Role Of The Emperor In Meiji Japan Essays (3835 words) -

Role of The Emperor in Meiji Japan Japan is a society whose culture is steeped in the traditions and symbols of the past: Mt. Fuji, the tea ceremony, and the sacred objects of nature revered in Shintoism. Two of the most important traditions and symbols in Japan; the Emperor and Confucianism have endured through Shogunates, restorations of imperial rule, and up to present day. The leaders of the Meiji Restoration used these traditions to gain control over Japan and further their goals of modernization. The Meiji leaders used the symbolism of the Emperor to add legitimacy to their government, by claiming that they were ruling under the "Imperial Will." They also used Confucianism to maintain order and force the Japanese people to passively accept their rule. Japanese rulers historically have used the symbolism of the Imperial Institution to justify their rule. The symbolism of the Japanese Emperor is very powerful and is wrapped up in a mix of religion (Shintoism) and myths. According to Shintoism the current Emperor is the direct descendent of the Sun Goddess who formed the islands of Japan out of the Ocean in ancient times.Footnote1 According to these myths the Japanese Emperor unlike a King is a living descendent of the Gods and even today he is thought of as the High Priest of Shinto. Despite the powerful myths surrounding Japan's imperial institution the Emperor has enjoyed only figure head status from 1176 on. At some points during this time the Emperor was reduced to selling calligraphy on the streets of Kyoto to support the imperial household, but usually the Emperor received money based on the kindness of the Shogunate.Footnote2 But despite this obvious power imbalance even the Tokugawa Shogun was at least symbolically below the Emperor in status and he claimed to rule so he could carry out the Imperial rule.Footnote3 Within this historical context the Meiji leaders realized that they needed to harness the concept of the Imperial Will in order to govern effectively. In the years leading up to 1868 members of the Satsuma and Choshu clans were part of the imperialist opposition. This opposition claimed that the only way that Japan could survive the encroachment of the foreigners was to rally around the Emperor.Footnote4 The Imperialists, claimed that the Tokugawa Shogunate had lost its imperial mandate to carry out the Imperial Will because it had capitulated to Western powers by allowing them to open up Japan to trade. During this time the ideas of the imperialists gained increasing support among Japanese citizens and intellectuals who taught at newly established schools and wrote revisionist history books that claimed that historically the Emperor had been the ruler of Japan.Footnote5 The fact that the Tokugawa's policy of opening up Japan to the western world ran counter to the beliefs of the Emperor and was unpopular with the public made the Tokugawa vulnerable to attack from the imperialists. The imperialists pressed their attack both militarily and from within the Court of Kyoto. The great military regime of Edo which until recently had been all powerful was floundering not because of military weakness, or because the machinery of government had broken but instead because the Japanese public and the Shoguns supporters felt they had lost the Imperial Will.Footnote6 The end of the Tokugawa regime shows the power of the symbolism and myths surrounding the imperial institution. The head of the Tokugawa clan died in 1867 and was replaced by the son of a lord who was a champion of Japanese historical studies and who agreed with the imperialists claims about restoring the Emperor. Footnote7 So in 1868 the new shogun handed over all his power to the Emperor in Kyoto. Shortly after handing over power to the Emperor, the Emperor Komeo died and was replaced by his son who became the Meiji Emperor.Footnote8 Because the Meiji Emperor was only 15 all the power of the new restored Emperor fell not in his hands but instead in the hands of his close advisors. These advisers such as Prince Saionji, Prince Konroe, and members of the Satsuma and Choshu clans who had been members of the imperialist movement eventually wound up involving into the Meiji Bureaucracy and Genro of the Meiji Era.Footnote9 Once in control

Facts and Storytelling in Historical Fiction

Facts and Storytelling in Historical Fiction When I began writing my new novel about Amelia Earhart’s last days, The Canary, I knew it had to start with her as a castaway on a lonely Pacific island. But with her navigator, Fred Noonan, already dead, there was a decidedly small cast of characters. Having Amelia talk to herself endlessly would become endlessly tedious. Some research and an unexpected discovery came to my rescue. Here’s what I knew: based on recent findings, there is evidence suggesting Earhart might have made a forced landing on a tiny atoll’s reef – Gardner Island. The more I looked into it, the more plausible it seemed. That inspired me to fictionalize her last days. The opening pages were easy: Amelia alone on an island with no reliable water source except rainwater and no food other than small birds, turtles, and legions of coconut crabs. But quickly I knew the book had to be more than just a brave young woman and her mental and physical deterioration. As I looked more into young Amelia’s life to discover a writing voice for her, I learned she had moved from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Hyde Park in Chicago to finish her last year of high school, in 1914-15. This was before she had thought much about flying. The discovery made me think about who she was in those days and soon I was doing a Google search of Hyde Park on Chicago’s near south side, a place I once visited to hear a novelist read, and the location of President Obama’s house. As I stared at the map of Hyde Park and imagined young Amelia walking to school and then home again to care for her ailing mother, my eyes drifted west, to the suburb of Oak Park, and I had my epiphany: Though they never met, Earhart and Hemingway spent a year of school only a few miles from each other. Ernest was then 15 and Amelia was around 17. Suddenly I knew what the book needed – an interior story in which Amelia fondly remembers her Hyde Park days and a yearlong friendship with the young Hemingway. The Canary became a better novel than it might have because I was open to how facts buried in silent history gave it the voices it needed. If you are writing historical fiction, here’s the lesson. Being accurate is important. I had to do a lot of checking to make sure I depicted Hemingway and Earhart with historical accuracy, even though they never met. When they went to a baseball game, it had to be at Weeghman Park and not Wrigley Field, because Wrigley was called Weeghman in 1914. The Cubs didn’t even play there. It was home to the Chicago Whales. Writing historical fiction means getting the history surrounding your characters right, but it’s also an opportunity to not be shackled

