"How is the theme of 'universal indifference' portrayed in The Outsider and Candide"?
Kirby Kruger "How is the theme of 'universal indifference' portrayed in The Outsider and Candide"? Albert Camus's thought-provoking story of The Outsider and Voltaire's whimsical satire Candide both question faith and mankind's tendency to explain away events through the mystical nature of spirituality. Both authors seem to consider the idea of evil as part of a Divine Plan, or as an ultimate cause of good, as weak, and on the whole, unsatisfactory. They respond differently to this, though; Camus rejects religion completely, while Voltaire approaches the notion more cautiously by mocking mankind's fickle justifications for evil and blind faith. The first section of The Outsider almost seems irrelevant to the philosophical climax that dramatically completes Meursault's simple character. Through the striking contrast of the initial structure and fallaciously predictable content of the earlier sections, Camus delivers the message unexpectedly and dramatically. As a first-person narrative, the reader expects to finish the book with Meursault sincerely narrating his unremarkable life as he grows accustomed to jail; yet the change of setting does not really bring upon any renewed interest. Instead, the subtle introduction of the Patrician, whose irrational and blatantly irritable beliefs eventually annoy Meursault to the point of an philosophical outburst, whereby he declares
"Inconceivable" by Ben Elton - book review.
Contents Introduction.................................................2 About the Author.........................................3 Author's Works...........................................4 "Inconceivable"............................................5 * Synopsis.................................................................6 * Review................................................................6-7 * Extracts............................................................8-10 Introduction I have chosen to read the book "Inconceivable" by Ben Elton. As I do not read books a lot I did not have any real idea what or who I wanted to do this project on when it was first set. I decided that I would prefer to read a humorous book instead of a normal fiction story book which I may easily get bored of after a while. I did not have any authors in mind when I decided I wanted to read a comedic book, so I decided to go to a bookshop and look at a few books to see what I might like to read. I found books by Ben Elton and decided to look at a few of them because I had known that Ben Elton is a good stand-up comedian, so his books would probably be quite an interesting read. I read a bit of several of the books and thought that "Inconceivable" would be a good one to read purely because of the name of the book, the illustration on the front cover and the quotes from people and
Snowdrops (short story) analysis
What happens in Snowdrops? This story is important as much for what we do not learn directly as for the surface narrative. The story appears to be about a boy and his day at school. He goes to a primary school in Wales - in a town that seems like the author's hometown of Merthyr. Apart from a few very specific details that tell us this, the town could be almost anywhere. His teacher has promised the class that they can go outside to look at the snowdrops that are now coming up. While the children are looking at the snowdrops, they can see a funeral procession passing the school. The boys' parents have spoken earlier about a young man, killed in a motorbike accident, and it is his funeral. Evidently the teacher knows this, for she stands watching and crying. The story that Leslie Norris does not tell directly, but tells indirectly by hints and clues, is about the love between the young man who has died and the teacher, Miss Webster. The themes of this story The title of the story suggests one of its themes - of course it is about snowdrops literally. But for the reader and for the children in the narrative, snowdrops symbolize the renewal of life that comes in the spring, or perhaps eternal life beyond the grave for those who have died. We also see, in the contrast of the adult conversation and the viewpoint of the child the idea of childhood and growing up. There may be
"The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter - With close reference to one of the tales, discuss how Carter draws upon and subverts conventions of the fairy tale
"The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter "With close reference to one of the tales, discuss how Carter draws upon and subverts conventions of the fairy tale" Usually fairy tales are told to children to teach them a moral lesson in life or as is mostly the case, help them tell the difference between good and bad. Angela Carter is someone known to take elements from fairy tales and turn them into well written, exciting, compelling complex dramas of a Gothic nature filled with sexual innuendo, a combination of different narrations (mainly first and third), strong heroic female characters and the evil villain - the male. "The Bloody Chamber" is a modern interpretation of the "Blue Beard" (character below) fairy tale which uses this very formula to create an exciting and dramatic story. In a nutshell both stories are about young women (in their late teens, on the verge of turning into womanhood) who marry a wealthy man and leave a life of modesty behind them. The young women are given a set of keys which allows them to explore every room in the house - except one (the 'bloody' chamber) , if that room is entered, dire consequences shall follow (death). Naturally the young women ignore the advice of their intimidating, menacing and much older husbands to enter the room and fall into the trap set up for them and like every disobedient child, they MUST be punished. With reading the
"The Catcher In The Rye" is a novel that has always attracted controversy.
"The Catcher In The Rye" is a novel that has always attracted controversy. When J.D. Salinger's novel, "The Catcher In The Rye" was first published in 1951, it caused a storm in both the literary world, due to its unusual content and style, and the American social scene. In a list of the most controversial books ever written, it is claimed that, "this immediate best seller almost simultaneously became a popular target of censorship" (1) and that it was banned due to its "profanity, reference to suicide, vulgarity, disrespect, and anti-Christian sentiments" (1) . The main aspects of this novel which make it controversial are; the language and style Salinger chooses to use, the comment he makes on 1950's capitalist America, Holden's state of mental health, Holden's opinions on sexuality and treatment of women, his relationships with children and his portrayal as a Christ-like figure. Many of these issues are still controversial today and more recent events, such as the assassination of John Lennon in 1980 by a man carrying a copy of the novel and wearing the red hunting hat that Holden talks about in the book, have only served to attract further controversy to "The Catcher In The Rye". It is still a controversial novel containing issues and language that still offend. The language Salinger uses in the novel is immediately recognised as controversial, even in today's society
A Brave New World Summary
Brave New World Précis The novel begins at the Central London Hatching and Conditioning Center, where the Director of the human production plant and his assistant, Henry Foster, are giving a group of male students a tour of the center. The boys take notes as the Director explains how the plant produces as many identical human clones as possible. The Delta, Gamma and Epsilon, three classes of people, are conditioned to love their surroundings, but are deprived of oxygen to make them less intelligent than the other two classes, Alpha and Beta. A worker at the plant, Lenina Crowne, describes how she must give antibiotics and hormones to certain children produced. The students are ushered through the training and conditioning of the infants in the nursery of the plant. Delta babies are conditioned to hate books and flowers, while Beta babies undergo sleep lessons. The Director then takes the students to a play area for young children, where they engage in "erotic play." The students are taught about history, and are shocked by the restrictions on sex in the past. Soon, Mustapa Mond, one of the World Leaders, tells them that history is unimportant and that in the past, which was full of morals and love, humans were insecure and could not function properly. Lenina upsets her friend, Fanny, by telling her she has been having a relationship with Henry Foster. She also
Remind yourself of the passage in 'Neighbors' from 'In the morning he had Arlene call in for him...' to the end of the story. Discuss the significance of this to the story as a whole.
