Existentialism In Hemingway And Camus - 1730 Words

People like to get stuck in what they find comfortable, and don’t want to push the boundaries. Literature was stuck in a rut, until Modernism came around and broke the standard mold that authors thought they needed to follow. This movement brought in new styles, dynamic characters and topics that centered around ground breaking theories. Many of these authors looked for their own individual way to break from the tradition. Hemingway and Camus were just two of these authors that took their novels, The Sun Also Rises and The Stranger, in directions that others hadn’t. They developed characters that broke away from the typical stock characters everyone was used to. Hemingway looked at the crazy lifestyles and the consequences that the war had†¦show more content†¦Jake states early in the book â€Å"Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy. It seemed they were all such nice people† (Hemingway 150). This is a clear example of how alcohol is u sed by not just him but all characters in this novel to numb their pain. They all are seeking out the opportunity to shy away for them real world and the pain that it brings with it. For him to appear happy, Jake needs to have something to numb him to the other feelings he had battling inside of his mind. Hemingway’s group of characters don’t see the value that life has to offer them, so instead they choose to create fake value by drinking. The alcohol driven state allows him to appear happy to the outside world. While it might appear that the characters in the book are alcoholics, it could be countered that these young men have been accustomed to consuming large amounts of alcohol as a means of escaping their lives (Djos 64). In a journal article, written by Matts Djos, he claims that Jake and his companions are â€Å"terrified that fate and circumstance might shatter their facade of civilized deference. These people lack the skills and the sanity to break their addiction to self-sufficiency and their destructive loop of unmanageability. Instead, they seek refuge in broken relationships, in changes of scene, in drunkenness and the illusion that, however meager, they can find some pleasureShow MoreRelatedTheme Of Existentialism In The Stranger1624 Words   |  7 PagesHemingway’s characters were struggling to find the value in their lives, Camus took the other side of the spectrum and made a character that didn’t see any value in life. Camus focuses on the topic of existential ism, which is the philosophical theory that focuses on the fact that everyone is responsible for developing their own actions, in his novel The Stranger. Camus introduces Meursault who is deeply rooted in the beliefs of existentialism, believing that there is no value to anything that happens in aRead More The Rise and Fall of Existentialism1287 Words   |  6 PagesThe Rise and Fall of Existentialism   Ã‚  Ã‚   Existential literature often focuses on the personal journey towards existential awareness. Common themes in existential works, such as alienation and confrontation with death, often lead the anti-hero towards a climactic choice that defines whether they have reached true understanding. The themes within existential literature are reflected from the world at large, and the works themselves are a metaphor for a grander shift in Western philosophy. Read MoreAlice Malsenior6001 Words   |  25 Pages1946, Albert Camus published his famous work called The Stranger and sparked the start of existentialism. This literary approach rejects the idea that the universe offers any clues about how humanity should live. Therefore, writers of this type glorify the ideas of freedom and individual responsibility. Other popular authors that are characterized as existentialists are Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin, and Nathaniel West. Following its popular surge in the 1940s and 1950s, exi stentialism faded after

The House I Live In Movie Analysis - 1862 Words

In 1971 on June 17, President Richard Nixon delivered a special message to the Congress on drug abuse prevention and control. During the presentation, Nixon made it clear that the United States was at war with this idea of drug abuse. What baffled Americans then, and still baffles Americans today, is that we are at war with our own nation with drugs; it is not some foreign affair like the media tends to focus on with Mexico. Nixon stated that at the time of his speech, what was implemented to control drug abuse was not working†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"The problem has assumed the dimensions of a national emergency. I intend to take every step necessary to deal with this emergency, including asking the Congress for an amendment to my 1972 budget to provide an†¦show more content†¦The movie went further into details about how the Chinese would smoke opium at times while working on this project and the task to illegalize opium on the West coast was taken on by many â€Å"American’s † at the time to â€Å"get back† at the Chinese