World literature assignment
TWorld Literature Assignment Subject: English A HL Date: September 16, 2009 Word Count: Women of Power A major effect of Western Colonialism all over the world was the role of women changing. Women started to stand up for their rights. More and more women wanted to get jobs, make money, have voting rights, and stand up to the more dominant figures. The two 'books I have read are 'Midaq Alley' by Naguib Mahfouz and 'This Earth of Mankind' by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Both of these books have one major similarity; Western Colonialism. As that is too vast a topic, this essay if focused on the main female characters of both these books and their desire for power and authority. I will be discussing how the two main women of these books have different perspectives of having authority and how they achieve it. Midaq Alley is about the residents of one alley in Cairo, Egypt. It is a very descriptive novel and each chapter is concise. Each chapter tells us about one of the inhabitants of the alley and soon how each is connected to one another. One of the main female characters in this book is Hamida. She is very beautiful and she knows it. She uses her beauty to make herself more confident. Hamida can be said to be provocative in a way as she intentionally uses her body and good looks to get attention. Hamida is very proud of whom she is, and she feels that she is too good for Midaq
Sympathy, in the case of Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and Tracks by Erhlich, the authors effectively uses the motif of isolation, characterization, and plot chronology to evoke sympathy for Oryx and Fleur facing society's injustice.
A common criticism of poor literature is that it fails to evoke in the reader an emotional understanding for the protagonist's struggles. In effect, the reader reads through countless pages of bland writing that doesn't incite them to feel sympathy for the characters. However, in the case of Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and Tracks by Erhlich, the authors effectively uses the motif of isolation, characterization, and plot chronology to evoke sympathy for Oryx and Fleur facing society's injustice. Firstly, the motif of isolation of Oryx, is one way that Atwood evokes sympathy. By separating Oryx from her family, Atwood severs the emotional bonds that bond Oryx to her mother. The mother who is commonly regarded as the safe haven for the helpless child, symbolizes love. When Oryx was taken away from her mother, it is as if she no longer has someone to love her. Furthermore, when Oryx is separated from her brother, her emotional ties with her family are again severed, this time absolutely. The progressing isolation of Oryx from her family causes the reader to notice the vulnerability and mental trauma that effects Oryx during her life with Mr. En. Mr. En forces her to strip, flirt, and succumb to pedophiles so that he can catch them in the act, and blackmail the pedophile into giving Mr. En all his money. Her dependence on someone who uses her mainly for profit is disgusting
Points of View
Points of View In Lucinda Roy's poem, "Points of View", the speaker in the poem is connects women of different times and places through the imagery and symbolism of water. She refers to developed and undeveloped worlds through different points of view whilst connecting these worlds with the same theme of water. Roy emphasises these differences by using a third person woman who travels long distances and is presented with a daily challenge in order to obtain water, then to a first person point of view of a woman who does not appreciate the easy way of life that she has as she readily has water at her disposal. Roy uses this technique of different points of view to highlight the importance of water along with the contrast of the modernized to the non-modernized world. In the first stanza, the poet tells of a woman in search for water. There is an emphasis on the appreciation for water, 'offer it to men or to their children, to their elders, to blistered cooking-pots.' The women offer the water around as it is an essential key to their lives which they hold in high value. This is also conveying the fact that water is needed in their everyday life and is something in which they rely upon to survive. 'Women bend to rivers', is highlighting the effort and toil that women must go through in their world to obtain this essential part of life. This daily journey to obtain water has
The ghost's speech in Hamlet
