Literary notes about Rejection (AI summary)
In literature, the word "rejection" assumes a strikingly multifaceted role, functioning as both a literal dismissal and a potent symbol of emotional, ideological, or social estrangement. It can convey contempt or rebuke, as when an idea is scornfully dismissed in phrases like "niño muerto" [1] or when political and military demands are met with defiant hostility [2]. In the realm of personal narrative, rejection is employed to underscore deep emotional wounds and the cruelty of interpersonal ruptures [3],[4], while also serving as a catalyst for character transformation or as a measure of moral and intellectual rigor in philosophical discourses [5],[6]. Even in scientific treatises, the concept is likened to the selective process, where the rejection of injurious variations is as crucial as the retention of beneficial ones [7]. This breadth of application shows how rejection not only delineates boundaries between differing ideals and relationships but also drives the narrative tension and thematic complexity across genres [8],[9].
- the expression niño muerto is often thus used in contemptuous rejection of an idea.
— from Novelas Cortas by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón - Thus Appius Claudius Cento would be hostile from the rejection of his illegal demand for 5000 men.
— from The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Polybius - The humiliation of his rejection stung him to the heart, as though it were a fresh wound he had only just received.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - Quietly as I had borne her relation, the moment I was alone I felt most bitterly both the disgrace and sorrow of a rejection so cruelly inexplicable.
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney - But the rejection of the subject renders some more complicated theory necessary.
— from The Analysis of Mind by Bertrand Russell - A rejection of hedonistic psychology, therefore, by no means involves any opposition to eudæmonism in ethics.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - This preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - In its rejection of the current notions about morality, it is one with the higher ethics.
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde - Moreover, the recollection of the rejection and the part he had played in the affair tortured him with shame.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy