Human Experiences Motivating Behavior: A Literary Presentation

This presentation analyzes human experiences as depicted in Kenneth Slessor's poems, "Out of Time" and "Wild Grapes," and Aldous Huxley's novel, "Brave New World." The presentation explores the themes of time, mortality, memory, and the quest for meaning in the face of challenging experiences. It examines Slessor's use of poetic techniques like simile, metaphor, personification, and imagery to convey the overwhelming power of time and the inevitability of death. The analysis of "Brave New World" focuses on the dystopian society's attempt to create a perfect world and the protagonist's struggle with the values of both worlds. The presentation concludes by emphasizing that while humans cannot control time or avoid death, they can change their perception of these challenges and use them as motivation for personal growth and defiance of pessimism.

HUMAN EXPERIENCES THAT MOTIVATE
HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Presented by –

Introduction
The presentation aims to explain the human
experiences that I have explored in Kenneth
Slessor’s two poems namely Out of Time and
Wild Grapes, and Aldous Huxley’s novel
Brave New World. the presentation shall have
detailed analysis of the two poems where I
shall examine the techniques used by the poet
to bring out the human experiences.

Challenging experiences explored in
Out of Time
In Slessor’s Out of Time, as the title itself
suggests, the concept of time is overwhelming
throughout the poem. The poem reminds us
that no matter how hard humans try, they
cannot control time as it moves along its own
pace “flowing like a hundred yachts”.
Contd…

Time flowing like a hundred yachts

Challenging experiences explored
in Out of Time
The poem is a sonnet divided into three parts and
hence, follows the usual rhyming of AB-AB-CD-CD-
EF-EF-GG. Slessor makes excellent use of the poetic
techniques like simile, metaphor and personification to
demonstrate the power of time. In the inaugural lines
itself, we could see the use of personification:
I saw time flowing like a hundred yachts
That fly behind the daylight, foxed with air
Contd…

Challenging experiences explored
in Out of Time
The use of simile in the first line where time is
likened with yachts and personification in the second
line where time flies behind the daylight tipsily due
to air is evident. With the help of these techniques,
the poet manages to convey the message that time is
all- encompassing and does not stop even for death:
The gulls go down, the body dies and rots,
And Time flows past them like a hundred yachts
Contd..

Challenging experiences explored
in Out of Time
The use of imagery like blood and vein
further shows the challenging human
experiences in the face of the cruel and
transcending:
Time takes me, drills me, drives me
through bone and vein (Lilley, 1997)

Challenging experiences explored
in Wild Grapes
In this poem, Slessor stresses more on the concept of
death, mortality and memory. The poem has largely used
poetic techniques like imagery that make it a difficult but
interesting piece to read. Akin to Slessor’s other poems,
Wild Grapes brings forth challenging human experiences.
The use of enjambment in the poem seems to represent
continuity of life even after death.
“Isabella, the dead girl who has lingered on
Defiantly when all have gone away
In an old orchard where swallows never stir” (Lilley,
1997)

But wild ones, Isabella grapes they’re called

Challenging experiences explored
in Brave New World
• Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel presents to the readers,
a society that attempts to establish or create a perfect
world where everyone is happy and satisfied but fails. The
happiness however, is only physical in this world. John,
the only biologically born child, who is taken back to
Civilization from the Savage Reservation, shows values of
both the worlds. He has both intellect of the Civilization
and the courage to defy Civilization.
• “But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I
want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I
want sin” (Huxley, 1998).

If One’s different, one’s bound to be
lonely

Concluding remarks
In all the three texts, the theme of challenging human
experiences is abundantly evident. However, when
we go deep into the themes, we find that these
challenges further motivate us to defy all the
pessimism and create a world opposite to the one in
Brave New World. I know that humans cannot race
against time or avoid death, but they could definitely
change their perception about time, death and
memory and use these as fuels to drive them forward
and not as factors that demoralize them.