One of the salient topics of Butler's essay is the concept of identity formation and the subversive politics therein. She begins with an assessment of the creation of non-self-initiated identity, an action that places meaning onto people that naturally could not exist. Butler uses the example of police action to illustrate the interpolative nature of addressing via the notion of "the reprimand", In essence, we are witnessing the linguistic creation of identity. The subject did not exist before the address; it was the act of addressing that created their new status. To put it simply, they are a subject because they are a subject.…
For example, the mechanical hound and Mildred’s “family” are commonplace creatures, even though they have no essence of humanity. However, due to widespread censorship, the lack of humanity has spread like a disease to infect humans as well. When Mildred and Montag are discussing a tragic case of suicide, Mildred shows her inhumanity when she says, “She’s nothing to me; she shouldn’t have had books. It was her responsibility, she should’ve thought of that. I hate her. She’s got you going and next thing you know we’ll be out, no house, no job, nothing” (Bradbury 48). Censorship has muted the feelings – compassion, sympathy, empathy – that humans are supposed to feel for one another. This sentiment is echoed by Mrs. Phelps who describes her marriage as nothing more than an acquaintanceship: “Anyway, Pete and I always said, no tears, nothing like that. It’s our third marriage each and we’re independent. Be independent, we always said. He said, if I get killed off, you just go right ahead and don’t cry, but get married again, and don’t think of me” (Bradbury 91). Because censorship has stripped people of their emotions and humanity, they cannot even know what it means to be devoted to someone and to care when they have…
Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper analyzing the tension between the individual and the environment in one or more of the works of American literature assigned for Wee...…
Through looking at the texts we have studied in this essay, I would argue that the concept of sensibility was purposefully adopted to emphasise the feelings that slaves encountered, and thus, to establish a personal, emotive response from the reader with the aim that society would take action to alleviate the pain that they can connect with. Sentimentalism was used in order to determine a connection between the author and reader that would draw upon the emotions of slaves, showing that they are not in fact a lesser race incapable of human feelings, but on the contrary, equal of maintaining such emotions. This would leave a question hanging over British society during the time, of whether it was justifiable to treat people as such. It can also be argued that to an extent, the use of sentimentalism succeeded in highlighting the conditions tolerated in slavery, and was effective in driving society to take action. It would be interesting to see therefore, exactly how much personal feelings and the technique of sensibility featured in the emancipation of slavery, which came about 63 years after the death of…
Florida Studio Theatre’s production of Butler by Richard Strand is witty, full of word play, and all too relevant. As a country embroiled in conversation around race, immigration, identity, and at the core of it all who has the right to humanity, this question is posed to us once again as with this play. Butler embodies both the past and present while presenting a unique opportunity to learn from it and change our future.…
And yet, being a problem is a strange experience,—peculiar even for one who has never been anything else, save perhaps in babyhood and in Europe. It is in the early days of rollicking boyhood that the revelation first burst upon one, all in a day, as it were. I remember well when the shadow swept across me. I was a little thing, away up in the hills of New England, where the dark Housatonic winds between Hoosac and Taghanic to the sea. In a wee wooden schoolhouse, something put it into the boys' and girls' heads to buy gorgeous visiting-cards—ten cents a package—and exchange. The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card,—refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil. I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows. That sky was bluest when I could beat my mates at examination-time, or beat them at a foot-race, or even beat their stringy heads. Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the world I longed for, and all its dazzling…
You may probably have or hear from someone's experience of going through the long and annoying procedure of security check in the airport before starting your journey. After the 911 attacked, the US airports have introduced strict and complex security measures. Since then, grumbling has been widespread along with the concerned of individual's privacy. Although it is reasonable that the T.S.A (Transportation Security Administration )considers the safety of a country is the top priority, I might wonder who could approach these passengers to fight for their privacy. In this research study, I will point out some invasion of privacy issues in U.S which related to the aviation security as well as the possible concerning problems.…
Sentimentality is the subject of Theodore Dalrymple’s newly-published Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality, which looks at how this poisonous emotion has taken hold of society.…
Jamil, S. Selina. "Emotions in the Story of an Hour." Explicator 67.3 (2009): 215-220. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 27 Feb. 2011.…
The first fatal step of understanding human nature is a self-conscious probing that ends in confusion. The story of My Kinsmen, Major Molineux presents the youthful character of Robin on his way from the country to the town of Boston. He wishes to succeed within the community, and figures that it will not be difficult because of…
The material of our investigation are the selected novels of John Anthony Burgess Wilson (27), Harper Lee (20), Jerome David Salinger (23), John Robert Fowles (28), Winston Groom (30) and the comparison of these novels with an example of the traditional author’s narrative in the novels of John Galsworthy (29).…
The fragment of emotive prose, which has been chosen for stylistic analysis is one of the numerous stories, belonged to a prominent English novelist – L. P. Hartley “W.S.”…
In Britain, the butler was originally a middle-ranking member of the staff of a grand household. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the butler gradually became the senior, usually male, member of a household's staff in the very grandest households. However, there was sometimes a steward who ran the outside estate and financial affairs, rather than just the household, and who was senior to the butler in social status into the 19th century. Butlers used to always be attired in a special uniform, distinct from the livery of junior servants, but today a butler is more likely to wear a business suit or business casual clothing and appear in uniform only on special occasions.…
Virginia Woolf turns to confront one of the more morose and insidious aspects of modernity in her novel Mrs. Dalloway. She explores the tragedy that is otherwise overlooked in the discussions of modernity- the tragedy of the human psychology. Amidst all the galore of mankind’s inevitable march forwards, what often gets overlooked is the element of the human. In dealing with broad movements and rapid change, we lack a proper examination of the human condition. And this is precisely the aspect of modernity that Woolf zooms in on and enlarges, throwing fresh perspective on the modern era. Her novel delves deep into the mind of her characters to isolate the voices that are otherwise lost. And perhaps one of the more intriguing voices she finds in the mind of modern man is the voice of denial. This is the central issue that this essay will explore. On first glance, it may seem like Woolf is critiquing denial as an extension of modernity’s tragedy. It may seem like denial is endemic of her cast of characters- and is never too far behind the most tragic figures in the novel. Yet this would be a simplistic look, indeed it would miss the point Woolf was trying to evoke. This paper will argue that Woolf used denial as one a means of resisting tragedy. It is the spark that denies tragedy its full due and provides resilience to the hearts of those who embrace it. In doing so, it embodies a spirit of hope- hope that tragedy itself can be denied if one holds onto denial assiduously.…
"His style is of the plain and simple kind; free of all affectation, and all superfluity; perspicuous, manly and pure."…