for taking away jobs from these â€Å"American’s† and posing as a threat to the American economy. Furthermore, the narrator of the movie talked often with Nanny who took care of him and his family when he was young. Nanny was originally from the south and experienced first hand Jim Crow laws at work. Day to day she saw rape, violence, and other things which enticed her to move North like many other African Americans did. â€Å" They didn’t escape Jim Crow but more so saw it in a different form†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ( Jarecki) When the African Americans relocated to the north they were still working in the lower class jobs and â€Å"exiled† to the lower class housing because of the low pay and inability to afford things. Overtime as the cities developed the movie discusses that â€Å"FHA put blacks in economically depressed areas† (Jarecki) once these economically depressed areas â€Å"developedà ¢â‚¬ , they became red zoned and labeled as the ghettos. This was similar for Italians, Irish, Jews and many others who immigrated into the cities prior to the African Americans. FromShow MoreRelatedEssay about Cinderella/Everafter Comparison1092 Words   |  5 PagesSarah Hubbard September 19, 2010 Children’s Lit Review/Analysis One EVERAFTER/A CINDERELLA STORY Cinderella is a classic childhood fairy tale of a young woman who’s mother and father both die, leaving her with a wicked stepmother and two wicked stepsisters. There have been several movies portraying this classic tale. One of which is Everafter starring Drew Barrymore. In this movie a girl loses her father and mother leaving her to be a servant for her stepmother. She meets a prince and fallsRead MoreMovie Analysis : Gran Torino1649 Words   |  7 PagesHannah Swartout December 3, 2017 COM 325 Analysis Paper Gran Torino Analysis After losing his wife, Walt Kowalski was left with spoiled children and grandchildren, cigarettes, Pabst Blue Ribbon and his 1972 Gran Torino. Walt was retired from the military after serving in the Korean war. 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I thought the movie was about women and their struggles to overcomeRead MoreFilm Analysis : The Notebook Essay1109 Words   |  5 PagesFilm Analysis Throughout the movie, The Notebook, there were many different aspects that corresponded with the material learned throughout the semester. There were times were you were able to pin point why each problem was faced based on different character backgrounds. As began to watch the movie, you start to understand the culture aspects of each individual by the way they talk and present themselves, which caused many situations to arise. Also, these many situations arise throughout the movieRead MorePersuasive Speech Entry 21254 Words   |  6 Pagesa girl who lives in Quentin’s neighbourhood. Analysis: In this passage, Quentin and his friend, Ben are trying to call a girl by a slang term candy-coated honeybunny. This passage can be offensive to a girl and is inappropriate for age group. Author includes this passage so he can show the attitude of that time towards the girls. Entry 2: Passage: â€Å"Also your mom. Bro, I saw your mom kiss you on the cheek this morning, and forgive me, but I swear to God I was like, man, I wish I was Q. And alsoRead MoreSankofa Film Analysis956 Words   |  4 PagesSankofa Film Analysis Who is Haile Germia? Haile Germia is an Ethiopian filmmaker, film director, screenwriter who was born March 4, 1946 and raised in Gondar, Ethiopia who now lives in the United States. He immigrated here to the United States in 1968 to pursue acting, and enrolled in the Goodman School of Drama located in Chicago. He is best known for his film Sankofa which raised a lot of awareness to the African American community. He is also known for the Los Angeles school of black filmmakersRead MoreFilm Critique of All the Presidents Men1541 Words   |  7 PagesI. Summary Opening in theaters around the United States in April of 1976, All the Presidents Men paints quite an accurate account of American journalism yet at the same time is a suspenseful adventure that manages to entertain and inform its viewers. Vincent Canby, a reviewer for the New York Times called the movie, an unequivocal smash-hitÂâ€"the thinking mans Jaws. Because the film is written from the perspective of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the movie works as a blockbuster, and notRead MoreThe Style Of David Fincher s Se7en1386 Words   |  6 PagesConclusion xix References xxi Style of Se7en by David Fincher 1. Introduction The movie selected for this particular assignment was David Fincher’s Se7en, which is an adaptation of the screenplay written by Andrew Kevin Walker, the movie was released in 1995. The movie falls under the genres of drama, mystery and thriller. All the three genres provide the viewers with incomplete information adding to the suspense of the movie. 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The first part will contain the analysis of the reality described in the story about V. the second part will be devoted to the comparison between the movie and the graphic book, whereas the in the last part I will contrast them. The idea of the ess ay is to prove that the movie has almost nothing common

