Throughout the duration of this essay, I will begin with exploring the idea and concept of postmodernism, and then move on to depict and evaluate these claims made by post-modernists in more depth. Postmodernism is a late 20th century phenomena that argues there has been a departure from modernism. There have been many changes which have led to this new epoch known as postmodernity. Most importantly, there has been a new form of society, brought about by fundamental changes in the nature of society. There are three distinct characteristics that allow us to recognize the difference from modernity; changes in capitalism, changes in the consumer society, and the rise of a global society.
Dystopia refers to a fictional society whereby the conditions of living are exceedingly low, in many cases due to oppression, greed and prejudice. Over time, dystopian writers have evolved significantly from a futuristic world to a world that question upon present-day references to serve as critiques on contemporary societies and governments. This provides us greater insight upon the unsettling reflections on our desire to retain our identity in a world depleted from individuality and the world’s amoral desire for power and control. Such concerns upon dystopia are thoroughly explored in Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 film ‘Children of Men’. The film takes place in Britain in the year 2027, describing the devastation of the world due to nuclear and environment destruction, whereby women have become infertile.
Deformation of Beliefs & Values The Time Machine is a futuristic novel written at the end of the second half of the XIX century by H.G Wells. In this novel, several social topics are implied with a futuristic touch. The main theme or focal point is changes in the societal order and its ability to deform beliefs and values over time. Theme and characters are important for this novel, because as they change through the plot, beliefs and values also change and affect the message of the novel. Distortion in the belief of natural selection and the value of equality, marked in the transition from present to future represent the anguish of characters in the storyline’s present time of a society’s change in the future according to their conception of communism.
Troy injures another human being and enters a state of disbelief as he begins to see the world form the perspective of a criminal rather than a lawyer. This causes them to question the way they once saw the world, and they begin to despise their old values. Overwhelmed with a new worldview, they must realize that it is impossible for them to go back and alter the past. Although Leah and Troy spent their lives living and learning commandments and laws, (respectively), drastic events in their lives shift the perspective of their initial belief system and their definition of right and wrong. For a vast majority of their lives, Leah and Troy believe that the laws and commandments they follow are absolute.
This is because being a mechanistic part of a social class estranges a person from their humanity. The basis of alienation in terms of a capitalist society is that the worker invariably loses the ability to determine their life and destiny when deprived of the right to think for themselves as the director of their actions. Although the worker is a self-realised human being, their lives are ultimately dictated by their employers and those who own the means of production as they try and extract a profit from the worker's laborious efforts. Thus the workers' alienation stems from the issue that they can only express themselves in terms of labor, which in itself devalues their humanity to the level of a mere instrument in a privately owned system of industrial production. Karl Marx identified 4 types of alienation that the worker endures under a capitalist regime: 1) Alienation of the worker from the product of his labour In capitalist society, there is a division of social classes which often results in the poor having to work for higher social classes.
As people moved from the countryside into the city for work they were greeted with new lifestyles and harsher conditions. This immediately caused them to challenge everything they knew about their culture and ways of thinking. They needed somewhere to turn to for this explanation so some began applying the scientific method to observe and document societies. People began to believe that they had rights and all men are created equal. They were not content with the way that the social system was tiered with the rich and the poor when they began to believe that everyone was equal.
The disaster has chnged more that the physical environment, it has changed the very core of the people and insanity has become the norm. When things become so unbelievable, faith seems far out of reach. Not much hope can be found in the city, but rather when the prople leave the destruction to move on and start
Just like Gil, we’re surrounded by many people and so much is going on that sometimes it becomes difficult to define exactly who we are. A loss of individuality occurs and we dull our sense of imagination. It somehow lessens our uniqueness and traces of difference. Because of this, Gil is searching for who he is. He questions the purpose of life and the work he does, trying to gain back critical reflection that gets dumb downed in the modern world.
The end of intermittent warfare, which disrupted international trade between 1689 and 1815, and the development of industrial technology initiated the transition from extensive to intensive economic development in the US after 1800 as labor shifted ‘from lower productivity agriculture to the more productive new industrial sector’ (Smith 1980, 18).”,(Smith). This article reiterates the premise of how Melville would be living in the midst of the impending capitalistic growth, causing him to write a short story implicitly discussing the matter of capitalism. Melville’s character Bartleby is a character surrounded by ambiguity and engulfed in mystery. He becomes a scrivener for a business attorney whose office is on Wall Street. The scrivener is introduced to the reader as outstanding worker, completely engulfed in his work.
From a cultural standpoint the concept of magical realism showed how imagination was breaking through in society. Just think about how far technology has come in the past 90 years. The enhancement of technology could have been influenced by the introduction of magical realism into the arts in the 1920s. It was a world-wide movement which influenced many cultures art forms as Candide was written in France, and Chronicle of a Death Foretold was written in Colombia. Magical realism made artists/authors realize just how deep into the imagination literature can be.