Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein takes the themes portrayed in the book and directly criticizes the Western Culture. As Heinlein said, "My purpose in this book was to examine every major axiom of western culture, to question each axiom, throw doubt on it" (Jelliffe 161). These axioms are where feels the Western Culture fails and so he uses the themes to criticize humans of the Western Culture by pointing out these faults. The themes of the story portray this by having Valentine Michael Smith, a human raised by Martians, come to earth to teach his knowledge which contradict what the Western Culture feels to be true. "Stranger is a strong-minded work of culture criticism, no doubt about it (Stover 58)." The themes that Heinlein uses are those of religion, sex, and love to make his point of where the Western Culture fails as a whole. Heinlein's writing of his novels after 1961 when he wrote Stranger in a Strange Land, has changed the genre of science-fiction, because he not only wrote about strange worlds and crazy adventures, but Heinlein also tried to include criticism and a message to the reader in his novels to explain problems that he felt humans have. This became Heinlein's writing style after 1957 when he reached the age of 50 and was on the top of science-fiction. Because science-fiction was considered to be for kids, Heinlein began to write more for adult audiences by adding the real problems and criticism into his novel (Drucolli 210). "The publication of Stranger in a Strange Land marked drastic shift in Heinlein's writing, at least in social criticism and controversial subject matter" (Drucolli 227). "As he had done immediately before World War II, Heinlein helped to ...
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...ing the Ways of Man to God: The Novels of Robert A Heinlein." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Eds. Dedria Bryfonski, Laurie Lanzen Harris. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company, 1980. Vol. 14, 254-255.
Jelliffe, R.A. "Alice in Wonderland for Space Age Grownups." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Eds. Dedria Bryfonski, Laurie Lanzen Harris. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company, 1975. Vol. 26, 161-162.
Rose, Lois and Stephen. "The Shattered Ring: Science Fiction and the Quest for meaning." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company, 1969. Vol. 3, 226-227.
Samuelson, David. " 'Stranger' in the Sixties: Model or Mirror?" Contemporary Literary Criticism. Eds. Dedria Bryfonski, Laurie Lanzen Harris. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company, 1975. Vol 26, 167-169.
Stover, Leon. Robert A. Heinlein. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987.
Suvin, Darko. Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre . New Haven : Yale University Press, 1979.
...nd: A Study of the American Novel in the Nineteen-Sixties. Yale, 1973. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale,1975.
The Stranger is a novel by Albert Camus. Albert Camus, a French, Noble prize winning author, journalist and philosopher, was born on the seventh of November 1913. He died on the fourth of January 1960. He was instrumental in bringing the philosophical views of absurdism to public attention. The Stranger was published in 1942 and is an example of the outlook and themes of Camus’s philosophy of the absurd.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
Dr. Mengele was truly a smart man. He studied medicine and psychology throughout his lifetime, most of these experiences were at the Frankfurt University (9). Little did people known that Josef Mengele was actually hired simply to study heredity in twins. The Nazi army enlisted Mengele during his last years studying at the Frankfurt University.(5)With his expertise in the medical field the SS really believed he could find the key to heredity, which they believed would win them the war. With the extensive capabilities Mengele had, he was able to extensively research throughout hundreds of experiments. Mengele experimented and tested ideas to his hearts content, on the countless amounts of Jewish prisoners.
Lyons, Oliver, and Bill Bonnie. "An Interview with Tobias Wolff." Contemporary Literature. 31.1 (1990): 1-16. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.
Booth, Alison and Kelly J. Mays, eds. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: Norton, 2010. Print.
The Harlem Renaissance in general was the new identity that led to a greater social consciousness, and African American became players on the world stage. The Harlem Renaissance redefined how America, and the world, viewed the African American population.
What if the past had no meaning and the only part of our lives that matters is that which is happening presently? To further exacerbate the matter, all hope for some form of salvation and ever-lasting life from a God are entirely futile; that when life is over, all forms of existence are over as well. Such a desolate point of view is illustrated in Albert Camus’ The Stranger. Camus used characters such as the protagonist, Meursault, to establish his belief that life is nothing more than physical existence and that one can only define their life’s value based off of the events happening at the time in question. Whether Camus himself agreed with this viewpoint is irrelevant as throughout his novel, the striking contrast between Meursault and the society he found himself in clearly epitomized Meursault as an anomalous sociopath. The events resulting from the protagonist’s detached and brutally honest personality, as well as a dearth of a moral conscience, exemplify the extent at which amorality can be commensurate to madness.
Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, and John R. Willingham. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 125-156.
To be exact, the Harlem Renaissance is a time after the KKK completed their raid of African Americans, when all of the Blacks would get together and have a good time. Whether it was listening to the jazz band play background of a beautiful vocalist, as the people of Harlem danced the night away, or looking at "freestyle" artist paint away. Harlem was always occupied. Each poet wrote very many famous poems that we now read today.
Kornbluth, C. M. "The Failure of the Science Fiction Novel As Social Criticism." The Science Fiction Novel: Imagination and Social Criticism. (1969): 64-101.
The Harlem Renaissance was a huge transition for people of African American descent. It started in the early 1920’s and ended during the late 1920’s as well. People had moved from the southern states where Jim Crow laws were enforced, where discrimination was at its highest. Many people who were writers, entertainers and actors took this as an opportunity to grow as artists. During this time, culture was one of the only things they had left. Those who lived within Harlem needed the positivity to look up to during these hard times.
One such approach is that of Lydia Murdoch, who argues that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story about children becoming adults and the hardships they face when exploring the real world. In her article entitled “Alice and the Question of Victorian Childhood,” Murdoch uses the shifting role of children during the Victorian Era to suggest that Alice’s attitudes and behaviors, especially during the events towards the beginning of the book, are meant
Klinkowitz, Jerome and Patricia B Wallace. The Norton Anthology of Americal Literature. Seventh. Vol. Volume D. New York City: Norton, 2007, 2003, 1998, 1994, 1989, 1985, 1979. 5 vols.