American Pragmatism

The World as Will and Representation

by: Arthur Schopenhauer 

The development of Schopenhauer's ideas took place very early in his career (1814–1818) and culminated in the publication of the first volume of Will and Representation in 1819. This first volume consisted of four books - covering his epistemology, ontology, aesthetics and ethics, in order. Much later in his life, in 1844, Schopenhauer published a second edition in two volumes, the first a virtual reprint of the original, and the second a new work consisting of clarifications to and additional reflections on the first. His views had not changed substantially.

His belated fame after 1851 stimulated renewed interest in his seminal work, and led to a third and final edition with 136 more pages in 1859, one year before his death. In the preface to the latter, Schopenhauer noted: "If I also have at last arrived, and have the satisfaction at the end of my life of seeing the beginning of my influence, it is with the hope that, according to an old rule, it will last longer in proportion to the lateness of its beginning."

Schopenhauer used the word "will" as a human's most familiar designation for the concept that can also be signified by other words such as "desire," "striving," "wanting," "effort," and "urging." Schopenhauer's philosophy holds that all nature, including man, is the expression of an insatiable will to life. It is through the will that mankind finds all their suffering. Desire for more is what causes this suffering.

He used the word representation (Vorstellung) to signify the mental idea or image of any object that is experienced as being external to the mind. It is sometimes translated as idea or presentation. This concept includes the representation of the observing subject's own body. Schopenhauer called the subject's own body the immediate object because it is in the closest proximity to the mind, which is located in the brain.

Interpretation:
We all know that all significant changes throughout history have occurred not because of nations, armies, governments and certainly not committees.We just can't wake up one morning and change the world.We need to take one small step at a time

Post-colonial Theory

 Ganito kami noon, Paano kayo ngayon?

A young Filipino living at the end of the 19th century has his own agenda for his life -- he wants to travel and experience new places. His agenda is cut short when he inadvertently gets involved with a whole underground of marginal characters, including one priest who is a father in both the clerical and secular sense of the term and needs to find his son. Both the young man and the priest gain in following and power as the Filipino revolt against the Spaniards grows. Complicating everything is an attractive woman, and the young man will soon have to decide which direction he really wants to take -- that of a revolutionary leader, or the solitary wanderer that still resides somewhere inside him.

Interpretation :
 
Ganito kami noon, Paano kayo ngayon is an example of Post-Colonialism Theory. This story situates the readers to the history and it shows the negative impacts that a colonized country has undergone. It features men dealing with poverty and its impact on women's lives. The play melds the dark realities of life under the Spaniards. The reality of this story being adapted from the ideas which surrounds a colonized country is perfectly considered under the post-colonialism literary theory. 

New Criticism

Ted Kooser - A Birthday Poe

Just past dawn, the sun stands
with its heavy red head
in a black stanchion of trees,
waiting for someone to come
with his bucket
for the foamy white light,
and then a long day in the pasture.
I too spend my days grazing,
feasting on every green moment
till darkness calls,
and with the others
I walk away into the night,
swinging the little tin bell
of my name.

Interpretation:

 Our life is too short, we don't know when we will die or until when we will be 
alive so we must treasure every minute of our lives. To everything there
 is a season and a time to every purpose under the heavens; a time to be
 born and a time to die; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to 
get and a time to lose; a time to keep silence and a time to speak; a 
time to love and a time to hate; a time of war and a time for peace, but
 what really matter is on how you spend those times correctly and 
justly. Treasure those who are always there and makes you happy because 
you can never realize their importance until they were gone.

Readers Response

Charles Bukowski - For The Foxes

don't feel sorry for me.
I am a competent,
satisfied human being.

be sorry for the others
who
fidget
complain

who 
constantly
rearrange their
lives 
like 
furniture.

juggling mates
and
attitudes

their
confusion is
constant

and it will
touch
whoever they 
deal with.

beware of them:
one of their
key words is
"love."

and beware those who
only take
instructions from their
God

for they have 
failed completely to live their own
lives.

don't feel sorry for me
because I am alone

for even 
at the most terrible
moments
humor
is my 
companion.

I am a dog walking
backwards

I am a broken
banjo

I am a telephone wire
strung up in
Toledo, Ohio

I am a man
eating a meal
this night
in the month of
September.

put your sympathy
aside.
they say
water held up
Christ:
to come
through
you better be
nearly as
lucky.

Interpretation:

 The poem For the Foxes by Charles Bukowski is about a man

 who never feels sorry for himself, because for him "Sorry"

 is a word for those who are weak, and in this poem, 

He is not weak, perhaps, He just wanted people not to feel sorry for him.

Like the lesson learned from the poem, I also don't feel sorry for my self,

because we are the ones who are making the history in our life. 

