Opposites Attract / An Exploration of Paradox

True lies, war games, deafening silence, random order, sweet sorrow....these examples of oxymorons illustrate the concept of paradox -- a seeming contradiction used for effect, complexity, emphasis, or wit when things are contrary to expectation or belief.  Shakespeare included numerous oxymorons in Romeo and Juliet, for example, when Romeo realizes that yet another brawl has just taken place in the streets of Verona between his family, the Montagues, and his family's long-standing enemy, the Capulets:

O me! What fray was here? /Here's much to do with hate, but more with love./ Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate!/O anything, of nothing first create!/O heavy lightness, serious vanity,/Misshapen chaos of well seeming forms!/Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,/Still-waking sleep that is not what it is!/This love feel I that feel no love in this.      Act I, scene 1 lines 164-174

As Romeo reacts to the senseless violence in Verona, his words illustrate the complexity of a situation where seemingly contradictory elements are simultaneously true.  Now, read Robert Frost's poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" and see if you can find an example of paradox. 

Nature's first green is gold, / Her hardest hue to hold.  / Her early leaf's a flower; / But only so an hour. /Then leaf subsides to leaf.  / So Eden sank to grief, / So dawn goes down to day. / Nothing gold can stay.

Once you begin to recognize the existence of paradox as a natural phenomenon, consider seemingly contradictory characteristics within yourselves.  Is your inner self different than your outer self?  Are you courageous, yet afraid?  Bold, yet shy?  Compassionate, yet vengeful?  A follower, yet a leader?  Create a post about contradictions that you recognize within yourself.  One way to identify contradictions within yourself is to imagine how others perceive you compared to how you see yourself.

Comments

[Mr. Smith]

So, I wonder, based on Ms. Ricketson's posting....Are natural happenings that we see as disasters (massive forest fires, floods, hurricanes, etc...)examples of what we call paradoxes since they seem to be an oxymoron for humans when they occur?

[Mr. Smith]

So, I wonder, based on Ms. Ricketson's posting....Are natural happenings that we see as disasters (massive forest fires, floods, hurricanes, etc...)examples of what we call paradoxes since they seem to be an oxymoron for humans when they occur?