Conclusion Flashcards
P1
Szymborska’s poem begins with a closed off view of the world – one that “was so small it fit in two clasped hands”. Through the war, the narrator experiences disappointment and becomes hardened, believing that “long roads leading nowhere” await her in the future. The war has broadened her knowledge as it did the world’s, revealing ugliness and tragedy and contradicting her childhood beliefs. Her smile is no longer an expression of happiness, but one of acceptance and endurance, a wry expression adopted to brave an uncertain future with the new knowledge that our understanding of the world will always be imperfect.
P2
Annie Dillard’s “Total Eclipse? similarly contains many images and metaphors exploring the topics of knowledge, belief and meaning. However, rather than focus on what is lost on the path from innocence to experience, the essay underscores the universality of human qualities that can help us transcend the hardships of experience. The passage concludes by asserting that science cannot explain goodness, evil or love: “This is given. It is not learned”. It illustrates that some aspects of life are fundamentally part of being human and remain with us from childhood through adulthood. This suggests that knowledge is finite and has innate limitations; it cannot replace emotion and meaning which are critical for true understanding of the human experience.
P3
Through powerful imagery, the works eloquently portray the universal quest to pursue knowledge and experience to combat our fear of the unknown and control our destiny. Ultimately, we discover that while our understanding may grow, knowledge is a treasure we can never fully possess nor is it the ultimate solution. It is a prize we obtain at great cost, bringing with it sorrow, uncertainty and nostalgia for a simpler time.
