CSS Forums - An analysis of: The time we live in is the winter of the world (2011)

Well guys there was a lot of confusion about one of the essay title “the winter of the world.” I wrote my essay on it. The majority of the people interpreted the essay correctly and wrote about the atrocities occurring in the world. I also wrote the same. Few said it is about the global warming. After doing a thorough research after the exam, consulting various teachers, I came to the conclusion that it is not about global warming but we had to write in detail about the atrocities of the world. My analysis is based on the following reasons:

• Since it was an English essay, due respect should be given to symbolism. I am quoting from various sources what winter means in English language and to English writers.

“Symbol is an object, animate or inanimate, that stands for or points to a reality beyond itself. The cross, for example, is often used to represent suffering. Symbols, however, also indicate their own reality. For example, a cross not only stands for suffering, but it also stands for Christian suffering. A sunrise not only represents new beginnings but the beginning of a new day.

The more you read and study literature, the more you will come across words that always function symbolically. The seasons are a perfect example. Winter represents aging, decay, and death; spring is often used to represent energy, birth, and hope; summer is symbolic of childhood, fun, and laughter; autumn stands for maturity, wisdom, and fulfillment.”

At another place it states the symbolic meanings of winter used by different authors:

“Winter is highly symbolic of many things to many people and has been used to represent various things by artists in all media. Some use winter to suggest death, as in Robert Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening." Some use it to suggest the absence of hope, as in C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where it was always winter but never Christmas.”

• If this is not enough then there are a number of books entitled the winter of the world which highlight the atrocities occurring in the world. I am sharing a few examples. I will quote the tile and state briefly what the book is about:

[B]The Winter of the World
Poems of the Great War
Dominic Hibberd
J (ED) ONIONS[/B]

The poetry that came out of the First World War exposed, for the first time in history, the real horror of war. The result is an extraordinary record of passionate feelings and appalling experiences, written by men and women from widely different backgrounds, of unique and enduring importance.

All the major poets are generously represented, Owen, Brooke, Sassoon, Blunden, Gurney, Graves and Rosenberg, but here too are many unfamiliar yet remarkable poems from the less familiar, Joseph Leftwich, F S Flint, ‘Touchstone’; female poets: Edith Sitwell; Vera Brittain, Eleanor Farjeon; and writers not always associated with WWI poetry, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling and Ezra Pound.

Accompanying notes to the poems, historical events and the poets give precise, relevant information and suggest links to other poems, so the book as a whole forms a fascinating, moving narrative.

[B]The Winter of the World
Remembering the Great War[/B]
Ninety years ago an armistice was signed on November 11th to end a conflict which soon came to be known as the Great War. This is an apt designation, for the war that raged in Europe, Africa, the Near East, and the Far East from 1914 to 1918 was a defining moment in the history of the world. It was a bloodletting beyond anything one could have conceived of at the time—over 40 million soldiers and civilians either killed or wounded—and the impact was as much psychological as it was physical. The horror of the war and its aftermath caused people to reexamine traditional values, and the social, economic, political, and aesthetic changes which the war brought have consequences to this day.

[B]Ken Follett’s The Winter of the World. [/B]Book Three will be about the Cold War. The whole trilogy will end in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

[B]The Winter of the World (P.S.)
by Carol Ann Lee[/B]
The author of "The Hidden Life of Otto Frank" delivers her debut novel--set in the aftermath of World War I--a tender and heartrending portrait of two people struggling with their darkest demons, desperately trying to come back from the abyss of betrayal.

Thus the paper checker in associating our time with the winter of the world wanted us to highlight about war, atrocities occurring in the world and loss of hope.

[B][U]Why it cannot be about global warming[/U][/B]

I tried to find a connection between global warming and the term winter of the world but could not find a single link. Following are some of the reason why this essay was not about global warming

• Global warming is always accompanied with heat, warmth and increase in temperature and never with winter. People assumed that the checker said that the present time is cold and the future is going to be hot. This assumption is wrong. If you had thoroughly gone through the global warming articles you would become aware that the all scientist said the situation is bad and is getting worse. (i.e. its hot and getting hotter) The never say it is cold and its going to get hotter. They try to convince us that it is hot and going to get hotter. No one compares the present time with winter while relating the effect of global warming.

• Another important aspect is that the severity of the weather is going to be increased both winter and summers are going to become colder and hotter.
Thus most of the severe cold weather in Europe is associated to global warming and it is expected to become colder during the winter and hotter during the summer. Thus to say we will only face hot weather in the future is wrong. Some scientists even predict that due to global warming a new ice age may start.

[B]Therefore the assumption that this essay was about effects of global warming is wrong

I hope I have managed to clear some misconceptions and please do remember me in your prayers
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