Preview

Martyn Pig

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1247 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Martyn Pig
How does Kevin brooks portray power relations in at least 4 key scenes in the novel Martyn Pig.

Power relationships play a key role in the book Martyn Pig by Kevin Brooks. Power is a term given when a person has control over the other person and a relationship is a term given when there’s a accepting between two people, when put together we can understand that the term ‘power relations’ is when a character in this book uses power to control a relationship. Martyn Pig in an eleven year old whose life isn’t really the best at the time and it’s about to get worse as it takes an unforeseen twist after an accident that takes place which will leave young Martyn to lead a life full of deception, disloyalty and doubtfulness on a daily basis. I will be focusing on how Martyn’s power is being fluctuated throughout the book as he confronts various characters whom of which have different relationships with Martyn. The four scenes I will be analysing the ‘Bottle Bank’ scene, the killing scene, the first confrontation between Dean and Martyn, the second confrontation between Dean and Martyn and finally the scene where Alex the Assassin gets exposed.
The Bottle bank scene illustrates William Pig’s power which outlines his superiority over Martyn’s vulnerability. In this scene we can that Martyn “was in the kitchen filling a plastic bin liner with empty bottles” this shows that although Martyn’s father is shown to have the power, it is Martyn the eleven year old kid that is looking after his father a grown man when it should be the other way. This makes the reader feel disheartened but this gives Martyn a sense of mental power; the reason why William Pig isn’t in control of Martyn the way he should be is because the alcohol intake is taking control of him which makes him lose his physical stature which is why “Dad was leaning against the doorway, smoking a cigarette, watching me through his bloodshot eyes” Bloodshot eyes gives a indication to the audience that this a result of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Power can change people in a way that is incomprehensible either for good or for evil. Power can make one so greedy that someone will do anything for it and won’t let anyone, or thing stand in their way. Macbeth by William Shakespeare portrays both the positive and negative uses on Power through the main characters. Macbeth’s greed of power allowed him to exercise abuse and ultimately he was corrupted and destroyed by power. Lady Macbeth used power in a positive way but her ultimate goal was domination of the Crown. Shakespeare uses dialogue and symbolism to allow his readers to engage with his mood and therefore the concepts of power.…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lord Of The Flies Power

    • 1990 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The society has the same as we do today but these were just children and they were alone on an island with no adults. At first they try to stay civilized with a good leader who emphasized law and order,such as the government does today, but the boys quickly turned into savages by adapting to what young children usually value. They valued to what they thought would keep them alive on the island. The boys chose to follow the strongest and most courageous boy who would keep them safe from “the beast” of the island. At first the traits these boys respected was leadership, morality, and order, but as fear set in these children valued the strong boys who would keep them safe. Although the valued traits changed, the ones that were dishonored remained the same and were expressed through Piggy. He was described as weak, quiet, and emotional. In patriarchal societies these characteristics are most often associated with women but in “Lord of The Flies” the patriarchy is better expressed through a paradox in this novel- the boys in Jack’s village hunted the only female thing on the island which was a pig. The boys found pleasure in killing and penetrating the sow with their spears. The pig or sow is female and piggy is the nickname of the boy who would be described as feminine in a patriarchal society. When the beast became a real threat to the boys they went to Jack- the strongest warrior. He came to power by manipulating the younger boys to fear the beast that he himself knew was probably pretend. William…

