Preview

Social Misfit In A Literary Analysis

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
224 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Social Misfit In A Literary Analysis
The significance of literature serves as a gateway to learn about the past and expand knowledge and understanding of the world. Literature holds the power to expand minds by raising questions such as: “what are the goals of this work? Why is it relevant today? What is its purpose?” The answer to these questions and others similar to them exist in a gray world where answers are just as unique as a fingerprint. But some minds might not open to thoroughly experience the wide world that is beyond them. Generally defined, the term social misfit refers to someone who does not in--an outcast. Social misfit is applied in regards to people who either do not fit in but try to do so; or, towards someone who does fit in with society on purpose. In A Confederacy

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Social Realism is a “[t]erm used to refer to the work of painters, printmakers, photographers and film makers who draw attention to the everyday conditions of the working classes and the poor, and who are critical of the social structures that maintain these conditions,” . Although it is most commonly associated with America during the early decades of the 20th century, Social Realism had been circling the Eastern Hemisphere long before then. The Industrial Revolution stirred up a concern for the common people in many artists, such as Sir Luke Fildes. In his work, “The Village Wedding,” Fildes depicts what can be assumed to be the end of a festive wedding. The bride, looking bashfully…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “We live in a time where there’s an alienation factor. there’s a certain disconnection. we don't have any real sense of community anymore”(Ball). Similarly, Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451, this society in the future is disconnected with one another. In the society where firemen burn books, Montag is a firemen who believes books might reconnect society again.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    When one’s social roles are not valued or accepted by society, alienation is generally the solution. Whether one chooses to make oneself distant from society, or one is forced to be isolated, the emotional damage and effects are the same. In life, and in literature, one’s emotions are emphasized by how one is treated by society. Society has the power to decide whether one becomes rejected or welcomed. The Puritan society in the 16th century was a group of people who were very judgmental and forced isolation upon many citizens who may have committed some type of “sin”. The great American novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne, exemplifies the Puritan religion in his novel The Scarlet Letter.…

    • 1946 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    1984 And Syme Comparison

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Being excluded in today’s society is one of the hardest things people can endure. In high school, hearing that one of your friends is having a get together without you can cause you great fear and distress. When events of this nature happen more often, people start to gain this fear of missing out, and it sometimes can cause people to become depressed. It is said that today, “some kids are pushed into a social ‘no man’s land’ by the exclusionary efforts of their peers. This isolation is itself a problem, as its victims can easily become disconnected from the moderating forces of mainstream society” (1). The same way that outcasts are pushed into a social “no man’s land” is the same way that Syme was pushed out by his peers and seen as a possible heretic. The social exclusion of outcasts in 1984 is very similar to the way outcasts are excluded and “socially vaporized” by teens…

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One thing that has been put in place for a long time is the fact that communication between groups of people is considered “odd.” Socializing is not encouraged and is often frowned upon. Clarisse, a teenage girl that does not follow the “rules” of the community, mentioned that, “‘...my mother and father and uncle sitting around, talking. It’s like being a pedestrian, only rarer’” (9). Not following such societal norms can also lead to consequences, including getting arrested for being a pedestrian or getting your house burned down because you own books. Being different can also lead to death, as we see in Clarisse’s case. She refuses to change the way she acts for the society and as a result she has to face the consequences, and as the text states, “‘The poor girl is better off dead’” (60). The community highly discourages people to think for themselves and be unique. This causes people to be afraid of breaking the norms.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The novel, A Lesson before Dying, was written by Ernest J. Gaines in 1993. Gaines was born on the River Lake plantation in Louisiana, where he was raised by his aunt, Miss Augusteen Jefferson. Racism was prevalent shown by the whites-only libraries in Louisiana. After 15 years of living in Louisiana, Gaines moved to California, although he states Louisiana never left him. California had libraries available for the blacks also. In California, he lived with his mother and which inspired him to the point of writing about six novels and scores of short stories. In 1953, Gaines was drafted into the Army, and he later went on to study creative writing at Stanford University. While in the library, Gaines…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever felt like a social outcast? As times change different things are seen as acceptable and other things are seen as bad. But most of the time society does not change for good. A lot of people around us struggle in fitting it with other people. A big part of the change is also in society.…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The 1920s have long been remembered as the "Roaring Twenties," an important historical and unique era of time. As a soaring stock market minted millionaires by the thousands, young Americans in the nation 's biggest cities rejected traditional social mores by embracing a modern urban culture of freedom, drinking illegally in speakeasies, dancing provocatively, and “Letting the Good Times Roll,” a popular and fitting phrase for this time period. For the first time, more Americans lived in cities than on farms. The nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929, and this economic growth “swept many Americans into an affluent but unfamiliar ‘consumer society’” (Jonathan). People from coast to coast bought the same consumer goods, listened to the same music, did the same dances and even used the same slang. Along with the fun and new times, came the serious crime. During the 1920s, some freedoms were expanded while others were limited. The 18th Amendment, “The Volstead Act”, banned the manufacture and sale of “intoxicating liquors,” which closed every tavern, bar and saloon in the United States. From then on, it was illegal to sell any intoxication beverages with more than 0.5% alcohol. This drove to organized crime due to people creating illegal speakeasies instead of ordinary bars. These underground bars were controlled by bootleggers, racketeers and other organized-crime figures such as Chicago gangster Al Capone. The 1920’s were filled with fun, conformity, and crime (The Roaring). Most young people in America wanted to be apart of the new modern culture, and for this reason, America was completely transformed. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald exhibits the many conflicts of the 1920’s in Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway by showing how their character flaws are enhanced and created due to the Modern Eastern Society.…

