Minggu, 25 Oktober 2009

Ngenet Dapat Uang?Asyik nih

Ngenet Dapat Uang?Asyik nih
Sambil ngenet dapat uang?klik…klik dapat deh uangnya.loh kok bisa?bisa donk!
Caranya?gampang kok, kita tinggal daftar z (gratis kok 100%)
Syaratnya?mudah,program ini disebut PTC (pay to click) contohnya:Clixsense,PPClix dll . Dengan kita mengklik iklan yang tersedia di situs yang menyediakan PTC tersebut, kita bisa dapat uang sambil ngenet (daripada buang waktu dengan buka-buka yang tidak berguna)
Garis besarnya sebelum daftar:
1. Harus punya email aktif
2. Punya alat pembayan paypal/alertpay untuk pembayaran hasil klik..klik kita. Ni alamat paypalnya: /
3. Buka situs-situs PTC. Langkah-langkahnya?
langkah pertama (1): buka situs/alamat internet yang menyediakan PTC
kedua (2): Daftarkan diri di situs PTC tersebut ( o..ya disini harus punya email n jangan lupa emailnya harus aktif karena untuk konfirmasi tentang pendaftaran PTC, biasanya berisi password,login name dll)
ketiga (3): Login/masuk ke situs PTC yang anda daftar. Setalah masuk cari kata surf ads, view ads, surf,dll lalu klik iklan yang disediakan oleh situs PTC tersebut. Tunggu 30 detik sampai iklan yang diklik selesai (sebab uang kliknya akan masuk/terkumpul di account uang klik anda )
MUDAHKAN! Jelas bisnis/sampingan ini tidakmembutuhkan keahlian. Kita hanya daftar lalu klik klik.
Contoh penghasilan:
You click 10 ads per day = $0.10
20 referrals click 10 ads per day = $2.00
Your daily earnings = $2.10
Your weekly earnings = $14.70
Your monthly earnings = $63.00
Sedikit?namanya juga usaha klik klik saja, coba kalau kita ikut 10 atau lebih situs PTC hitung saja berapa hasilnya.
Nih saya kasih Contoh situs-situs PTC supaya ga usah nyari-nyari:
1. (klik disini)
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.http://www.incentria.com/index.php?ref=sowhat
18.

NB: masih banyak ribuan alamat yang menyediakan klik iklan dapat duit. Segera diinformasikan lagi

Rabu, 30 September 2009

asy'ariyah dan Maturidiyah

Asy’ariyah dan Maturidiyah

Asy`ariyah adalah sebuah paham aqidah yang dinisbatkan kepada Abul Hasan Al-Asy`ariy. Beliau lahir di Bashrah tahun 260 Hijriyah bertepatan dengan tahun 935 Masehi. Beliau wafat di Bashrah pada tahun 324 H / 975-6 M.
Awalnya Al-Asy`ari pernah belajar kepada Al-Jubba`i, seorang tokoh dan guru dari kalangan Mu`tazilah. Sehingga untuk sementara waktu, Al-Asy`ariy menjadi penganut Mu`tazilah, sampai tahun 300 H. Namun setelah beliau mendalami paham Mu`tazilah hingga berusia 40 tahun, terjadilah debat panjang antara dia dan gurunya, Al-Jubba`i dalam berbagai masalah terutama masalah Kalam. Debat itu membuatnya tidak puas dengan konsep Mu`tazilah dan dua pun keluar dari paham itu kembali ke pemahanan Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah.
Al-Asy`ariyah membuat sistem hujjah yang dibangun berdasarkan perpaduan antara dalil nash (naql) dan dalil logika (`aql). Dengan itu belaiu berhasil memukul telak hujjah para pendukung Mu`tazilah yang selama ini mengacak-acak eksistensi Ahlus Sunnah. Bisa dikatakan, sejak berdirinya aliran Asy`ariyah inilah Mu`tazilah berhasil dilemahkan dan dijauhkan dari kekuasaan. Setelah sebelumnya sangat berkuasa dan melakukan penindasan terhadap lawan-lawan debatnya termasuk di dalamnya Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal.
Di masa lalu ada perdebatan sengit antara para ulama dan tokoh-toko teologi yang ditimbulkan akibat masuknya nilai-niai filsafat non Islam terutama dari barat (Yunani). Karena akar filsaat dan teologi mereka berangkat dari mitos tanpa dasar dari agama samawi yang kuat, maka masuknya paham ini kedunia Islam pastilah menimbulkan pertentangan tajam. Dalam tubuh umat Islam, pertentangan ini mengerucut pada tarik menarik antara dua kutub utama yaitu ahlussunnah yang mempertahankan paham berdasarkan nash (naql) dan Mu`tazilah yang cenderung menafikan nash (naql) dan bertumpu kepada akal semata. Sehingga mereka sering disebut dengan kelompok rasionalis.
Dalam perbedabatan panjang antar dua kutub yang saat itu kebetulan kelompok mu`tazilah sempat memegang tampuk kekuasaan sehingga berusaha melikuidasi dan melenyapkan tokoh lawannya.
Di antara barisan ahlissunnah ini muncul nama dua tokoh ulama yang cukup berpengaruh, yaitu Al-Asya`ri dan Al-Maturidi. Mereka dalam hal ini menjadi qutub kekuatan mazhab aqidah yang sedang mengalami gempuran hebat dari kelompok rasionalis yang saat itu memang sedang di atas angin.
Al-Asy`ari mencoba menangkis semua argumen kelompok rasionalis dengan menggunakan bahasa dan logika lawannya. Karena kalau dijawab dengan dalil nash (naql), jelas tidak akan efektif untuk menangkal argumen lawan. Karena lawannya sejak awal sudah menafikan nash.
Sehingga kita memang melihat adanya kombinasi antara dalil aqli dan naqli yang digunakan oleh Al-Asy-`ari. Pada masanya, metode penangkisan itu sangat efektif untuk meredam argumen lawan.