    • 1990 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Power is the control over one’s self or another person or thing. In the poem “Adam and Eve” by Tony Hoagland a man and woman strived mentally for power over each other. Instead of having the happy and loving relationship that couples are “thought” to have, at the first sign of disagreement these two instantly worked against each other to have a personal gain of their own. In this poem the speaker, Adam, and the woman, who is assumed to be Eve, struggle for power over one another to make themselves superior to one another. They use their reactions and emotions against each other to steal and regain power.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through ‘The Tragedy of King Lear’, Shakespeare represents a distinctive voice in which influences the way we perceive the role of power play in our world as it broadens our understanding of the universality and complexity of power play. Compared with the 21st century film ‘Brassed Off’, we are presented with an insight into the various means of attaining power and its ability to uncover the true nature of people within their struggle for supremacy and control. Shakespeare presents 'The Tragedy of King Lear' as the struggle for power and the political and filial machinations that the desire for power can create. Shakespeare focuses the distinctive voice around the central character King Lear who represents a conceited oppressor whose fall from power prompts the downfall of the Kingdom that he once controlled. The main cause of his demise is his failure to understand and possess a clear vision of the people around him. In Lear's eyes, he sees his eldest daughter Goneril’s facade to be a loyal and true expression, 'Sir I love you more than word can wield the matter/Dearer than eyesight, space and liberty', although Lear's inability to see the truth results in his manipulation and the banishing of his loyal acquaintances; his youngest daughter Cordelia and his dear friend Kent. Although Lear can physically see, it is the understanding, awareness and direction that he lacks and is blind to. In contrast to Lear being physically capable of seeing, Gloucester becomes physically blind but gains the form of vision that Lear lacks, and consequently Gloucester evades a corollary comparable to Lear's. Here Shakespeare presents his distinctive voice on power play through the depiction of the manipulation and motivation behind the characters struggle for sovereignty. His clever use of his characters and their relationships allows us to gain an insight into the condition of the human psyche throughout their individual attempts at power and highlights the complexities associated…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Power is defined as the possession of control or command over people and events. In Shakespeare’s play ‘King Richard III’, the centrality of power is communicated through characters and their pursuit for power while in ‘Looking for Richard’, Al Pacino’s docudrama exploring Richard as a character, his struggle for power is portrayed as well as Pacino’s struggle as he produces the film. Both texts accept the centrality of power by using it as a significant plot driver and assumed part of the human condition. The two texts, however, present different concepts about the nature of power through the techniques used for different audiences, influenced by the contexts in which the texts are composed.…

    • 2201 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Intellectual power is often rendered powerless against physical superiority as represented by Jack and his followers. Piggy, a symbol of Intellectual power in the allegoric novel ‘Lord of the Flies,’ is often outspoken when with the rest of the company due to his physically powerless state. Throughout the novel, Piggy’s “specs,” a representation of his intellectual power, are often stolen by Jack whom Piggy admits as a “stronger” person. With Piggy having trouble to safeguard his only valuable source of power, the specs – and therefore the fire, highlights Piggy’s powerlessness against Jack’s more forceful nature. During the assemblies, Piggy’s metaphorical voice, embodied by the conch, is always being smothered by other stronger members of the island who tell him to “shut up”. Unlike Jack who “nobody minded” to speaking “against the rules”, Piggy is only able to reply with polite placid comments such as “they ought to be quiet”; this shows Piggy’s beliefs in fairness, and as a result, his voice is often forcibly overridden by others. With the valuable commodity of fire so easily obtained by Jack and his “tribe,” as well as Piggy’s loss of voice against other authorities, it leads me to believe that physical power is far more superior to the more peaceful intellectual authority…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The themes of control, power, and sense of self permeate this novel. Through the development of the character Joe, Ms. Hurston emphasizes these themes. Joe feels the need to dominate and exert his power on those around him, fulfilling his desires, but alienating him from his wife…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Piggy, Lord of the Flies

    • 1243 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, a bunch of boys get stranded on an island. They came in contact with many unique elements that symbolize ideas or concepts. Through the use of symbols such as the beast, the pig’s head, and even Piggy’s specs, William Golding demonstrates that humans, when they’re liberated from society’s rules, allow their natural capacity for evil to dominate their existence. It’s very beautiful to see how creative authors, like Golding, can just make an object mean something very important – opposite of its usual meaning, like the conch was a symbol for order.…