Leadership style Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Leadership style - Essay Example The Jack Welsh and Russell Simmons are two important leaders whose leadership has significantly impacted business across the world. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, is renowned for his exemplary leadership quality and his innovative approach in the cutthroat business. He reinforces the concept of value based leadership that promotes and facilitates continuous learning and focuses on participative leadership style that encourages collective decision and mutual trust building to improve and improvise outcome (Welsh, 2005). Simmons on the other hand relies primarily on charismatic leadership that is focused on exploiting the potential of black youth through hip hop culture that may not be applicable for people across the board. His leadership style, is based on inflaming the emotions of the target audience and thereby influence their decision making. McShane defines a leader as ‘one who has vision, perseverance, and the capacity to inspire others’ (2003). Welsh’s leadership addresses organizational leadership and exhorts them to adopt dynamic strategies to meet the challenges of the changing times. The leadership is focused on knowledge and skills of the employees and exploits them to achieve organizational goals. Strong communication skill and intrinsic understanding of human nature become vital factors that inspire change towards the better. Cross cultural understanding and relationship building are strong ingredients of Welsh’s leadership. Simmons’ leadership has emerged from a sense or concept of inequity, racism and self empowerment of the African Americans. He has exploited the cultural dynamics of Hip Hop phenomenon of the black community to address their myriad problems. Welsh encourages creativity and innovative practices that give a unique perspective to participatory approach of management and students. The motivating factor of leadership facilitates adaptability to changing equations, which

Reading journal APOC Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reading journal APOC - Assignment Example At the hospital, they stayed with me and consoled me even as I writhed in pain. My parents arrived later on and thanked my colleagues for standing with me. Indeed the hospital route turned out to be the best remedy to the writer’s problem. She finally withdrew and got the necessary counseling thereafter. It surprises, however, why the writer’s caretakers had not thought of this alternative ever since the problem manifested itself. The delay has made the writer lose much in terms of personal development. The writer was worried how she would put to a halt the whole issue of drinking and using. She seemed quite concerned about the past, recalling how frequent she drank and used. Venita urges her to focus on one day at a time as that is an easier way to adjust. That means the writer should close her eyes to the past and future and instead focus on today. The quote portrays Venita as informative, encouraging, and determined. She wants to see the writer at her best. Challenges and mysteries are part of life. I once realized that no one is born perfect. People fail, but the failures serve as steps towards improvement. I once recorded poor academic performances during my middle classes in primary school. This was caused by my affiliation to jokers. When my parents and teachers counseled me, I turned a blind eye to all that had happened and my results became impressive then onwards. Venita was quite instrumental to the changes that occurred in the writer’s life. From withdrawal from drinking and using to graduating from the university with a special award, the writer has recorded a massive change in life that no one would ever imagine from the start of the novel. It all sounds miraculous, but wherever God is involved, miracles are bound to

This Business is Ministry Essay Example for Free

This Business is Ministry Essay Abstract Man of God, Ministry, Counselor, Pastor these are the typical titles associated with people who are working inside of a religious ministry, however one title not spoken of and yet is essential and plays a critical part in the success of the other titles is entrepreneur. Like myself, you may have never place entrepreneur amongst the list of titles, I understand, because until recent studies I never would have considered the life of a Pastor to also be the life of an entrepreneur and without question a very skilled one. This paper reflects upon the challenges and rewards of being an entrepreneur inside of what is typically a profession that most would never consider a business. The challenges that pastor’s face is the same as any other entrepreneur such as Financing your business, how to get customers and when to quit your day job! Without great challenges there would be no reward ministry has rewards such as helping others, however as a business that reward does not pay the bills and the challenge is to keep your passion and find ways to ensure that this passion sustains your everyday life. This Business is Ministry The first definition on entrepreneur was merely someone who developed something. In due course, it became someone who owned a business typically a a business that delivered goods or services, However the best definition, the one used most often today, is someone