The Meaning of Struggle in Human Life - Essay Example

The Meaning of Struggle in Human Life It has never been a surprise that any human life is a story of constant struggle for anything: good living conditions, well-paid job, a family to be proud of and many other things that are definitely worth fighting for. The point of concern here is that some people take any efforts to reach the goals – they sacrifice all the time and resources they have, and at the end, they reasonably win and gain everything they want, whereas some prefer to do it in a usual way knowing that it is impossible to gain the ultimate results anyway. The fact which is proved by the life itself is that struggle definitely deserves many efforts and much time, even though the results may be not that good or even dissatisfactory at all, and this suggestion is proved by two magnificent works of art – Homer’s “Iliad” and Ellison’s “Invisible Man”. The first work, which is more that well-known and needs no introduction, is a story of permanent heroic battles, clashes, “…the massive struggle between … the … greatest men” victories and defeats with their benefits and adversarial consequences. (Texin, 2005). It is likely to explain this as its being a product of its time – the age of great wars, significant offenses, epic triumphs and human majesty. The first fact that proves necessity of struggle for a human being is the time period described in the epic poem of Homer – it narrates about ten years of the opposite sides conducting warfare for their own purposes: the Trojans have defended themselves by any means, possible and impossible, and the Greek have been definitely aimed at gaining new territories and the correspondent benefits related to possible takeover of the city which truly has been an example of a fearless and selfless, even heroic, defense. (Homer, 1998). The second thing that proves human desire and taking up struggle has more to do with the defeated party – the Trojans, rather than with the Greeks, though the driving force that has made them do so has been a trend of those days. The Trojans have reasonably defended their motherland and have wanted to resist the invasion of the aggressor who has wanted to benefit at their expense, and this desire is more than wise and natural of human beings. This is an eternal problem when it comes to readiness to arm oneself and take up fighting the enemies, which in real life happens not that often – many people prefer just to escape and come back when the state of affairs stabilizes. The behavior of the Trojans who have had many chances to win this war and reasonably be proud of the gains of their struggle is a behavior of real sons of their motherland, and the latter is the concept to struggle for forever, no matter how old a person is or any other factors – they also prove necessity of a collective struggle for an eternal thing. (Homer, 1998). “…Hector, the Trojan leader, is a more sympathetic character than the great Achilles, the best of the Achaeans.” (Valdivieso, 2011). This phrase is the best evidence of the suggestion of the struggle worthiness in regard to the struggle, particularly for the motherland, and the defenders and the strugglers are people who are honored and referred to as the best examples of courage, patriotism and readiness to act. Another proof of necessity of taking up struggling in the course of human life is natural predetermination of this phenomenon. The laws of the nature and the world created by human beings are mostly the same: those who are stronger usually gain new profits and eliminate the ones who are weaker. This opinion is an object of severe criticism from moral point of view, and it is considered to be immoral and unfair to invade to the others’ territories and oppress the local population – just what the Greeks have been doing for ten years. The realms of the life, however, very often prove the awful truth – it is always necessary to remain vigilant and to permanently master the skills of defense in order not to be eliminated by the supposedly stronger side. In this regard, it is possible to consider the mentioned moral aspect – it is quite real to develop and support the means of self-defense without oppressing and limiting the others and the result of such neutral self-progress would be the above mentioned fame and honor of the people defended by the defenders in the real meaning of this word. The natural predetermination of the struggle necessity in this regard is also that a human being tends to protect him or herself together with the property from the attacks of the others. These others historically were animals, and people struggled to protect their lives because otherwise they would become their prey, but development of human mind and constant progress led to emergence of necessity of a human being to defend from the other human being. From this point of view the sympathies would also be given to the defending party which wants to defend his or her freedom. It is important that the struggle as a concept is presented in a Homer’s work without any prejudice or criticism: the motives that the parties of the conflict have had are different, but the way they have struggled for their purposes is an ideal example of the goals reaching and dedication, and these two things combined usually give magnificent results. Talking about negative results (the Trojans’ example) it is necessary to admit that the strugglers will at least feel themselves comfortable from the psychological point of view: this will justify them rather than making them guilty for their defeat and will make the critics look for its reasons elsewhere rather than in the defenders’ devotedness and selflessness. The second literary work, the above mentioned Ellison’s “Invisible Man”, is one of the best examples proving absolutely necessity of the struggle in human life. This is proved by the plot and the period of the book: the actions take place in the early XX century, and the characters are the participants of the movement of the African Americans for their rights and freedoms and their efforts to overpower discrimination and segregation. (Elliott, 