    • 1243 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rye Rough Draft

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Prompt: One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seek to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses their power struggles to enhance the meaning of the work. (2005 Form B)…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout the ages, abuse of power has been occurring all over the world. Abuse of power is when, a person or the people who hold the power are not taking responsibility and mistreating it. These themes are represented in many Novels, poetry, drama and films. The novel Animal Farm and the film Erin Brockovich are two texts which explore these timeless themes. This assignment will compare and contrast how power has been abused and the effects of the abuse of power occur in both the book and the film. Both novel and film are base of real live events.…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Power is a great story line for many novels throughout the ages. Also power is a horrible life guide that many people live with throughout their lives. Within the novels One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Wuthering Heights, it is easy to recognize different cases of power and how power hungry individuals work. Nurse Ratched, featured in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, is a power obsessed middle-aged nurse who is the head of a mental institute and thrives off of the power she creates over the residents at the facility. Another version of power would be one of creating fear and a longing for revenge. In the novel Wuthering Heights, a, once orphan boy named Heathcliff fell in love with a young lady, which betrayed her and left him. He then felt compelled to…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Piggy’s murder was also a result of an innate evil inside Roger brought forth due to a lack of order within Jack’s tribe. Roger’s character, as any reader of this novel knows, is someone who enjoys hurting others. He is a “bigun” who…

    • 884 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Lord of the Flies, William Golding creates a literary experiment in which he places a group of boys onto an island to see how they interact with each other over a duration of time. One of these boys is Piggy, a wise and rationale ‘bigun’ that has ‘ass-mar’. Piggy suffers from a lack of athleticism and ability to stand-up for himself. His combination of mental acuity, corpulence and timidity earns him the animosity of Jack. Jack identifies Piggy’s weakness and utilises his natural ability to get what he wants. Throughout the section, Jack and Piggy’s conflict develops into a theme and real world lesson: physically adept people use their abilities to gain what they desire.…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many of its characters represent important ideas or themes. For example, Jack represents unbridled savagery and the desire for power and Roger represents brutality and bloodlust at their most extreme. Although all the boys on the island are in the same situation, they enjoy mocking Piggy because he is physically inferior. In many cases this appears in bullying. There are examples such as, “’You’re taking too much,’ said Jack Merridew. ‘Shut up, Fatty.’ Laughter arose. ‘He’s not Fatty,’ cried Ralph, ‘his real name’s Piggy!’… a storm of laughter arose…” and “’His specs – use them as burning glasses!’ Piggy was surrounded before he could back away. ‘Here – let me go!’… ‘My specs!’ howled Piggy. ‘Give me my specs!’” In both these instances, the boys took advantage of his physical disadvantage due to his asthma and mocking him for his body image because it’s considered an abnormality. This type of evil was committed to increase the boys own self image and confidence. Placing Piggy below themselves made them feel superior giving them a sense of…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………3 The Tool of Power……………………………………………………………………………………………….4 Power as a Means………………………………………………………………………………………………..6 Corruption and End……………………………………………………………………………………………..9 Connexions to Other Plays and Themes……………………………………………………………………11 What Could Have Been………………………………………………………………………………………….13 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………14 Resources………………………………………………………………………………………………………….15 Introduction Power is strange. Power is a display of strength, and of weakness. Power is a display of hardiness, and of delicacy. Power is a display of purity, and of corruption. Power is a powerful tool to wield in hard times as well. As shown in the text of Macbeth written by William Shakespeare, the lust for power is dangerous. Shakespeare has shown indeed, as said by George Orwell in his novel 1984, that “the object of power, is power.” In a series of events organized in acts and scenes, Shakespeare explains a problem in his society and in the current global society. He shows that, as brilliantly explained by Lord John Acton in one of his letters: “All power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (p.xi) The theme of power in Macbeth is most certainly the central theme of the entire plot, and all the other themes revolve around it, such as supernaturalism. The Weird Sisters tell Macbeth of his invincibility from their summons of apparitions, as in Act 4, Scene 1, lines 95-97, “Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.” This gives Macbeth even more power, in the psychological and physical sense. The purpose of this essay is to try to understand the theme of power in Macbeth. Although the theme of power is a very broad theme when discussed in general this essay contains the methods and the tools to help understand this broad theme and to make the theme itself be understood generally so that when encountered…

    • 5452 Words
    • 1 Page
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics