Louis Adamic, “A Slovenian Boy Remembers Tales of the Golden Country, 1909” in Major Problems in American History, edited by Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman and Jon Gjerde, 72. 2007. Originally published in Laughing in the Jungle.
V. Bourhill Tutorial time: 2:15 607b1795 Tutor: Richard Marshall 09 April 2008 Seminar 2: The Myth of the “Okies” The Grapes of Wrath written by John Steinbeck represents the Dust Bowl and Great Depression era and all the pain and suffering that came with it. Keith Winschuttle in his article The Myth of the Okies sets out to dismiss Steinbeck’s book as a reliable source of history but rather as a novel that captures people’s feelings instead of the true nature of the events. Winschuttle points out Steinbeck’s inaccuracies that deem the novel unreliable. These inaccuracies are discussed below. The tragedy and hardships experienced by the Joad’s were felt by a minority of migrants to California.
Through an accumulation of violent images, ‘slashed’, ‘smashed’, ‘terror’ and ‘slugging’, the lack of justice and ethicality through power exploitation is exemplified. Whilst Steinbeck depicts injustice in his contextual society due to the abuse of stature, Salles similarly presents this issue through the Chilean
The book focuses on white American myths because Keim feels they are the most dominant, negative, and in need of change. Keim’s argument is that through the media, magazines, newspapers, and children’s books, stereotypes and inventions about Africa are seared into the minds of Americans.
A form of civil disobedience that both individuals and a group of rogues practice, reading appears as a subversive act capable of undermining the social order. Thus, for those who fight the totalitarian government seek the healing of the nations and an end to oppression and mass ignorance. Rather than bear arms, they bear books. As a work much like Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience/' which calls for blatant challenging of the status quo, Fahrenheit 451 challenges the institutions that encompass our lives and demonstrates literature's ability to cultivate human autonomy. Criticism of Bradbury's works, specifically Fahrenheit 451 can easily be divided into two categories: criticism of the work as literature and criticism of the work as science fiction.
Zora Neale Hurston’s world view was that of a cynical tirade that would sweep the nation’s shortcomings for lack of diversity, and openness to growth. With such vivid and depict voices in her book Their Eyes Were Watching God Hurston tackles life’s most intriguing problems of isolation, society, culture, religion, and sex. Their Eyes Were Watching God is most often celebrated for Hurston’s unique use of language, particularly her mastery of rural Southern black dialect. Throughout the novel, she utilizes an interesting narrative structure, splitting the presentation of the story between high literary narration and idiomatic discourse. The long passages of discourse celebrate the culturally rich voices of Janie’s world; these characters
Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird and The Hunger Games we see societies, oppressed by their relative institutions, which hold them captive. While the society within Maycomb County oppresses the rights and liberties of the outcasts from society, the Capitol oppresses the individuals and society of Panem. Changing rights and freedoms of individuals through the institution has the ability to grant individuals liberty while oppressing the freedoms of
Boldly described as a “fateful event in the history of fiction” (Watt: 365), Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness delves into Imperialism in the 1890s, loosely based on his experiences travelling through the Congo into the ‘heart’ of Africa. This essay will explore Ian Watt’s essay ‘Impressionism and Symbolism in Heart of Darkness’ in relation to the veracity of his definitions of impressionism and symbolism, and his application of the definitions to the text. It will compare these with other understandings of impression and symbolism, and against Conrad’s own opinions of the writing techniques. In Watt’s assessment of the nature of Heart of Darkness, he uses the establishment of the narrative frame to dissect the novella’s plot, and provide the grounds from which to begin his critical essay. The act of placing the ‘story within a story’ is categorised by Watt to be a symbolic act, and the content of the ‘inner kernel’ of the story displays impressionistic elements (350).
Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe, published an essay entitled, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”, making the claim that Joseph Conrad did not earn a place in the Western literary canon due to his blatant racist views and discrimination towards African history and culture. Achebe believes that Heart of Darkness, “set[s] Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe's own state of spiritual grace will be manifest” (Achebe). Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness portrays racist views of the African culture, as seen through the descriptions of Africa, the African slaves, and Marlow’s views of the Africans. Heart of Darkness starts off on the Thames River, with Marlow recalling his journey to the Congo at a much younger age. Conrad describes the Thames as he states, “The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day, after
Conflict also brings out a sense of foreshadowing throughout both stories. In The Sacrificial Egg Chinua Achebe presents the conflict between an African civilization called Igbo and Westernization, specifically Europeans. The story focuses on Katipo, a god of smallpox, ravaging the people of Umuru as seen from the emptiness of the market named Nkwo and the story main character Julius Obi as he indirectly experiences the effects of the evil god. Being of African descent Achebe believes that no African writer can betray his heritage. As the story progresses the effects of the Europeans coming into contact with the Igbo people unfolds as it is seen from the prosperous Nkwo market, the fear imposed by Kitikpa, and the emptiness Julius experiences.