The Power Of Words English Literature Essay

My presentation is about Angel-Writer and his extraordinary writing. Not just any writer, but he or she belongs to the class of experts who tug at the heartstrings of people and leave their mark on the world.

Power of words

Words are amazing. Words can be powerful, influential and persuasive.

Buddha said, “Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill”. Same applies to written words.

Let me give you an example of the power of such angelic words and their good or ill influence.

A Blind Man was begging with a board in his hand.

“I am Blind please help me”

A Guy took the board and changed the statement & from that day he started Receiving More Charity..

He wrote: “Today is a beautiful Day but I can not see it”

That is the power of words,

If expressed in a right way..can change many things..!

You just saw that when the girl changed the words on the signboard, people read it, felt it and started giving more charity to the blind man.

Perhaps, it’s the ability of such a writer, through his or her words, to change the way the world thinks.

Another example can be that of ‘The Joker’

James Holmes is the perpetrator of a mass shooting that occurred on July 20, 2012 at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado. Holmes allegedly set off several gas or smoke canisters and then opened fire on the theatre audience, killing 12 and wounding 58. According to two federal authorities, Holmes had dyed his hair red and called himself “The Joker”. Question is, Could someone really be so cold, calculating and bloodthirsty? Well certainly Holmes’s inspiration, the Joker, was just that. Joker is the character in Christopher Nolan’s Blockbuster, The Dark Knight. When Christopher Nolan wrote the screenplay, he never thought that his writing and script will have such a negative influence on someone.

Brief Account of the topic

Open a book and start reading it or listen carefully to the dialogues of the movie while watching it. In any piece of writing you’ll find words, of course, but examine by your senses and you’ll also find art, crafted, in detail, by a writer proud enough to sign his or her name to the work.

In a book or a poem, a play or a short story, a script or even a song, everything is there for a reason: to show, to tell, to convey a message. Most works of writing are simply meant for reading. The great ones, those of Angel-Writers, are for learning. Learning to smile, to react, to get inspired and make life beautiful.

Features of Angel-Writer

Self- Actualization

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.  What a man can be, he must be.  He must be true to his own nature.” Self-actualization is a term used in various psychology theories, often in slightly different ways. The psychologist Abraham Maslow created the term ”self-actualizing” in the 1960’s which was based on his assumptions about human potential and partially on his case studies of historical figures whom he believed to be self-actualized.

He found that these individuals were very accepting of themselves and of their life circumstances; were focussed on finding solutions to cultural problems rather than to personal problems; were open to others’ opinions and ideas; had strong senses of privacy, autonomy, human values and appreciation of life.

The term can be defined as ”the full realization of one’s potential”.

As a writer one is of course good at writing but the intrinsic growth of this skill, which is already in him can lead him to become what he is actually capable of. A self-actualized writer is someone who is living creatively and fully using his or her potentials.

Most of the similarities that he found in self-actualizers are the key attributes of an Angel-Writer such as:

Realistic

Problem-Centered

Peak Experiences

Solitude and Privacy

Philosophical Sense of Humour

Spontaneity

Trust Yourself

Once you know that writing is your life a bit of self-trust can make you unleash the writing skills most truthfully. The lady who won 30000 pounds in a short story competition laid emphasis on trusting oneself as a writer. Johann Wolfgang once said, ”As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live” and that is when a writer can make the most of himself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.

Listen to your inner wisdom.

Turn negative emotional energy into a positive

Never let yourself feel condemned

Write and write again

Eventually words worth inspiring will come out

Implement Inspiration

Implement the inspiring thoughts and ideas of yours and those of exemplary people in your written work.

Germinate your own seeds of inspiration to harvest a sapling of epic literature.

Give your thoughts a way to stand amidst the most hilarious of works.

You need not to copy them but develop a mindset that could interpret thoughts in a way your ideal does.

This could be done by reading them or having much of communication with them.

4) Eloquence

Over the years, authors have described eloquence in various ways. Shakespeare said, ‘words sweetly placed and modestly directed’. Cicero, the roman philosopher most notably stated, ”Eloquence has the power to sway man’s mind and move them in every possible way”.

In particular, eloquent writing usually has a few properties:

Deeply persuasive:

This doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a an argumentative piece — simple narration or description in fiction can be “persuasive” too, in the sense that it pulls you into a world and convinces you that that place is real and immediate

Structured very carefully

Structure is always a very important property of a piece of writing, and the structure you choose can vary based on the goal (clarity, brevity, persuasion, etc.)

But writing that people describe as “eloquent” often has an unusually strong sense of rising action, climax, and denouement. This is the reason that people talk about eloquent writing as something that “flows”.