Pemikiran Asy’ariyah
Konsep Aqidah Ahlussunnah wal Jama’ah yang berkembang hingga saat ini banyak berpijak kepada konsep yang disusun oleh Imam Al-Asy’ari atau pun Imam Al-Maturidi. Walau ada beberapa perbedaan, namun konsep mereka sangat mirip.
Adapun formulasi pemikiran Al-Asy’ari, secara esensial, menampilkan sebuah upaya sintesis antara formulasi ortodoks ekstrim di satu sisi dan mu’tazilah di lain sisi. Maksudnya, dari segi etosnya, pergerakan tersebut memiliki semangat ortodoks. Sedangkan aktualitas formulasinya jelas menampakkan sifat reaktif terhadap Mu’tazilah, suatu reaksi yang tak dapat dihindarinya. Corak pemikiran yang sintesis ini, mungkin dipengaruhi pemikiran Ibnu Kullab (tokoh sunni yang wafat pada 854 M)


Tuhan dan Sifat-Sifat-Nya
Abul Hasan Al-Asy’ari dihadapkan pada dua pandangan ekstrim. Di satu sisi ia berhadapan dengan kelompok mujassimah dan musyabbihah yang berpendapat bahwa Allah mempunyai semua sifat yang disebutkan dalam Al-Qur’an dan Hadits, dan sifat-sifat itu harus dipahami menurut arti harfiahnya. Di lain sisi, beliau berhadapan dengan Mu’tazilah yang menolak konsep bahwa Allah mempunyai sifat, dan berpendapat bahwa mendengar, kuasa, mengetahui, dan sebagainya bukanlah sifat, tetapi Substansi-Nya, sehingga sifat-sifat yang disebutkan dalam Al-Qur’an dan Hadits itu harus dijelaskan secara alegoris.
Menghadapi dua kelompok tersebut, Al-Asy’ari berpendapat bahwa Allah memang memiliki sifat-sifat itu (berbeda dengan Mu’tazilah) namun tidak boleh diartikan secara harfiah melainkan secara ta’wil (berbeda dengan mujassimah dan musyabbihah). Selanjutnya, Al-Asy’ari berpendapat bahwa sifat-sifat Allah itu unik, sehingga tidak dapat dibandingkan dengan sifat-sifat manusia yang tampaknya mirip.
Akal dan Wahyu
Walaupun Al-Asy’ari dan Mu’tazilah mengakui pentingnya akal dan wahyu, mereka berbeda dalam menghadapi persoalan yang memperoleh penjelasan kontradiktif dari aqal dan wahyu. Al-Asy’ari mengutamakan wahyu, sementara Mu’tazilah mengutamakan aqal.
Dalam menentukan baik dan buruk pun terjadi perbedaan pendapat di antara mereka. Al-Asy’ari berpendapat bahwa baik dan buruk harus berdasarkan pada wahyu, sedangkan Mu’tazilah mendasarkannya pada aqal.
Keadilan
Pada dasarnya Al-Asy’ari dan Mu’tazilah setuju bahwa Allah itu adil. Namun Al-Asy’ari tidak setuju bahwa Allah harus berbuat adil, sehingga Dia harus menyiksa orang yang salah dan memberi pahala kepada orang yang berbuat baik. Menurutnya, Allah tidak memiliki keharusan apapun terhadap makhluq, karena Dia adalah Penguasa Muthlaq.

