The Emmy winning show portrays a day in the life of the employees of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. Constantly bothered by a crude and often offensive boss named Michael Scott, the staff members portray the same struggles we face, in an often brutally honest form. For instance, to deal with the insecurities caused by racial difference, Michael holds a meeting called “Diversity Day”. Forced to bring light to the stereotypes that our society has formed, the employees were told to test each other’s boundaries, and ultimately were afraid to do so. This is a relatively relatable feeling.
The audience learns as much as is known by Art Spiegelman of Vladek’s story, while still strongly emphasizing a major subplot of Vladek’s relationship with people in the modern day. This unusual writing style proves to confuse the audience when panels change between the past and present, but allows us to see a greater amount of flaws in Vladek. It feels real. He is human and imperfect, which is shown in his distasteful relationship with his son and wife. All in all, both styles
Rebelling Down The Produce Aisle In “A Supermarket in California” by Allen Ginsberg, the poet describes a fictitious encounter between himself and the poets Walt Whitman and García Lorca in a California supermarket. Widely known for his outspoken views against sexual oppression, Ginsberg uses an everyday setting of a grocery store to illustrate the inequality which exists between people with different sexual orientations and the effect it has on them. Ginsberg, a homosexual, first introduces Whitman when he is strolling to the supermarket to satisfy his hunger pains. Whitman, one of the most influential poets in American literature, was known for his controversial work and he was thought to be either homosexual or bisexual (Selby 126). Ginsberg tells with excitement about the husbands, wives and babies who are shopping together as families.
Huck is widely influenced by Miss Watson and widow Douglas by acting in a more civilized manner. He is also influenced by his father who has an affect on him to act like a hoodlum once again. Jim, the slave, has the most important effect on Huckleberry Finn by indirectly teaching him about loyalty regardless if its breaking a law. The king and the Duke also have an impact on him by showing him the lack of morals. Towards the end of the story Huckleberry's friend Tom Sawyer begins to have an impact on the way he acts in his society at the time.
Penalties like these ultimately lead to a deteriorating quality of life for all. Performances in dancing, music, and news reporting are adversely affected. Those people with the fewest imposed handicaps share the pain equally in this well-monitored society. Through “Harrison Bergeron”, Mr. Vonnegut offers an interpretation of his vision of a growing American socialist movement which creates an oppressive environment and promotes mediocrity. The handicap apparatus that some people carry is a metaphor for the disproportionate tax code, welfare, or set-aside programs found in the U.S. today.
Chia Kang is a representation of the Nationalist party. The character of Chia Kang is introduced to the reader through the conversation regarding the city and its welfare. He then mocks Joy, and treats her harshly by pushing her aside(70). Joy is mentally challenged, yet Chia Kang enjoys this mockery because “ There is nothing else to do, there are soldiers and refugees everywhere”. He feels oppressed which leads to his cruel decision to mock Joy.
They achieve this equality by using handicaps to set everyone to the same level of abilities, such as beauty, strength, and special abilities. Vonnegut uses “Harrison Bergeron” to teach the lesson that all people are not equal, but rather, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses to contribute. Vonnegut uses tone, symbolism, and imagery to show the reader how full equality is not only impossible but also that it is an idea that is not worth striving for as it is unnecessary and possibly even harmful to society. In the year 2081, Vonnegut’s story reveals a futuristic dystopia where society has been forced into full “equality” by the government. The citizens are forced to use government assigned handicaps, so that they do not have any special gifts that are beyond the “average person,” which happens to be an absurdly low standard.
In Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club and David Fincher’s film adaptation both address the negative effects of society. Society has rules and norms that men and women have to abide by, and if they do not attain or obey theses norms, it causes a person to feel incomplete or imperfect. Terry Lee even states in his article entitled, “Virtual Violence in Fight Club: This Is What Transformation of Masculine Ego Feels Like,” stated that “[m]en cannot possibly meet the expectations, [and] fulfill all of the various and often contradictory roles: they can fulfill some of the culture’s expectations for masculinity, but never all of them,” (418-19). With Jack, the narrator, and Tyler Durden and their creation of Project Mayhem, Fight Club addresses the fact that the norms and expectations that society created are sometimes contradictory and impossible to attain. In the novel, as well as the film, Fight Club was no longer enough for the narrator, or Jack in the movie; thus the creation of Project Mayhem.
“A&P” Short Essay The short story “A&P” by John Updike describes the life of a growing teenage boy who has raging hormone levels leading him in the wrong direction. Because of his foolish thoughts and assuming that being a rebel would stand out as a “hero” to the ladies, he was proven otherwise. John Updike’s descriptively sexual short story, “A&P,” utilizes the effective use of descriptive details to assert the settings importance to the story. In the short story of “A&P” the author uses the personalities of the characters and environment of the grocery store to give the reader a clear understanding of what stimulates Sammy as well as making him quit his job at the grocery store. Updike describes the store to be sort of a dull and appalling scenery with his descriptions of “under the fluorescent lights, against all those stacked pack-ages, with her feet paddling along naked over our checkerboard green-and-cream-rubber-tile floor.” This quote gives an effective description of the store which makes the setting sound dull; however, the girl in the bathing suits descriptions overlaps the dull setting of the grocery store which makes the girl seem so much more attractive.
An Obsession With Perfection The journey that Okonkwo takes in the novel goes from hero to villain. This downward journey is caused by many factors. The character Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart is obsessed with proving his masculinity, often by beating his wives and son. Okonkwo’s flaws lead to misery for himself, when he is unable to realize not every action must be a vigorous one. His family suffers when he takes his anger out on them for the simplest things just to prove he is a man.