Joseph Hellers themes and narrative styles in Catch-22
Joseph Heller's themes and narrative styles in Catch-22 Introduction I decided to write my assignment about Heller's Catch-22, because I admire his narrative style and the use of irony, parody and humor in his most successful novel. Moreover, the novel takes place in a time that is still close to the present. If you look at the American literary epochs you find "Literature of the Early Republic", "Romanticism and American Renaissance", "Realism", "Naturalism", "Modernism" and at the end "Postmodernism". When you are dealing with the earlier epochs, you learn a lot about our history and important works in those times that expressed the feelings and fears of the people in those periods. Looking at the epoch of Postmodernism, it feels a bit different, because we are not talking about the "way back" past, but about the time after World War II, which ended just 64 years ago and still affects our lives now. The idea of Catch-22, the oppression of the individual by men in charge, is still present in today's society. I think it is very important to discuss works like that because we can learn from the past. The novel is not just about war, it can be seen as a metaphor for systems that make every decision end in a catastrophe. In this assignment, I will start with a bibliographic overview of Joseph Heller's life and follow up with the historical background for the novel. After
Black Feminism in Alice Walkers "The Color Purple".
BLACK FEMINISM IN Alice Walker’s The Color Purple Alice Walker is an Afro-American female writer, who was born in 1944. The Color Purple was written in 1982, won Pulitzer prize in 1983. She was born in a sharecropper’s family in the South, Georgia, U.S.A as the eighth child in Eatonton, small town with two streets only. She grew up in a world of poverty and hardship. The Walker’s white landowner said that the Walker’s children needed not to attend school and demanded of every child of the Walker’s to work in his field. But it was her mother, Minnie, who fought for the right of education for her children. Thus, the author feels that her success as an informed writer goes greatly to her mother’s devotion to education and liberation. Alice Walker was blessed with a love of learning, and upon graduating at the head of her high school class in 1961, she received a scholarship to Spelman College in nearby Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. There, at the heart of the civil rights movement, she took part in student protests against racial discrimination. After two years at Spelman, Walker transferred to Sarah Lawrence College in New York, where she developed into a highly gifted writer. Her literary reputation rose with the publication of Once (1968) followed by many other works but nothing prepared her readers for the success of The Color Purple (1982) which became a
Discuss the language of religion in Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" and James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" in relation to one another and to the various uses of language in general, taking into account the importance of this language
Discuss the language of religion in Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" and James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" in relation to one another and to the various uses of language in general, taking into account the importance of this language in an Irish context. When attempting to formulate concrete lists that define the usages of language, one of the first usages that frequently arises is 'language to inform'. Another frequently mentioned usage is 'language to persuade', and the list goes on for far longer than this besides. Along with various forms of media, as well as human speech itself, religion is no stranger to the use of language (written and spoken) to its own advantage. When combined with the 'language question', which is constantly up for discussion in Irish history, the issue becomes further convoluted. There is much to be said about how James Joyce and Frank McCourt treat these issues in their respective novels (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man [hereafter referred to as Portrait for brevity] and Angela's Ashes), even though this is by no means the principal topic of either novel. The main discussion shall centre on the language of religion and how both authors present it, but for some of the paper, the importance of the Irish language itself in a religious context shall be given due attention. In terms of language and Christian belief, one
Examining the passages below, compare and contrast the representations of the heroines choice at the end Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre.