Kedudukan Orang Berdosa
Al-Asy’ari menolak ajaran posisi menengah yang dianut Mu’tazilah. Iman merupakan lawan kufr, predikat bagi seseorang haruslah salah satu dari keduanya. Jika tidak mu`min, maka ia kafir. Mu`min yang berbuat dosa besar adalah mu`min yang fasiq, sebab iman tidak mungkin hilang karena dosa, kecuali oleh kafir haqiqi.
Perbedaan dan persamaan model pemahaman / pemikiran antara Asy`ariyah dan Maturidiyah bisa kita break-down menjadi beberapa point :

1. Tentang sifat Tuhan
Pemikiran Asy`ariyah dan Maturidiyah memiliki pemahaman yang relatif sama. Bahwa Tuhan itu memiliki sifat-sifat tertentu. Tuhan Mengetahui dengan sifat Ilmu-Nya, bukan dengan zat-Nya. Begitu juga Tuhan itu berkuasa dengan sifat Qudrah-Nya, bukan dengan zat-Nya.
2. Tentang Perbuatan Manusia.
Pandangan Asy`ariyah berbeda dengan pandangan Maturidiyah. Menurut Maturidiyah, perbuatan manusia itu semata-mata diwujudkan oleh manusia itu sendiri. Dalam masalah ini, Maturidiyah lebih dekat dengan Mu`tazilah yang secara tegas mengatakan bahwa semua yang dikerjakan manusia itu semata-mata diwujdukan oleh manusia itu sendiri.
3. Tentang Al-Quran
Pandangan Asy`ariyah sama dengan pandangan Maturidiyah. Keduanya sama-sama mengatakan bahwa Al-quran itu adalah Kalam Allah Yang Qadim. Mereka berselisih paham dengan Mu`tazilah yang berpendapat bahwa Al-Quran itu makhluq.
4. Tentang Kewajiban Tuhan
Pandangan Asy`ariyah berbeda dengan pandangan Maturidiyah. Maturidiyah berpendapat bahwa Tuhan memiliki kewajiban-kewajiban tertentu. Pendapat Maturidiyah ini sejalan dengan pendapat Mu`tazilah.

5. Tentang Pelaku Dosa Besar
Pandangan Asy`ariyah dan pandangan Maturidiyah sama-sama mengatakan bahwa seorang mukmin yang melakukan dosa besar tidak menjadi kafir dan tidak gugur ke-Islamannya. Sedangkan Mu`tazilah mengatakan bahwa orang itu berada pada tempat diantara dua tempat “Manzilatun baina manzilatain”.
6. Tentang Janji Tuhan
Keduanya sepakat bahwa Tuhan akan melaksanakan janji-Nya. Seperti memberikan pahala kepada yang berbuat baik dan memberi siksa kepada yang berbuat jahat.
7. Tetang Rupa Tuhan
Keduanya sama-sama sependapat bahwa ayat-ayat Al-Quran yang mengandung informasi tentang bentuk-bentuk pisik jasmani Tuhan harus ditakwil dan diberi arti majaz dan tidak diartikan secara harfiyah.

Reference:
- Ahmad Amin, Dhuha Al-Islam, Dar Al-Mishriyah, Kairo, 1946, hal. 92.
- Montgomery Watt, Islam Philosophy and Theology, Eidenburgh University Press, Eidenburgh, 1985, hal. 58.
- C.A. Qadir, Filsafat dan Ilmu Pengetahuan dalam Islam, Yayasan Obor, Jakarta, 1991, hal. 70.
- Muhammad bin Abdul Karim, Al-Milal wan Nihal, Darul Ma’rifah, Beirut, 1990, hal. 115.
- Abdul Qahir bin Thahir bin muhammad Al-Baghdadi, Al-Faraq bainal Firaq, Mesir, hal. 351.
- http://herrysyafrial.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/perbedaan-asyariyah-dan-wahaby/
- http://ibnuzuhdy.multiply.com/journal/item/4
- http://wiki.myquran.org/index.php/Mu%27taziliyah

