When Europe finally emerged out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, Europeans despised everything about the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages, queens and kings were decided by “divine power” which opposes the notion of rulership in Machiavelli’s The Prince. Erasmus, another key player in the Renaissance, once stated, “Men are made, not born” which totally contradicts the idea of divine power. Another new idea Machiavelli developed in The Prince that goes against Middle age thought was to use soldiers that one possesses in their state, instead of using mercenaries or auxiliary soldiers. In the Renaissance, the humility of the Middle Ages was completely thrown out, only to be replaced with people wearing extravagant clothing and consuming themselves in their image.
Orwell warns the modern era of an impending government control that will suffocate society’s freedom through a defined class system, perpetual warfare and a society with suppressed thoughts and emotions. The division of classes must be avoided to prevent loss of freedom. As shown in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, a troubled society with governmental separation of classes results in demeaning and unfair circumstances for its citizens. A defined class system inlays many freedom robbing rights that a person should have. Because of a permanent hierarchy of status and occupation, it is impossible for a lower class member to move up in society.
He epitomizes himself as a coward, frightened by the societies rejection; he follows cultural standards rather than abiding by his own. Orwell comprehends that he has contradicted his principles merely to avoid discernment from the natives. Correspondingly, In “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America,” Barbara Ehrenreich, masks her “real life” to pursue the life of ones financially less fortunate. Ehrenreich is a middle-class journalist who disguises herself with the intention to appear as a low-class woman to conduct an experiment; yet, the mask gradually begins to become her reality. Orwell illustrates his true identity by using internal oscillation illuminating his natural morals, but ignoring and substituting them for those of the arbitrating community, soon realizing he has become overpowered by his mask.
In "Fashionable Anti-Amercanism," Dominic Hilton considers the villainous identity America has taken on by foreign countries. He discusses whether these countries are legitimately angry, or if they have a Freudian complex involving the fear to look look at themselves cynically and discontinue the blame towards America. There is strong focus on anti-Americanism being seen as fashionable and uneducated. Hilton questions whether it would matter what America did, because the discrimination would most likely continue. He uses examples, and quotes to demonstrate the irony of foreigners lack of condolence towards America.
The American peoples’ complacency towards the world and the monopoly on force their power controls over them is appalling to anyone versed in history enough to remember the rise of National Socialism or Bolshevism. Their anti-intellectual attitudes are evidenced throughout popular (notably teenage) culture; they mock the sacred, worship the profane, distance themselves from politics and philosophies but enshrine mindless anti-reason so prevalent in the form of
Wilde: Flaunting Societal Flaws with Literary Device The Importance of Being Earnest is a product of the “sober and dutiful earnestness” that (Tosh 12) commanded the times coupled with the author's palpable disdain for the same. Like his main characters Jack/Ernest Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, Oscar Wilde relies heavily on a purposeful duality; as an effective mechanism of humor, he stands the societal mores of the day on end, while the subtext beneath the comedy, fluff and wit, fingers the despicable hypocrisy of Victorian Society that ultimately brought Wilde to personal ruin (Grill 7). Wilde's writing reflects his own philosophies, namely his devotion to art above truth, and his highly prized individualism (Gale 1201). He himself has described The Importance of Being Earnest as "about characters who trivialize serious matters and solemnize trivial matters,” the very epitome of Victorian manners (Mitchell 262). Along this vein, Wilde calls on an arsenal of literary devices with which he reproaches a puerile Victorian society for holding ideals absent of sincerity, it's use of marriage as the currency of social status, and for maintaining the class divide.
Dickens shows the disasters of the failed Gradgrind philosophy with the use of foreshadowing, reoccurring themes, pathetic fallacy, symbolism along with the actions and outcomes of the characters being affected. He shows us warning signs which lead to the main progression of the novel when the main culprit of the educations system, Gradgrind, is forced to realize that it is inhumane to rule out love and imagination. Utilitarianism is a belief that actions are right if they are useful or for the benefit of a majority. Utilitarian thinkers threaten to replace ideas of morality with statistically based explanations. The education system where “little vessels” are “ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them” is the product of a system that claims that people should act only according to their self-interest.
Orson Welles presents his audience with an unabridged and brutal reality; the inevitable falsity of The American Dream and its incompatibility with man’s inherent lust for fiscal dominance at the cost of emotional depravity. Citizen Kane, the film’s protagonist and doppelganger for the infamous William Randolph Hearst, is an archetypal victim of such a reality; a character who audiences of all origins and social standings can identify with. Kane demonstrates that such an aspiration merely leads to a life void of humanism and interpersonal connection; portrayed most aptly through
These abrupt, declarative statements demonstrate her utter contempt for Stanley. While this syntax reveals Blanche’s distaste for Stanley, it also brings out a conflict in the old society versus the new society. One of the main reasons for Blanche’s anger is the fact that Stanley does not fit into her old societal standards, he is not a gentleman, he is neither good nor wholesome, and yet he seems to be ruling over Stella and the new society. It is Stanley’s demeanor in a new society that has Blanche speaking in an
The Real Face of the American Dream “The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision of the dream.”- Azar Nafisi. People are striving to achieve the American Dream, but they seem to be more drawn to money and success rather than values and morals, and by doing so they miss the main idea of the American Dream. The author of the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, is challenges the readers to examine how the American Dream was portrayed in the 1920s and he express the negative aspect of the American Dream through the characters’ lives. The author demonstrates it by showing the wrong perception of the American Dream in this time period, by the illusion that the Buchanan's have the American Dream and by the bad impacts the American Dream has on the characters’ lives. The novel The Great Gatsby demonstrates the wrong idea people in the 1920s had on the American Dream.