During the building-trade unions’ strike Ellsworth Toohey declares in his address to the strikers, “We shall unite or we shall be defeated. Our will-the will of the disinherited, the forgotten, the oppressed-shall weld us into a solid bulwark” (103). Toohey’s declaration sets the stage for the prodigious irony that is his character. The self proclaimed humanitarian defines the strikers, and by extension the working class, as weak and helpless, in need of their mass numbers to rise against their powerful oppressors, the privileged contractors and architects in need of their labor and skill, but unwilling to share in the wealth generated by the collective creation. The irony of Toohey’s words is that by liberating man of his oppressors, Toohey becomes his beloved controller. Toohey’s success as a columnist and speaker lay in his perceived virtue and wisdom, through which followers can absolve themselves of selfish sin an ego, instead uniting for the collective “good” and advancement of all men into a kinder, more loving and more inclusive tomorrow. Religions and socio-political movements for thousands of years have used the same tactics in order to gain momentum. From the Crusades, to Mao, to Ryan Murphy’s Glee there have been those like Toohey who gained power by offering mankind redemption in exchange for their service or support. Toohey, as he asked of the Bible-teacher at fifteen, achieves his wealth through the collection of souls (306). In The Fountainhead Toohey collects souls by using his influence to support the unexceptional, Toohey, a genius in his own right, gains power over the larger mechanism that is New York City; Toohey also hinders and destroys the careers of geniuses like himself: Roark, Mallory, and Dominique Fra...
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...he can control the ignorant society they must exist within. In order to control this society Toohey gains the support of both the masses and the influential, showing sympathy for common man and outcast’s plight, but offering absolution for the sin of decadence and privilege for the rich. Toohey also indebts those he makes key players in the complicated mechanism that is society, giving Keating and Cook success they could not have enjoyed without his assistance, all to further his social empire and sphere of influence. In all of these actions Toohey collects souls, the spirit of man, to unite him with his brothers against his oppressors and shepherd in a new world, more fair and kind than the one he suffers.
Works Cited
Anderson, Hans Christian. "The Emperor's New Clothes." The Emperor's New Clothes. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. .
Throughout Saunders’ stories: “ Pastoralia”, "Brad Carrigan, American”, “Jon”, and "In Persuasion Nation"; are themes of violence, dependence, and fate. With these themes Saunders is relaying how money and power are reflected in everyone unconscious mindset: from the higher ups to the “people at the bottom of the heap”. Saunders points out that with that type of mindset is how America is declining not just economically, but as people of morals. We may be trying to “keep positive/think positive” but maybe money is the reason why we’re sinking so low into idleness, impatience, selfishness, and whatnot (Saunders).
As Rand refutes a principal concept of socialism, she illustrates multiple counts of insubordination and social class structures. Socialism’s attempt to remove class structure fails miserably. The most prominent demonstration of rebellion rises from Equality 7-2521 and his emotions and desire for knowledge. After being denied by the Council of Scholars, Equality 7-2521 rashly breaks a window and flees “in a ringing rain of glass” (Rand 75). Equality 7-2521’s actions illustrate the ‘working class’ rebelling against the ‘elitists’ though this society attempted to eliminate social structures. Furthermore, Equality 7-2521 was not alone in rebelling against ‘the brotherhood’, Liberty 5-3000 followed his example. Unsatisfied with her life and the suppression of emotion, she followed Equality 7-2521’s example and “on the night of the day when we heard it, we ran away from the Home of Peasants” (Rand 82). The rebellion of the two members reflects the means of a social rev...
Despite being celebrated for its industrial achievements, the very foundation by which society was predicated on in the Gilded Age crumbled as labor unrest grew. This sense of discontent on the part of laborers is demonstrated through the Haymarket Affair of 1866. Among those tried for the crime was August Spies, who in his “Address of August Spies,” compromises his own life by persistently undermining the legitimacy of the State to emphasize the determination of the collective for which he views himself as a “representative.” In his attempt to illuminate the injustices of the State and foreshadow the unremitting turmoil that will emerge with his murder, Spies simultaneously showcases the divisions within society at the time. Consequently, because it is a product of its time period, the “Address of August Spies” can be used not only as a means of understanding the Haymarket Affair but the dynamics of society as a whole.
