Monday, January 27, 2020

Existentialism School Of Thought

Existentialism School Of Thought Existentialism is a school of thought that attempts to break down much of the foundations of thought itself, to allow for reasoning unbridled by preconceived notions. In a sense the idea attacks the structure of normal reasoning, in an effort to render what is thought to be known as questionable rather than inherent. However, it goes much deeper than that. It is a way of thinking that is almost impossible to sum up in a single sentence, paragraph, or even page. One could say it is a theory meant to allow human thinking and existence to define itself. While it can be explained, it somewhat of a theory that invents itself while it explains itself, while rendering every most every truth it creates about itself completely vulnerable to be reshaped by the truths it will later create. In fact many existential thinkers would reject the title of existentialist as to define their work, went against the very nature of their work. One of the earliest existentialist thinkers, Martin Heidegger, with his vast interest in experiences common to all humans, such as death and anxiety, addressed such definitive problems in existential thought as the relationship between an individuals self and the world around him. Ushered in many ideas that a more solidly defined existentialism would later draw its roots from. Heideggers interests and works involved topics, such as nihilism and the rejection of science. Another common ground most existential thinking roots itself in is phenomenology. Edmond Husserls phenomenological work was a resource for Heideggers transcendent views of the experiences of humans, stating that is found not as a property of an individual but rather it is a framework where the human mind meets the world around it. Other influential philosophers to Heidegger were Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, wherein lies the seed of the existence problem. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, while both also focus on the meaning of the individual in a worldly setting, approach the problem from a more religious perspective. Kierkegaards view of existence states that the meaningfulness of a human emerges from the conflict of ethics and religious faith. Somewhat of a prelude to the concept of authenticity, Kierkegaard claims that subjectivity is truth, contrasting the objective view of the crowd which would make decisions or view reality based on the social norms of a given age. He feels that an individual seeking truth to their existence through objective science is an individual relieving their self of the burden of being their self. Nietzsches while viewing existence similarly, takes a more nihilistic approach, searching for meaning in the absence or collapse of theism and morality. Avoiding the existence of a norm, he would say that rather than a governing norm setting the standard or pace for the work, the norm should be internal to the work. Since the driving force in the lives of most men is the presence of an intrinsic meaning to life, nihilism could very easily be viewed as a philosophy of despair. Without a given reason to live, many would have no will to live. Nietzsche would see such an individual as weakly constituted, since he feels that the absence of such an intrinsic meaning provides an opportunity for the strong willed or creative individual to create meaning for their self. Where most would view the social norms as the responsibility of anyone in a society, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche would say that one who accepts those social norms is essentially forfeiting his worldly responsibility. With the idea of creating meaning or reason through living life, as opposed to living life for the sake of a given meaning or reason, these philosophers set the stage for the idea to be processed into something more systematic. Moving further into an era of thinking that would finally be referred to as Existentialism rather than bits and pieces of radical thinking, the work of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre dives deep into the problem of existence. Focusing heavily on the individuals place in the world and giving meaning to the existence of every individual. It states that though the individual is not simply so powerful and meaningful that it transcends this world, the individual is however, transcendent to this world in that the individual has the power to create their own meaning of life while wrapped up in the very act of living it. Sartres mantra is existence precedes essence. This phrase is about as close as one can get to summarizing existentialism in a few words. The governing ideas in existentialism explain that what it means to be human simply cannot be explained, since that meaning is developed during the process of living life as a human. While again, this can be a depressing view since many would prefer to part of a greater whole, or existing for the purpose of a higher potential, it can be interpreted to show that we in fact are the higher potential, since we create our own meaning rather than bend to the will of a predetermined meaning. The human consciousness allows humans to constantly shape their own existence, thus shaping the world around them as they go along. Not only would it be difficult and uncomfortable for a sculptor to sit on his pottery wheel and stare at a lump of clay sitting in a chair as it whirs past his view with every rotation, it would also be very counterproductive. Entities which are not human have fixed properties which define them as well as their value in the world. For instance a stapler is an entity that staples. It was created