who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks for a business or enterprise. I believe that the evolving of the definition was due to the realization that untraditional service utilizes the basic model for business to survive thus saying that a business can be anything that needs organization, a system that needs to be managed and that assumes certain risk. How to Get Customers Finding customers can be a challenge if you do not have a good product or service. The challenge intensifies when your business is not a business that typically sells goods or provide services. If you have a good product or service then customers will come and a great marketing strategy will boost sales. Unfortunately, for Pastors such as David Grant of Covenant Keepers Christian Center people are not typically buying a good or service when they enter into a place of worship, many do not come to give rather they come to receive. These souls come for encouragement, motivation, and inspiration and often they are poor, unemployed, or unwilling to give money past a certain amount. Many never realize that the church needs consistent followers or customers in order to provide those needs of the people who enter into the place of worship. How can a church find customers? That answer is tricky because you cannot instead you must find a soul in need meet them where they need to be met, help play a pivotal role in their spiritual development or transformation and then if they continue to attend allow them to spread the good news about where they was and where they find themselves now. â€Å"This is known as testimony,† says Pastor David Grant but in business, we call it marketing. Financing your Business â€Å"People may not know or even see the church as a business, however a church must operate like a for-profit business,† (Grant, 2014) Overall, as stated by Stephen A. Kent, church can be seen as a multi-faceted transnational corporation that has religion as only one of its many components. (Grant, 2014) In January of 2008, Pastor Grant revamped his approach to ministry  after two failed attempts and began to understand the business side of his passion he opened up Covenant Keepers Christian Center Inc. only this time in Brooklyn New York. Armed with a new mindset, business courses, and a new plan of action Pastor Grant was ready to be an entrepreneur whose business was operating a church or place of worship. â€Å"Let’s face it, it takes money to successfully do anything, and church is no exception, have you ever tried paying your light bill by praying with the representative?† (Grant, 2014) Some of the churches finances come from donations from members and people in the community this system of voluntary giving is the Tithing and Offering system. The Tithing and Offering system is bible-based instructions on giving to God’s house, the amount you are expected to give which 10% of your gross income and by not doing so it explains that you are robbing God, however many spiritual blessings are rewarded to those who follow these principles. The bible based instructions first asks a question Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.† But you ask, How are we robbing you? In tithes and offerings.† (Malachi 3:10). The bible gives instructions on how much each person is to give, â€Å"Bring one-tenth of your income into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way, says the LORD of Armies. See if I wont open the windows of heaven for you and flood you with blessings. (Malachi 3 verses 8) Typically, these finances maintain the needs of the church and the Pastor of the flock, however in today’s economy many are unemployed or have low wages, those who give a tenth is usually not enough, and as a result many churches are forced to close the doors because of a lack of finances to finance the business and the dream. Today Pastor Grant is a successful business owner who has successfully turned his compassion for people into a successful small business that has many branches such as family counseling, marriage/pre-marriage counseling, drug addiction, motivational seminars, and of course pastoring his parish. When to quit your day job? The right time to quit your day job is when you have a surefire business opportunity or you have adequate money in the depository that will allow you to work on your business and allow you to have enough resources to maintain your daily living. As with any business, money is needed to survive and nothing less is expected when you have a  church. Pastor Grant is a hard working individual who maintained his mainstream job and major source of income and allowed that job to help support his vision some call this a sideline job. Pastor Grant is successful, however has not found enough comfort to quit his day job. â€Å"I will leave my job when I know the church is 100% financially independent on a consistent basis and will be able to maintain a yearly salary for those who it employees. Reflections Entrepreneurship is the art work painted by a visionary, The interesting moment for me was when the realization that a business is not only the traditional selling of goods and services, however an entrepreneur can bring to life a vision that he/she has and with the right tools in place open a business that is lucrative. The idea that you can be a business owner simply by bringing to the table virtually any passion and make that passion a source of income without the selling of goods and services only is a fresh idea and is one that should be explored further. Pastor David Grant understood that his business was in his passion and took his passion to help others and accomplished his task as well as established a full time business. Pastor Grant admits he has not accomplished all, however he dedicated to reaching his goal, and I look forward to updating the readers about the great businessperson. References Grant, D. (2014, September 5). Pastor. (M. Grant, Interviewer) The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments Newly translated out of the original tongues: And with the former translations diligently compared and revised. By His Majestys special command. Appointed to be read in churches. (1733). Oxford: Printed by John Baskett, printer to the University.

