Self-Identity and Freedom Usually, people take more than a lifetime to discover their true self. However, when presented with a situation that cages them, the desire to rebel and the need for self-discovery reaches an all-time high. The articles under consideration for this literary review are Maggie Nelson’s ‘Great to Watch’, Azar Nafisi’s ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books’ and “When I Woke Up Tuesday Morning, It was Friday” (2002) by Martha Stout. Azar Nafisi was born in Iran, where she was expelled from the University of Tehran in 1981 for going against the Khomeini’s mandate that stipulated that all women were required to wear veils. Maggie Nelson is a poet, literary critic and essayist who was born and bred in the USA. She has a PhD in English from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and has taught at the Wesleyan University, Pratt Institute and the New School. Her essays and works explore a new direction in the arts that is without doubt, disruptive. Martha Stout was a clinical psychologist for 30 years…
The Great War poems The Great War poems were used to describe the darkness that surrounded the war. Through the history of these poems, the poems explained how the war was glorified and spread through the use of propaganda to encourage other men recruited as soldiers, and in turn, provide help in the battlefield. However, this period of Great War was not a memorable moment. The poems were used to describe the conditions of the war, which were unseen to the people who were at home. The poems openly described the situation the soldier experience during the day and night. They (poems) described the worse condition the soldier lived in during the war. In addition, the poems depicted the difficulties the soldier faces when it comes to killing one another, although it was their duty. From this, morals were considered to be unimportant during the war as soldiers were forced to do other things that they never imagined. J’accuse and le Départ des Soldats pour le Front video depict the ugly side of the Great War showing how soldiers killed each other,…
theme of oppression Introduction The major theme which is common among the three films watched in class; “the ashes and diamonds”, “tales of the tale” and the “little Vera” are oppression. Each of the three movies has the dominant theme being oppression of different forms. Expressed through how Vera discounts her life and the oppressive society in “the little Vera”, the films illustrate much of the abuse same as how the tales of tales which demonstrates the part of paradises and part of hell created by the same oppression. Equally, the film, “Ashes and Diamonds” is also structured around the abuse that people had to undergo between World War 2 and the cold war. All three films describe the theme of oppression in the various forms using the most unique and advantageous cinematic features (Tikka et al., 2015). The development of the common theme in all three films has been done using some of the most congenial ways. All three films use the element of mise en scene in three different ways. The first film, the “Ashes and diamonds” employs…
The integration and separation of knowledge and action in human history Introduction: The importance of knowledge in human history is so fundamental that without it, the concept of human life and history is plausible. But in life, discrete knowledge is not important. Knowledge is an essential requirement. When knowledge and practice are combined, the value of life comes into being. However, there is a relationship between knowledge and action that knowledge is essential to the action. Without knowledge, the action does not exist, and if knowledge is without knowledge, then it has no meaning and utility. God has made man, and because of man’s superiority over other beings, he is given the knowledge. However, in human history, it is often the case that knowledge is devoid of action. As a result, the course of history is changing. On the contrary, the integration of knowledge and process also revolutionizes history. Socrates is a great symbol of knowledge in human history. Its greatness is that despite its being two and a half thousand years, its name still lives in the intellectual world.…
Breakfast Club Character Critique The character I have chosen is John Bender (played by Judd Nelson). Introduction John Bender (Judd Nelson) as a bad boy bestowed with a heart like gold. His fellows compare him with a two leave clover, hard to find, and lucky to have. He exercised love and care where necessary to his fellows. He knows how to manage between his wisecracking and his real anger originating from his messed up family life. Also, John Bender is known for his great joking techniques. For instance, he harasses Mr. Richard Vernon, who is the supervising teacher by cracking jokes like “Do Barry Manilow know that you raided his wardrobe?” Besides making jokes with Mr. Richard Vernon, John Bender is also known for his insults to Mr. Richard Vernon, such as “Fuck you!” or “Eat my shorts” after he was assigned two months further in detention for being rude and rogue to Mr. Richard Vernon. In this movie, The Breakfast Club, there are five other characters. That is John Bender (Judd Nelson), Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez), Brian Johnson (Anthony…
