e.e. cummings

"as freedom is a breakfast food," e.e. cummings.

The themes of this poem are the fleeting nature of all things in life, including intellectual concepts such as freedom, and how all these things are always juxtaposed with their opposite. The poem begins with the title line, as freedom is a breakfast food, suggesting that freedom is the nourishment that gets people through the day. The rest of the poem compares and contrast things with their elementary parts. For example, "truth can live with right and wrong," "water most encourage flame." Each of these juxtapositions is a nuanced look at the concept being discussed. Truth can live with right and wrong, because sometimes being truthful can be hurtful, and wrong: for example telling someone who is ecstatic about their new haircut that you think it's ugly. That may well be the truth, but it's the wrong thing to say. Likewise, water encourages flame in that, by providing the potential to put it out, it gives flame the incentive to grow stronger. In the end, cummings concludes that time is a tree, this life one leaf, and he is for freedom "just so long and long enough." I believe that this whimsical look at freedom captures its contradictory elements. Life is fleeting, and freedom contains the inherent contradiction that it necessitates rules, or curbs against freedom, in order to exist. True freedom, in which all can do what they wish, would quickly turn to anarchy.

"Of Old Sat Freedom on the Heights," Alfred L

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e beginning that it is not the primary reason for his support for the war. He wonders how many Iraqis would have been starved to death by Saddam Hussein in the next few years, and states that "even if ten thousand Iraqi civilians died in the fighting, that wouldn't compare to the number of deaths that Saddam would inflict." Then, he moves on to contemplate "what's freedom worth?" He compares the war in Iraq to America's liberation of South Korea, France, Kuwait, and Afghanistan. Hawkins takes us back to the days of the Founding Fathers, and declares that the price they were willing to pay for their liberation give me liberty or give me death from England was worth it. His conclusion, then, is that the Iraqi people deserve freedom just as much as we do despite the fact that they were not strong enough to get rid of Hussein on their own. I vehemently disagree with this conception of freedom as something that the U.S. should spread throughout the world through our military prowess. The author conveniently forgets the Vietnam war and its disastrous consequences. Freedom is not something that can be handed out; it must be earned. "What is Freedom?" Anne Taylor Fleming Fleming explores the juxtaposition between freedom and s

Category: Literature - E