with the purpose of stapling and its value as an entity lies in how well it can staple. So to staple is the essence of that entity. If it does not sufficiently pierce a stack of paper with a bracket shaped piece of metal, it does not have the option to instead choose to be a pair of scissors. However it does posses a weight and size, so a human using such an insufficient stapler, could choose to instead use it as a paperweight but this would be an improper use of a stapler as far as the staplers essence is concerned. While a human does posses properties such as weight and size, much like the stapler, the human is the only one of the two which can choose how to allocate those properties and in the absence of a given essence, there is no rule to govern what is proper and improper use of a human, except those rules de veloped by the human entity itself. With no predetermined value of a human, there is no governing rule to decide which humans governing rules should govern the rules of all humans. So every human is left to invent their own rules of life, and when viewed from a subjective stance, one clearly cannot simply produce a list of such rules which will work in all situations, and thus must constantly invent new rules as their life progresses. Such a method would render these rules to not be rules at all, but instead methods specific and useful to the given situation. Where a being such as a stapler instantiates its essence, which is to staple, at any moment that it is used to staple, a human being almost reverses the process, creating moments of essence through instantiating his or her consciousness in every moment of existence. If you are stapling, for the moment that you have committed yourself to the act of stapling, your essence has become to staple. Had you not previously existed with the desire to fasten two pieces of p aper to each other, then that essence could not possibly have been produced. In the same manner you chose to staple you could choose to forfeit the task in mid press, leaving a half extended staple and an indent in your stack of paper, at which point your essence would become that of a being who aborts the task of stapling. Just the same you could never have arrived at this essence without previously existing. So in an existential light, the meaning of existence comes to be at moment where properties of life and the nature of the world around the human meet the humans ability to decide what is or is not a property and how that property is to be put to effect. It is in the relationship of two key points in existential thought known as facticity and transcendence that human life arrives at existence. Facticity represents information that can be attained through third person investigation. One person viewing another could factually state their height, weight, skin color, race, class, hair color and number of other things about them. Just as one could take a third person stance on themselves and objectify their web of beliefs, character traits, likes and dislikes. The common point of view on such investigation would state that facticity manifests itself in your moods or the outcomes of a situation on your life, as a burden of sorts. One might say that since you stepped in a puddle, you are no w sad, as the feeling of sadness has been placed on your shoulders due to your careless mistake of stepping into water. A multitude of means could be used to determine why one would conclude such facticity from this event. Whether they fear germs in the puddle, ruined their expensive work shoes, or simply dislike being wet, the burden of sadness has been allocated to them and for the time being represents the facticity of their life. Transcendence refers to the factual as it always emerges in light of the possible. The possible is a result of choices and decisions, not forces. While forces govern the tendency of a disturbed puddle to splash the disturber, there are no forces outside of ones own mind set and internal choices to govern the resulting sadness. With such a transcendent ability to choose happiness over sadness, it seems unreasonable to choose to be sad. In this light existentialism can reject negative interpretations of the belief and show itself as humanism. In Sartres work entitled Existentialism is a Humanism he clearly defines ways in which existentialism can be extremely beneficial to humans, rather than a depression lack of reason or meaning for existence. With a race of beings so capable of constantly reinventing their own essence and the ability to make choices from a truly objective view point, limitless possibilities are opened up for the progress of existence. While a lion may not be smart enough to willingly and understanding allow a smarter being to make choices for it, for instance a human cannot reason with a lion why it should stay in its cage or why it should go to school and learn about a given trade so it can make a living later in life, it is also true that a lion cannot make its own choice to not become aggressive when threatened nor can it retain information about computer engineering in a manner which will al low the lion to become a successful computer engineer. The lion can only be forced and trained to work with those around it and it can never work with others for the sake of the benefit of the race as a whole. It seeks only to play out its instincts and desires, without the ability to consciously redirect either of them. In the view of the existentialist, to forfeit subjectivity and choice in order to replace it with following norms or given beliefs, is to forfeit what it is to be human, or according to many philosophers such as Sartre, the burden and responsibilities of being a human.