Remind yourself of the passage in 'Neighbors' from 'In the morning he had Arlene call in for him...' to the end of the story. Discuss the significance of this to the story as a whole. In the course of your answer: * Look closely at the effects of the writing; * Comment on how this passage relates to the test's methods and concerns This extract is placed after Bill's second visit to the Stone's apartment. Carver's view on women is very interesting in Short Cuts. The way that Bill gets Arlene to "call in for him" in the morning suggests that women are there to serve men or are somehow below men. This theme is carried out throughout the book in many different situations. Bill "[tries] to start a book" which shows how obsessed he has become with the Stone's apartment. At first it seems as though Bill is merely a voyeur in their vacated house, but this quote suggests that he has in fact lost interest in his own life. He goes out for a walk and "[feels] better", somehow, by getting out of his own house he has felt better. What has he felt better from? Has his own home caused him discomfort, maybe he feels that he cannot live his own life anymore without feeling that it is somehow incomplete and the Stone's vacated home is needed to fill this gap. Bill enters the Stone's apartment "He [sees] everything", when the cat appears he "[strokes] her twice and [carries] her into the
Violence in A Clockwork Orange
Violence in A Clockwork Orange Remind yourself of Chapter 2 of Part II of A Clockwork Orange. (i) How does Burgess present violence in this chapter? This chapter is unusually short; it is probably the shortest in the book. And yet the violence that takes place in the chapter is extremely graphic. It seems more intense because it is concentrated in two ways: firstly, it is limited by the more obvious confines of the prison cell walls; but secondly, it is confined in a metaphorical sense within the "walls" of a very small chapter. Therefore one would expect the chapter to be weak. But instead Burgess manages to cram every shocking image into a small space, concentrating the violence into one large, disturbing image. Scenes are described such as "the Wall fisted his rot" and "a horrorshow kick on the gulliver". These are nothing special when compared to some of the actions of the previous chapters. But what makes the entire scene stick in the reader's mind is how complete the description of it is. Added to the images are the descriptions of sounds, such as "oh oh oh " and "the new plenny creeched". Furthermore is the vivid and widespread use of the colour red: there are the usual copious amounts of "dripping red krovvy"; and the entire scene is cast in an ominous blood-like glow from the "red light from the landing", which almost sounds like a filming technique, even though
A prequel to 'Of Mice and Men' - Drawn together.
Drawn together Dawn had barely passed when the playful sounds of laughing and splashing filled the air by a small river in Auburn. The sun streaked heavily through the crispy remains of the last leaves in autumn. It was just cold enough to see your breath floating away in front of you like a tiny silver cloud. The sudden sound of a loud shout encouraged many resting birds to fling them selves noisily from the huge birch trees; causing a shower of autumn leaves to rain upon two fifteen year old boys. "Hey, hey George, I caught one George, I got one of these here lil' fish!" "That's great Lennie, just put um' in the bag." "Okay George I will, I'll put um' right in the bag, and we can take um' home to your ma' and my aunt Clara." With that the tall, broad fifteen year old boy plunged himself towards the sunken river bank, where an old brown shoulder bag lay; half empty with glistening autumn salmon flopping every few seconds as they slowly dried up. On the other side of the river there was another boy of about the same age. He was much smaller than Lennie but average for his age. He had dark features and was sprawled slovenly across a blue and red woollen rug with an aimed slingshot in his dirty hands; ready to shoot a small pebble at the other boy, Lennie. He slowly pulled back the elastic trigger and followed Lennie with one eye closed. He let the elastic go and watched
Critical Analysis of Soldier's Home
Kevin Davis English 12 CP Mrs. Connie Newcomb March 25, 2002 Critical Analysis of Soldier's Home Ernest Hemingway uses his life as a setting in his short story "Soldier's Home". Although this is not considered an autobiography, it certainly contains some relevance to Hemingway's life and can be interpreted many ways. "Soldier's Home" is a story about a young man, Harold Krebs, who returns home from World War 1 in a time in which the country was to "return to normalcy." His relationship with his family is increasingly deteriorates, he cannot adapt to the changes that have taken place in his community, and he cannot leave the tragic events of the war behind him. Hemingway grew up in very much the same way, and when a writer can write about his/her personal experiences, the emotions and creativity are expressed vividly. In "Soldier's Home," Hemingway creates an emotional, somewhat autobiographical look at a young soldier returning to society from war. Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1899 into an upper-middle class family. His childhood was not traumatic, but as he grew older, his hostility towards his father and mother increased. He saw his father as a "weak and ineffectual" (#87) man, and his mother as "strict and domineering" (#87). He entered World War 1 as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in Italy at the beginning of the United States'
