Peer Review 3

Blog 4- The Scholar-Gipsy

Awesome Blog Lili, I really loved reading your deep appreciation for diverse cultures and you effectively portrayed how your experience growing up still effects your outlook today.
I really liked the strong rhetoric you used to provoke interior questioning, alike ‘the scholar gipsy’ which is about Arnold doing exactly that. He also uses rhetorical questions such as, “for what wears out the life of mortal men?” this question provokes reflection and makes the audience ask themselves what do they put time into and how passionate or committed are they really?
In reference to the unresolved issue you bring up at the end of the piece, “once other people realise that this is a blessing and not a burden, the world will be a better place”, it reminds me of the pessimism that Arnold views society with. Throughout thee Scholar Gipsy, he describes a disillusioned experience in the world, where people don’t have a purpose and have a fragmented experience. His metaphor of “half” lives reflect the greater portion of society who do not have any deep commitments or passions and are living a life without experiencing it. Unlike the Scholar Gipsy who has devoted his whole life to what he believes in and is satisfied by his less competitive sphere of life.
What do you think needs to happen in order to unify our world?