"No Man is an Island Unto Himself"

Paper Summary:

John Donne's famous line from 'Meditations XVII', "No man is an island unto himself", reflects ideas about the brotherhood of humankind that have echoed throughout time. Originally, the lines reflected ideas popular in the Renaissance about the interconnectedness of human experience. As time elapsed, this definition of brotherhood grew increasingly broader and began to cross boundaries of nationhood, sex, color and race. This paper argues that one of the justifications used by the Bush administration for invading Iraq is especially telling about how far the modern notion of brotherhood has extended. In saying that the U.S. invaded Iraq in order to help the Iraqi people, George Bush was effectively showing that the modern notion of brotherhood, seen in Donne's poem, extended beyond borders. The paper concludes that Donne's words reflect the ideal of brotherhood that has been seen in many situations and plays an increasingly important role in our modern lives.

From the Paper:

"Given increasing globalization, it is more important than ever for citizens of the world to understand and adopt the themes of brotherhood contained within Donne's Meditations XVII. In fact, the future of my generation may depend on the ability of humankind to see itself as part of a greater whole. Today, the speed of air travel and communication, intertwined economies, and the threat of terrorism and warfare mean that the actions of any one country or group can be felt almost immediately by the whole. Today, more than ever before "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.""

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