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"No man is an island" is a phrase first used by English metaphysical poet John Donne in the seventeenth century. It appeared in Devotions upon Emergent Occasions and Seuerall Steps in my Sickness - Meditation XVII, 1624.
By the phrase “No man is an Island” the poet intends to elaborate the fact that no man is self-reliant and every person is dependent on multiple other sources and people for his or her survival and growth. Donne compares an individual with an island and describes the idea by the example of it that as an island is self-sufficient and fulfills all its needs on its own, same is not true in the case of human beings. Man is a social animal and needs company to live and grow. John Donne conveys the notion that humans need a community to thrive and they do badly when isolated from others. In order to achieve anything, a man has to take help from other people and resources. Humans live as a community and are heavily interdependent on each other.
John Donne expresses his views about this concept in the following words:
“No man is an Island, entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of continent,
A part of the main,
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were;
any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in Mankind;
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
(Donne & Fallon, 1988)
Although Donne was a Christian, but this concept has been more emphasized by other religions, primarily Buddhism. The phrase was coined in the early seventeenth century, but the term became more common in the second half of the 20th century. The phrase was also used as the title of a movie which was released in 1962.
Works Cited
Donne, J., & Fallon, K. (1988). No man is an island. Souvenir.
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