Hamlet: Extract 3. The extract commences with the usage of a caesura which reinforces the lack of time that the ghost of Hamlet has to spare till day breaks. The ghost then begins to use an anecdote, where offstage action is brought on stage. The ghost speaks of his "custom" of sleeping in the orchard during the afternoon; the word "custom" highlights the manipulative and conniving nature of Claudius. This manipulative brother "stole" which refers to the sin of theft; this is also an attribution to the Ten Commandments listed in the bible, which quoted "Thou shall not steal". Claudius stole Hamlet's life with "cursed" hebenon, which was noted to be potent when it mixes with the blood stream, and causes the blood to curdle. The ghost of Hamlet then uses the metaphor of describing the ears as a porch which is the natural extrusion of the body. The "leperous distilment" refers to the "cursed hebenon" which curdles blood, and leperous is an apt adjective as it describes the effect of the poisonous liquid. The effect is described as "enmity" with the blood of man, as if personifying the liquid as abhorrent to human blood. Hebenon's rapid action is compared to the swiftness of quicksilver or mercury as the metaphor of "the natural gates and alleys of the body" is used to makes the comparison effective as it effectively curdles blood. The theme of redundancy is brought out again, by
The View of Gender through Setting and Language In Boys and Girls by Alice Munro
Howard Wang Mr. O Hagen IB English 20 May 28th, 2010 The View of Gender through Setting and Language In "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro In the short story "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro the view of gender is very important. Even the Title "Boys and Girls" greatly suggests that the story has something to do with gender. In the story "Boys and Girls" Munro uses the setting and figurative language to make the unnamed narrator appear to be a boy in the beginning. The different views on gender in the story are also achieved through contrasting diction and figurative language. Eventually this leads to the shocking climax when the unnamed narrator is revealed to be a girl. And in the narrator's progression from the role of a male into the role of a female and by the different views of gender by the characters Munro displays the unfairness of gender stereotypes. In "Boys and Girls" the story begins with a description of the setting. The narrator tells how her father was a fox farmer, killed foxes and skinned them to sell to the Hudson's Bay Company. It is through the detailed descriptions of the setting through the narrator's perspective that leads to the early assumption that she is a boy. In the first paragraph the narrator says "These companies supplied us with heroic calendars to hang, against a background of cold blue sky and black pine forests and treacherous northern
In Elie Wiesels Night, Elies attitude towards religion changes drastically from one strongly believing in God to one believing God is non-existent.
Conner Jauch Per.4 Losing your Faith Imagine drastically being in a situation where familiar people are killed just for by being part of a certain religion. In this situation, the greater power is not helping at all. The greater power failure to help the situation caused the greater power to change its image to be dreadful. Would not that cause one to lose faith in a greater power? In Elie Wiesel's Night, Elie's attitude towards religion changes drastically from one strongly believing in God to one believing God is non-existent. This indicates that inhumane treatment directed towards an individual causes a loss of faith and a greater power, similar to that of slavery in America a time when whites degraded blacks. In the beginning of Elie's journey, Elie has absolute Faith in God. He starts as a free kid to being in the horrible concentration camps. Elie's faith says that God has excellence and spirit in everything; therefore the world should be spiritually admirable. In the beginning of his journey Elie always looks to God in times of need. In the times of needs when things are going bad he just prays to God "To find the strength to ask him the real questions" (5). He accepts God and trusts him to help him find himself. Elie believes in God so strongly the questions he asks give him strength to guide his life for the best. He wants God to lead him in life. Before Elie
In the Glass Menagerie, the main characters in the play seem as if they are living their worlds vicariously. Each seems to try and avoid reality and try to flee from actuality in their lives.
