Student Question
What are the benefits of using a pulley?
Quick answer:
The benefits of using a pulley include the ability to lift objects by applying a downward force, which simultaneously raises a load. This mechanical advantage makes tasks easier by reducing the amount of effort needed. In literature, a pulley can symbolize the dual forces that pull individuals in opposite directions, such as the pull of earthly stresses that also lead individuals to seek spiritual upliftment.
Scholars tend to say that the author uses the metaphor of a pulley to talk about the forces that pull people up and down at the same time. In a pulley, a force that is pulling down, actually lifts something up at the same time. In this poem, the speaker is arguing that the same thing happens with people.
He is saying that it is the forces that pull us down to earth that also lift us to heaven. The stresses of every day life are what pull us down towards the earth. At the same time, however, they are the things that make us understand that we need God and therefore they pull us up towards heaven as well.
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