An iceberg is water striving to be land; a mountain, especially a Himalaya, especially Everest, is land's attempt to metamorphose into sky; it is grounded in flight, the earth mutated--nearly--into air, and become, in the true sense, exalted. Long before she ever encountered the mountain, Allie was aware of its brooding presence in her soul.
Interpretation
This quote explores the relationship between the earth and the sky, symbolizing a struggle for transformation and elevation.
In this passage, Salman Rushdie uses the imagery of an iceberg and a mountain to delve into the philosophical themes of aspiration and existence. He portrays the iceberg as water yearning to become land, symbolizing a longing for growth and stability, while the mountain represents the earth's aspirations to rise and reach the sky, illustrating a desire for transcendence. Allie's awareness of the mountain signifies a deep connection to these themes of transformation and the innate human desire to elevate one's being towards something greater.
In practice
In a motivational talk about personal growth, one might use this quote to illustrate the idea of striving for one's highest potential.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
So far it has been assumed that the only pregnancies which are aborted are accidental ones and the only foetuses destroyed those whose mothers could not bear the thought of their becoming children. In a just world this would be the case, but the world is far from just. Too many women are forced to abort by poverty, by their menfolk, by their parents. Poverty has many faces; it may be the poverty of the young, the unmarried, the student, the unemployed, the female or a combination of these.
A lot of people agree that tidying is connected to how we live, and even though, outside of Japan, houses might be bigger, people have more things than they need.
Experience by itself is not science.
I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for people.
Every human being has an assortment of diverse identities, and it greatly matters which one is triggered by social situations, which hold up different kinds of mirrors. The same is true for nations.
The twin conceptions of sin and vindictive punishment seem to be at the root of much that is most vigorous, both in religion and politics.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.