Frege on Truth, Beauty and Goodness Essay -- Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob

Frege on Truth, Beauty and Goodness Scholars of Frege have spent a good deal of energy in discussing his views about truth, logic, and the relation between them. To one set of clues, however, scant attention has been paid. Repeatedly throughout his career, Frege attempted to illuminate the relation between logic and truth by comparing it to the relations between ethics and the good and aesthetics and the beautiful. Truth, beauty and goodness, of course, have had a long history in platonic philosophy. By the beginning of Frege’s career, they were also coming to play a prominent role in neo-Kantian thought, particularly that of Wilhelm Windelband. It is plausible to conjecture that Frege was inspired to look at ethics and aesthetics to understand the link between logic and truth by their connection in the work of Windelband or other neo-Kantians, though I know of no direct evidence that he was. But whatever the sources of Frege’s use of the analogy, it is to his own writing that we must look for its meaning . In the following, I shall look at the comparisons in detail in order to see exactly what Frege intended in likening the relation of logic to truth to that of ethics to the good and aesthetics to the beautiful. It will turn out that, although the language of the various comparisons is superficially similar, Frege actually makes four different points by means of the analogy. Furthermore, only one of these comparisons says something that both a) is about logic and truth and b) could not be better said by a comparison of logic to, for example, physics. I draw two general conclusions from this. First, Frege was struggling over how to understand the relation of logic to truth. (Perhaps this is obvious anyway.) If he had not bee... ...c and Thought†. Frege, Gottlob. (1967) The Basic Laws of Arithmetic, trans. M. Furth (Berkeley: University of California Press). ---------- (1977) Logical Investigations, trans. P. Geach and R. Stoothoff (New Haven: Yale University Press). ---------- (1979) Posthumous Writings, trans. P. Long and R. White (Oxford: Blackwell). Gabriel, Gottfried. (1984) â€Å"Fregean Connection: Bedeutung, Value and Truth-Value†, Philosophical Quarterly, 34, 372-6. -------------- (1986) â€Å"Frege als Neukantianer†, Kant-Studien, 77, 84-101. Goldfarb, Warren. (2001) â€Å"Frege’s Conception of Logic†, in Future Pasts: The Analytic Tradition in Twentieth Century Philosophy, eds. J. Floyd and S. Shieh (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Ricketts, Thomas. (1996) â€Å"Logic and Truth in Frege†, in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume, 70, 121-40.

