Can Religion Help the Healing Process of Cancer? Essay -- Religion Rel

Can Religion Help the Healing Process of Cancer? One of the hardest parts of cancer is psychologically dealing with the illness. People know that cancer causes pain, suffering and potentially death. Death. A traumatizing circumstance when faced with prematurely. Patients with this life-threatening disease can easily fall into unhealthy lifestyle due to lack of emotional support, making cancer twice as difficult to try to overcome. Religion and spirituality provide patients with coping mechanisms, support groups and a view of eternal life that gives patients hope for better times to come. Religion and spirituality are proven psychologically components that show positive results when coping with cancer. When diagnosed with a life-threatening disease like cancer, emotions run high. Fear, vulnerability, hopelessness, despair and the loss of the meaning of life all flood the patient’s mind. â€Å"The initial diagnosis is an existential crisis† (Spiegel par 7). This life-threatening disease is attacking the body, while these emotions erode the mind. The need for comfort and support is necessary to sort out the monstrous psychological conflict that accompanies cancer. Is death really a possibly? Facing death alone is a difficult task, but support-groups have been put together and strategies have been created to help patients sift through emotions, ultimately finding meaning to life when suddenly time has been limited. When faced with death, managing emotions, as well as the negative effects and suffering is critical to the healing process. Researchers in this field agree that comfort and support are needed to try to start the healing process and successfully overcome the fear of death. A patient of Professor David Spiegel, M.D., a... ...t was through this comment that Williams finally understood that her support was essential to her mother coping with the present. Her Mormon believe helped her to understand that standing by her mother during these difficult times, even when they were difficult for her, was were duty and service not only to her mother, but to God. Williams weaves her Mormon believe into her experiences she describes in Refuge. Her Mormon faith is expressed through the sense of family and community that provided support for her mother. Faith also provides hope. Williams’ mother states, â€Å"It (faith) is a belief in a wisdom superior to our own. Faith becomes a teacher in the absence of fact† (Williams 198). Both faith and hope give her mother the ability to cope with death because her Mormon religion believes death is just a transition between human life and eternal life with God.

Women’s Rights in the Middle East

This is focused on women in the middle east, in places such as China, Egypt, Turkey, Afghanistan, etc. Women’s rights in this part of the world is very different than in the United States. Women are forced to live by the men’s rules. In China they throw little girls on the streets, leaving them starving to death because they think that there are too many women already, it’s part of their culture. Or they make the women abort the baby if it’s a girl, that’s called genocide.This topic is really interesting because it’s not what you see everyday in our country. It’s a different side and there are different concerns. Women live in the shadow, they don’t have a right to speak, sometimes they have to do demeaning things because it’s what it was intended that they should do according to their country’s rights. There are women that fight for their rights and to be treated equally. Some people approve that, others donâ€⠄¢t.Some women are sick of being treated like slaves and they try to fight for what they want, but some of them get killed in the process because the men take that as rebellion. I’m in favor of those women who fight till the end, who want to make a difference. If I could help change the way people think in these countries, I would. In Afghanistan women try to fight for their freedom because it’s a society where mainly the men are in charge. And it is believed that men have to be deciding everything in the women’s lives, including marriage.