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Racial Discrimination in American History Essay

Racial discrimination contaminated the entire nation since its very inception. Racial tensions and problems remained a major dilemma of American history. Stanley M. Elkins’ illustrative work Slavery; A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life illustrated the psychological effect of harsh pattern of slavery. He says that in the South brought into being a typical Negro personality that was commonly known as Sambo. Sambo denotes to a personality prototype that was characterized by childlike behavior. This infantilism (as Mr. Elkins calls it) was a result of absolute negation of individual rights and ultimate powerlessness. He further compares it with Nazi concentration camp, where harsh treatment and absolute powerlessness over every action had reduced the Jews to infantilism. Although American history is littered with example of racial discrimination at the social and governmental level but following example manifests different facets of American racial problem. Louis Hughes (1897) depicted pernicious kind of racial discrimination in his autobiography â€Å"Thirty Years A Slave; From Bondage to Freedom† when wrote that slave whipping was a not only a punitive measure but it was also done a business. He wrote; Whipping was done at these markets, or trader’s yards, all the time. People who lived in the city of Richmond would send their slaves here for punishment. When any one wanted a slave whipped he would send a note to that effect with the servant to the trader. Any petty offense on the part of a slave was sufficient to subject the offender to this brutal treatment. Owners who affected culture and refinement preferred to send a servant to the yard for punishment to inflicting it themselves. (pp 8-9) Dred Scott case (Scott v. Sandford, 60 U. S. (19 How. ) 393 (1856). ) has its peculiar importance in the racial history of America. Scott sued in federal court to be affirmed free. A divided Supreme Court (7/2) ruled out his sue petition as declared that he had not right to sue in federal court because he was not a U. S. citizen. Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote the majority opinion. Taney based his ruling on the actualities that free blacks were not citizens because blacks were often debarred from militia service. Taney and his allied counterparts further based their decision on the assumption that original American social community included only those â€Å"who, at that time [of American independence], were recognized as the people or citizens of a State, whose rights and liberties had been outraged by the English Government; and who declared their independence, and assumed the powers of Government to defend their rights by force of arms. † (Dred vs. Scott. ) Whatever were the legal and constitutional intricacies involved in the decision, this ruling made mockery of the American values of freedom, equality and fraternity. This decision further produced a huge chasm between the white American and Blacks that still exists and haunts the American society more than ever in various sophisticated forms and shapes. Residential segregation is common today as it was in the early days of American society as Blacks reside in underdeveloped and underprivileged ghettos. The sole reason for that is that economically they are not well off to buy a house in some good residential area or at least rent it. Until the first half of the 20th century, many trade unions routinely debarred blacks from membership; segregated schools were common in many cities across America. Within the armed forces, for example, blacks served in segregated units or, in the case of the Navy, were virtually excluded. But optimism grew and struggle for an affirmation action continued. Another important moment came when Supreme Court awarded separate but equal status to Afro-American in Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896). Justice Henry Brown wrote the majority decision: â€Å"That [the Separate Car Act] does not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery†¦ is too clear for argument†¦ A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races — a distinction which is founded in the color of the two races, and which must always exist so long as white men are distinguished from the other race by color — has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races†¦ The object of the [Fourteenth A]mendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either. † Justice John Harlan manifested great prudence in his dissent note. He wrote; â€Å"Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law†¦ In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case†¦ This did not end the Black plight as Racialism was not only institutional but psychological and it crept into the very intellectual and psychological level of American whites. Sociological patterns i. e. values and traditions, were established in way to nurture hatred for the colored people. Palton (1954) is of the view that American racialism has two major manifestations; employment and housing. He provides a detailed and first hand accounts of this housing discrimination. He depicted how white community outcasts those whites who tried to sell the property to colored people. He elaborated that these white Realtors are not motivated by any altruism but financial gains are the only factors that compels them to sell their property to Black community. He writes; In 1934 the Federal Housing Administration regarded itself as a business organization, and regarded