Literary Analysis for the Glass Menagerie In the Glass Menagerie, the main characters in the play seem as if they are living their worlds vicariously. Each seems to try and avoid reality and try to flee from actuality in their lives. In doing so, each impinge on their peers lives, and in essence ruin and tear down their own lives. In the Glass Menagerie, Tom, Amanda, and Laura retreat to their own worlds to escape the harsh reality of life, which affects their own lives and the lives of their loved ones. In Tom's life, he is fed up with his life, including his job, his peers, and his family. He is constantly being harassed by his mother and feels like she is deliberately beleaguering him. Tom feels stressed and wants a new life of adventure and feels like he needs to escape and move on to higher things. Tom escapes this reality by going onto the movies constantly. This is a place where chaos is extinguished and he can enjoy his life free from anxiety. Amanda says, "Where are you going? The movies? I don't believe that lie! That's why you act like this...nobody goes to the movies as much as you do..." (Williams 27). The fire escape is also used by Tom to get out of his troubles by smoking. Tom's pressure may affect his judgment, thus affecting his attitude and relationship with his family. This is especially true with his mother, Amanda, who has a turbulent
Analysis of short stories A Rose for Emily and A House of Flesh
Analysis of short stories "A Rose for Emily" and "A House of Flesh" Quazi Mohammad Faisal "A Rose for Emily" and "A House of Flesh" - these two are two contrasting short stories written by two different writers from two different times. "A Rose for Emily" is written by William Faulkner (published in 1931) and the plot is set in an American city during the later part of the 19th and earlier part of the 20th century. On the other hand, "A House of Flesh" is written by famous Egyptian writer Yussef Idriss where the plot is set in Egypt during the latter half of the 20th century. Though the contexts of both stories are entirely different, some elements are there that shares some similarity. Like, the protagonists of both the stories are socially stranded and all the events of the stories take place in their houses which is surrounded by mystery. "A Rose for Emily" is the story of Emily Grierson, a black woman living in Faulkner's fictional city, Jefferson, Mississippi in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha County. She lives in a once-elegant, upscale neighborhood where her house has become a topic of curiosity for the dwellers of the city. She uses to live a recluse life and barely interact with the neighbors or other people from society. It appears that psychologically she is disturbed and incidents like her denial about her father's death bear the testimony of that. She
An Analysis of John Updike's "Pigeon Feathers"
An Analysis of John Updike's "Pigeon Feathers" Change is always constant throughout an individuals life. In the Updike's short story "Pigeon Feathers", we see a lot of change in an character named David. Change seems to be a constant theme throughout the story, such as a change of setting, change of faith and change of perspective on the world. David is a young man that is being constantly shaped by the outer world. David's authority figures are an important aspect in his life, however this all changes when David reads farther into Christianity. The words like "God" or "Heaven" lose meaning to him and the very foundation of his world are shaken. David changes his perspective on the world and then he as an individual changes. This change, at first, is a negative transition. The confusion he had about unanswerable questions in Christianity converted to anger. Eventually, he started directing it at the ones that were trying to help him. An individual needs to accept his/her surroundings to get closure on the current situation. This is what David does to finally fight the confusion and doubt that he was having. We are introduced to young David when he first moves to his mother's birthplace at a farm. At the start of the story, there is a description of a couch. This description reflects David's current feelings while fiving us insight on who David is. We get a peek into David's
The two writers, Chinua Achebe and Arthur Miller, have done a great job in describing the main characters in their novels, Things fall apart and Death of a salesman. Although their behaviour might seem quite different from each other, especial
How similar and different are the two charachters "Willy Loman" and "Okonkwo"? Introduction The two writers, Chinua Achebe and Arthur Miller, have done a great job in describing the main characters in their novels, "Things fall apart" and "Death of a salesman". Although their behaviour might seem quite different from each other, especially considering that they live in two different ages and places, Okonkwo and Willy have a lot in common. Their behaviour towards their families, their life and their achievements are done in different ways but yet, there are some aspects which are shared by both of them. Okonkwo Okonkwo is an African man living in a small village in Nigeria. He lives in his "obi" with his three wives and his numerous children. He is a very hard working man who had to build his way through society starting with nothing. The reason for this was his father Unoka, a very lazy man who did anything apart from caring about his family and his career. Okonkwo is really admired by all the villagers, in fact he is one of the leading figures of the clan. Since he did not share a happy time during his childhood, Okonkwo grew up violent and aggressive. This type of personality got stronger and stronger to the point that he has always tried to use violence in order to solve any matter. He is aggressive mainly with his son Nwoye. Okonkwo does it because he feels that his