This development in Charlie's personality is ironic since his ambition in the beginning of the story is to get enough mental prowess to be included in the same community that he distances himself from when he criticizes the average human as being limited and slow. Mr Keyes draws a unfortunate parallel between intelligence and arrogance turning Charlie into a elitist snob without much compassion for the people around him. His mental awakening is constantly portrayed as being at the expense of others. In my opinion this draws on the cliché of the book smart know-it-all. There is no attempt to try to explain why Charlie loses his good natured care for those around him other than that he can expose those who have been insincere to him.
We could also infer from this that Lord Illingworth is trying to shape or teach his son to become a version of himself, he behaves very vicariously. Throughout the play Wilde uses Lord Illingworth as a tool to provoke carious reactions from the audience. The first of these can be said to be admiration of his unsurpassable wit and popularity. However these tones of appreciation soon begin to sour and turn to notions of repulse. I feel Wilde did this to express how easily people can lose their highly regarded reputation; this is the social message throughout the play as Lord Illingworth becomes ‘a man of no importance’.
But his adoration of the younger generation is seen clearly. Holden’s relationships are often not lasting due to Holden’s personality towards society and others, those that he is trying to build a relationship with are not able to see why Holden is the way he is. This is best seen through the biographical/historical lens because along with Holden’s personality toward the older generation and his generation, his viewpoint changes as it comes to the younger generation. This change in personality towards the younger generation reflects the life style of the 1950’s and how everyone wanted to go back and run away from reality. Holden is convinced that society is full of “phonies” and nothing else, that all people have a side in which they should not be proud of, expect the younger generation, whom are completely innocent.
The author incorporates all sorts of humor to somewhat ease the tension of revealing his life; the readers may get a real sense of self-representation while reading. He realizes his peculiar behaviors lead him to an outcast; nevertheless, he does not know what is causing him to act like that. Even his parents, his teachers are unaware of it. Additionally, he could not understand why he was the one getting laughed at his odd behaviors; even though, he tried to figure out it, “I was damned if I could find it (Sedaris, p361),” but he still “had to do these things because nothing was worse than the anguish of not doing them (Sedaris, p361).” At Sedaris first-hand account shows the audiences his struggles of disease that strange and socially
Gene’s inability to trust is a representative of Gene and Finny’s failed relationship. Finny, being the great friend that he is, is always trying to get Gene to enjoy himself. Gene, however, believes Phineas is secretly jealous of him, and is trying to use sabotage as a way to make them equal in the race for valedictorian. Later in the novel, Gene realizes Finny is genuine in his desire to help Gene, not hurt him and guiltily thinks, “And I thought we were competitors! It was so ludicrous I wanted to cry.” (Knowles 66) In addition, after Finny’s fall, Gene tells no one about what he has done.
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest : Humour as a tool of subversion” Submitted by : Tracy Jose “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Humour as a tool of subversion” “I think McMurphy knew better than we did that our tough looks were all show, because he still wasn’t able to get a real laugh out of anybody. Maybe he couldn’t understand why we weren’t able to laugh yet, but he knew you can’t really be strong until you see a funny side to things. In fact, he worked so hard at pointing out the funny side of things that I was wondering a little if maybe he was blind to the other side, if maybe he wasn’t able to see what it was that parched laughter deep inside your stomach” (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1962) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, set in the late 1950s, is seen as an important part of counter culture literature. Like the youngsters of the period who rebelled against conformity, the inmates of this mental institution at Oregon challenge Nurse Ratched who personifies the power and control exhibited by the government and businesses. The protagonist and narrator of the novel, Bromden, undergoes a metamorphosis, as it were, under McMurphy’s regime.
Man also searches for a reason above and beyond that of living, that is why there is such a thing as transcendentalism. They (men) are never satisfied with what they have even when it comes to knowledge. In our culture, as in the past man is a greedy hoarding fool, who wastes brain space by watching Tv, and entertaining himself with what ever creations he has recently made. So know thyself has essentially become "make thyself," for some at least. This isn't a bad thing, but man forgets the first question is important to ask while he goes along, causing some to come to banal answers to things like the meaning of life, "God," "ego", "nil."
The first Helmholtz Watson is one of them. He does not like the utopia, because when he was created they made him too smart. This makes Helmholtz want more then the utopian society can provide for him, resulting in him exploring his boundaries. Helmholtz wants to see what else there is in the world, because he will never truly be satisfied with his current state. He wants to see what it is like outside of his utopian society.
The loved jock is someone who likes to fight first and ask questions later because after the rise of romanticism, you were a coward if you did not fight (Nugent 34-35). The nerd however cannot fight, which forces them to think of alternative solutions to their problems; and “contemplativeness and powerlessness can easily be linked” (Jones 44). Because thinking and logical problem solving is a common trait of the nerd, they are also characterized as someone who is academically able. They are pictured as someone who is pictured as that cold, unemotional machine that I mentioned earlier. Society fails to realize that everyone can be emotional but not everyone can be smart.
I mean think about it how would you react if some bum on the street was filling you kids head with nonsensical ideas contrary to the ones your are trying to instill in them. Not only does it make the kid question life but it makes them question tradition and second guess their parents. Socrates state in the apology “But far more dangerous are the others, who began when you were children, and took possession of your minds with their falsehoods, telling of one Socrates, a wise man, who speculated about the heaven above, and searched into the earth beneath, and made the worse appear the better cause” I find it hard to take this seriously because Socrates complains about how the people in the court room have been told from childhood stories about how bad Socrates is, and that he doesn’t