What Makes Us Human? - M Deremo

William Wordsworth made a famous poem by the title "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" because of a visit to The Ullswater Valley in Cumbria England. This poem is about walking by Ullswater, only to stumble upon a crowd of daffodils that sway and dance in the wind. By the end of the poem, Wordsworth claims that if he lies in a "vacant" or "pensive" mood, he will remember those beautiful daffodils he was inspired by. He loved Ullswater so much that he even bought land there, with the intention of raising a family. With his sister Dorothy and some friends, they would often walk around this valley…

During World War I, Great Britain did not want to fight in the war despite siding with Russia and France. On July 31, 1914, the Parliament and cabinet were both still divided as to whether they would join the war or not. Eventually, the British joined the war due to fears of the German would hold victory in the West theater, which the British believed could lead to an imbalance of power. The British army was small in comparison to other armies, but the soldiers were greatly trained and funded. Wilfred Owen, of course, ended up being a famous war poet as he was a soldier throughout World…

In Virginia Woolf's first publication "The Mark on the Wall," she spends the entire story tracing back memories to figure out what the mark on the wall is. She ponders what this mark could be; for instance she questions if the mark on the wall was made from a hole or not, or if it is shadow being projected. By thinking about what the mark on the wall actually is, the narrator goes down many rabbit holes within her brain, where she has thoughts of death and how fast life seems to go by, or she thinks of things such as nature and Shakespeare. At the end of this story, another individual…

Anna Laetitia Barbauld wrote a poem called "The Caterpillar" which is another poem about her empathy towards animals. However, this story teaches more of a lesson. The narrator of this poem has had a habit of killing caterpillars, and at the beginning of this poem, she had just murdered another caterpillar family until she feels remorse for the single one that survived her attack. She is moved and decides to no longer kill caterpillars anymore after seeing this single insect bravely escaping her attacks. This poem can teach us as humans that we can always step away and break our bad habits…

In Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, music is very important to the main character, Kathy. However, she only feels comforted by one song she discovered during her time at the boarding school "Hailsham." This fictional song was called "Never Let Me Go" by Judy Bridgewaters, and Kathy treasured this tape during her time at Hailsham. For a while, she often misinterpreted the lyrics, thinking this was a song about a mother rocking her baby, not wanting to be apart from the child. Because of this misinterpretation, she has danced with a pillow in her room like a mother holding a…

While Frankenstein is a story that explains the human condition, it is also a result of Mary Shelley having an interest in science as she was growing up. She read about it and also attended lectures to learn more about science. As an example, she was aware of studies from William Abernathy and William Lawrence that had to do with human life forces and the origins. William Abernathy believed that a spark could bring someone to life, which is where one could see inspiration for Frankenstein as Victor brought a spark to bring his creature to life. …