Psycho Analytic

The Emperor's New Groove
  

Kuzco is the selfish 18 year old emperor of the Inca Empire. He summons Pacha, the leader of a nearby village, to inform him that he is building his enormous summer home, Kuzcotopia, on the site of Pacha's house, thus rendering Pacha and his family homeless. Pacha attempts to protest, but is dismissed. Kuzco's advisor Yzma and her dim-witted right-hand man Kronk then try to poison Kuzco so that Yzma can take control of the empire, but the supposed poison turns out to be a potion which turns Kuzco into a llama rather than killing him.
After knocking Kuzco unconscious, Yzma orders Kronk to dispose of him, but conscience-stricken Kronk loses the sack holding Kuzco. Kuzco ends up in Pacha's village, accuses Pacha of kidnapping him and demands that Pacha help him return to the palace. Pacha refuses unless Kuzco builds his summer home elsewhere, and Kuzco attempts to find his own way home. He ends up surrounded by a pack of jaguars, only to be saved by Pacha. Meanwhile, Yzma assumes command of the nation, but when Kronk reveals he never killed Kuzco, the two head out and begin to search the local villages for him.
Kuzco feigns agreement with Pacha's demand, and Pacha leads him back toward the palace. They stop at a roadside diner, and Yzma and Kronk arrive shortly after. Pacha overhears Yzma discussing their plans to kill Kuzco, and attempts to warn him. Kuzco, doesn't believe him and returns to Yzma, only to overhear Yzma and Kronk discussing that they are seeking to kill him, and that the kingdom does not miss him. Kuzco realizes Pacha was right, but Pacha has left. After a repentant Kuzco spends the night alone in the jungle, the two reunite with Pacha having forgiven Kuzco. They race back to the palace, with Yzma and Kronk chasing them, although temporarily impeded to their frustration by Pacha's family, until the pursuers get hit by lightning and fall into a chasm.
Kuzco and Pacha arrive at Yzma's laboratory only to find that their pursuers somehow got there first. Kronk changes sides after a vicious tongue-lashing from Yzma who insults his cooking, and gets dropped down a trapdoor. Yzma summons the palace guards, forcing Kuzco and Pacha to grab all of the transformation potions they can and flee. After trying several formulas that convert Kuzco to other animals, and then back to a llama, they escape the guards (but not Yzma) and find they are down to only two vials. Yzma accidentally steps on one of the two, turning herself into a tiny kitten. She still almost manages to obtain the antidote, but is thwarted by the sudden reappearance of Kronk. Kuzco becomes human again and sets out to redeem himself, building a small summer cabin on the hill next to Pacha's home at the peasant's invitation. Meanwhile, outdoorsman Kronk becomes a scout leader, with kitten-Yzma forced to be a member of the troop.

Interpretation:

The literary piece is under Psychoanalytic theory because it contains the qualities which perceive it. Like for example, in the story, the psychological material was expressed indirectly by using a flashback as the story goes on. The character particularly, Kuzco represents several thoughts/image which you didn’t expect to. His delusion was kept and only at the end where the story clears out. It was an interesting story for this literary piece stirs the mind of the readers and you can really see the psychoanalysis here.

Existencialism

The Misty Row by B.K. Shropshire
 This story is written in t5he old-fashioned soap opera style. However, ans in warning, this novel is very sexually explicit and, sometimes quite graphic. Its definitely adult reading. The characters are over-the-top, yet very real and very gritty. They are passionate, often times selfish, and they all have their own agendas. Most times events are shocking and downright outrageous. Along with the dram humor is implemented...in sort of a black comedy style. (Put intended.) Some themes focus are on adoption, mental illness, relationships and sex, (both homosexual and heterosexual, in nature) romance, love or hate, family conflict, betrayal, sibling rivalry, and what happens when secrets and lies erupt and finally explode. The basic elements of the soap genre are all there: including backstabbing, plotting, love affairs, forbidden passions, and ragging emotions.Definitely escape, fantasy reading, yet very real much based in the seeds of life's harsh and eye-opening realities.

Interpretation:
 The story depicts the Existencialism today, now a days, there are some immoral acts that are been practice by the youth today. Such as homosexual acts and heterosexual acts. Futhermore, in relation to existencialism, it only shows what are the new norms existing today.

Marxism

Conquered City by Victor Serge


1919–1920: St. Petersburg, city of the czars, has fallen to the Revolution. Camped out in the splendid palaces of the former regime, the city’s new masters seek to cement their control, even as the counterrevolutionary White Army regroups. Conquered City, Victor Serge’s most unrelenting narrative, is structured like a detective story, one in which the new political regime tracks down and eliminates its enemies—the spies, speculators, and traitors hidden among the mass of common people. 
Conquered City is about terror: the Red Terror and the White Terror. But mainly about the Red, the Communists who have dared to pick up the weapons of power—police, guns, jails, spies, treachery—in the doomed gamble that by wielding them righteously, they can put an end to the need for terror, perhaps forever. Conquered City is their tragedy and testament. 

Interpretation:
 This is all about communism, which only means that those who have powers are the one who controls the country. Like for instance, the Philippines was been controlled by those foreign countries who overused their powers. In addition, we should bare in mind that we should use our powers carefully and properly, never overuse it.