Symbolism in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay example

In Nathaniel Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown the use of symbols contributes to the development of the storys plot. Symbolism is used as a means to uncover the truth about the characters. The author, in an attempt to manifest the moral aspects of his society, uses many kinds of symbols to support his points. When analyzing an allegory like Young Goodman Brown, the reader must realize that the story is in its entirety, a symbol. Hawthorne, through his writing is trying to convey the contradicting aspects of the Puritan ideology. This is made evident after discovering that Goodmans father burned an Indian Village and his grandfather lashed a Quaker woman. By Hawthorne including these acts of violence, he is revealing that the†¦show more content†¦His lack of experience allows him to leave his wife on this night despite her pleas: Dearest heart...pritthee put off your journey until sunrise, and sleep in your own bed tonight. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts that she is afeared of herself...tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year! (Hawthorne 331). One can question whether it is his lack of experience as a married man or his inability to handle his wifes sexuality that drives Goodman into the forest. They are rightfully married so he has done no wrong. Yet, his guilt is so great that he leaves his Faith to go on this errand. It has been argued in the past that Brown can not accept his own sexuality. Brown is prevented from developing into his sexual elder because of sheer sexual adolescence or personal idealism. (Loving 223) The key word here is adolescence. Brown is still young, not mature enough to accept these repressed feelings. Brown also proves to be impressionable and easily influence because after one ambiguous night, he lets himself change into a completely different man. Before entering the forest Brown was close to his community. However, after one night of spending with the devil, he returns a cynical pessimistic man who only sees the evil in his community. They way he regarded those in his society changed overnight. The impression was so strong that it did not last a month or a year but a lifetime. Even atShow MoreRelated The Symbolism of Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay2725 Words   |  11 PagesThe Symbolism of â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚   Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† shows the reader the author’s power as a symbolist.    Frederick C. Crews in â€Å"The Logic of Compulsion in ‘Roger Malvin’s Burial’† explores the symbology that prevails in Hawthorne’s best short stories:    . . . I chose this one tale to analyze because it illustrates the indispensability, and I should even say the priority, of understanding the literal psychological dramasRead More Symbolism in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay2380 Words   |  10 PagesSymbolism in Young Goodman Brown  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚      Edmund Fuller and B. Jo Kinnick in â€Å"Stories Derived from New England Living† state: â€Å"Hawthorne’s unique gift was for the creation of strongly symbolic stories which touch the deepest roots of man’s moral nature† (31). It is the purpose of this essay to explore the main symbolism contained within Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown.†    Stanley T. Williams in â€Å"Hawthorne’s Puritan Mind† states that the author was forever â€Å"perfectingRead MoreAmbiguity And Symbolism In Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown1952 Words   |  8 Pagespeople. The short story called Young Goodman Brown is a good example of how people are trapped in this war and gives a somewhat description of what it could be like in a losing fight against evil. The message of the story is that everyone has a dark nature in them somewhere, whether it can be triggered by something traumatic, or by their surroundings as they grew up to adulthood from only knowing that. The premise of the story is mostly about how Goodman Brown leaves Salem village to undergoRead MoreAllegory And Symbolism In Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown728 Words   |  3 PagesIt is hard to read beyond the third paragraph of â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† without finding allegory and symbolism. The opening seems realistic--Goodman Brown, a young Puritan, leaves his home in colonial Salem to take an overnight trip-- but his wifes name, â€Å"Faith,† immediately suggests a symbolic reading. Before long, Brown’s walk into the dream-like forest seems like an allegorical trip into evil. The idea that Hawthorne shows by this trip is that people are attracted to sin through temptation whichRead MoreSymbolism in Nathaniel Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay468 Words   |  2 PagesSymbolism in Nathaniel Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Nathaniel Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown is full of symbolism throughout the story. Perhaps the most interesting examples of symbolism include the title character, Young Goodman Brown, as well as his wife, Faith, and the woods that Young Goodman Brown enters on his journey. Included are many allusions to Christianity and also to evil and sin. These references are expressed mainly through characters and settings in the story. TheRead More Symbolism in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay examples2488 Words   |  10 Pages     Ã‚   Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† is rich in symbolism, as this essay will amply illustrate. Hugo McPherson in â€Å"Hawthorne’s Use of Mythology† explains how the author’s â€Å"inner drama† may be expressed in his symbolism: The imaginative foundation of a writer’s work may well be an inner drama or ‘hidden life’ in which his deepest interests and conflicts are transformed into images or characters; and through the symbolic play of these creations, he comes to ‘know’ the meaningRead MoreAllegory and Symbolism in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†1203 Words   |  5 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† is an excellent example of the use of allegories and symbolism as a form of satire on Puritan faith. According to Frank Preston Stearns, author of The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne, â€Å"Hawthorne may have intended this story as an exposure of the inconsistency, and consequent hypocrisy, of Puritanism† (Stearns 181). Throughout the story of â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† Hawthorne tries to infuse as many symbols and allegories as he can to enhance the overallRead More Symbolism in Nathaniel H awthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay1278 Words   |  6 PagesSymbolism in Nathaniel Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism throughout his short story Young Goodman Brown to impact and clarify the theme of good people sometimes doing bad things. Hawthorne uses a variety of light and dark imagery, names, and people to illustrate irony and different translations. Young Goodman Brown is a story about a man who comes to terms with the reality that people are imperfect and flawed and then dies a bitter death from the enlightenmentRead MoreSymbolism and Allegory in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay2297 Words   |  10 Pages   Ã‚   The main characters in Hawthornes story Young Goodman Brown are Goodman Brown, his wife Faith and the stranger who accompanies Goodman Brown in the forest. At the beginning of the story Brown is bidding his wife, Faith farewell at their front door. Taking a lonely route into the forest, he meets an older man who bears a fatherly resemblance to both Brown and the Devil. Later that night Brown discovers to his amazement, that many exemplary villagers are on the same path including, GoodyRead More Essay on Symbols, Symbolism, and Allegory in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown726 Words   |  3 PagesSymbols, Symbolism, and Allegory in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Symbolism is a literary technique that is used to clarify the authors intent. Sometimes it is used to great effect, while other times it only seems to muddle the meaning of a passage. In Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses objects and people as symbols to allegorically reveal his message to the reader. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses different people as symbols throughout Young Goodman Brown. The largest symbolic