Character analysis The author in the story at first talks about two characters, Mr. Woodfield and his employer, who is referred to as the Boss. The first character had stepped down from employment due to a medical condition as he suffered from a stroke. The writer brings up the notion of the Boss gloating of his position and consistently taking pride in being complimented upon his accomplishments. He insistently talks about the changes and refurbishments that he has undertaken to bring into perfection the current state of his office. The Boss is portrayed as being of older age as compared to Mr. Woodfield, and bragging to him about all his attainments is said to solicit a sense of satisfaction that warms him up. However, amidst all his boasting, he waivers from talking about the snapshot of his passed on son. The author paints Mr. Woodfield as a retired employee. He retreated from work but has not since then been content with his lifestyle. He is restrained from leaving his house by his family…
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao The book was authored by Junot Diaz, a Dominican-American writer. The author created a story through the characters as they went about their daily lives in New Jersey or in the Washington Heights. Throughout the narrative, Diaz, treated the challenges of poverty, immigration, and legacy of Trujillo autocracy in the Dominican Republic. The narrative describes the plight of immigrants in the United States. A good example of the characters extensively used by Diaz is Oscar de Leon. He is an intellectually inclined person despite being obese. His mum is tyrannical and severe and does not live with his father. Every person battle with poverty, drug abuse and crime. The book describes the life of Oscar since his tender age. A practical historical figure, the autocrat of the Dominican Republic since 1930 up to the time he was assassinated in 1961, Rafael Trujillo, is also an essential character in the narrative. More heartache results from the dictator’s actions throughout the book, either indirectly, as his censorship hinders the honesty of other characters regarding their…
utilitarianism and its illustration in the Novel Brave New World In this essay, I am going to focus on utilitarianism and its illustration in the Novel Brave New World. I will probably mention a few themes which are evident in this novel, for example, the death of God, death alienation, and authenticity. Utilitarianism focuses on how society benefits from the utilization of new ideas that are appropriately designed to increase their utility. Huxley’s novel portrays a futuristic world where physical and emotional pain and suffering have been eliminated, and people live healthy lives until they die aged 60? (REF). Human loving relationships and connections are absent, the need for a family unit having been erased by science and the genetically engineered test-tube children. Pleasure is perpetual, instantly obtainable through soma. In this world, society is stable, and Huxley argues that in such a world, there is no need, no place for religion and God. There is no suffering, and as God is merely a response to human pain and distress, God ceases to be of any benefit. Mustapha Mond explains…
What images/scenes/lyrics/dialogue/characters support the Afrofuturism? Afrofuturism has been reflected in Janelle Monae’s Dirty Computer. It depicts black artists in the claim of the sci-fi fantasies genres, which are generally owned by white characters and artists (Gray, Par 15-17. It raises a challenge on how a community lost in search of its history imagines a possible future. In her work, Janelle addresses the past- civil rights struggle and the quest to realize African- American life. In all of her releases, she highlights problems of the African American community, personal relations, individual identity, and with the aid of a robotic machine, she plays the role of a person living a high-end life in a world of fantasy (Vernallis, 254). In the film, Janelle assumes the role of Jane, who has been playing the hero in Janelle’s previous albums. Jane frees herself from the android in an Afrofuturism concept. From the initial reference to Metropolis, Janelle refers to a city that is cold, dystopian, droid powered, and it looms over all her albums. She builds up a discography via tropes of science fiction,…
The use of imagery in the “Dogfight” Storytelling has remained a powerful technique in poetry and songs over a long time. The use of stylistic devices in poetry can be amusing. For instance, through the use of conceits, poets have been able to engage the reader’s feelings making them depict their emotions as well. The use of imagery in the “Dogfight” reinforces the issues of conflict between different social classes in the 1970s. Different songs use human characters as protagonists who attempt to liberate themselves from the antagonists. An example of these songs is the “Bullet the Blue Sky,” whose main protagonists are the people in El Salvador who were the victims in the Salvadoran Civil War. The antagonist in this song is the U.S government that fueled the conflict through military funding. In the song “Streets of Philadelphia,” for instance, the LGBTQ community was discriminated against. The antagonists assume the roles of the protagonists, and through this, they portray them negatively. Just like it is in the song “A Rolling Stone,” these songs display the nature of human relationship…