Friday, January 24, 2020
Many Views of Melvilles Bartelby The Scrivener Essay -- Melville Bart
     All literary works are written from a specific standpoint. This standpoint originates from the mind of the author. The author, when creating his literary work, has a specific diagram/plan and vision of what the story is supposed to convey. However, not all readers will interpret the literary work in the way that the author him/herself has presented it. Many times, in fact, the audience will perceive the literary work as having an entirely different meaning than what it was meant to have. The short story, Bartelby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, has been reviewed by several different critics as having several different standpoints. These standpoints include Bartelby as a Psychological Double to the Narrator, an apostle of reason, having biblical ties, and as being Melville himself. A personal standpoint that proves to be different than those that have come before it is to perceive the story, Bartelby the Scrivener, as a story of family. Of all of these views and interpretations of the story Bartelby the Scrivener, none can be perceived as correct, except by the author. Furthermore, none can be seen as incorrect because literary works, unlike visual works of art, leave us the option to imagine. In fact, our interpretation of another critic’s thesis is merely a product of our views on their standpoints. I say that only to justify that we are able to formulate our own opinions and form our own thesis just by reading the words on the page. Bartelby as a Psychological Double      The critic of this standpoint is Mordecai Marcus. He feels that Bartelby is a paralleled character or a â€Å"psychological double†of the narrator. In his criticism of Bartelby the Scrivener, he writes:                â€Å"I believe that the character of Bartelby is a psychological                double for the story’s nameless lawyer-narrator, and that                the story’s criticism of a sterile and impersonal society can best be clarified by investigation of this role.†- â€Å"Bartelby appears to be the lawyer chiefly to remind him of the inadequacies, the sterile routine, of his world.†                                   (College English, pg. 68)      Marcus is trying to say that Bartelby and the narrator have a sort of inter-connection. Not as two separate entities, but as two separate personalities residing in one, viewing life from separate standpoints. ... ...s audience, I cannot limit myself to just these theories. Countless other theories can be formed on the actual theme of the story. I truly believe that Melville had those intentions, not only for this story, but also for all the stories that he has written. Literary works are meant to be examined and interpreted by the individual reading it. Authors produce the material. All we are required to do is produce the imagination and personal understanding of what has been presented before us. Bibliography 1.) College English, Vol. 23, No.5, February, 1962, pp.365‐68 2.) Indian Journal of American Studies, Vol.4, Nos. 1-2, June and December, 1974. Pp.66-71. 3.) Meyer, Michael The Bedford Introduction to Literature, Library of Congress Catalog Number: 98-85194, copyright 1999 by Bedford/St. Martin. 3.) Reference Guide to Short Fiction, 1st ed., edited by Noelle Watson, St. James Press, 1994 4.) Short Stories for Students, Gale Research, 1997 Key: (as cited in the paper) (IJ of AS) – Indian Journal of American Studies (BI to L) – The Bedford Introduction to Literature (RG to SF) – Reference Guide to Short Fiction (SS for S) – Short Stories for Students
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Red Brigade, Italian Terrorism
Red Brigade, Good Morning, Night, The Red Brigade emerged in 1968 in Italy, a time of social and political turbulence around the world. For the Red Brigades, their fight with the Italian state was the continuation of the fight that the Italian Left Wing Resistance waged against Nazi Fascism during the Second World War. Offspring of classic Marxist/Leninists, their fight was ideological, and they feared the resurgence of Fascism in Italy which they equated with the rise of Italian and European capitalism and its aging corporate leadership.Although they saw themselves as continuing the battle waged by their ancestor resistant fighters, to me, they seemed less interested in obtaining benefits for the workers they claimed to support, than in denouncing capitalism and demagoging their rigid view of a pure Marxism. The Red Brigade sought to create and deliver propaganda that would prepare students, workers, the proletariat, and masses for â€Å"violent and systematic opposition to the bou rgeois order. †(Christian Science Monitor, 1978).While the revolutionary predecessors of the Red Brigades, fought Nazism and Fascism to free Italy and Italians, Bellochio’ s movie Good Morning, Night presents a much starker and menacing Red Brigade that in 1968 lost its way as it lost its humanity according to Bellochio. Bellochio says that while ideas are fundamental to a democracy and that political debate and demonstration a virtue, the killing of a human being in the name of one’s ideals is lunacy, and reflects a lack of understanding of life, human reality, and of contemporary Italy.According to Bellochio the Red Brigades failure was the failure to recognize the complex choices in 1968 Italy, and their inability to change along with a changing Italy. The Red Brigade were ideologues, uncompromising in their world view of a pure class struggle, and they were committed to undermine any other political view in Italy. Their uncompromising view was effective in a ttracting young, ideological followers and assisted the Brigade in garnering their initial power, but ultimately it led to their undoing.For in their intransigence and unrelenting purist view of