Ashleigh-Jade BlackB9864021TMA 2 Examining the passages below, compare and contrast the representations of the heroine’s choice at the end of the novel. Discuss with reference to Jane Eyre, Volume III, Chapter XII, pp. 448–52 (from ‘Reader I married him’ to the end of the novel) and Wide Sargasso Sea, pp. 121–4 (from ‘I took the red dress down and put it against myself’ to the end of the novel). The heroine’s choice at the end of each of the novels, Wide Sargasso Sea[1] and Jane Eyre[2], are almost the complete antithesis of one another. While Jane becomes a happily married woman, seemingly finding her place in society, Antoinette become increasingly outcast, eventually leading to her imprisonment, madness and self-destruction. There are many ways that the representation of these choices can be analysed as they both rely heavily on the social conventions of the time. Each novel focuses on the idea of a strong female narrative, whose identity does not quite fit with their surroundings. Jane is an observer, struggling to find a place to belong in a society that cannot mould her into an ideal. Correa, in The Nineteenth Century Novel: Realisms, claims that Jane’s story is ‘[...] dominated by the search for a home and ‘family’ to replace those which rejected her at its outset.’[3] This could be a simple answer as to why at the end of the novel, Jane,
'Burmese Days' by George Orwell
Burmese Days by Gorge Orwell Based on Orwell’s experiences as a policeman in Burma, George Orwell's first novel presents a devastating picture of British colonial rule. It describes corruption and imperial bigotry in a society where, 'after all, natives were natives - interesting, no doubt, but finally ... an inferior people'. When Flory, a white timber merchant, befriends Indian Dr Veraswami, he defies this orthodoxy. The doctor is in danger: U Po Kyin, a corrupt magistrate, is plotting his downfall. The only thing that can save him is membership of the all-white Club, and Flory can help. Flory's life is changed further by the arrival of beautiful Elizabeth Lackersteen from Paris, who offers an escape from loneliness and the 'lie' of colonial life. For Said, controversy about the postcolonial discourse begins with the term of re-presentation which gives the Westerners upper-hand as a “genuine creator, whose life-giving power represents, animates, constitutes, the otherwise silent and dangerous space beyond familiar boundaries” .This representation is so powerful which brought the concept of the Orient, first of all in Western academics, “then Western consciousness, and later Western empire.” The effect of this representation is the creation of binary opposition of the self and other which posits the former in the privileged position that permits himself to
Gail Jones, Sixty Lights, set in Australia, India and England in the 19th Century, follows the multi-faceted life of the capricious Lucy Strange as she develops her modernistic view of light and the world,
Kane Solly ‘Memory is deceptive because it is coloured by today's events’- Albert Einstein Literature is a constantly contested and revised term coined to separate the literary world into works of superior or lasting artistic merit and the ‘other’. This elitist nature used by literary ‘scholars’ created the foundation for all the teachings and ideals of the social, cultural and political thoughts of their times. The worth of literature and the means of classification have stemmed from a culmination of varying critique, seen by the changes in phase of perspective from Modernism; valuing the ‘grand narratives of truth’; to New Criticism; the objective evaluation of the ‘text’; and Post-modernism; the movement away from the hierarchy of literature. Thematics, messages, tropes, contexts and the social, cultural and political hierarchy of the time all contribute to the literary ‘worth’ of a text. This agglomeration of features develops texts consisting of the utmost textual integrity; the flow and connection between all the facets of texts. Gail Jones, ‘Sixty Lights’, set in Australia, India and England in the 19th Century, follows the multi-faceted life of the capricious and palimpsest Lucy Strange as she develops and uncovers her modernistic view of light and the world, through the tragedies that befall her and the opportunities that arise. Jones
With reference to Judith Butler's Precarious Lives, explain how Chris Abani's novel The Virgin of Flames re-imagines global community in the contexts of violence, war and mourning.