interferensi dan integrasi

Interferensi
Istilah interferensi pertama kali digunakan oleh Weinreich (1953) untuk menyebut adanya perubahan system suatu bahasa sehubungan dengan adanya persentuhan bahasa tersebut dengan unsure-unsur bahasa lain yang dilakukan oleh penutur yang bilingual.
Interferensi adalah kekeliruan yang terjadi akibat terbawanya kebiasaan-kebiasaan ujaran bahasa ibu atau dialek ke dalam bahasa/dialek kedua.
Berkemampuan bahasa yang sejajar = penutur bilingual yang mempunyai kemampuan terhadap B1 dan B2 sama baiknya.
Berkemampuan bahasa yang majemuk = penutur bilingual yang kemampuan terhadap B2 jauh lebih rendah atau tidak sama dari kemampuan terhadap B1-nya.
• Interferensi yang terjadi pada proses interpretasi disebut interferensi reseptif, yaitu berupa pengggunaan bahasa B dengan diresapi unsur-unsur bahasa A.
• Interferensi yang terjadi pada proses representasi disebut interferensi produktif, yaitu berupa penggunaan bahasa A tetapi dengan unsur dan struktur B.
Interferensi reseptif dan interferensi produktif disebut juga interfernsi perlakuan.
Interferensi perlakuan biasanya terjadi pada mereka yang sedang belajar bahasa kedua yang lazim juga disebut interferensi belajar atau interferensi perkembangan.
Menurut Weinreich, interferensi yang tampak dalam perubahan sistem suatu bahasa baik sistem fonologi, morfologi maupun sistem yang lainnya.
a. Bidang Fonologi
Contoh: mBandung, nDepok, ngGombong, nyJambi = pada bahasa jawa
b. Bidang Morfologi : terdapat dalam pembentukan kata dengan afiks.
Contoh: neonisasi, nasionalisasi
c. Bidang Sintaksis
Contoh: "Disini toko Laris yang mahal sendiri"
Penggunaan serpihan kata, frase dan klausa di dalam kalimat juga dianggap interferensi dalam kalimat

Integrasi
Menurut Mackey, integrasi adalah unsur-unsur bahasa lain yang digunakan dalam bahasa tertentu dan dianggap sudah menjadi warga bahasa tersebut. Tidak dianggap lagi sebagai unsur pinjaman atau pungutan.
Proses penerimaan unsur bahasa asing:
a. Dilakukan secara audial = penutur Indonesia mendengar butir-butir leksikal itu dituturkan oleh penutur aslinya, lalu mencoba menggunakannya. Apa yang terdengan oleh telinga, itulah yang diujarkan lalu dituliskan.
Contoh: Kloyo →eau de cologne, dongkrak → dome kracht
b. Dilakukan secara visual = penyerapan itu dilakukan melalui bentuk tulisan dalam bahasa asli, lalu disesuaikan dengan aturan yang terdapat dalam dokumen kebahasaan.
Selain penyerapan kata asing itu yang disertai dengan penyesuaian lafal dan ejaan, dapat pula dilakukan dengan cara:
1. Penerjemahan langsung = kosakata dicarikan padanannya dalam bahasa bahasa Indonesia.
Contoh airport menjadi bandar udara
2. Penerjemahan konsep = kosakata asing diteliti baik-baik konsepnya lalu dicarikan kosakata bahasa Indonesia yang konsepnya dekat dengan kosakata asing tersebut.
Contoh: network menjadi jaringan, brother in law menjadi ipar laki-laki

analisis the star

“The Star”

Analysis “The Star”