Negro occupancy as harmful from a business point of view. In 1937 it actually published a model race-restrictive covenant. In the words of Mr. Loren Miller, of Los Angeles, one of the most powerful Negro fighters against the covenant, â€Å"the FHA sowed race-restrictive covenants through the country far and wide. † The FHA dropped the model covenant in 1949, and declared it would no longer insure loans in new developments where there were covenants. . . . (Paton, 1954) Parton further asserted in 50s that â€Å"By now I assume that it is an incontrovertible fact that segregation is dying† but subtle forms of discrimination continued. Although state and federal laws hankered after an equal status for colored people but institutional and social practices presented a different scenario i. e. dichotomy of values in idea and real world. Roosevelt (1943) has raised certain fundamental questions about same problem i. e. the ideals for which civil war was fought and the practical attainment of those ideals. In that war we succeeded in establishing our unity. We would be one nation and not two and we said that all the people in our nation should enjoy equal rights and privileges, but in our hearts we never really believed what we said. (Roosevelt, 1943) Same views were depicted by Birmingham Sunday, a song by Richard Farina when four children were murdered in Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. It says; On Birmingham Sunday the blood ran like wine, And the choirs kept singing of Freedom. (Carawan, 1990) The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a socio-political protest against the policy of racial segregation and discrimination campaign in the public transport service of Montgomery city, Alabama in 1955. It lasted for one whole year starting at December 5, 1955 and ending at Decenmer21, 1956. The sentiments of the Afro-American community were cooled down by a United States Supreme decision that declared segregation in public transport as unconstitutional. The Montgomery Bus Boycott cast deep imprints U. S. history and equipped the Black leadership with an impetus to carry on their civil rights struggle. It had implications that reached far beyond the desegregation of public buses. Luther King established himself as the leader of a national stature. The protest boosted the Civil Rights Movement and created a mass awareness about the struggle of Afro-American community and highlighted their pathos and miseries. It further provided confidence to the Black people that they can win their rights by constant struggle. In the words of King: â€Å"We have gained a new sense of dignity and destiny. We have discovered a new and powerful weapon—non-violent resistance. † Another manifestation of racial discrimination existed in the armed forces. Afro-American community remained a vital part of U. S. Armed forces and participated in every war the United States fought on domestic and/or foreign soil. But it is also a fact that Afro-American soldiers remained a part of segregated units and were tasked to do unskilled donkey work. In the perspective of World War II, President Truman issued an Executive Order 9981, which consented â€Å"equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. † This pronouncement was great but black servicemen continued to come across profound discrimination. Much like the wider American society, the U. S. armed forces observed plentiful racial incidents in the 1960s. The Camp Lejeune Incident is one of them. Camp Lejeune Marine Corps camp in Central North Carolina and housed about 42,000 military personnel. In late 1960s, 14% of troops stationed at the camp were Afro-American.. On the horrible night of July 20, 1969, racial tension aroused â€Å"when a black marine attempted to cut into a white dancing with a black woman marine†. (U. S. Government Printing Office, December 15, 1969). After one and half hour, a white army personnel entered the club and shouted that he had been attacked by a mob of Afro-American marines. This sparked the whole situation and within next half an hour 15 Black marines injured and one, Corporal Edward E. Blankston, was dead of massive head injuries. Another such incident is The U. S. S. Kitty Hawk Incident. All these incident provides a comprehensive and brief synopsis of racialism in American history but it remains a fact that although there are various individual achievements on the part on black Americans like Christina Rocca and Colin Powell hold important role of Secretary of State; Clarence Thomas held the highest judicial authority but discrimination in many forms is also a central part of the African American experience. Joe R Feagin in his book â€Å"Racist America; Roots, Current Realities And Future Preparations† describes clearly that â€Å"systematic racism is about everyday experience†¦Black American and other people of color often experience the world differently from White Americans†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This is true in every aspect of African-American life. References Alan Paton, â€Å"The Negro In the North,† Collier’s, 29 October 1954, 70–72, 74–75, 77, 79–80. Amending Interstate Commerce Act (Segregation of Passengers), Hearings before the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, 83rd Congress, 2nd Session, May 12–14, 1954. Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1954, 39–55. Burns, Stewart. Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott. The University of North Carolina Press. 1997 Carawan. Candie. Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement through its `songs. Bethlehem. 