a new style of music through experimentation when they simultaneously sang tow melodic lines in parallel intervals.   Music also went through an era known as the renaissance period. In the renaissance period of music, the vocal type was more preferred as compared to the instrumental music. The instrumental music was not commonly applicable and hence there was scarcity of instruments. The composers of the songs in this era were writing music with a great aim of giving a clear meaning of their emotions[footnoteRef:6]. Music hence helped to pass important information to the community as well as illustrating the moods. This is what made the music during this period to emotional. The emotional part of the music is brought out by the accompaniment of the moods in the song. The sound of the music was quite high in this era. This came as a result of the involvement of the bass register in the composing of the song. Music by this time was gaining popularity. The main reason as to why music was gaining such popularity is the emergence of the printing press which assisted in circulating the music copies after composing. The number of music composers increased and people were now being taught on music techniques. Music composers were now found in many plac es like churches, towns, and court. This assisted in the growth of the church choir. Due to the growth of music, the music composers had gained high status in the community and attracted a better pay for their work. One of the ages of music was the Baroque age which consisted mainly of music which expressed one mood throughout the entire piece of the song. The mood was easily noticed through the musical expressions and behaviors of the composer. The mood was expressed through musical language. The music could be accompanied by varying emotions but all the emotions were just circulating on one type of mood. The main reason for the maintenance of a single mood is the availability of continuity of rhythm through the entire piece of the song[footnoteRef:8]. The baroque music had the terraced dynamics, which were clearly seen when the dynamics were maintained for a while, and then a sudden change in them is done. The demand for music had now gone high again and the music composers were to write many new songs, as the listeners were not interested in listening to that old music. The court musicians were most valued and paid more than those from the church. People usually became musicians more than tho se from the church did. People usually became musicians mainly through inheritance and apprenticeship. Children were really trained on the methods of composing music. Before one could become a musician, he or she was to pass certain tests. The music also went ahead to another level known as the classical period. At this age, music differed with the Baroque age in that it was accompanied by different moods. The moods of the music could be changing in a slow and well-defined manner or even a sudden change depending on the composer. In order to engage the audience involvement, the music was accompanied by crescendo as well as decrescendo styles[footnoteRef:9]. The piano was now commonly used because of its ability to change dynamics easily. The composers of this era started making control of their composing rather than composing songs as per the expectations of the people. There emerged rich class of people who played a role in enlarging the music sector. Many people were now interested in their children being taught music lessons in the schools. [9:   Bennett, Dawn Elizabeth. Understanding the classical music profession: The past, the present and   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   strategies for the future. Ashga te Publishing, Ltd., 2013.] The other period of the music industry was romantic period. The romantic period was accompanied by different emotions of the different composers. Due to this reason every composer had a different and a unique style of performance. Being romantic, this kind of music was accompanied a lot of emotions. The music could usually be composed in two different styles. One of the styles is the nationalism. Nationalism saw the composers composing songs in the style of their homeland. The other style was the exoticism. This style was characterized by the composers composing songs to match foreign land[footnoteRef:10]. There mainly existed a type of music called the program music. This kind of music was composed to illustrate a certain event, story or a scene. One of the main program composers was Hector Berlioz. The composers used ranging dynamics which ran from pppp to ffff. The composers also introduced new instruments in their composing. One of the main instrument which was introduced was the piccolo. In this era, the composers ceased from being employed and started composing songs on their own base. Many homes were interested in music and purchased musical instruments mainly the piano. [10:   Kelly, Gary. English Fiction of the Romantic Period 1789-1830. Routledge, 2016. The music then went ahead to another step known as the twentieth century. In this era, the tone color was very crucial and many techniques were now applied. The composers of the songs used many percussive instruments. Some of these instruments which were used include the glissando as well as the down the scale. In this era, songs were composed with the exemption of the traditional tone system. The rhythmic patterns were expanded in this type of music[footnoteRef:11]. Different types of rhythms were combined in one song through the involvement of different sections of composers at a time. Music had now become very popular as a result of the available radio broadcasts, mass printing of music copies and recording. It was now easy for anyone to access music in an easy manner than before. It is in this era where women joined the music industry in large numbers. [11:   Landy, Frank J., and Jeffrey M. Conte. Work in the 21st Century, Binder Ready Version: An   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. John Wiley Sons, 2016. In conclusion, music has actually grown from a minor level to where it is now. It has passed through very many different eras with each era carrying its own characteristics. The musical instruments are seen to be growing from each era to the next. The music industry seems to be growing every now and then. As the time goes by, many people are seen to be interested in music matters. The music was advancing in style and performance from time to time. At the moment, music is still growing and there is room for advancement as well. This is what indicate that music is yet to advance and we should expect better music performance styles in the future.