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
Discuss the theme of prejudice in 'To Kill a Mockingbird'
Discuss the theme of prejudice in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' To Kill a Mockingbird is an influential American novel written by Harper Lee which deals with the issue of prejudice as its main theme. Prejudice is the unjustifiable unfairness to a particular individual or group based on their background or lifestyle. This subject is explored in the novel in different forms; racism is the main type but prejudice of class, sex, family and age are also looked at. The social and historical milieu of the novel's release is very significant to the storyline and important in terms of world history. It was published in 1960 with a very popular response from the public. The '50s was the decade of change when civil rights in America was progressing further than ever before with Civil rights bills being discussed for the first time and demonstrations by historical figures such as Martin Luther King winning support from all over USA. It was a time when people were generally realising their mistakes and looking back at the prejudiced attitudes of white people toward black people in the 1930s and before. The novel is actually set in the early 1930s in Maycomb, Alabama when things were not so good for the black population in America. Despite the Civil War being won in 1861 by the Union (Northern states) in support of abolition of slavery, the Southern states (Confederates) refused to accept
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
In many ways the ideas in this dystopian novel are more important than the characters - with the exception of Offred and Moira. The other characters tend to function as members of groups or as representatives of certain ideological positions.
CHARACTERISATION In many ways the ideas in this dystopian novel are more important than the characters - with the exception of Offred and Moira. The other characters tend to function as members of groups or as representatives of certain ideological positions. However, as Offred insists, every individual is significant, whatever Gilead decrees, and her narrative weaves in particularities: she continually writes in other voices in sections of dialogue, in embedded stories and in remembered episodes. It is a feature of Atwood's realism, even within a fabricated futuristic world, that she pays dose attention not only to location but to people and relationships. OFFRED Offred, the main protagonist and narrator, is trapped in Gilead as a Handmaid, one of the 'two-legged wombs' valued only for her potential as a surrogate mother. Denied all her individual rights, she is known only by the patronymic Of-Fred, derived from the name of her current Commander. Most of the time she is isolated and afraid. Virtually imprisoned in the domestic spaces of the home, she is allowed out only with a shopping partner and for Handmaids' official excursions like Prayvaganzas and Salvagings. At the age of thirty-three and potentially still fertile, she is a victim of Gileadean sexist ideology which equates 'male' with power and sexual potency, and 'female' with reproduction and submission to the
Mystery and Suspense In the Harry Potter Novels.
Samantha Singer 27.10.02 MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE IN THE HARRY POTTER NOVELS Mystery and suspense play a large part in the Harry Potter novels by J. K. Rowling. The word mystery is defined as "something that is not or cannot be known, understood or explained." Words that come to mind when the word mystery is heard are: strange or unexpected, confusing, conspiracy, suspense, unbelievable and twist. All the words can be used in describing the Harry Potter novels. A mystery is like a puzzle with a piece missing or a crime unsolved. The mystery builds up using suspense, and discovering clues. It reaches its climax. Then begins to unravel and finally reaches a solution. Mystery works well with completely bizarre and weird things or characters, but works just as well, maybe even better, when humans are used. When you compile both of these ideas you are left with Harry Potter. Harry Potter is set in real places in England. Descriptions of the area resurrect the real area from the past. Areas such as Diagon Ally, Knockturn Ally and the streets of London are described. Mystery works well when so many things are familiar, such as these areas and the idea of kids buying ice creams and practical jokes while the adults went for a drink in a pub. Rowling gives guidelines in her descriptions but still allows for the reader's imagination to take over and create their own pictures.
Postcolonialism and Canada: A Readingof Margaret Atwood's Surfacing and Alias Grace
Postcolonialism and Canada : A Reading of Margaret Atwood's Surfacing and Alias Grace. Historians, literary critics, and social scientists use the idea of post colonialism to examine the ways, both subtle and obvious, in which colonization affects the colonized society. Notwithstanding different time periods, different events and different effects that they consider, all postcolonial theorists and theory admit that colonialism continues to affect the former colonies after political independence. By exposing a culture's colonial history, postcolonial theory empowers a society with the ability to value itself. The most questionable aspect of the term "postcolonial" is the prefix of the word, "post." In order for there to be a postcolonial period, colonialism must have experienced a finite end within the colony. Despite the official recognition of national independence in their countries of origin, the books we have read suggest a more pervasive, continuing colonialism, a more prolonged interaction between British and its colonized societies. Canada is one of the major countries which have been under the colonial rule for a considerable period of time. During the latter part of the twentieth century, Canadian writers have looked at the effects of colonialism on the original native population. The culture of the indigenous peoples and the oral tradition used, was for a long
Compare and contrast the ways these authors present the oppressive society of their dystopias and the effect these techniques have on the reader.
