Richard Wright's view about religion (according to the book, Black Essay

Richard Wright's view about religion (according to the book, Black Boy) - Essay Example In an effort to ascertain Wright’s overarching perspective on religion, this essay considers the development of Wright’s views on religion throughout his autobiography. Wright’s first confrontation with religion comes as a direct consequence of his going to live with his grandmother after leaving the orphanage. Up until this point Wright has made no attempt to gain overt sympathy from the reader, and indicates a number of uncouth actions that he participated in as a youth, including frequent cursing. Upon moving in with his grandmother the reader witnesses the confrontation of these two cultural perspectives. It is no surprise then that Wright’s early views of religion are an oppressive and overly restrictive oppressive system. Even as Wright enjoys the rural environment that surrounds his grandmother’s home, he openly rejects the restrictive internal environment. While one of the initial restrictions that Wright objects to occurs in regards to his grandmother’s belief that the only thing that should be read is the Bible, perhaps Wright’s first-outward objection to the religious restrictions is through the symboli c utterance of a curse word while he was taking a bath. Throughout the novel there are a series of such restrictions that function to characterize religion as an oppressive belief system, further articulating Wright’s views on the subject. For instance, Richard is unable to work on Saturdays because his grandmother so strictly follows religious principles; similarly, he is forced to become baptized in chapter 6 – after which Richard tells the others that were baptized that he feels no different after the ceremony. At the age of twelve, before I had had one full year of formal schooling, I had . . . a conviction that the meaning of living came only when one was struggling to wring a meaning out of meaningless suffering. At the age of twelve I had an attitude toward life that was to

Sir Richard Rogers Lloyds Building Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Sir Richard Rogers Lloyds Building - Essay Example This building, started in 1979 but not completed until 1984, is a complex combination of both Modern and Postmodern ideals that manages to evade allowing either framework to dominate. A basic description of the building indicates a tall structure with the unusual feature of having its service features exposed to the exterior and utilized as a decorative element. This follows the Modernist movement in its focus on the mechanical elements of the structure while it also reflects the postmodern element of everything being in a constant state of flux. The building was originally designed to serve as the corporate headquarters of a large insurance firm and is erected in the center of London’s financial district. This context illustrates the importance of its design as a means of reflecting the higher monetary, capitalistic values of the community and thus much in line with the Modernist ideals of the era. However, the building was also required to be highly flexible to be able to ac commodate perhaps as yet unknown technologies and to adapt to often changing uses, thus reinforcing the concepts of Postmodernism. As the following investigation will prove, though, the building itself, in its focus on mechanics and materials, falls more within the realm of the Modernist movement while its means of addressing the concerns of the times and the context incorporates the values and ideas of Postmodernism. The concepts of the Modern approach focus upon the assumption that everything can be classified into specific categories and definitions. â€Å"Modernity is a project, and not only a period, and it is, or was, a project of control, the rational mastery over nature, the planning, designing and plotting which led to planomania and technocracy† (Beilharz, 2001: 6). Emerging as a product and reaction to an increasingly mechanized world in which standardization seemed inevitable; the basic