Power Corrupts in Animal Farm Free Essays

Power is authority and strength, which is any form of motive force or energy, ability to act, or control. When too much power is given, a dictatorship government can form, in which all decisions are made by one authority. In the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell the author portrays how â€Å"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely†. We will write a custom essay sample on Power Corrupts in Animal Farm or any similar topic only for you Order Now From the death of Old Major, Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer replaced him. At first things started off pretty well; the harvest was very good the first year and the reading and writing system had helped some, but had limited success on others. In time, the leaders of animal farm started to have mixed feelings. Snowball and Napoleon were in constant disagreement. An important meeting that was held ended with an astonishing outcome. One decision that was made was concerning the windmill project and the most important decision made was who would be the head animal. Snowball and Napoleon each gave their input on what needs to be done around the farm. â€Å"Snowball stood up and, though occasionally interrupted by bleating from the sheep, set forth his reasons for advocating the building of the windmill. Then Napoleon stood up to reply. He said very quietly that the windmill was nonsense and that he advised nobody to vote for it†. At this time, Snowball jumped back up to convince the people that it was a good idea to build a windmill. Then Napoleon sent his dogs after snowball and they chased him off the farm. Since Snowball had been expelled, Napoleon took over â€Å"The Manor Farm† which led to food shortage, hard labor, and deaths. He used his knowledge and education to take over the farm. With all the pigs and dogs on his side Napoleon had absolute power. The pigs were the brains of the farm and the dogs were the military force of the farm. Napoleon had complete control over the farm. Napoleon’s power corrupted the whole idea of Animalism amp; The Seven Commandments, which the farm first started with. The power that the three pigs obtained had corrupted them and, then Napoleon received absolute power, which corrupted the society as a whole. Throughout the story Napoleon’s power continually increases, but he’s never quite satisfied. Napoleon is always greedy for more power. Napoleon’s standards are that he must have complete power and rule over everyone, though he becomes corrupt because he gains absolute power over everyone on the farm. Stalin loses power because he is always hungry for more power, and is never satisfied with the power that he has. As Stalin dies Russia is completely corrupt because the power was not evenly distributed, and the citizens did not count as people. No power is given to the people under Stalin’s rule. Only him, and a few other privileged individuals live with power and respect in the community. In conclusion, history has proven that power is the root of all evil in a communism style government or congregation. In Animal Farm, the animals tried to be equal, but in time, some animals had certain views and different opinions and some gradually became more powerful. No matter how hard in society we try, equality will never truly be reached by mankind for the reason that  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely† (Lord Acton). How to cite Power Corrupts in Animal Farm, Papers

T.K Doraiswamy free essay sample

Book Review: Novel Course : Indian Literature in English Course Instructor: Prof. GJV Prasad Words For The Wind (1973)- T K Doraiswamy With due credit to Google, first the Wikipedia-ish information, and this I confess I have shamelessly plagiarized solely for the reason that I myself could not be as concise. T K Doraiswamy was born in 1922. He did his M. Phil in Virginia Woolf’s works and retired as Professor of English, Mar Ivanois College, Thiruvananthapuram. Equally distinguished as a poet, translator, critic, anthologist, novelist, and short fiction writer, his publications include a novel and six books of poems in English, and nine novels and five books of poems in Tamil. He received the Asan Memorial Award for Tamil Poetry in 1983. Interestingly most of his English works were published under his real name while the Tamil ones under the pen name ‘Nakulan’. His alter-ego Naveenan in his Tamil novels stands out as a modernist anti-hero who was perhaps the first of his kind in Tamil literature. And this I mention because his only English novel â€Å"Words for the Wind† is also a first person narrative by a man named Naveen. I’m curious to know why he edited ‘Naveenan’ to ‘Naveen’ for his English work. He was one of the first writers to attempt techniques like  stream of consciousness   in