The symbolism of fire in literature

The symbolism of fire in literature Looking Past the Smokescreen â€Å"Fire represents many things to many people and cultures. It is recognized as a purifier, a destroyer and as the generative power of life, energy and change. It represents illumination and enlightenment, destruction and renewal, spirituality and damnation† (Varner). Throughout history, fire became a very significant element in the principle of human development because of its versatility, such as lighting, communicating, and protection from predators. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury takes the representation of fire to a whole new level. Imagine living in a world where people are not in control of their own thoughts. Imagine living in a society populated by non-readers, people with no sense of their own history, a government that has banned books. Imagine being Guy Montag, a fireman in Fahrenheit 451 who burns books for a living. In Montag’s world, firemen produce fires instead of eliminating them to destroy any works of literature, for they promote creativity and free thinking, which is a threat to the government. Set in the 24th century, in the midst of a nuclear war, this dystopian novel tells the story of a futuristic period of time when books are illegal, and the punishment for whoever holds one in possession is to have his books and house burned to ashes. While walking home from work, Montag meets a young, bright girl named Clarisse. She tells him that firemen once used to put fires out instead of starting them, which he thinks to be nonsense. Later on, Montag realizes that fire can mean much more than what he uses it for. Throughout the novel, fire is present to imply several meanings that can be made explicit by referring to destruction, warmth and beauty, and resurrection. Fire seems to have many symbols throughout the novel, but the most recognisable is destruction. At the beginning of the book, Montag is shown as a fireman that is filled with pleasure as books are burned. The very first passage in the novel states, â€Å"It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed† (Bradbury, 1). This narration by Montag expresses his love for fire and the ruin that follows. Fire is destruction, fire is power. One flame can burn a whole house down to the ground. After meeting Clarisse, she asks about his job, his marriage, why he burns books, and if he is truly happy. Being faced with these questions, Montag realizes that he is not happy with his life, and he thinks that books might contain answers for the reason of his unhappiness. Although he is an enforcer of the law of books being banned, Montag is found a lawbreaker himself. Later in the novel, Montag starts stealing a couple of books from collections he is sent to burn. He brings these books home and hides them in the furnace, secretly reading them day by day. However, his wife Mildred has a different point of view when it comes to books; she did not quiet agree with her husband’s actions. One day, Montag leaves for work, not knowing that his wife has other arrangements. While on the job, the alarm goes off, meaning another house to burn. Montag realizes that the address shown on the screen of the alarm, is his own. Once he arrives with his co-workers at their destination, he sees his wife driven away in a taxi with a suitcase. He realizes that his wife must have called in the alarm on him. Beatty, the captain of the fire department, orders Montag to burn his own house with his flamethrower. In the process of burning the house, Montag narrates, â€Å"The house fell in red coals and black ash. It bedded itself down in sleepy pink gray cinders and a smoke plume blew over it† (Bradbury, 54). At that moment , it is evident that Montag sees fire as a negative force, a destructive nature of firemen. Although Montag sees pleasure in burning in the beginning of the novel, his view of fire changes to destruction when he loses his books and home. In contrast to destruction, in the course of the novel, Montag’s opinion on fire changes once more, making him interpret fire to be beautiful and a source of warmth. It is beauty. â€Å"He hadnt known fire could look this way. He had never thought in his life that it could give as well as take. Even its smell was different† (Bradbury, 68). In his eyes, everything about fire cried beauty, from its intense colours to its dancing flames. Another way fire is expressed to be beautiful is when Beatty says, â€Å"Its real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences. A problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it† (Bradbury, 53). The reason to why books are burned is because the government wants its people to not worry about problems, for it is believed that with too much knowledge comes responsibilities and complications. After breaking the law, Montag runs away and finds a camp fire where he meets a man named Granger and many other intellec tuals. He realizes that the camp fire was welcoming, much different than he has always known it to be, destructive. He is surprised by his thought when he sits around the fire with the others by narrating, â€Å"It was not burning; it was warming! He saw many hands held to its warmth, hands without arms, hidden in darkness [†¦] How long he stood he did not know [†¦] He stood a long time, listening to the warm crackle of the flames† (Bradbury, 68). Through the symbol of ‘the hearth’, which is usually found in the centre of homes as a source of heat, it is revealed that fire can be warming as well. Although at the beginning of the book, Montag has a love for the destructive side of fire, by the end of his journey, he is able to see a beautiful, warming side to it. Equally important, fire gives a symbolic meaning of resurrection when referring to the Phoenix. There was a silly damn bird called a Phoenix back before Christ: every few hundred years he built a pyre and burned himself up. He must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Bradbury, 76). After the nuclear war and the bombing of the city, Granger associates mankind with the Phoenix bird that burns itself up in flames and is reborn out of its ashes. â€Å"It looks like were doing the same thing, over and over, but weve got one damn thing the Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things weve done for a thousand years, and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, someday well stop making the goddam funeral pyres and jumping into the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember, every generation (Bradbury, 76). The difference between humans and the phoenix is that humans have the ability to identify their mistakes, and are aware of not committing them over and over again. The fire brings the death of old, and the birth of new. This similarity is effective because it provides the reader with a sense of self-renewed hope for humankind. In the last section of the novel, fire is represented as the rebirth of mankind by building another society where man would embrace knowledge instead of be afraid of it. Destruction, warmth and beauty, and resurrection are three of the most noticeable representation of fire in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. At first, Montag only knows the damaging power of fire, yet gradually comes to appreciate that fire can be engaging and renewing. The author uses the symbol of fire as a destructive force by burning books and homes of characters in the novel. When Montag realizes that fire can be used for more than just destroying houses, he associates it with warmth and beauty. Last but not least, the Phoenix signifies fire because it destroys itself in flames and is then reborn, just as Montag’s world is destroyed by the nuclear weapons in order to start a new beginning. Ray Bradbury was telling us that fire impersonates the actions of the characters, and how they view fire to be a negative or a positive force. The author successfully shows the various interpretations of fire through the development of Montag’s mind, and the same fire that h ad control over Montag before, will now assist him in creating a new intellectual world. Works Cited Primary Sources: Bradbury, Ray.Fahrenheit 451. Ed. Book Club. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. http://lhsblogs.typepad.com/files/complete-text.pdf>. Secondary Sources: Varner, Gary. Fire Symbolism in Myth and Religion. AuthorsDen, 2009. Web. 12 July 2014. http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=62id=43114>.

