Gattaca, 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 essay "A blueprint, a mirror, a warning or simply fanciful entertainment" what is the purpose of utopia and dystopia texts you have studied. Utopias and Dystopias are alternate societies created to serve as a platform to highlight the values associated with the contexts of their respective times. While they may be antonymous concepts, utopias and dystopias are ultimately a critique of the events of a certain time or the attitudes and values of a society, thus such a text offers a vision of how cultural values have changed through the process of appropriation as a result of the changing connects that shape these texts. This is illustrative in the text 1984 a novel by George Orwell published in 1949, Andrew Niccols 1997 Gattaca film and Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury, the novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and firemen burn any house that contains them. Through a variety of literary and visual techniques, all texts concurrently present themes of technology and physiological manipulation revealing the disgusting homogeneity of a superficial utopia.
A clear similarity to Marx’s alienation and Durkhiem’s anomie is that they both critically describe states of social order from utopian standards. However one of the most notable differences between the two theories is that whilst they describe very similar behaviour and discontents, though from different perspectives, they look at different causes and different solutions. It must however be understood that these classical definitions/theories of anomie and alienation are different from contemporary definitions. In fact it can be argued that time and sociologists have changed or ‘obscured’ the classical meanings of alienation and anomie
These two theories therefore characteristically contrast with one another. However, this essay will also argue that there is an underlying commonality that can be viewed. The first contrast studied in this essay will be the way in which both theories view the effects of colonialism on the developing world, based upon their epistemological stance. Argentina’s president Nestor Kirchner once noted at a summit that “In reference to Neo-liberalism… ‘US policy not only generated misery and poverty but also a great social tragedy that added to institutional instability in the region, provoking the fall of democratically led governments’.”(Gibbs, 2006, pg.275).This demonstrates the split in opinion between the neo-liberal, US influencers of modernisation theory and the post colonial, Latin-American and western influencers of dependency theory. It will be argued that this contrast in the two theories is the most important.
The riveting, razor-sharp debut novel explores with wit and insight the realities of these two India – “…Men with Big Bellies, and Men with Small Bellies” - and reveals what happens when the inhabitants of one collude and then collide with those of the other. It demolishes the idea of India's claim to be truly democratic, even-handedly prosperous and corruption-free. It sheds the spotlight on the power dynamics of class and caste and corruption in modern 'shining India', thus exposing India as a sordidly hierarchical country that is almost unique in its disregard for human dignity. The novel can
Willy Russell’s Educating Rita place a key importance on class and culture and the clash of the two, with the two characters of the play contrasting their supposed class and culture. Educating Rita was set in the 1980s, a time where Thatcherism had taken over Britain, grasping many industrialised areas of Britain, and therefore it could be argued that Russell was attempting to render the importance of education within this era. In this essay, I will be focusing on how class and culture clashes in Educating Rita with the two main characters, Frank and Rita. In the opening act, Rita’s cultural references are comically differentiated from Frank’s. An example of this would be when Frank asked Rita whether she knew a poet called Yeats, in which she replied “The wine lodge?” As Rita attempts to enter Frank’s office, the door is bolted closed, stuck, and this could act as an extended metaphor for the barrier to education between the two classes, with Rita fighting to gain the simple thing that Frank takes for granted, sitting carelessly with no worries.
The concept of a classless society has been elaborated by Karl Marx, the father of Marxist philosophy which is the basis of the Communist ideology. As a member of a contemporary society under a democracy, my beliefs are rooted on a society made up of different classes. In order to get to a higher class of society, one has to work with sweat, and even blood. This idea has caused many revolutions because some who do not want the present structure of society want it to be restructured to suit the need of every individual. This essay is an attempt to discuss a classless society and to establish whether a classless society is attainable and sustainable in this century.
This essay aims to construct the notion of ‘popular’ in popular culture through an analysis of the different perspectives of Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin on popular culture. Adorno and Benjamin are both members of the Frankfurt School of sociological thought, although Benjamin was only marginally involved. Frankfurt members: “Marxist in general intellectual orientation, but they differ from standard Marxists in de-emphasizing the economic base and its role in determining consciousness and showing how ideology and culture can have a causal, and a shaping role.” They are the main source of the Critical Theory, which criticized capitalism based on their experiences of being forced by the totalitarian fascist party to leave their homes, and the abusive misuse of popular culture as propaganda. An example is the film “The triumph of the Will” which promoted Nazi ideology. Critical theory was based on the idea that people should pursue greater autonomy and self-definition, through the knowledge that steps beyond the obstacles and mystification that prevent individuals to accurately perceive their situation and reality.
He clarifies it is dictator on the grounds that it is a mix of topics of conventional Toryism, for example, obligation, power, principles, along with country, with the forceful subjects of neo-progressivism, for example, aggressiveness, independence, and hostile to statism. He guarantees it is additionally populism because it prepared populist advances in opposition to high pay charges, wellbeing advantage dependents, along with deprived community administrations as though they were 'the foe of the general population' following the collapse of Keynesian political financial system. He observes this like a hegemonic venture – intentional, rational social building began by means of the economy, and then proceeded onward to other old foundations set up by the post-war
‘’Now as through this world I ramble, I see lots of funny men, some rob you with a six gun, and some with a fountain pen’’. (Woody Guthrie ‘Pretty Boy Floyd’) Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) was a German philosopher, historian, political theorist, sociologist and a communist. Marx argued that capitalism would inevitably produce internal tensions would lead to its destruction. Marx argued that the laws were generally codified means by which one class, the rulers, kept another class, which would keep us in check. But, Karl Marx did not write at length about crime.
Although he is indicated as the “amazing” Mr. Kurtz, readers find out at the end that Mr. Kurtz was the one with the dark heart. “Heart of Darkness” does not reveal its meaning in digestible morsels, like the kernel of a nut. Rather, its meanings evade the interpreter; they are larger than the story itself. (Yale.edu-modernism research) “Heart of Darkness” is about savagery, racism, slavery, harshness. The story is an exploration of the difference between the savagery and civilization, and the colonialism and the racism which makes the imperialism possible.