With reference to Judith Butler's Precarious Lives, explain how Chris Abani's novel The Virgin of Flames re-imagines global community in the contexts of violence, war and mourning. Chris Abani’s novel The Virgin of Flames is a post 9/11 narrative that inadvertently experiments with Judith Butler’s concept of “reimagining the possibility of community on the basis of vulnerability and loss” (20). This is a novel encapsulated in a theme of violence, war and mourning and the four mysteries displayed to Black by the angel Gabriel operate as a catalyst of Abani’s perception of how society has unravelled and this understanding could pave the way for a more candid approach to re-organise society. These four stages represent “the subtle movements that made and unmade a life” (143) and the mysteries; the joyful, the luminous, the sorrowful and the glorious serve to represent distinctive features of Butler’s idea of a hierarchy of grief but more importantly they epitomise her concept of how community can be re-imagined. First we need to look at Butler’s hypothesis, her main proposition is that the powers of violence, war and mourning should not bring us to retaliate but should provide us with the consciousness that our lives are fundamentally reliant on others. Acknowledging our dependency and susceptibility to others would serve as the first step in the creation of
Analysing Four American Short Stories - Joyce Carol Oates: Capital Punishment (1992)
LINKÖPINGS UNIVERSITET Emelie Andersson American Short Stories HT 2012 American Short Stories ________________ Joyce Carol Oates: “Capital Punishment” (1992) . Analyze the father and daughter relationship in this story in terms of their feelings for one another. How do these feelings illustrate their differences or similarities? Fundamentally, their feelings for one another seem to be typical of that of a relationship between a child and its parent. There is deep-rooted love as well as annoyance, and an inability to see matters from a different perspective than one’s own – hence all their quarrels. When Hope was younger she looked up to her father, which eventually led to her becoming more like him as she grew older. Hope’s admiration for her father made her resemblance him not only in looks, but also in way of being. He seemed like a grown up version of a pushy bully, which made her the same in her adolescent – not only toward her peers, but also toward her own father. She commented on his table manners, pushed him around by shouting orders such as “[…] Daddy, don’t you dare!” as he tried to turn off the TV at the last paragraph on page 266, and he complied without hesitation. She is his soft spot, and I think that goes back to Mr. and Mrs. Brunty’s relationship. He is afraid that Hope will act like her mother, which
How, why, and to what effect do contemporary British fictions depict times other than the present?
How, why, and to what effect do contemporary British fictions depict times other than the present? When portraying times other than the present, writers are freed in some ways from restrictions that come with depicting their own time period. By representing the past, or indeed the future, the author is able to explore narrative styles, genres and thematic content that would have otherwise been inaccessible to them. The past and the future both offer genre options as well as stylistic and thematic content that would have otherwise been inaccessible to the authors. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn both use portrayals of alternative time periods for different effects. Why O'Flynn gives us the narrative of a little girl from 1984 and why Mitchell chooses to, amongst others, write about a charismatic composer in 1931 is what will be explored in the course of this essay. Both novels use non-linear narrative structures, with Cloud Atlas in particular displaying a complex framework. The depiction of the past in What Was Lost is used as a framing device for the main plot. The novel begins with the story of Kate Meaney in 1984 and concludes with the narrative from the past reappearing after the characters from the present have deduced what has happened to her. When compared to Cloud Atlas however, What Was Lost is a relatively simple way of
Straying from the Path
Straying from the Path Based on a short story by Angela Carter, Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves (1984) is a film that is rich in fairy tale symbolism and imagery. While in many variations of the story of Little Red Riding Hood celebrate the coming of age of a young woman, the most well known versions of the fairy tale warn young girls about the dangers of sexual maturity, and stresses the importance of obedience and conformity to a passive feminine gender role. However, Carter's feminist revision of the fairy tale challenges conventional gender roles by depicting a fearless girl who refuses to be victimized. Like the strong-minded child in Carter's short story, Rosaleen is an independent young girl who becomes an equal to the fiercest of wolves. The film presents a symbolic dream world where a girl's transition into womanhood is both beautiful and terrifying. There are many versions of Little Red Riding hood. In European oral tradition during the middle ages, the girl is going to her grandmother's house and meets a wolf or a werewolf, and each of them takes a different path to the house. The wolf arrives first, devours the grandmother, waits in disguise for the girl, and offers the girl her grandmother's flesh and blood to eat and drink. Then the girl strips off her clothes, throws them into the fire, and joins the wolf in bed. After a ritual exchange about body parts