The story opens with the unnamed first-person narrator musing that at one time he had believed that his travels in outer space could not alter his faith in God. We can learn that he is a Jesuit as well as an astrophysicist. He is aboard a starship returning from a scientific mission three thousand light-years from Earth. Something he learned on this mission, as yet unknown to the rest of the scientists and crew, has caused him to question his faith. He reflects regretfully that the data gathered on the mission will soon make the cause of his own doubt—‘‘this ultimate irony’’—known to everyone.
The narrator reflects on the ‘‘private, good-natured, but fundamentally serious war’’ that the largely irreligious crew has waged with him during the long mission. He thinks amused them to have a Jesuit as chief astrophysicist.
In the first paragraph there is brief indication of religious symbols such as three thousand light years to the Vatican and Crucifix. The first of the two symbols I point out is the reference of their time in accordance to our time. The setting of this story takes place three Thousand light years to the Vatican. The great distance these travelers have to travel before they reach the greatest holy place for Catholics will happen three thousand light years.
The opening of The Star introduces the main conflict of the story a crisis of religious faith. We find the narrator, a Jesuit astrophysicist, on a mission in the far reaches of space. Something awful has happened out there that has made him question his Christian beliefs. "I stare at the crucifix that hangs on the cabin wall... and for the first time in my life I wonder if it is no more than an empty symbol."
Yet, at this early stage in the story, we do not know what has caused the Jesuit's despair, and Clarke keeps us guessing right until the end. We do not even learn that the main character is a Jesuit astrophysicist until the third paragraph, by which time we know that he is on a space shuttle carrying a precious mission.
Central themes in ‘The Star’ are religion and in particular religious faith. The narrative is the interior monologue of the central character, a Jesuit astrophysicist. He is aboard a starship on a mission to investigate the causes of a supernova in a distant galaxy. He and the rest of the crew discover the artifacts of a highly developed civilization, carefully preserved on the only planet that remains in orbit around the supernova. Knowing that all life would be wiped out when their sun flared into a supernova, this race of sentient beings left a record of who they were and what they accomplished. The pictures, sculptures, music, and other relics of a very human-like race doomed to destruction depress the crew and investigating scientists, who are far from their own homes and lonely. What the narrator has learned but not yet communicated to the others is that the supernova that destroyed this civilization was the Star of Bethlehem, which burned brightly in the sky to herald the birth of Jesus Christ. His discovery has caused him to reexamine and to question his own faith.
The entire story consists of the male narrator's reflections on what he has learned during a scientific mission to investigate a "white dwarf," a sun in a distant galaxy that became a supernova and burned itself out thousands of years earlier. The reader learns that he is a Jesuit priest and an astrophysicist aboard a starship and that he has been fighting a "private, good-natured, but fundamentally serious.
- Themes
The most important theme in "The Star" is the opposition of religion and science. We as reader are presented with a very religious narrator who has his faith seriously shaken. The narrator has long attempted to show that science and religion are compatible. He believed that science affirms the existence of God and helps humanity to appreciate the dependence of science on the intricacies of God's ultimate plan. A large part of his faith was founded in the belief that humankind achieved redemption from sin through the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When the narrator calculates that the explosion of the supernova, wiping out an entire sentient, human-like race, was the star of Bethlehem, he is thrown into doubt. How can he reconcile his believe that God created all things with perfectly without interpose mistaken.
- Point of View and Narration
"The Star" is a first person narration by an astrophysicist who is also a Jesuit. The narrative unfolds for the reader the emotions of this individual as he tries to comes to terms with the knowledge he has gained on a scientific mission to a distant galaxy— knowledge that has caused him for the first time to question his faith.
- Foreshadowing and Irony
In the course of the story, the reader is given clues to the ironic outcome of the story. One of the first occurs in the opening paragraph when the narrator says, “Once, I believed that space could have no power over faith . . . that the heavens declared the glory of God's handiwork" (emphasis added).
"The Star" makes a strong statement about human nature by blending literary elements like character, setting, and conflict with an entertaining narrative. Although the story is set in the future, Clarke's realistic characters still behave like people we may know. But their behavior is spurred by an event that is both familiar and puzzling.

Main Points as we read in “the Star”:
o The main character in this story is a Jesuit monk, a member of the Society of Jesus (a Catholic religious order founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1534).
o Jesuits devote their lives to missionary and educational work and are also known as the intellectuals of the church.
o The story makes a reference to a painting by Paul Rubens (1577-1640), a Flemish artist who painted a well-known picture of Loyola.
o The story mentions two Latin phrases. The first, AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIUM, means "For the greater glory of God." The second is the Exercitia Spiritualia, which means "Spiritual Exercises," a book written by Loyola, which the Jesuits use for guidance.

His science fiction story called “The Star” has many religious and spiritual overtones which makes the theme of the story ‘There always has to be one to save all” more obvious. From the first to the last sentence the theme was built throughout to be a parallel experience of what has happened to the people before the great flood. Like many great science fiction stories this one shares a great message of hope in the unknown and to be glad that we have been so lucky to survive whatever we were supposed to have survived.