Effective use of literary devices

It often makes effective use of literary devices, such as metaphor, imagery, allusion, symbolism, and personification. These devices can be hard to master but are very effective when used properly: just think how strong of an impression is left by Robert Frost’s classic poem, “The Road Not Taken”.

When read aloud, such writing leaves an impression beyond what is on the page.

Ethos, Pathos and Logos

The Greek philosopher Aristotle divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categories–Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.

One philosopher who startles me with his ideas is Aristotle. He draws his philosophies from understanding the simplest things in life that happens daily, with pure sensibility.

That alone explains how he has his ideas in myriads of subjects ranging from physics to poetry, music to politics, metaphysics to ethics, theatre to logic, rhetoric to biology, government and zoology.

According to Aristotle, rhetoric is “the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion”, that can be described in 3 main form, namely Ethos, Pathos and Logos.

“Ethos (Credibility), or ethical appeal, means convincing by the character of the author or speaker.

“Pathos (Emotional) means persuading by appealing to the reader’s emotions.

“Logos (Logical) means persuading by the use of reasoning.

Example of Pursuit of Happiness

The Pursuit of Happiness is a film directed by Gabrielle Muccino and starring Will Smith. This movie tells the story of a man, who because of inevitable circumstances becomes homeless when he is participating in an exclusive unpaid internship at a brokerage company. His character must balance the demands of internship with keeping up with his old salesman job so that he may support him and his young son as they struggle to survive.

Smith’s character uses a healthy dose of logos, ethos, and pathos to appeal to superiors, landlords, and others to help him in his journey to chase after his dream.

The audience goes through his difficult journey and comes out the other side just as excited as the main characters.

This can be clearly explained with the help of this clip.

There are a lot of people who got inspired after watching this scene and hearing this little speech and were motivated to achieve what they can. While reading the YouTube comments about this movie I realized how people got influenced to do well in life by the effect of such influential writing.

Example of the Alchemist

A living example of an Angel Writer is Paulo Coelho. One of the books he wrote was The Alchemist. It is one of the best- selling books in history and has been translated into 71 languages as of 2011. 

The book’s main theme is about finding one’s destiny. The Alchemist follows a young Andalusia shepherd boy named Santiago in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there.

Along the way, he encounters love, danger, opportunity and learns a lot about himself and the ways of the world. He realizes that if he follows his heart, he shall find what it is he seeks.

Coelho wrote The Alchemist in only two weeks in 1987. He said he was able to write at this pace because the story was ”already written in his soul”. The Alchemist has inspired numerous bands and directors. It will soon be filmed by Harvey Weinstein.

For me this book has a special importance. I’ll tell you why. When I was in the middle of nowhere and was lost without a goal in life, one night, I by chance read this book in 4 hours and slept. The very next morning I felt so inspired that thoughts and ideas flung into my mind. I got stick to them and started writing.

Journey to Destiny

From the eyes of those

There world is what I see

But I have my own dreams to follow,

To realize my destiny

At times when the desert seemed nowhere close to far

I sensed an oasis as I sighted that star

This is when the omens played their part

A wish, a blessing and a desire to start

I flew with the wind,

On that deserted land

The song it sang, the music it had,

Was the one that only I could understand.

The quest for my treasure

Began with the dreams in my mind

As I looked for myself,

I knew what I wanted in life.

Wherever my heart lies

There my treasure is supposed to be

This is when the universe conspired,

And I realized my destiny.

This is how he inspired me to feel…to write… and most importantly…to discover.

Conclusion

Everyone’s life is governed by an internal code of conduct. Words, when skilfully controlled by a master, carries with them the power to alter this code. In simple words, Writers are those who are ‘Good at Writing’. They use experiences, knowledge and skill to pen down words. There are writers who with the power of their imagination, kidnap me and take me in a different world altogether, a world full of adventures, ghosts, princesses, elves, superheroes and what not. Then there are writers who give me the most wonderful learning experiences with the beauty of their writing. The songs, written with such great feel, bring me back to life in times of despair and also bless me with extra ounces of happiness when I am whooping with joy. The graph of my thoughts and emotions has shown significant variations by the impact of those words I listen. From that little fifty- second life-changing scene from Pursuit of Happiness to the much controversial last three lines of the last stanza of Robert Frost’s Road not Taken, I have witnessed a change in myself every time I read and hear. I read their books…I watch their movies…I hear their songs…and I learn their poems by heart. In return, I am entertained to a point where I tend to forget all my worries and touched so deep inside that I get the rare zeal to help others. Not only this, I also feel the guilt that stops me from doing bad deeds. I am a reader and I coin all such Master of Words as Angel Writers ’cause they change lives for better.