The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of Mark Twain’s most famous works, is extremely critical of slavery and racial discrimination. It was written in 1885, about twenty years after slavery was abolished in the United States, but racism was still a major problem in the country at the time. Twain tried to raise awareness of the racism he saw in the country, but was often looked down on for his views. It did not help that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was so controversial. However, this story can be a considerable asset in ridding prejudice from the modern world.
* Joseph Marie Eugene Sue (1804-1857) * French novelist at the time of Romantic Movement * His sympathy for the poor. * Victor Hugo (1802-1885) * Poet, novelist, * Les miserables (1862) offer another indictment of the conditions of the poor through the injustice of the era * From the roots of these works, we see a canon of characters, situations and tropes, which explore stories in VULGAR fashion. * That is, though their emphasis on our emotional connection to the events portrayed. * Arising between the Romantic period and the industrial revolution, melodrama as a genre appears to have been well suited to express the crisis of its time. * The persistence of melodrama in popular culture suggests a fascination the evolving nature of the social, political and ideological crisis of the day.
Each novel approaches this theme according to its genre; so while Heathcliff and Cathy’s sins must be redeemed by the next generation, Carton must find redemption for his own life. The way that Bronte and Dickens demonstrate how characters can be redeemed and “recalled to life,” illustrates how different these books are yet simultaneously unites them as pieces of literature that strive to further understand the nature of man. Tale of Two Cities deals largely with the resurrection and redemption of people on an individual level while Wuthering Heights resurrects characters, but shows that redemption can be on a generational level as well. Redemption and resurrection would have been especially important themes to readers at the time that Bronte and Dickens were writing simply because life was very different in the 1800’s. People typically didn’t have the opportunities that they have today, such as social mobility and the chance to marry outside of their social rank.
Social class inequalities are one of the central themes revealed in both Oliver Twist and Slumdog Millionaire. Discrimination towards the lower classes was common in Victorian England, and is thus displayed constantly through Oliver Twist. The poor were seen as inferior to the upper classes, to be considered and treated as little more than the lowliest of animals. Poverty is described as ‘loathsome’ and ‘repulsive.’ The use of emotive language in quotes by Mr Bumble, with words such as ‘wickedness’ and ‘frightful’ tells the responder that to people of Bumble’s status, the poor were corrupt and to be distrusted. When Oliver is first taken to see a deceased woman of the underclass, her mourning family is described as being ‘so like the rats he had seen outside.’ Dickens’s use of this simile had a dehumanising effect, and shows that the upper classes believed the poor deserved good will as much as rodents did.
Charles Dickens was known as a social reformist and so particularly wrote novels about social class. Dickens wrote ‘Great Expectations’ to draw attention to the issue of how different the lives were of the rich and the poor. This had never been done before, so it engages the reader. This was done using the characters, language, setting, historical context and narrative perspective. Dickens engages the reader by using different interesting characters.
Ferguson & Baltimore, Segregation to Separation: Prophecy Coming To Pass It is unfortunate that, the violent racial riots in Ferguson and Baltimore, that occurred after the death of clearly innocent Black youth, has diverted the public debate to ‘need for better policing’. The casualty has been obfuscation more fundamental issues like; century-old public policy of systematic social segregation, increasing economic inequality, and wholesale abdication by the state of social welfare obligations Century-Old Systematic Segregation According to The University of Chicago’s sociologist, Douglas S. Massey, “Housing segregation is both a consequence and a cause of Black poverty. Housing markets distribute not only a place to live, but they
Steinbeck introduces Crooks as a black man. We begin to learn about Crooks through gossip with Candy calling him derogatory terms like 'nigger' and 'stable buck'. The way he is openly referred to as 'nigger' exemplifies the casual racism directed towards him by the others- they don't insult him deliberately, but the use of the term shows he is constantly degraded both verbally and physically. This suggests to us that he is a social outcast. Readers at the time would have related to the situation as racism was still a common habit in the 1930s.
English 9 AA / 2nd hour 16 December 2010 Peoples Differences in Society In the novelette Of Mice and Men, the setting was based on the depression era. In those days the “different” weren’t treated as to what people are today. They treated people as if they were from a different world. If there was a black, mentally disabled, or a woman like in this book, they treated them differently. John Steinbeck, the author, showed a good example of social injustice in this book.
The debate surrounding the essay is in judging Twain’s depiction of the “negro” Jim and its relation to past and present racial discourse. Smith is writing at a time where most respectable circles condemn the practice of slavery, yet many still blindly accuse Twain of being a racist out of a lack of understanding of the novel. These “respectable” circles and the schoolteachers, literary professors, modern critics, and libraries they influence are the target of Smith’s words. They are the educated, the part of society that is most likely to come across Huckleberry Finn, and Smith argues that their blind outrage
Q and A written by Vikas Swarup represents a modern Indian society where social inequality and corruption is the result of the caste system that still exists in the India. Q and A is a riveting tale that follows Ram Mohammud’s life as he struggles to escape his caste in society and survive the oppression of a corrupt government system. This essay will explore how Swarup effectively display the themes of social hierarchy and inequality as well as corruption through the use of a wide range of language techniques. By using these techniques, Swarup is able to inform the reader about the struggles of the less fortunate people of India and the consequences of crossing the social dividing line. Firstly, Swarup conveys that the social Caste System still has a great influence on the Indian society today because it has created a dividing line which still separates the rich from the poor.