Essay Assignment

Out from Xanadu-an Essay

Out from Xanadu-an Essay

Introduction- The Journey Begins

Since the beginning of the human race , both those who believe in the concept of some sort of a supreme force , be it God , Buddah , Muhammad or any other of a myriad of ancient and present day deities , and those who are non-believers have pondered the moral absolutes of right and wrong . More precisely , many wonder about the consequences of doing things that are wrong and the concept of being rewarded , in this life or the next , for doing

good deeds . With all of this in mind , philosophers and poets have devoted huge amounts of intellectual effort to the same . An excellent example of a modern day writer who has done this is Cynthia Ozick . In her now classic essay , Out from Xanadu , she has created in the existence of Xanadu , not necessarily a physical location as one would find on a map , but rather a mindset of human behaviors . In fact , it can fairly be said that Xanadu is a place ' of moral nothingness , as evidenced by this quote from the essay : In Xanadu , the Ten Commandments do not even exist (Ozick

My personal journey , both physical and moral , has likewise found me in the midst of exploring not only what I will choose to do with my life in terms of profession , vocation or the like , but also where I fit into the human race and the so-called grand scheme of the universe ' as a deep thinker like Ozick would likely put it (Wallace . Having taken the beginning steps of a personal conversion on many levels , the ideas that shape my life have become quite extensive and have taken a course that has led me to be much more introspective and aware of the world around me at the same time in a strange paradox of isolation and extroversion . In this essay , I will take a closer look at the ideas that shape my life and also fit into my cultural origins and the person that I will eventually become . Therefore , this essay will not only be a general discussion , but also autobiographical in some respects as well

Who am I /Who I Am

The title of this section of my essay is not a typographical error in fact it is far from it . What the title represents is a survey of who someone would find me to be if they merely looked at the physical attributes of what I look like and what I do on a daily basis . Taking things a step further , the title also means that I have begun to think about who I will become- physically , morally and philosophically

To begin , if the average person were to only look at me from a photograph or short biography , one would find a 21 year old from Hong Kong , studying at a community college and trying to gain on the most basic level what all logical thinking human beings want out of...