Geraldine Brooks explores how ignorance, superstition and hysteria can be as fatal as any plague within her novel ‘Year of Wonders’. During the trying year of the plague superstition, ignorance, and hysteria took over the village, causing people to make irrational accusations, decisions and behave immorally, turning against each other. Brooks explores how the plague acts as a catalyst effecting each of the villagers differently on a physical and emotional level. The plague is defined as a large amount of insects or animals infesting a place causing damage, within the novel we see the villagers become these animals. Fear and anguish brought out some of the worst qualities in the villagers causing them to turn against one another creating anger, conflict and damage unto one another.
Kahn Lothar is explaining how Wiesel’s book strongly brings to life the experiences of humans being tormented and the ability to loose faith simply. Symbols such as fire represent this. Wiesel tells the reader his thoughts to inform the readers of the horrific experiences of concentration camp. When he arrives at camp he constantly thinking about how abruptly his life has changed. “So much has happened with such a few hours that I had lost all sense of time.
The opinion article ‘killer cars- An assault on reason’ written by Melanie Masters, presents the issue of reckless and irresponsible driving from owners of 4WDs. Master identifies 4WDs as ‘death machines’ as it compromises the safety of other drivers, due to the number of deaths that have occurred. She attempts to create a sense of anger and fear in the audience by using a concerned and aggressive tone on the issue. Master raises this issue to all motorists and safety officials of 4WDs in attempt to make others aware that these cars are unsafe and indeed ‘Killer Cars. Master criticises and attacks 4WD’s and the owners themselves, in attempt to position the audience to feel as though the people who drive them are only thinking about their own safety and disregarding other driver’s.
This is better known as, "the night of broken glass". Many people thought this event triggered the Holocaust to begin. Kristallnacht occurred on the nights of November 9th and 10th in 1938. As we now look back we realize that these unforgettable night are one of the most embarrassing and horrific moments in German and Jewish history. The people that are most affected are the survivors.
He picks it up and carries it inside the house which brings down a kind of curse on the family. He immediately understands that the vial contains “the famous relic of the Prophet Muhammad, that revered hair whose theft from its shrine at Hazratbal mosque the previous morning had created an unprecedented hue and cry in the valley” (Greenblatt 3005). Rushdie’s description of the reaction caused by the theft shows his stance in the situation: “The thieves – no doubt alarmed by the pandemonium, by the procession through the streets of endless ululating crocodiles of lamentation, by the riots, the political ramifications and by the massive police search which was commanded and carried out by men whose entire careers now hung upon the finding of this lost hair – had evidently panicked and hurled
Because of Morrie, Mitch became a whole new person. Mitch, who was out of work due to an allied strike against the newspaper he writes for, continually reads and notices the homicides, theft, and many other gruesome crimes that serve to juxtapose the evil of the popular culture with the goodness of the world that Morrie has created for himself. Morrie portrays the media as being truly evil, sucking Mitch dry of his passion and ambition, and replacing the goodness of the world with hatred and murder. Morrie tells Mitch that “so many people walk around with a meaningless life” (Albom 23), and spend their life “chasing the wrong things” (Albom, 23). Mitch knew he was right.
Owen then goes on to describe how the mental trauma becomes worse. “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” This tells us the soldiers mind is haunted by the sight of his fellow soldier dying from the horrible gas. He is dramatizing this scene some time after it occurred, and his dreams are still filled with this unforgettable sight, which becomes a regular nightmare for the soldier. Wilfred Owen wrote this to shock the reader, and to make the reader think about what
Within The poem “Homecoming” Bruce Dawe shows his concern on dehumanization, he states “they’re picking them up, those they can find, and bringing them home, they’re bringing them in, pilled on the hulls of grants.” The quote shows the lack of respect that the corpses are getting and also they are still being treated as nobodies even though they are dead. Dawe does this primarily through the use of impersonal language and repetition “They’re and them”. His intention for this is to create an un-human like effect, meaning that they are not humans but are walking killing machines. Even though these soldiers have made the fundamental sacrifice by giving up their lives, the fact that they get little or none what so ever acknowledgement for their heroic act, emphasizes the worldwide concept of war as dehumanising through the use of repetition and through the
The audience witnessed a several hours long procession through religious rituals draped with symbolism. Actors were crucified and daubed with pigs blood, food offerings were made to empty idols and boundaries between the sacrilegious and perverseness were eerily crossed. In the background was an orchestra of rattlers, producing a monotone layer of hypnotizing music accompanying the gruesome play that was unfolding before our eyes. However visually gruesome the performance was, I found one particular aspect of the experience more terrifying: The eagerness of my own persona to look at everything happening during the Aktion. The performance forced my being into a deep reflection of its' own behavior, a moment of catharsis.
By reading both Grendel and Beowulf you are able to perceive how Beowulf and the humans see Grendel against how Grendel sees himself. In Beowulf, Grendel was a bloodthirsty force of destruction, and a ruthless beast. Constantly attracting Hrothgars mead hall and killing innocent for fun, Grendel's attack is described as "Suddenly then/ the God-cursed brute was creating havoc:/ greedy and grim, he grabbed thirty men/ from their resting places and rushed to his lair,/ flushed up and inflamed from the raid,/ blundering back with the butchered corpses" (Beowulf 120-125). Until Beowulf is called into take the place of the hero and put things back in order. Due to the fact that Beowulf is telling the story, were only able to see what he and the other humans see about Grendel and thus can only find a way to relate to those characters and only know what they and the author tell us.