Certainty and Bewilderment (Team Phoenix)
After Reading these two essays I created
a definition of my own towards Bewilderment and also discovered this
definition through many perspectives. Bewilderment is a piece between the
certain and uncertain a state where you are unable to think clearly and
find yourself being puzzled or confused. Fanny Howe author of Bewilderment
provides the reader with a multiplicity of definitions and examples from a
wide range from grammar, language, poetry, politics etc. of Bewilderment,
but in order to truly comprehend the concept one must be open accept
all these different perspectives. Bewilderment is necessary because we are
surrounded by so many aspects and instances of it, for example she states
"they were un able to handle the complexities of the world or the shock of
making a difference" (Howe). it's a sense of mystification that is
likely present in so many of our life scenarios. The reference in her
essay to Paradise and how we don't know if it's behind or ahead of us. Helped
me connect to the second reading "The serpents in Paradise"
by Edward Abbey the writing style he uses is just indescribable the amount
of details and imagery truly engages his reader his experience with
nature comes with the perks of his job. When he narrates the story of
the serpent he demonstrates his appreciation towards nature not only
by narrating his experience in a snake's perception almost as though he
becomes one. It's captivating the certainty to which he uses to control the
situation and share his perceptions. In my view Certainty is equally
important to that of bewilderment. Certainty comes hand in hand with moral
values and obligations, therefor this connects it to every decision in
our daily life.
I completely agree with your views on bewilderment and certainty. I would define bewilderment as being confused, or as you said it uncertain. Fanny Howe is an American novelist and author of Bewilderment. She provides a well understanding of bewilderment and shares many different examples. Howe’s wide range through her examples, provides an in-depth view of bewilderment, and overall giving us a better understanding of it. On the other hand, Edward Abbey, the author of The Serpents in Paradise, uses a significant amount of imagery in his short essay. The description of his day to day job as park ranger, he provides us with detailed experiences of his exciting occupation. I believe certainty is necessary in our lives, for the need of security. Bewilderment is also necessary in our lives, because of the wide variety of decisions we are faced with on a daily basis. Bewilderment and certainty must work together, depending on the situation, either one will be used in the correct situation. Therefore, connecting both to our everyday lives.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement. Bewilderment could be defined as the uncertainty to be certain, to be baffled about a situation. In Fanny Howe’s reading, Bewilderment, she manages to have different aspects to define bewilderment with different examples. Howe uses poetics through developing ideas of living in a world and testing it through characters in fiction where they are uncertain in where to run, because what they are running from is themselves without them even knowing it. She also uses politics, comic books, prayers, grammar, etc. Bewilderment through Howe adds in the complex side of the uncertainty. In Edward Abbey’s essay, The Serpents of Paradise, a lot of imagery goes on through his usage of description. We are able to not only know about his experience, but we are able to picture it. His bond with the snakes makes it look like he had a lot of knowledge over what he was facing as what seems to be a park ranger. He had the bull snake as a pet to avoid the rattle snake from coming to his domain. Certainty is based on what one values in the world like Howe valued nature. I agree that certainty is as important as bewilderment. Both deal with our daily life decisions.
ReplyDeleteI completely see where you’re coming from. Your definition of bewilderment is pretty much how I interpreted it. It’s a sense of confusion of not knowing but I think that is like being uncertain in a positive way or that you don’t know what going to come of a situation but you’re eager to see the outcome. It’s so hard to put a working definition to the sense of bewilderment but Fanny Howe did a really nice job in her essay “Bewilderment”, trying to do just that. All the different metaphors and examples were a nice way to approach the topic from several different points of view. Certainty would have to be the opposite in this case. Know well what the outcome of a situation or action will be. In the story “The Serpents of Paradise” by Edward Abbey, the author uses very strong and specific imagery to tell his story of somethings that occurred while he was a park ranger. The ranger displayed certainty in his knowledge of the natural world around him. In our own lives I think that certainty is important because it is less of a burden to be able to prepare for the future. But I think it is important to have that feeling of bewilderment. To not really know what is going to happen but to run with it anyway can be exiting and invigorating. It forces you to think outside of the box more than if you knew what to do. I think that a balance of both is important to get the most out of life.
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