Tamil literature ably. He translated James Joyce, T. S Eliot and K Ayyappa Paniker and as per Wikipedia claims, influence of Joyce was pronounced in his writings but â€Å"it was more the metaphysical and religious thrust similar to T. S Eliot and the sparseness of style of a Samuel Beckett that really makes his works stand out†. And I have particular problems with this statement, obviously. Firstly because it reeks of colonial servitude and secondly because it deprives an amazing talent the credit due for its individuality. Again as per Wikipedia, â€Å" he was definitely(italics mine) a late modernist moving into the realm of post modernism. In a review of his short stories published in The Hindu on 30 December 2008, it is mentioned that he was called â€Å" the writer’s writer† in Tamil literary circle because of his experimental writings in poetry as well as fiction and â€Å"inspite of eing experimental his writings are readable and seem simple at first reading. He never compromised with the contemporary popular literary field going for stereotyped plots to spin his work of art and consciously avoided attractive storylines opting instead for the simple straightforward narration of everyday events in his life as an outsider without any commitments or justifications with minimum words. â₠¬  A blogger observes that his Modernism was well mixed with the deepest Tamil wisdom. He remained a bachelor for life, taking care of his old parents till their death. He died in 2007. After this introduction- in which I hope you understand, heavy plagiarism was inevitable- I finally come to my very own viewpoint. I like to imagine that I have rediscovered a valuable piece of writing from a not so distant past of the Indian writing in English. During my first cursory glance of the novel I was stunned that an Indian had written something like this, way back in 1973, an Indian whom I haven’t heard about ever in literature. But then I have been badgered with amazingly stunning discoveries in this class , stunning obviously for an ignorant student like me, which made my first astonishment subside not through the course of the novel but through the course of this course. I realized, Indians had actually written amazingly stunning stuff that I, pitifully an Indian, had grown up being oblivious of. So. While my dear friends have been coveting the enticingly slim 76 page volume that I chose, I myself reveled in an apparently easy read- which illusion was later shattered. The novel begins with the rather casual, candid opening, â€Å" I want to write a short novel in English. I have been toying with the idea of doing this off and on, these three, four, five years past. But now I have started it. Now that I have started it, I don’t know how I should go about it. Till now the idea of the medium- I mean English- has been the stumbling block. But now I have actually started it I find the real crux is what I should write about. I can start with myself. But they say you should not. I very well identify with such a strain of writing and therefore it was personally very palatable to me, by the middle of the first page however I was smiling to myself. Here he says, â€Å"I have read my share of Joyce, Kafka, Beckett. Who has not? † I smiled thinking, ‘surely Mr. writer, you did not expect such erudition from the wind to which you have ostensibly directed your words. Or perhaps, this wind blows only in literary circles! ’ Well, I sha melessly confess being the ordinary commonplace listless wind†¦. appily the very next line read, â€Å"But when it comes to the point, I prefer taking my whisky neat. † True for the writer, as for the reader. I have given such a long introduction of the writer because the novel is heavily autobiographical. It is surely stream of consciousness or as Naveen would have us believe, he plunges his hand in the pocket of memory and takes out whatever comes, but â€Å"memory† as in the caveat Naveen quickly adds, â€Å" is a crazy bitch†. The prose is interspersed with very short poetic pieces all over, making the experimental temper evident. The narrative is calibrated into nine neat short chapters which ramble through Naveeen’s musings over his home with his old parents: â€Å"An ill- furnished house. A hole. One two three. Father, mother and me† ; His listless life: â€Å"I read books. I smoke. Occasionally I drink. I chew pan. I ask myself if this is life. I doubt. † At another place : â€Å" I suppose temperamentally I like it- just lying down, reading Simone Weil or thinking†¦. † ; His shared past and present with an elder brother posted at the embassy at Washington: â€Å" I knew Guru in the sense that my elder brother knows Guru. Yes the Guru I know is the Guru he knows. So it is Guru twice removed. † ; his school; the death of a self-castrated popular Saiva Vellala teacher and how the sight of his corpse broke something in Naveen and turned him to musing and writing; his friend Sivan who is disgusted with life simply because each row with his wife who ill treated his old mother was finally made up with