    • 2211 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Outcast, outsiders, and misfits are members that are different from a group of people. They are put separate from others and abandoned to be on their own. Misfits are the greatest cause of abandonment and bullying. Because someone is different, they are seen through different eyes and discriminated against. Many times misfits are forced over the edge of good judgment and make poor decisions that cause others to see misfits as “weird” or “strange.” This puts them into stereotypes in which they can never climb out. In the short story “A Good Man is hard to Find,” the Character of the Misfit is a mentally insane human that was forced into a life of killing in which he does not think of the killings as evil.…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout fiction and human history, many people have befriended and allied with others to advocate a certain idea. While some groups remain small and simple, other groups consist of extremely passionate members with substantial beliefs for their group. For instance, many novels emphasize the vehemence people hold for their interests, and modern society reveals how far people fight for their beliefs. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies illustrates that all humans naturally affiliate with others to satisfy their place in society, which often leads to deindividuation and harm to bystanders, even if they refuse to acknowledge their mistakes. Moreover, many communities still succumb to mob mentality in order to assimilate into society today.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Deviance on Television

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages

    There are two major sociological terms demonstrated on Secret Life of the American Teenager. The first term is deviance, a behavior, trait, or belief that departs from a norm, is projected through these four characters. Amy Juergens is a fifteen year old “good girl” in high school who plays the French horn and wants to someday attend Juilliard. At summer band camp, prior to starting her freshman year, Amy…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Conformity and People

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages

    To remain a unique and novel individual within a society that is pressuring uniformity and homogeny is a feat that only the most determined individuals can attain but which is worth of all people’s attention. “The Sociology of Leopard Man” by Logan Feyes asserts that pressure to conform can lead to “self inflicted diseases” like “alcoholism and depression” (5). People become dissatisfied with their life from attempting to cover up their uniqueness because people may perceive this as “weird” in actuality they are destroying exactly what makes them feel satisfied as human beings. Most people, however, are not strong enough mentally to separate themselves from their peers group as much as extreme non-conformists like Leopard Man, a man who lives in seclusion on a remote island. The company of other human beings comforts most people. Instead Feys suggests people to be part time non-conformists by “escaping… from time to time” to reprieve from social pressures. Some people may say that small vacations from peer pressure is…

    • 1053 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The past, present, and future connect in intriguing ways. Ancient sources constantly provide evidence that history repeats itself. As often as this occurs, the future is accurately predicted, as shown in Morgan Robertson’s book The Titan. It is about an unsinkable ship that hits an iceberg and sinks, written just fourteen years before the legendary Titanic sank. Another book that predicts the future unerringly is Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. Some “predictions” from this book involve the emotional state of humans as well as how they socially interact.…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Albert Camus’ The Stranger and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye are both among the most important novels of the twentieth century. The modern world’s general moral change and the individual’s alienation from the society serve as the main, basic topic for both novels which is still relevant to any twenty first century reader. Since many people find themselves in the same position of feeling like an outsider from society in their own worlds, I intend to outline how it still finds relevance today.…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fighting conformity has been a struggle among Sci-Fi authors since the beginning of Science Fiction literature. This fight against conformity is prevalent in Harlan Ellison’s work “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman and Damon Knight’s work The Country of the Kind as the protagonists fight against the “perfect” society and some sort of authoritative power, as well as their struggle to stand up and be unique. Readers will be able to understand this with selected passages from each of these works.…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays