We all strive for beauty if not for perfection. We all strive for the better and have never been achieved contentment. As I have read the literary pieces, I have learned how people give their own defifition of beauty.
John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is a Romantic ode in Iambic Pentameter. It describes a perfect scene of beauty and peace. The first stanza introduces us to the topic, the picture of the urn. The second stanza speaks of music and love; third stanza continues with music, nature and love; Stanza four deals with religion and sacrifice; and stanza five gives a recap of the problem and reveals the truth through the Urn that beauty outlasts all. The ode gives us a description of the ideal. The form of beauty, of youth, of music that remains engraved upon the urn. It’s a beauty that has existed before objects. Eternity was spoken in the final lines of the ode.
“New Life at Kyerefaso” by Efura Sutherland presents us another side of the African culture. Foruwa an African woman chose to marry stranger who becomes a useful and respected member of her community. The concept of beauty in the story lies in the acceptance of a person. Those who are accepted in the society are considered beautiful.
Salman Rushdie’s “At the Auction of the Red Slippers” is about an auction where everyone is showing up to get a chance to buy the red slippers. Those red slippers were treated like a religious relic. It was known as the footwear of the gods. It was believed that those slippers can make them invulnerable to witches. In addition to the slippers, tons of other things have been auctioned off in that very auction room. People are fascinated with material wealth and defining themselves with what they own rather than who they are as a person. Acquiring wealth is another mechanism of achieving beauty. In this story, wealth was believed as the tool to restore one’s destructive state into its normalcy. That beauty is restored through wealth.
“Miss USA,” an interview of...