sex : â€Å"Man is a pack- animal and the loads you put on him- house, office, wife, children, ambition and not to lag behind his own ideals. Naveen, you know no white man will understand this; it is not the white man’s burden. It is yours and mine. If only I can cut off my penis. ; and an entire chapter where he is talking to his intimate friend, his dog named Pappa Mia. The winding narration which seems erratic however is not really haywire. There are recurring symbols revealed at another places in the novel which remind me slightly of â€Å"The God of Small Things. † What I liked best in the novel was the balance of the uncerta inty in tone with the deep ponderings over the everyday happenings in Naveen’s life, it’s self-indulgent mode, meandering over the metaphysical and the physical, mundane and bizarre, without alienating the reader : â€Å" I don’t know why I write this novel. Self-expression? But I doubt whether I have a self to express at all†¦.. Reader, I am as curious as you are to find out where all this will take me†. Through Naveen’s narration, which often appeals directly to the reader, the novel explores the problem of language, of expression in English, of the image of Indians in the eyes of their fellow countrymen settled abroad, of sexuality, life, God, shadows, reality, relations, old age, politics- literary and social, and even novel writing â€Å"as an exciting game†. There shouldn’t however be any misconception about the kind of narrative this is. Here is a forty year old widely read man. He quotes from the writers he has read, but not to flaunt his erudition, for with him â€Å"impressions are ideas†. He muses, â€Å"because I teach Whitman, just at present, should I steal my ideas from him? Do we steal ideas? Or do ideas steal us? I do not know which is which. † The names of writers that find mention in his narrative range from Joyce, Kafka, Beckett, Proust, James, Stein, Bacon, Shakespeare , Dos Passos, Forster, Frost, Emerson, Dylan Thomas( with whose quote the book ends), Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn to Naipaul, Nirad Chaudhary, Bharathi, Bharathidasan, Ramamirtham, C. V Deshani, Buddhadeva Bose, Mauni and Keshav Malik ( to whom the book is dedicated). Towards the end, during the episode with old man N. N, the narrative becomes heavily philosophical and transcendental. There are unforgettable vignettes that furnish the scape of the life and mind of this interesting man. These include the fleeting mention of an Indo-Anglian sahiba’s comment â€Å"apropos of my poems, that I wrote only notes for poems and not poems at all. , the repulsive episode of the maid Alamu, the reflections over Pappa Mia’s stumped tail, and many interesting conversations like the following with his elder brother visiting from the US: â€Å" ‘You are a typical Indian stick-in-the mud. So self-satisfied. Have you seen the poor here? ’ ‘I have read Naipaul. ’ ‘Do you think our people will ever advance? ’ ‘I have read Nirad Chaudhary. ’ ‘ But what do you think? ’ ‘I think they tell only half th e truth. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. ‘†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦do you think you can speak the whole truth? ’ ‘Nobody can speak the whole truth. ’ ‘ My God, you are a typical Indian all over, spinning words like the spider. † And my personal favorite of all his fantastic poetic pieces( this one describing his English teacher) strewn all over the text: â€Å" He was Rotund Or rather Orotund; He was Rubicund And Round like A cubical Homunculus: Bless me! The Dear One Cheered one’s soul! And the man Knew English. † Interesting peeps into the language conflict can be seen as in, â€Å"like as here we have coconut trees†¦. †, â€Å"I did not exactly know what exactly happened†. Also as he quotes some Mr. D who told him that it is only in English the word â€Å"I† is capitalized, which leads him to think, â€Å"I don’t know. It may be. And I have only this â€Å"I† to go by. So whatever strikes it, finds a place here. † Also as his friend refers to his wife as his â€Å"she†, and the spider in Tamil is simply called â€Å"eight legs†. Somebody tells somebody, â€Å" you should have gone home instead of standing here and standing. † Naveen’s views on writing are scattered over the narrative. â€Å"I don’t believe in erasing anything I have written. The dustbins wait. What are books but space conveniently contrived to hold garbage? † , â€Å"Reader I tell you words are the devil†, and he classic conversation with his dog in which he says â€Å"Why should a book be chockfull of words that follow pell-mell, cheek by jowl that hurt you like mad? When will the fellow cease his endless palaver? Pappa Mia, you are right. The real writer never bothered to write. I know it; you know it; yes, which dog did ever bother to set pen to paper? † For al l the theorizing, reviewing and tagging, I will only end my paper by repeating what Sivan tells Naveenan: â€Å"But Naveenan, why a writer writes the way he does God only knows! † ( True for the novel, as for this paper! )