1990. pp. 122-123. Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, Inquiry into the Disturbances at Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina,. on July 20, 1969 (Washington, D. C. : U. S. Government Printing Office, December 15, 1969), p. 5056. Elkins, Stanley. Slavery; A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life. University of Chicago Press. 1959. Feagin, Joe R. Racist America : roots, current realities, and future reparations. New York : Routledge, 2000. Hughes, Louis. Thirty Years A Slave; From Bondage to Freedom. Milwaukee. South Side Printing Company. 1897. Justice Henry Billings Brown, â€Å"Majority opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson,† Desegregation and the Supreme Court , ed. Benjamin Munn Ziegler (Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1958) 50-51.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains” Analysis Essay

Many of Ray Bradbury’s novels tend to focus around the idea that humans downfall will be due to the increased attention to technology and machines are incapable of human emotion. Unlike most short stories, â€Å"There Will Come Soft Rains† does not have any human characters. It is just an automated house. The house performs a routine, similar to a human’s. It makes pancakes, cleans itself, reads poems in the study and more. But for whom? The family that used to live in the house, and the surrounding area, has been wiped out by a nuclear blast. The house does not realize and continues as if nothing is wrong. As the story draws to a close, a tree limb breaks through a window, beginning a chain reaction and starts a fire inside the house. The house desperately tries to save itself, but fails. Ray Bradbury’s â€Å"There Will Come Soft Rains† presents many themes, including that human values are becoming lost, arguing that people cannot control their out come; however, the greatest truth presented is that nature will live on without humans and humanity. Throughout the short story, the idea that human values are becoming lost is prominent. Human feelings, such as sorrow and joy, are only possessed by humans. At the beginning, the only surviving member of the family, the dog, walks into the house extremely sick with radiation poisoning. The dog has tracked in mud and the robotic mice that clean the house are not happy about it. Behind the dog â€Å"whirred angry mice, angry at having to pick up mud, angry at the inconvenience† (Bradbury 2). Instead of feeling sympathy and compassion for the dog, the robotic mice are â€Å"annoyed† at the mess he’s made. Say a human were in the house, they would find treatment for the dog or at least feel sympathy for the dog’s situation. However since the mice are robotic, they are incapable of feeling these emotions. They are simply â€Å"angry† at having to pick up the mess, and shortly after, the dogs corpse. In an essay by Jennifer Hicks, the author discusses the different images in â€Å"There Will Come Soft Rains† and their negative connections. In the story,  everything is computerized, including the kitchen appliances. She discusses a â€Å"stove that cooks by itself, a miracle we all might want, unfortunately creates ‘toast that was like stone’† (Hicks 236). The stove makes the majority of the food in the house for the family. But unfortunately, it lacks the ability to cook the toast to perfection; it is programmed to make it hard as a rock. People are able to cook their own toast to the way they want it. As the story draws to a close, a fire breaks loose in the house and burns everything in its path. The narrator describes the fire as â€Å"†¦crackl[ing] up the stairs† and â€Å"†¦feeding on Picasso’s and Matisse’s† (Bradbury 3). Picasso and Matisse have produced some of the most valued masterpieces that have ever b een created and the fire just burns them away. Machines and robots are not human and therefore cannot posses human qualities. Ray Bradbury suggests that when humans try to change nature, they will meet similar outcomes just like when they try to change their fate. While the house is going through its daily routine, the narrator stops to describe the setting. He describes the house standing â€Å"alone in a city of rubble and ash†¦[and the] one house left standing† (Bradbury 1). From the excerpt, it can be determined that a nuclear explosion has occurred and the entire city has been reduced to â€Å"rubble and ash†. The nuclear bomb was originally developed to protect the people of the United States. Bradbury is telling the readers that what humans create to â€Å"protect† themselves will ultimately bring their downfall. As the story progresses, the narrator describes the incinerator in the cellar. Bradbury compares the â€Å"sighing of an incinerator which sat like evil Baal in dark corner† (Bradbury 2). The incinerator in the cellar is compared to Baal, a false god created by humans. In this situation, Baal is a symbol for human’s creations and their stupidity. Therefore, he represents any other technology in the house. According to the Bible, anyone who worships a false god will be condemned to an eternity in Hell. Since the people in the house relied on technology for every aspect of their life, they were â€Å"worshipping† the technology and ultimately met their demise. Robert Peltier discusses the dangers of technology presented by Bradbury and how humans need to base their lives on arts and humanities rather than technology and objects humans create. Peltier states that â€Å"of  course, Bradbury is really asking us to make judgments about our own lives and the monsters we create to make our lives easier†¦and to make