Right to Housing Under the Constitution of Kenya

RIGHT TO HOUSING UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF KENYA The right to housing comprises an intricate part in the realization of one of the most basic needs of a human being, shelter. Everyone has the right to a decent standard of living as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that has attained the status of jus cogens due to its wide acceptance. Essential to the achievement of this standard is access to adequate housing. It has been said that housing fulfills physical needs by providing security and shelter from weather and climate.It fulfills psychological needs by providing a sense of personal space and privacy. It fulfills social needs by providing a gathering area and communal space for the human family, the basic unit of society. It also fulfills economic needs by functioning as a center for commercial production. Due to various factors including insufficient financial and natural resources, population growth, political upheavals, and rural- urban migration, a vast population of Kenyans especially those living in urban areas end up homeless or in informal settlements. Dr. P. L.O Lumumba in his speech during the World Habitat forum in 2004 described the lengths to which people unable to afford adequate housing go to provide shelter to themselves and their families. He said that some of them end up seeking refuge in, â€Å"slums areas, squatting in informal settlements, old buses, roadside embankments, cellars, staircases, rooftops, elevator enclosures, cages, cardboard boxes, plastic sheets, aluminum and tin shelter. † According to a UN Habitat study done in 2008, 60-80 percent of residents in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, live in informal settlements.In fact, the same study shows that while 60 percent of Nairobi’s populations live in informal settlements, their homes occupy only 5 percent of the total land area of the city and its environs. Although right to adequate shelter is a human right, this does not imply that the gov ernment is obliged to provide each of their citizens with land and an appropriate house to live in. This is dependent on the laws and policies of each individual country. In Kenya, the debate about the justifiability of housing and some other socio-economic rights seems to be over with the passing of the 2010 Constitution.This is because the constitution has provisions that seek to protect the provision of these rights to every citizen as will be discussed in the next part. 1. 1 The Constitution of Kenya, 2010 When Kenya gained independence in 1963, every Kenyan was relieved to have finally been freed from the yoke of colonialism. The independent Kenya adopted a constitution that had majorly British influence but that seemed to suffice during those early ‘teething years’. But as years passed by, the biting reality that the country had been taken over by neo-colonialists hit home.The independence constitution was not sufficient to protect the general public from the vici ous acts and decisions of those in power. There was need for constitutional reform. Kenyans have long struggled for constitutional reform. They struggled because they suffered under an oppressive system of government. Their human rights were suppressed. The power of the state was concentrated in one person, the president. First regions and then local governments were stripped of all their powers. At the center, the president dominated all institutions of the state. Cronyism substituted for politics.Merit counted for little. The law was frequently abused by the government and the exercise of power was unpredictable and arbitrary. The judiciary had failed to protect the constitution and the rights of the people. The civil service and other executive organs lost independence. There was corruption, plundering both of the state and a captive private sector, on a massive scale. The new constitution therefore had to be a document that remedies the shortcomings of the independence constitut ion. The drafters of the new Constitution aimed to restore the confidence of the citizens with their government.One of the salient features of the 2010 constitution is the incorporation of a strong and comprehensive Bill of Rights. It contains a number of rights, which were missing from the independence constitution, including rights to official information, environment, economic and social rights, and rights of consumers, et cetera. The 2010 Constitution strengthens the achievement of the human rights by limiting the restrictions that may be placed on rights and by establishing a strong mechanism for the enforcement of rights. It also provides for an independent commission of human rights to protect and promote rights and freedoms.Of importance to this research are the Economic and Social rights. Article 43 provides for each person’s right to: a) The highest attainable standard of health b) Accessibility and adequate housing and to reasonable standards of sanitation. c) Free dom from hunger and to have adequate food of acceptable quality. d) Clean and safe water in adequate quantities. e) Social Security. f) Education. Amongst this list of rights is the right to housing. Forced evictions of persons living in unplanned settlements and slums are a common feature of urban development.People living in these informal settlements live at the margins of society. Land is generally an expensive investment in Kenya therefore only a few can afford it. Those who cannot afford it opt to rent apartments or houses or rooms from property owners but there are some who cannot still afford this kind of arrangements and so set up their housing structures on any free land that they come across, regardless of whether it is private land or public land set out for other purposes. This latter group of people is the ones who fall victim to forced evictions.Article 2(5) and (6) of the constitution general rules of international law and any treaty or convention ratified by Kenya f orm part of the laws of Kenya. Kenya ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) on 3/1/1976 and consequently became bound to respect, protect and enforce the rights therein, including the right to adequate housing and the related prohibition of forced evictions. It is with this backing of the law that victims of forced evictions that are not conducted in the manner stipulated in both domestic law and international law are able to defend their right to housing through the courts. ——————————————- [ 2 ]. Article 25(1) which states in part, â€Å"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care†¦Ã¢â‚¬  [ 3 ]. Nicholas Okemwa, Forceful Evictions and the Right to Adequate Housing(2011)16 ; The Bench Bulletin 58 [ 4 ]. Dr. P. L. O Lumumba, Powers of Urban Authorities over Settlement Control: The Kenyan Case. He presented this paper during the world habitat forum organized by un-habitat held on the 13th –17th September 2004 at the Barcelona, Spain [ 5 ].Preliminary Results of the 2009, National Population and Housing Census. [ 6 ]. Draft Eviction an Resettlement Guidelines, 2010. [ 7 ]. Commentary on the Kenyan Constitution, (Consolidation of 15 articles in the East African Standard). [ 8 ]. Article 35 [ 9 ]. Article 42 [ 10 ]. Article 43 [ 11 ]. Article 46 [ 12 ]. Article 24 is the only article that provides for the specific procedure to be followed for a right contained in the Bill of Rights to be limited. This is unlike in the independence constitution where each right was immediately followed by a claw-back clause. [ 13 ]. Article 11

