The man is the end product of the nature. In the Pyramidical
structure of the animal kingdom, the homosapiens stands at the apex and make
himself differenciated from the rest of d species due to his power of feeling,
thinking, expressing, emotions, reasoning etc. The human being is also expert
in adjusting, accomodating, conditioning
to the environment or the surrounding. Due to the above unique qualities of the
human being, it occupies a special position in the nature's creation. What
ordinarily looks cannot be construed as the same thing what it resembles. For
ex-all d glitters is not gold. everything has got two aspects-inner and outer.
In other words the teeth of the elephant as it appears from outside doesn’t
serve the same purpose as the teeth of other animals. Similarly the man ought
to have two lives-inner and outer life.
What does it mean to not have an inner life? In the extreme case, to me, this means having
no thoughts or feelings of one's own. This is an impossibility, but there are
people who seem to have few thoughts or feelings of their own, only able to "mirror"
those around them. What are the implications
of this? As you consider what the implications are, one of them is likely to be
your thesis. One thought that comes to my mind is that no one has an real inner
life because all of our minds are formed by way of what is outside of us, since
the only way any information or idea can enter our brains is through sensory
experiences in the external world, our interactions with things and people.
This would be an argument that the statement applies to all humans. Aside from making this argument, assuming for
the purposes of the assignment that the statement is true, I think first that
such a person cannot bear to be alone, since he or she has no inner resources
upon which to draw in solitude, with a countervailing example of the person who
prefers to be alone because he or she has a rich inner life, and second that
such a person is quite easily led.
In outer life, somebody may be a King, Minister, officer,
industrilaist, doctor, student, father, mother etc. In inner life there is
something as we know Maharshi Janak-father in law of Lord Ramachandra was a
king in outer life. He was a great saint from the inner life. Thus, the King
Janak was surrounded by royal coverage but at d same time he did maintain his
inner life. So he was not a slave to his surrounding rather his surrounding was
a slave to him. If you take another example, we see late lal bahadur shastri-ex
PM of India was quite poor during his student life. He had to bathro several
hazards and obstacles during childhood. Yet his inner life was full of
morality, honesty, scicerty, dedication, committment, willpower etc Despite
poverty which were his surroundings, we found that Lal Bhadur Shastri ji
emerged as a powerful and popular leader of international status.
Now, a thesis must be supported with evidence. To make the argument that we are all slaves
to our surroundings, for example, because none of us has a true inner life, the
support for that is largely scientific.
It is well established that nothing enters our brains except through our
five senses, which means that we are exclusively made up of our surroundings.
And there is some interesting research going on concerning what are called our
mirror neurons, neurons formed before we are even born, neurons that prompt us
to mirror the actions of others, which is what causes a baby to smile in
response to its mother smiling at it, for example, or as various parts of a
child's brain are engaged when watching someone else ride a bicycle, a process
that allows the child's brain to prepare the child to learn how to ride that
bike. As for the person who cannot bear
to be alone or the opposite, the person who prefers to be alone, there is
science and literature to support that.
Introverts prefer to be alone because they do have inner lives that
recharge their batteries and that extroverts, who must recharge their batteries
by being with others, have limited inner lives.
In literature, contrast Gatsby with Tom Buchanan in The
Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald). We see Gatsby frequently alone in the novel, even
avoiding people at his famous parties, because his inner life is consumed with
Daisy. Tom, on the other hand, clearly
has no inner life at all, having only ideas from reading odd racist diatribes
and always surrounded by others in a "party" atmosphere. Tom is arguably a slave to his
surroundings. To support the idea that
people lacking inner lives are easily led, two literary texts come to mind, The
Giver (Lowry) and "The Lottery" (Jackson). In the first, the members
of the community have no inner lives at all, since their sexuality is repressed
with drugs and they must share their thoughts and feelings, even their dreams.
They are all easily led, obeying all the rules at all times. In the second, the people of the village
appear to have no inner lives, since they unquestioningly follow the tradition
of the lottery, blindly, year after year.
Literature is full of such examples and it proves it.
Tags:
LIFE