Reference:

- “The Star”, Arthur C. Clarke.
- http://lucis.net/stuff/clarke/star_clarke.html
- http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-thestar/topic.html

Minggu, 27 September 2009

the Black Madonna

Comments about “the Black Madonna”

I think this story concern the gap between the whites and the blacks and the discovery that the later has pride and justifiable resentment. The girl who wanders into the native village describes wonderfully the feeling of alienation that the natives must feel back in her world.
The author manages to use a few pages to deal with racial, class and sexual issues that other writers might have resorted to acres of print to get the same message across. Her character portraits are deep but never overpowering and there is often an autobiographical feel to it with the leading characters being young girls.
Most of these stories reserve the insight into the racial colonial world to girls and women. That is something that might make me read more because there is a style here that is distinctive.
In the Black Madonna an Italian prisoner of war manages to befriend a captain and unlock his tongue with brandy but also the power of art. The Black Madonna in question both scares and attracts the captain who is envious in a way of the Italian’s simple view of love and the world. That is maybe the advantage he has being the captured man. He shows friendship for the captain but when spurned knows how to wound him deeply with just a couple of words.

Comments about A dan P

Comments about "A&P"

After reread again, I think John Updike's story "A&P" brings us into question the difference between innocence and immaturity. There is a distinct difference between these states. Innocence is the purer of the two.

In John Updike's story A&P. Sammy is an innocent young man. Because of his innocence, he quits his job over three immature young women. These young women know better than to try what they do in the story, but they are not mature enough to realize how wrong it is.

I think that Sammy, the narrator of John Updike's short story A & P, reveals much about himself by the phraseology of his opening sentence: "In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits."

His grammar is flawed, but perhaps he is only being conversationally casual. Within a couple of pages he tells us that he turned 19 last April. Presumably he has just graduated from high school.

Comments about “The Dead”

Comments about “The Dead”

I think that “The Dead” is a story about love, lost loves, and the inability to forget those who have been loved and lost.

After reading the story, I have a view that in “The Dead” Joyce establishes that people are equal, across the board, as human beings and should be treated as such. Throughout the collection the reader gets selective glimpses of characters. I see the most intimate often harsh reality of a character. Over time it is easy for this to make a reader judgmental of people.

“The Dead” is meant to remind readers that they–the readers–are people as well. Joyce makes this fair warning through Gabriel, who sees himself as superior to others. If, in fact, the readers have come to see themselves in some way as superior to the characters in the stories, then Gabriel is a sort of mirror image. I notice this in “the condescending insincerity in Gabriel’s manner”.

“The Dead” takes on in order to take us out of the stories in Dubliners is to show the power of language and how it can be a trap. There is some irony in Gabriel becoming trapped by language, when, given his education, we would assume he would have greater mastery and control over language. The most prominent scene is when Gabriel comes up behind his wife in the “gloom of the hall” and begins to describe her in her “grace and mystery … as if she were a symbol of something”;

In as little as the last few paragraphs, Joyce gives us a much needed feeling of closure that we do not often get in the other stories and essentially tells us that it is now okay to close the back cover on the book. “A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily …”
With Gabriel, I see him as a hopeful man who in reality is broken. I do not think that he has an epiphany at the end of “The Dead.” Obviously, there are plenty who would disagree with me and hold the opposite view.
Gabriel sees the world poetically and not as it really is. The way he recreates things in his mind towards a poetic idealism obscures the way things really are. At the end, he creates a poetic refrain that is accurate in some ways, but Gabriel does not really understand the truth of his situation.
The “descent of their last end” refers to death. The snow is meant to symbolize an inclusion of everything. The snow falls over everything, so everything is united by the snow. Both living and dead are subject to the world around, but Gabriel misses that, even as he alludes to it in his thoughts at the end. He doesn’t really have an epiphany because he doesn’t see himself as he really is — he just thinks he does.
Comments about “Her first ball”

I think this story says to me that time and age is disregarding the past - A step in one direction requires ignorance or forgetting the previous. Not a universal them but at least to Leila and maybe a biographical insight.

“Her First ball” indicates us to think more carefully about our future and that nothing will last forever, ever thing will vanish. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t enjoy our life and keep thinking in future results, that’s wrong we should enjoy our life and we should also consider what will happen to us in the future.

Leila begins rather innocently- she over romanticizes the ball in her youthful illusions. She is the face of youth, and she is not prepared for the cruel future. She almost reaches an epiphany (a realisation of the truth) but is distracted by her idealistic views- when a gentleman asks her to dance. The Author truly captures the innocence of youth in this story.

I think the author have investigated a myriad of influences on her life and work. Underlying themes of sexuality and homoeroticism have become another fertile topic of critical discussion.