a creation of a proletariat uprising, they increasingly disassociated themselves from the reality of the lives of most Italians. Ultimately, and in particular with the killing of Aldo Moro, they alienated themselves from the very working people upon whose support their revolution of the masses was dependent. Marco Bellochio’s Good Morning, Night demonstrates the Red Brigade’s intransigence and naivete in describing them as â€Å"being very far from reality†.In the world view of Red Brigade’s founder Renato Curcio, the Brigade followed an ideology and a doctrine that advocated â€Å"armed violence against the capitalist state (Christian Science Monitor, March 17, 1978). The Red Brigade and their leadership were violent anti-capitalists, and they saw multinational corporations as monsters preparing to devour the world (Raufer). Curio viewed the Red Brigade as true Marxists and he sought to re-create a socialist state along the lines of what Lenin had created in the Soviet Union, and Mao had created in China through the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Raufer, page 319). But in a post Lenin and Mao world where millions of poor people had been instructed that poverty is not virtue and to get rich is noble, the Red Brigade’s dogma seemed well worn, particularly when it was communicated through a gun barrel, and resulted in the death of Aldo Moro, an admired leader. The Red Brigade viewed themselves as the evolution of inexorable historical and social forces, and that their ascendancy in Italy, and perhaps Europe was natural and inevitable.Curio believed that the Red Brigade would eventual become a key political force in Italy, and that the Brigade was destined through the natural evolution of the revolutionary forces begun by Lenin and Mao to lead a social, economic and political revolution in Italy. Curio believed fervently that this was his and the Red Brigade’s destiny. These beliefs about the destiny of Curio and the Red Brigade in my view are what Bellochio assailed in his movie and in his comments that politics is the art of understanding reality.Bellachio says that Curio’s naive misreading of the Italian people and of humanity is fundamentally what led to the failure of the Red Brigade and their ultimate dissolution. In their targeting of Aldo Moro, The Red Brigades sought to prevent a â€Å"historic compromise†between the Communist Party and the Christian Social Democratic Party which would have created an alliance allowing the Communists to become a legitimate political force in the Italian Government.Even though this compromise would have allowed the Communists to have a voice in Government, the Red Brigades feared that the Christian Democrats would control the Communists and in so doing constrain the uprising of the proletariat that Curio believed was its destiny. Curio believed that the pact between Moro’s Christian Democrats would â€Å"enslave the working class with the help of communist revisionists†(New York Times, 1978)In Good Morning, Night, Bellochio demonstrates the naivete of this belief, and ultimately the failure of this Red Brigades for they lost their ability to value human life. They believed that symbols were more important than people, and that there are no constraints on human behavior in social and political revolution. Bellochio believes, and demonstrates in Good Morning, Night that this is not so, and to de-humanize people in the name of revolution or any cause is a blindness that divorces the cause from real life and people, and therefore is doomed to fail.
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
To Kill a Mockingbird Essay - Issues Which Are Still...
‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee explores several different issues which are still relevant in today’s society. Harper Lee uses conventions within the novel to convey these ideas. The three main issues Lee explores are; Importance of Moral Education, Prejudice and Bravery and Courage. Lee explores the theme of the Importance of Moral Education throughout the novel. This idea is still relevant in today’s society as we all face moral decisions which shape who we are. Harper Lee investigates this idea through the use of characterisation. Lee uses characterisation very effectively and particularly uses Atticus Finch and Calpurnia to portray this. Ever since Jem and Scout were at an early age Atticus would read to them and slowly over†¦show more content†¦Atticus speaks to Jem about the Tom Robinson case and says; â€Å"I don’t know (how they could convict Tom Robinson), but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it – seems that only children weep†. This refers to how white people have more authority than the blacks. Tom Robinson was the perfect example of how innocent people can be injured or destroyed through contact with evil. A great life lesson was lear nt and racism could be eliminated if we all took heed of Scout’s simple but powerful quote towards the end of the novel â€Å"I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks†. Another example of symbolism is Arthur â€Å"Boo†Radley. The town ridicules and disregards him from society due to his incapability to socialise outside of his home. He is portrayed a scary and dangerous individual and the children of Maycomb have been raised to fear him. If only Maycomb would take the time to see through Boo Radley’s perspective then they might not refer to him as a â€Å"malevolent phantom†. Ultimately Boo saves Jem and scout from Bob Ewell and proves to be the ultimate symbol of good. The lesson being told here is that people should not be so easily judged. Both examples clearly show the prejudice within Maycomb and how incorrectly the community portrays these individuals. Prejudice is still evident in today’s society, racism and social classes still apply to how some people
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