The guillotine was a device originally made by an aristocrat, Antoine Louis, to use for capital punishment, mainly on commoners (Klein). Ironically it was the commoners who made the use of the guillotine famous during the French Revolution. The commoner’s service towards “La Guillotine” highlights the irony in their revolution as they become the cause of the violence and oppression they are trying to uproot. Another example of hypocrisy in the French Revolution, caused by the cruelty of the mob, would be the unjust execution of the seamstress towards the end. The seamstress speaks to Sydney Carton, on death row, telling him, “I am not unwilling to die, if
My first example on how deleting our humane feelings caused harm is Document 7 by James Ramsay called, “Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies”. The article speaks about the punishments done to slaves for misbehaving in their eyes and committing mistakes. The white men would beat them with sticks, breaking their bones, chain around their necks, etc. All this was done to cause fear within them. All these people thought since Africans are slaves, it’s okay to treat them as beasts.
Jefferson had so many disdained feelings when he was being abased by the British, but after his freedom was granted, he lost sight of what was right. Banneker uses Jefferson’s own words against him as a way to prove Jefferson’s wrong acts. Negative detail is used to create a criticizing tone. The “tyranny” the British put upon to the colonists is now, after the colonists are freed from British rule, being cast upon the slaves by the colonists; Jefferson is well aware of the “injustice” in which the slaves are “suffering.” Benjamin Banneker’s goal with this is to force Jefferson into the slave’s shoes. Jefferson has once been in a similar position and Banneker just wishes he can reflect and remember what its like and find compassion for the slaves.
The harassment and mistreatment of thousands of Americans under the policy of McCarthysism, is for Miller, a Salem witch- hunt. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is set in the Puritan society of the 17th century Salem and is one with rules and regulations that are enforced; if an individual goes against them they will be punished. ‘The Crucible’ is a clear example of the social implications of belonging in the 1950’s era. In the poem “An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow”, the weeping man is an individual contrasting against the traditional held views of society. People are obsessed with fitting in the social mainstream that they become afraid of change and are challenged by genuine emotion.
Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno” contains many different underlying themes, one of which includes the evils of slavery. Melville shows this in Cereno as he “ attempts to strike a balance between people divided by race and class, thus speaking to the new multiracial readership of popular works on slavery” ( Melville 18). Slavery can bring out the evil in individuals when they try to gain dominate control over someone. The same can be said about the slaves about the San Dominick merchant ship. Babo, acting as the leader of the revolt, ordered the brutal slaying of any non useful sailors.
The film Inherit the wind directed by Stanley Kramer reflects this, as there are many external conflicts present in the film. Three of importance are the conflict between the teachings of the Bible and Darwin’s theory of evolution which leads to the conflict that exists in American society between evolutionism and creationism, and finally the geographical conflict between areas of America. Inherit the wind is a serious film as the composer is criticising American Society. Kramer’s representation of American society shows the conflict between evolutionism and creationism. He uses the conflict between Brady and Drummond, the lawyers who represent both sides respectively, to convey the struggle for freedom and the need to respect differing opinions.
When the Hater Meets the Hated- Why is Tom Robinson Guilty? One may be punished for something he or she never did depending on the circumstances in their community. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows in Maycomb County, a society being controlled by racism, Tom Robinson is punished for assaulting Mayella Ewell even though he is the victim. If the majority of the inhabitants of a community are racist, the racist social values influence everything that takes place in the courts of the community. Thus the racist social values of Maycomb County are responsible for the failure of Atticus Finch’s defense for Tom Robinson.
Tom discusses ransoming people that he captures, but doesn’t know what it means. What is the reader supposed to determine about Tom based on this? That he’s just a kid who looks up to and wants to be like the characters he reads about in books. 8. Why does Huck’s father not count as family to the band of robbers?
Owen also seeks to expose the betrayal of the authorities throughout poems such as ‘Disabled’ and ‘The parable of the old man and the young.’ He expresses how they acted with a disregard for the lives of their countries young men. Religion and its betrayal during the war is also emphasized by Wilfred Owen in ‘Anthem for doomed youth.’ He shows how the belief in religion did nothing to dampen the grim realities of war and he even begins to question his own beliefs. Another way Owen feels he has been betrayed is through the way society treated those soldiers who had suffered both mental and physical injuries. They were labelled as cowards and looked down upon. This is best shown in the poem ‘Disabled.’ Owen was ultimately driven by the betrayal of the authorities, religion and society and he used his horrifying experiences of the war to exemplify this betrayal.
She saw first- hand what it was like to have slaves and how they were treated negligently. In this short story, Armand is a cruel slave owner who takes his anger towards Désirée and the baby out on his slaves. Chopin described Armand as having “the very spirit of Satan” when he dealt with them. He looks at his baby and sees the ancestry of a black person. To him, the baby is tainted which makes his family and marriage impure.