The Struggle for Homeostasis, Literary Essay Example

The concept of homeostasis is centered on the fact that living things maintained a constant internal environment and based on this factor, homeostasis is defined as the dynamic stability of conditions within living organisms. Drawn from a broader perspective, through the course of their lives, human beings, seek to strike a form of balance through the various life choices they make. With reference to the creation story, the creator, God, ordained that life on this earth especially for us human beings should be a relationship of various factors working together with a multitude of parts that must be in a balanced relationship one with the other. The various choices and the values upheld by human beings enable them to maintain this balance, and when something or someone disrupts the balance, consequences are sure to follow.

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Striking this balance is exemplified in Edwin Robinson's poem "Richard Cory" which is primarily centered on the theme of how appearances can be deceiving. The poem is about a man who every person in the community believed is a gentleman. The townspeople admired Richard Cory and to them, "He was a gentleman from sole to crown." In this regard, the town's people who are clearly of a lower financial class place Cory on a pedestal and they look up to him wishing they were just like him. Richard Cory, on the other hand, is unable to strike a balance between his own life and also places them in a lower position than himself (Robinson). In the end, however, the consequences of failure to strike a balance in his own life follow and Cory commits suicide an act that shows the people of the town that looks are actually deceiving and that somethings cannot be purchased. A homeostatic balance is therefore substantiated through the life of Richard Cory depicting that the values that we as human being uphold for ourselves are essential for one to thrive. However, it is evident that neither wealth nor status can ensure happiness. Also, a similar premise is substantiated by Kate Chopin through her piece of literature "The Story of an Hour." Here, Chopin highlights the kind of irony that is depicted when our authentic selves and the matters of our hearts do not match the environment or the atmosphere in which we intend to thrive in. Louise's heart is troubled after realizing that her husband was actually not dead and this, turns out to have both mental and physical implications which lead to her death (Chopin).

In a similar regard, life balance and personal happiness do not necessarily depend on being successful or living a more posh life as compared to other people around. Instead, other things are said to have a more significant impact on a person's well-being. In James Wright's poem "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota," the poet in ways more than one shows that as a human being, there is a need to balance our internal being and the external one that is portrayed to the outside world. It is only through this kind of balance that an individual can thrive through the dynamics of life (Wright). For instance, the speaker in this particular poem feels unmotivated by his unproductivity in life. He begins to realize how unproductive he is while he lies in a hammock studying nature on a farm. In the beginning, he sees a butterfly, which is exemplified as a beautiful creature, on a dark black trunk which indicates lifelessness and death. According to his observations, every natural creation is moving except of him. This, in essence, suggests that despite the fact that the speaker is on a hammock which is a representation of comfort and relaxation and with the beauty of a butterfly, he is empty and broken in the inside just like the ugly dark trunk. Thus, in a nutshell, in this regard, the speaker takes notes of beautiful things such as a butterfly and is relaxed in a hammock. All these are ironic since he is evidently stressed, and hence these kinds of observations and relaxations should be insignificant. In the end, however, the narrator realizes that to him, striking a healthy balance in his life is indeed a daunting task and for this reason, the consequences are the fact that he has wasted his entire life (Dickinson).

Besides, human beings need to strike a balance in life about a certain stage of life and in consideration to our animality. Based on this context, Jonathan Singer, in his article contends that, while we as human beings are in the realm of maintaining our humanity, we forget that we are animals before we are human. Therefore, our human needs and ideas ought to be centered on the fact that we are able to cultivate a healthy balance between our animality and our humanity without the repression of the former or the deification of the latter (Singer). Based on this regard, it is evidence that human life requires us to strike a certain kind of balance for us to thrive. However, we often find ourselves struggling to achieve this balance since as Nietzsche states, we tend to regress to our pre-human animality. However, to avoid these struggles, this philosophy states that we as human beings should borrow some ideas from our animality, which is considered a reserve of animal wisdom which we must not forget. With this in mind, creating some form of opposition between the two systems that make us as human beings only valorize every single thing that is considered to be distinctly human (Singer 27). In the same vein, how we achieve a homeostatic relationship in our lives through the choices that we make is likened to the life of a hummingbird. According to Doyle, the numerous opportunities in our lives are compared to a billion heartbeats which we ought to spend in a lifetime (Doyle). The rate and the speed that we choose to spend them at is consequential, with the ramifications being the number of years that we get to live.

In conclusion, based on the above-discussed contexts, the human heart is considered the center for the balance or the homeostasis that an individual strives to attain in the realm of their lives. While happiness and contentment in a human being's life are considered an inside job that should originate from within, human beings face the challenge of exemplifying an equal amount of happiness to the world and the people around us. Like in the poem Richard Cory, our status or position to the outside world is never a reflection of who we are as individuals. Instead, we should strive to obtain healthy homeostasis that is reflected in a balance between our most authentic selves and what we are perceived to be by the world around us.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. Internet source, 1894.

Dickinson, Emily. "After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes ? (372)." Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47651/after-great-pain-a-formal-feeling-comes-372. Accessed 22 Feb. 2018.

Doyle, Brian. "Joyas Voladoras." The American Scholar, 23 June 2017, theamericanscholar.org/joyas-volardores/#. Accessed 22 Feb. 2018.

Robinson, Edwin A. "Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson." Poetry Foundation, 2018, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44982/richard-cory. Accessed 22 Feb. 2018.

Singer, Jonathan D. "All Too Human: "Animal Wisdom" in Nietzsche's Account of the Good Life." Between the Species: An Online Journal for the Study of Philosophy and Animals, vol. 14, no. 1, 2011.

Wright, James, and Nora Wildgen. Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota. Indulgence P, 2000.