us feel safe in a world where we are destroying nature with our greed and arrogance† (Peltier 237). The â€Å"monsters† Peltier is referring to, are the machines humans use on a daily basis. These demons ultimately bring the downfall of the people, and very possibly the entire world. As humans try to change their existence in an attempt to make their lives longer or more prosperous, they inadvertently make their lives shorter. When humans attempt to play God and change their fate, sooner or later they will bring about their own demise. The most prominent theme throughout â€Å"There Will Come Soft Rains† is that nature will live on without humans. In the story, there are no humans and nature moves on as if they were never even there. In the middle of the story, the house reads a poem that speaks of nature and war. It reads, â€Å" And not one will know of the war, not one/Will care at last when it is done† (Bradbury 3). Similar to the story, a catastrophic disaster has struck and humanity has been wiped off the face of the Earth, but nature lives on and does not care that humans no longer exist. This is an example of irony because a similar tragedy has afflicted Allendale. Donna Haisty discusses the multiple themes presented in the short story. She discusses how Bradbury â€Å"illustrates humankind’s powerlessness in the face of natural forces† (Haisty 3). As the story draws to a close, a tree branch crashes through a window, spilling a bottle of cleaning solvent, which ignites a fire. The fire, being a force of nature, is unconquerable by the mechanized house, a human creation. The house symbolizes humans and their trifling creations while the fire symbolizes the unconquerable quality of nature. When the new day breaks, Bradbury describes it as Dawn showing â€Å"faintly in the east†¦even as the sun rose to shine upon the heaped rubble and steam† (Bradbury 4). After the fire completely destroys the house, the sun rises to a new day. A rising sun is archetypal for rebirth and in this situation; it is rebirth for the world after the attack. Instead of being a rainy and gloomy day, the morning is bright and joyful. Throughout the story, it is evident that humanity is not necessary for the world to exist. Through the duration of â€Å"There Will Come Soft Rains† the themes of human values being lost due to  humans trying to change their outcome and the idea that nature will live on without humans is very prominent. It must not be forgotten that hu man values can never be programmed into a machine; humans cannot change their outcomes, lest they should bring their doom nearer, and that nature has no regard for trivial things such as humans. Works Cited Bradbury, Ray. â€Å"There Will Come Soft Rains.† http://www.elizabethskadden.com/files/therewillcomesoftrainsbradbury.pdf. n.p. n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. Haisty, Donna B. â€Å"There Will Come Soft Rains.† Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition (2004): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6. Apr. 2014. Hicks, Jennifer. â€Å"There Will Come Soft Rains.† Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 234-6. Print. Peltier, Robert. â€Å"There Will Come Soft Rains.† Short Stories For Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 236-8. Print.

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Parable of the sower theme of Weakness and Strength - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 1 Words: 318 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2018/12/27 Category Sociology Essay Type Book review Level High school Tags: Community Essay Novel Essay Did you like this example? The parable of the sower has a wide range of themes developed. Among the themes that the author has tried to feature in the work is the theme of weakness and strength. The novel integrates the two themes in a manner that it is possible to tell similarly to a real world event. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Parable of the sower: theme of Weakness and Strength" essay for you Create order The themes are not straightforward as one wound expect them to be. More importantly in a world where violence prevails (Gerhardsson 167). The Laurens group may be viewed as a weak group. However, the team has some strength. For instance, a large number of the women in the novel have the knowledge on how to use a gun. These women include Zahra, Lauren, and Natividad. Moreover, the novel also show that the children have hiding skills, which is a notable strength inhibited by the group. The team is also strong as they are able to decide on a better way to get through the police. They fail to present threat, a quality that makes it easier for them to pass without being suspected by the police. The author tries to show the theme of strength through Laurens brother. The young man (Keith) has the determination to prove his manhood by trying to be part of a violent gun. However, his struggles makes him end up being brutally murdered (Gerhardsson 180). Also the community walls that appeared strong get breached leading to the community being destroyed. Also, the theme is displayed through Lauren, when she makes her decision to venture on the road (open) which is a dangerous place to be in; she gets the opportunity to constructing the community, a situation that had been her life-long dream. Which is a dangerous place to be in; she gets the opportunity to constructing the community, a situation that had been her life-long dream. Works Cited Gerhardsson, Birger. The Parable of the Sower and its Interpretation. New Testament Studies? 14.2 (1968): 165-193.