Purpose and Meaning of Human Existence Essay

One of the great ironies with respect to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is that one of the world’s greatest plays is so poorly understood. There are, to be sure, many conflicting interpretations. Precise themes or intentions have been difficult to discern from the play’s text. These interpretive difficulties have been complicated by the fact that Beckett was often evasive when asked about the exact purpose of certain characters in the play or the meaning of the text. This is not meant to suggest that certain themes and intentions cannot be determined, for there certainly appear to be certain thematic patterns, but instead to suggest that the play does appear in certain ways to be open to different types of interpretations. A review of the scholarly texts and articles, for instance, reveals academic arguments to the effect that the play is about God, salvation, the French resistance to German occupation in the historical period in which the play was written, the purpose of human existence, and the meaningless of time. With such a variety of interpretations, supported by specific references to the play’s text and other historical circumstances, it would seem nearly impossible to identify an overarching or unifying theme. A careful examination of the play’s text, however, suggests that such a dominant thematic element can be found. The thesis of this paper, therefore, is that the dominant theme in Waiting for Godot is the human being’s search for purpose and meaning in a world that human beings either do not understand or cannot understand. In support of this thesis, this paper will attempt to harmonize the different critical interpretations and demonstrate that the main characters through their dialogue on a number of different subjects consistently illustrate the human quest for purpose and meaning in a world that seems hopelessly beyond their comprehension. Critical Confusion and Multiple Interpretations: Harmonizing Different Perspectives As an initial matter, before proceeding to an examination of the play’s text, it is useful to present the critical confusion that has arisen from multiple interpretations of the play. This is useful because even these different interpretations can be harmonized to some extant if the truly dominant theme of the play is said to be the human search for purpose and meaning in a complicated or complex world. It is well-established, for example, that the play presents a series of universal questions; specifically, as one academic has observed, â€Å"Waiting for Godot, in many ways, simply extends those uncertainties: Why are we here? Are we alone in an uncaring universe, or not? What are we to do while we are here? How can we know? And, ultimately, what does it matter? â€Å"(Hutchings x) These types of questions, to a large extant, transcend many of the conflicting interpretations. If Godot is God, as some have argued, then Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for God. They freely admit that they are not particularly familiar with Godot and this admission reflects and reinforces the fact that these two human beings do not have a perfect knowledge of the creator of their world. If Godot is not God, as some have argued, then Vladimir and Estragon are perhaps waiting for some type of intellectual spark in order to tell them why they are waiting, whether they should leave, or whether it might be better to leave their spot by the tree and take affirmative steps to go and find the mysterious Godot. In either event, whether Godot represents God or a figurative type of intellectual illumination, the core theme is one of two human beings who seem consistently unable to determine what to do. They engage in a series of superficial conversations, they consider suicide as a way of ending their confusion, and in the end they remain firmly planted on the country road much as the tree where they wait is firmly planted in the ground. Even if one is to assume, as some scholars have, that the play is really an artistic allusion to the French resistance or the onset of the Cold War, this does not necessarily undermine the notion that human beings are somehow trapped within a world or social circumstances in which they have little control or little understanding. The important point, for purposes of this paper’s thesis, is that the conflicting interpretations can be transcended if one assumes that the transcendental theme is one most specifically related to the human being’s search for purpose and meaning in a confusing physical world. Whether Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for God, a real person, intellectual knowledge of social circumstances, or the laws of the universe is fundamentally tangential to the fact that they are helpless in the circumstances that Beckett has created. They are petty, feeble, and passive. The rest of this paper therefore proceeds from the assumption that the conflicting interpretations can be unified by treating the fundamental theme as the search for purpose and meaning in life. This fundamental theme will be discussed in the following sections by referring to specific features of the play. Significance of Human Companionship: Pairs, Dependence, and Shared Searches One of the most important structural features of the play is the fact that human beings are portrayed as being extraordinarily dependent and unable to exist in isolation or individually. This is most evident in the fact that the play’s characters come in pairs and seem in many ways to be inseparable. The main characters, for instance, are Vladimir and Estragon. It would appear that they have arrived as a pair, they continue to wait as a pair, and although they never leave they do talk about leaving as a pair. They have different personalities, they would appear to have different backgrounds given the different stories that they tell, and yet they seem unwilling or unable to separate and go their own ways. This notion of human inseparability, a common fear or ignorance about the meaning of human existence, is particularly clear when Vladimir and Estragon are discussing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the