Nature in the Rastafarian Consciousness Essay example

Nature in the Rastafarian Consciousness Living in harmony with the environment and the laws of Nature is one of the central ideas of Rastafarianism. To live in accordance with the Earth is to live in accordance with Jah; it is incorporated into the morality that is Rastafarian consciousness. The Rastas reverence for nature is influenced by the traditional African religions which are still practiced in Jamaica and which have also influenced Christianity on the island tremendously. Hinduism, too, has influenced many Rastafarian beliefs and practices. Through the Rastafarians calculated rejection of Western cultural norms they have come to realize capitalism and the environmental destruction it has caused as Babylon, a place of†¦show more content†¦Thus the religion of the slaves believed that,the entire realm of nature has been endowed with personal life; and every tree or plant, every river or stone, becomes a source of energy or power which may be used, abused, offended or destroyed (Morrish 17,1983.) Unlike in Haiti, where slaves wee virtually forced to accept Catholicism by the French, the British found their slaves to be unworthy of their religion. One hundred and sixty-one years after the British took over the Jamaican House of Assembly passed an act to bring Christianity into the lives of the slaves. However, opposition to the act was so strong among the British planters that no clergyman would risk the support of his parish in order to carry out the task. 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The First Agent Of The American Revolution - 966 Words

Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own. -- Thomas Jefferson, 17741 The American Revolution was a war in which the thirteen colonies of Great Britain sought independence due to many unjust taxes and laws passed without their consent. The first agent of the revolution started in 1763 with the ending of the French and Indian War in which Great Britain conquered all of France’s holdings in North America. Consequently, this resulted in large amounts of debt for the British. The British decided that raising taxes on the colonies would allow them to acquire the needed funds. Document one reads â€Å" One of the first taxes imposed by the British parliament was commonly known as the Stamp Act. It required American colonists to pay fees for all kinds of printed documents.† The Colonists however, disagreed with this act. John Adams, a young lawyer in Massachusetts wrote a resolution protesting the new act. 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