Atwood: 'The Handmaids Tale' Orwell: '1984' Compare and contrast the ways these authors present the oppressive society of their dystopias and the effect these techniques have on the reader. Both novels stimulate the reader's anxieties and fears as they explore the dystopic worlds of 'Airstrip One' and 'Gilead'. All of the aspects and issues that are portrayed in the societies are conveyed using a number of techniques such as the manipulation of the familiar and comfortable with the alien and unnerving that Airstrip One and Gilead come to represent. The basic literary techniques and depth of detail are paralleled in both of these pieces of prose and go someway in highlighting the similarity in style yet the backgrounds and eras of the authors set the texts apart and the means (characters, motifs, symbols and experience) they use to deliver the chilling messages behind the novels. '1984' is a political novel written with a purpose of warning readers about the dangers of totalitarian states and in one part says that if you want to see a picture of the future ' imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever'. It is a horrific view of the destruction of totalitarianism. Some of what Orwell prophesised came true in Russia, to some degree. In Stalinist Russia, documents were destroyed as in the 'Ministry of Truth' and there was a 'beautification' of a leader, like there is
Alienation in 'Le Vice-Consul', 'Elise ou la vraie vie', 'Pluie et vent sur Télumée-Miracle' and 'The Handmaid's Tale.'
Alienation in 'Le Vice-Consul', 'Elise ou la vraie vie', 'Pluie et vent sur Télumée-Miracle' and 'The Handmaid's Tale.' Alienation occurs as an overriding theme throughout each of these novels and is presented through the narrative voice, character, plot and setting. Alienation is described as a form of estrangement; transference of ownership; mental disorder, and the failure to recognise familiar persons or things. To be alienated or estranged from someone or something means becoming a stranger to something or somebody one was closely related to. The term alienation, as was once defined by Rousseau, started as soon as man was separated from his 'natural' condition. Alienation for Duras often signifies both disjunction and harmony, couples are most often estranged from one another in a sustained desire for the absent other. Alienation often occurs as a form of madness, as there would normally be a communion and sharing of love, although due to a breakdown in identity the notion of the isolated individual is created. As Duras' novel evolves, the shift from negative connotations of alienation to more positive meanings of disjunction and destruction is evident. In 'Le Vice-Consul' Anne-Marie Stretter appears as a central figure as the wife of the French Ambassador to Calcutta, where they have lived for seventeen years. What we learn of her is that she is Venetian, she
'The Handmaid's Tale' - Based on your reading of the text so far, what do you find interesting about the way Atwood presents the character of Offred?
Jonathan Newcombe 'The Handmaid's Tale' October 2002 Based on your reading of the text so far, what do you find interesting about the way Atwood presents the character of Offred? 'The Handmaid's Tale' is a novel written in the early 1980's by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and published in 1986. 'The Handmaid's tale' reveals an eerie dystopia that is set in our future, we learn about a society called Gilead where every law is based on manipulated extracts from the bible. As a result of the new society reading has been outlawed, women's bodies are used as instruments and education doesn't exist. 'The Handmaid's tale' combines a bleak futuristic reality, feminism and politics to create a dystopian atmosphere that draws the reader into questioning the rules of the new society and those of their own. In the opening chapter the reader is quickly introduced to a new world and to Atwood's chosen style of narration. We are introduced to novel by one of Offred's memories, a time in her past but in the reader's future. Offred and some other girls are sleeping in what used to be a school gym. As Offred describes her surroundings she suggests that something has happened to America. 'Army issue blankets, old ones that still said U.S'. Although we are not sure what has happened this heavily suggests that the U.S no longer exists. This is the first time the reader is
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