Dawe uses television jargon to further elaborate how consumerism has dehumanised humanly values. “Right between the Carol Burnett and the David Nixon show they fell in love.” Through the use of television and consumer jargon along with the satirical nature of the poem, we understand how consumers have been impacted through the media. Through the poem Dawe allows us to see how the predominance of the media has impacted the values in relationships. “But the course of true etcetera, Etcetera.” Through Dawe’s use of the word “Etcetera” he shows us how love is no longer relevant in between relationships. Therefore, the media dehumanises the quality of humanly values and relationships.
Kederis !1 Robert Kederis Mr. Batson AP US History 12 August 2013 Analysis of the book “The Disuniting of America” ! In his book, The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society, the author, Pulitzer Prize winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. asserts that our world has entered what he calls a "dangerous era of ethnic and racial animosity". He portends that this renewed multiculturalism in the United States has the potential to tear apart our nation. He further submits that America, with its unique history of successful assimilation of so many cultures into one united body, should provide the example for the rest of the world as to how to hold ethnically diverse populations together. Mr. Schlesinger believes that "ethnicity
Furthermore, his ability to combine what he learned in his self-analysis with the Oedipus legend and Shakespeare’s Hamlet helped to form the core of his psychoanalyses (Bergmann 535). He also effectively established ethos and used elevated diction to strengthen his claim. On the other hand, his limited use of scientific studies and gender popularity weakened his explanation. Freud’s decision to use two significant pieces of western literature in his explanation of the Oedipus Complex, helped him to define his theory to others. The allusions he made with Oedipus Rex and Hamlet introduced variety into an otherwise limited discussion.
Censorship The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has recently been revised to remove the word ‘nigger’ which appears over two hundred times. The censorship of this piece of classical literature is devaluing the novel and the ideas portrayed in it. The “harmful epithets”, which also include the word ‘injun’, serve as an integral part of this novel and sanitizing this book for the goal of political correctness is also stripping a historical document of information that acknowledges America’s blatantly racist past and makes our youth aware, through education, the toxicity of prejudice. Twain’s work is dependent on his conveyance of the actual state of things and relation of ideas popular to his era. The content in the work is imperative to the messages it communicates.
For example in Manchurian Candidate Marco says “Manchurian Global is…put(ting) a sleeper in the White House” which emphasises the manipulation of Manchurian global aiming to establish Raymond Shaw as a puppet-president. In turn, highlighting the corruption within the so-called democratic society, and further symbolises this concealing hegemonic society. This correlates with the post September 11 social context, when people developed conspiracy theories, as people were sceptic of the ‘truth’. Likewise in Cuckoo’s Nest Nurse Ratched theoretically claims that the mental hospital is a “democratic ward”. However, practically when McMurphy obtains a majority of votes to watch World Series baseball on TV, Ratched disregards
In Joseph Heller’s Catch 22, the protagonist, Yossarian, exemplifies a modern American antihero. From the first few pages, Heller presents Yossarian as a flawed man who is only interested in preserving his own life. Unlike the typical, altruistic, and courageous hero placed in so many war novels, Yossarian is instead bizarre, self-involved, and sometimes unethical. Heller purposely chooses to make Yossarian an antihero to imply there are only antiheros when it comes to war. As other novels dishonestly romanticize and glorify war, Heller does the opposite.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Societal changes of the nineteenth century instilled a common fear that mankind’s newfound perversion would lead to the downfall of Western European culture. This “panic,” inspired popular novelists like Robert Louis Stevenson to write The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A recurrent theme being that underneath an educated man lays an uncultured barbarian. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde portrays the detriments of the modern cultural, intellectual, and scientific changes. The nineteenth century technological innovations spurred the Second Industrial Revolution.
On one level The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald comments on the careless gaiety and moral decadence of the period in which it was set. It contains innumerable references to the contemporary scene. The wild extravagance of Gatsby's parties, the shallowness and aimlessness of the guests and the hint of Gatsby's involvement in crime all identify the period and the American setting. But as a piece of social commentary The Great Gatsby also describes the failure of the American dream, from the point of view that American political ideals conflict with the actual social conditions that exist. For whereas American democracy is based on the idea of equality among people, the truth is that social discrimination still exists and the divisions among the classes cannot be overcome.
The opening paragraph In Blinders article “Will Your Job Be Exported?” Blinder reflects back to the great conservative political philosopher Edmund Burke who “once observed, “you can never plan the future by the past.”” Blinder argues “But when it comes to preparing the American workforce for the jobs of the future we may be doing just that.” This is where I strongly disagree with Blinder. As I mentioned early, the industrial revolution was the sudden boom of economic growth in America and also entirely changed the American workforce. However, we are in a different century, which is the beginning of technology. Technology has given more opportunities to America, and plenty other countries. Technology, indeed may be the birth of offshoring, it can also prolong the process.
Amusing Ourselves to Death In the novel Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman analyzes the undeniable truth that the media, and its mediums, have caused a major cultural revolution. This dynamic shift from an age of the printed word, to that of the television, has created an epistemological transition that has led to the redefinition of the content and meaning of public discourse. The argument proposed by Neil Postman stems from the idea in which the entertainment power of images has caused the truth of these messages to be degraded and misinterpreted. Postman (1985) writes “we do not measure a culture by its output of undisguised trivialities but by what it claims as significant” (p. 16). Here Postman argues that televisions’ trivial nature