two thieves on the cross next to Jesus. Specifically, the fear of being alone and the emphasis of human companionship is provided in the following passage VLADIMIR: Ah yes, the two thieves. Do you remember the story? ESTRAGON: No. VLADIMIR: Shall I tell it to you? ESTRAGON: No. VLADIMIR: It’ll pass the time. (Pause. ) Two thieves, crucified at the same time as our Saviour. One— ESTRAGON: Our what? VLADIMIR: Our Saviour. Two thieves. One is supposed to have been saved and the other . . . (he searches for the contrary of saved) . . . damned (Becket n. p. ) This passage illustrates the need for human companionship and also the need for human beings to depend on each other. This companionship is necessary because human beings must face the uncertainties of the world and human existence together. The dependence is thus caused by a fear that individuals will be unable to cope with these uncertainties whereas humans sharing these fears can at least confront these uncertainties together. This common bond, in short, helps human beings to deal with their confusion about the meaning of human existence better than if they pondered these questions alone. An examination of the entire play consistently reinforces these notions of companionship and dependence. Later on in the play, for example, Vladimir and Estragon are considering suicide and the pair again grow concerned that one will successfully commit suicide and the other will fail. The prospect that one of them will die and one will live is a frightening thought for both men because one will be unattended in death and the other will be unattended in life. Again, because the purpose and the meaning of human existence is unknown both in life and in death, the pair refuse to split up or pursue any action that might destroy their emotional and physical bonds. At another point in the play, Estragon states that â€Å"There are times when I wonder if it wouldn’t be better for us to part† to which Vladimir responds rather matter-of-factly â€Å"You wouldn’t go far. † (Beckett n. p. ). The play could not exist as it was intended if the pair ever did separate. The quest for purpose and the meaning of human existence is therefore a common human quest rather than an individual’s personal burden. These notions of human companionship and a shared quest are even more powerfully presented with the human pairing of Pozzo and Lucky. In their first appearance, Lucky is a slave and yet he prefers being a slave and being dependent to being set free. Lucky is ridiculed, he is called a pig, and yet he reacts angrily when someone other than Pozzo attempts to help him; more particularly, he kicks Estragon in the shins. A telling scene in this respect is when Lucky appears to faint after dancing and giving his rather incoherent speech; more particularly, Pozzo is deeply fearful at the prospect of losing his slave when he says Don’t let him go! (Vladimir and Estragon totter. ) Don’t move! (Pozzo fetches bag and basket and brings them towards Lucky. ) Hold him tight! (He puts the bag in Lucky’s hand. Lucky drops it immediately. ) Don’t let him go! (He puts back the bag in Lucky’s hand. Gradually, at the feel of the bag, Lucky recovers his senses and his fingers finally close round the handle. ) Hold him tight! (Beckett n. p. ) Even a human master is dependent on his slave, the companionship of master and slave is intimate because both fear facing the uncertainties of life alone, and like the bond that exists between Vladimir and Estragon, so too does a very real bond exist between Pozzo and Lucky. This bond is reinforced in the second act when Pozzo returns blind and his neck is tied to a rope being held by Lucky. Pozzo could not sell his slave and the slave is now leading the master. As if these two clues were not enough, Beckett included yet one more human pair to emphasize the common fears that human beings have about the purpose of their lives and the meaning of human existence. This final human pairing is the boy sent as Godot’s messenger. The boy and Godot constitute a final human pairing and the boy recounts to Vladimir and Estragon that Godot is real and that Godot â€Å"beats my brother. † (Beckett, n. p. ) Despite the beatings, the boy and his brother remain with Godot as is established at the end of the second act. This scene is also notable because it establishes that Godot exists and that the most essential human relationships are about the aforementioned human pairings rather than about Vladimir and Estragon waiting for Godot. The waiting, as it were, may simply be the context within which Beckett sought to establish the shared human bonds with respect to their confusion about the meaning of life. The question thus becomes how these dependent and mutually burdened companions ought to approach their lives. Function of Idleness: Fear of Action and Aversion to Failure In addition to their unwillingness to separate, Vladimir and Estragon seem also quite unwilling to commit to any action despite a great deal of conversation. To be sure, the play is marked almost exclusively by dialogue rather than action. The pair carry on a series of seemingly endless conversations, most of them rather childish and inane, and these conversations in the end seem to represent a rather firm commitment to making no commitments at all. Vladimir, for example, recognizes this fear of action or commitment when he says to Estragon Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed. Not indeed that we are personally needed. Others would meet the case equally well, if not better. To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! (Beckett qtd. in Brater 147) Vladimir and Estragon, for all of their apparent desire to actually meet Godot, are wholly unprepared to take any affirmative steps to actually go and locate him on their own initiative. They admit that time is passing, that they represent â€Å"all mankind†, and that it will be â€Å"too late† if they do not do something. It is this very inability to do something, an inability which they represent figuratively as all human beings, that characterizes their function in the play. There are several clues to the effect that they can