Questioning The Rules Of Life And Poverty

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Questioning the Rules of Life and Poverty
The English author and early feminist Virginia Woolf said, “Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.” Writer’s Nikos Kazantzakis and Frank McCourt employ this in their texts, “The Isle of Aphrodite” and “Limerick Homecoming.” These writings draw from each author’s own experiences and offer a comprehensive look into their minds, revealing their world views, as realistic as they may or may not be. It is difficult to critique these writer’s views, being everyone adjusts the ways in which they deal with life to fit their own experiences, but when looked at on a broad scale it can be said that both realistic and important views can be drawn from each author’s respective essay.
In his essay, “The Isle of Aphrodite,” Kazantzakis writes of questioning rules and figuring out things for oneself. Kazantzakis begins by drawing readers into his world and thoughts as his essay unfolds with descriptive images of Cyprus, the native land of Aphrodite. The author often floats back and forth between images and ideas and in the second paragraph of his text reveals his first idea, “Thought is an effort that goes contrary to the direction of life. The lifting of the soul, the vigilance of the mind, the charge toward the heights, all are the great ancestral sins against the will of God” (Kazantzakis 439). In saying this, Kazantzakis is asking why do we think so much about everything? He believes that we spend so much time thinking and making rules that it slows down the flow of our life. Too much thought is contrary to the way God wanted people to live their lives. In the above quote Kazantzakis is actually suggesting that creating rules is sinful. As his journey continues he offers many other ideas for readers to consider about conformity in life.
Kazantzakis goes on to address thoughts as forces again...