1995). This period of time and the events which happened in the process of the Black struggle paid the world’s attention to one of the most actual problem which becomes acute even nowadays – the problem of racism, namely its negative results and the ways to abolish it. Those days a situation when the White people enjoyed looking at the Blacks the same way they did in the zoo was quite normal, and many talented and skilled Black artists secured their living by amusing the White public splashing out the money. (Hughes, 1926). Such state of affairs, obviously, was too far from satisfaction of the multi-million population of the African American people who had already suffered for a very long time before from unhuman labor and its terrible conditions, which were tortures in practice, and this was a logical explanation of the reason and the necessity of the struggle which the author successfully described. Ellison’s work proves reasonability and necessity of struggle by means of peculiar depiction of the main character. The man is reasonably called invisible – even though he takes very much efforts to change the things around and to finally gain proper attitude towards the Black people in general, the results are practically not seen and the “invisibility” of the man is quite a proof of this situation. The character survives an enormous quantity of humiliations from the White people in the course of the development of the plot. They are stimulated by the racial background, and their effect is so strong that this situation may be harmful even for human health, not only from physical, but also from mental and psychological point of view. Physical humiliations demonstrate that there is a real need to do something about this, as they may cause serious injuries (there is an episode in the book when the Black youngsters are made to pass through a carper which is electrified, which is very dangerous and may even be lethal), and psychological discomfort from reception of humiliations fills a person up with forces to resist the adversary action of the surrounding people and cope with the challenges. (Ellison, 1995). The student years of the main character of the work of Ellison enforced his acceptance of the struggle necessity. He became a student three years later after the above mentioned incident with the Black youngsters, and the state of affairs in relation to race relations and racism did not improve. The situation that proved this fact, together with the one that the Black people must not give up and keep on their fighting till the end, was that the White people still behaved themselves unconsciously in regard to racial matters and often provoked aggressive, but almost always reasonable, reaction of the African Americans. One of the characters, Mr. Norton, a white college trustee, a wealthy person, spoke about the Black people without respect generalizing the negative effect that they cause to them, to the White people (he did so because one of the Black men impregnated his daughter, which he was very angry with), which, certainly, could not serve as a model of normal relations between the representatives of the races relations of which were far from at least peaceful. Later on, when there was a fight between the Black veterans, and a White man was one of its reasons, the struggle became physical, which could be both criticized and praised: physical actions are usually more effective, while it takes a lot of time and efforts to conquer the hearts of people by means of words and thought-provoking speeches. The matter is that people recognize their dissatisfactory life realms and aim at their altering, and the matter of efficiency is not the primary one in this regard. (Ellison, 1995). It is necessary to mention that, though most of the things were against the main character, he did not give up his struggle; on the contrary, he found enough power to continue it, and the most important thing in this regard was the fact that he managed to do so rather than the dissatisfactory results of this undertaking. He was looking for any job and was ready to accept any offer, but he was unlucky at this. The letters of recommendation that he hoped for did not help much, moreover, as he found out later, they characterized him from negative sides and distracted the employers from him. He still managed to find a low-paid occupation, but the conflict with a Black man which caused their fighting spoiled all the wok and he had to be taken to the hospital. (Ellison, 1995). Many critics may suppose that this has not been worth trying at all, but when there is a need for money it is seldom considered which results may be gained, and the actions are taken which is the only possible solution in this case. Conclusion The problem of struggle, its results and necessity is a very important one. The life is the best evidence for the real need for struggle, and the works of Homer (“Iliad”) and Ellison (“Invisible Man”) prove this point of view. The first work is an example of how courage and conscious people can be when they are determined at noble aims, such as defense of their motherland and protection of population from the aggressive actions of the invaders, and the second literary work is the best proof of the necessity of the permanent struggle with the injustice, which is perfectly described by the efforts of the African American people in their desire to secure proper attitude and gain their rights and freedoms. The devotion and being determined at the results are the strongest motivators when speaking about the struggle, and the process itself may be even amusing and interesting if necessary efforts are taken. These examples prove that it is impossible to ignore struggle, and sometimes it is the only way to reach any results. Works Cited Ellison, R. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage International, 1995. Print. Homer. Iliad. London: Penguin, 1998. Print. Hughes, L. When the Negro Was in Vogue. 1926. Web. 14 May 2015. Texin, C. Honor & Glory in the Iliad: Life After Death. 2005. Web. 14 May 2015. Valdivieso, E. Hector and Iliad VI. 2011. Web. 14 May 2015. Read More