find Godot if they were not inhibited or afraid in some way. First, Vladimir and Estragon have obviously followed a country road to the tree where they are waiting for Godot. The fact that they have walked this particular country road, and selected this particular tree, suggests that they know in which direction the mysterious Godot resides. Presumably, if their actions were not somehow constrained, they would simply continue walking along the same country road until they found Godot. They could ask for directions or assistance along the way and they could become more active in pursuit of their ultimate destination. The problem, however, is that both Vladimir and Estragon perhaps do not know their precise destination. The second clue to the effect that the waiting of Vladimir and Estragon is a product of their own doing rather than Godot’s apparent tardiness is the fact that a boy appears twice in the play as a messenger. The boy admits quite literally that he and his brother know Godot, that they are employed or otherwise beholden to him in certain respects, and that he will return to Godot as soon as his message has been provided to Vladimir and Estragon. Why, then, could they not have simply followed the boy home to Godot? Indeed, this is a curious question that can only be resolved if one assumes that Godot is irrelevant to the waiting. Some interpretations, it must be acknowledged, have suggested that Beckett intended Godot as God and that they boy messenger was intended as a type of angel ( Mercier 27); such an interpretation, whether accurate or not, does not undermine a thesis to the effect that the predominant theme remained man’s tentative quest to understand himself and the universe in which he lived. This is true for a couple of reasons. First, when asked whether he intended Godot as God, Beckett repeatedly stated that there was never intended to be any relationship between Godot and God. Presumably, the play’s author knows what was intended. That many interpretations have focused on Godot as God, however, is not surprising. The names are almost the same and the quest to understand the nature and the meaning of human existence necessarily implicates some questions related to God and how the universe was created. Thus, although these interpretations are somewhat rational, the evidence that can be derived from Beckett’s own statements and the play’s text taken as a whole counsel against such an interpretation. God is relevant, as one possible explanation for the meaning of human life, but Godot is no more God than Vladimir and Estragon are hoping for salvation. Godot is Godot and the human pair waiting by the tree are seeking understanding and illumination rather than salvation. Second, the play’s theme is more about the waiting and the rational underlying the waiting than it is about Godot. The entire play, to be sure, takes place in one setting. Other settings, including Godot’s, are tangential and not central features of the play’s structure. The waiting, in this respect, transcends the distant character vaguely known as Godot. One leading scholar of the play has noted how the waiting is more important than Godot by arguing that The play’s minimal plot and action are accurately described in its title: throughout the duration of the play, and throughout an undeterminable amount of time that elapses in their lives, the two central characters await an event that does not happen and may never happen. Meanwhile, necessarily, they pass away their time in some- times abrasive conversation, in chance encounters with a pair of odd passersby, and in expressions of mutual if sometimes exasperated compassion and the long-standing concern that can develop only between inseparable friends. (Hutchings 23) Taken together, the best argument that one can derive from the play’s text is that there is a dominant theme; that dominant theme, in turn, is that human beings are collectively and inseparably bound together by the fact that they do not know the purpose of the human race or the meaning of their own existence. Such a lack of knowledge encourages closer types of human dependence and simultaneously inspires caution, uncertainty, and fear. All the while, amidst this uncertainty and fear, time passes by and all human beings are faced with dying without ever having understood why they existed in the first place. Life is a tree to which we are all tethered much in the same way that Vladimir and Estragon were figuratively tethered. Conclusion In conclusion, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is best read as an artistic rendition of the greatest human dilemma of all time. Human beings, in this respect, are born with an imperfect knowledge of themselves and of the universe in which they exist and are expected to function. This imperfect knowledge lends itself to much speculation of the purpose and meaning of human existence, as the many religions around the world forcefully attest to, but in the end it is nothing more than idle and meaningless speculation. Godot, whether he is God or not, is irrelevant in the play. It is the waiting, the search and the confusion that all human beings share, that is the play’s common lamentation. That all of the critics tend to characterize the play as tragedy or comedy somewhat misses the play’s essential nature as a lamentation for a quest for knowledge that can never be fulfilled. We are better advised to forget Godot and get on with living rather than waiting for divine inspiration that will probably never arrive. Works Cited Beckett, Samuel. â€Å"Waiting for Godot. † Samuel Beckett. net Brater, Enoch. â€Å"The Globalization of Beckett’s Godot. † Comparative Drama 37. 2 (2003): 145+. Questia. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. Hutchings, William. Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot: A Reference Guide. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005. Questia. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. Mercier, Vivian. â€Å"The Uneventful Event. † The Critical Response to Samuel Beckett. Ed. Cathleen Culotta Andonian. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998. 95-96. Questia. Web. 10 Dec. 2009.