Chants Democratic, by Sean Wilentz examined the emergence of New York’s labor class during the Jacksonian era and in essence revealed Artisan Republicanism. Wilentz offered a unique perspective in his historical analysis of the social and political labor histories during 1788 through 1850. Wilentz stressed the importance of the republicanism ideology in the creation of a working class that was instrumental in a pre-industrial New York. The author stressed the significance in both the political histories and social histories of the early nineteenth century by incorporating political ideologies and labor union descriptions. He further integrated these insights by means of articulating the social working conditions and lives of small masters, journeymen, and artisans to show their respective importance to the creation of the working class scruples. Chants Democratic iterated not only on the formation of the labor class in America, but also illuminated the changes within this new social class by exploring how antebellum New York’s population began to live and think.
Although Steinbeck argues for collective action to achieve specific goals, only the most unperceptive critics continue to argue that he is a collectivist in either philosophy or politics. Throughout his work he decries the mindless indoctrination of the totalitarians and maintains that only through reflection upon his bitter experience can learn the value of acting in concert with others for the relief of emergency conditions -- like the flood at the end of The Grapes of Wrath -- so that the individual may subsequently be free to realize his own potentialities. Nothing better illustrates Steinbeck's concept of social organization than the pictures in Chapter Seventeen of The Grapes of Wrath of the world that is created each night a people come together, and disappears the next morning when they separate.
In their first attempt to get noticed, workers formed the National Labor Union in 1866. This union joined together various workers in order to create a group that would fight for what they wanted: higher wages and shorter workdays. As the years went by, the National Labor Union did their best in trying to achieve their goals, all while other groups took the matters into their own hands. In 1877, in what became known as the Great Railroad Strike, railroad workers from across America took part in a spontaneous strike on America’s railroads, an attempt that led to violence and, to their dismay, no changes to working conditions. In response to the strike, The New York Times published an article that stated “But if the strike on the Baltimore and Ohio Road is a foolish one, its history up to the present time shows that those who are engaged in it are not only bold and determined, but that they have the sympathy of a large part of the community in which they live…” (Document B). The editorial states that even if it wasn’t worth it, the Great Railroad Strike showed that there is something amiss in their daily lives, and whatever it is, they are trying to fix it for t...
Ayn Rand said that the theme of The Fountainhead is "individualism versus collectivism, not in politics, but in man's soul." I want to comment on three specific aspects of this theme, as it is embodied in Roark's character and his interactions with the other figures in the novel. Roark is a man of independence, he is an egoist, and he is a creator, a paragon of productive achievement. These three concepts—independence, egoism, and achievement—are the key to understanding the moral sense of The Fountainhead and the ways in which it differs from the conventional ethos.
There are numerous examples of how Miller presents and develops the theme of power and authority, but it only unveils itself gradually through the play, due to each character’s hidden physical attitudes. Firstly there is the religious authority, with the work of god that presides over the lives of the villagers. Next we soon come across the court’s legal authority that is run by Danforth who consumes most of the court’s say in every matter, but they still abide and depend on the strict Puritan’s religious authority. Then there is abusive empowerment that Ab...
Throughout history most of the world’s documented accounts have been interoperated by the powerful elites. History is the story of mankind; therefore like most stories, history has two perspectives. After the end of the Second World War, historians began looking to other ways of analyzing history. With the rise of the hippie movement, Vietnam War, women’s rights movement, civil rights movement, and the cold war historians started questioning how, why, and what caused society to get like this. The consensus movement was started as historians first observed the primary sources of the outsiders of society. This ultimately led to authors like Dan Richter, Woody Holton, and Walter Johnson who all look to the opposite point of view through historical events. In order to teach history correctly, we as future historians must teach a two sided interpretation of both the powerful and the powerless. Ultimately by understanding the loser’s suffrage in society that is proposed in Dan Richter’s Facing East from Indian Country,” and Walter Johnson’s Soul By Soul; as well as the outsider point of view as described in Woody Holton’s Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution; and Tyler Anbinder’s and Vincent DiGirolamo’s articles contributed to the film “Gangs of New York, we can understand how their beliefs, culture, and lives were affected by the powerful. This essay is not a novel of the history of the outsiders themselves, but a critique on how history should be studied by looking at the author’s way of using primary sources and the outsiders’ perspective on society. IN THE ESSAY I WILL BE LOOKING AT THE COMPLETE POWERLESS TO THE POWERLESS
The symbols that encompass the novel underscore the theme that the American Dream, corrupt and unjust, eventually concludes in anguish. Money, greed, and lust overtake everything in their lives to the point of nothing else being of importance. The characters in this novel lost themselves to a fruitless dream that eventually brought and end to the “holocaust” that embodied their lives (162).
...e most powerful force in human society. The friendship between George and Lennie gave them the hope to persevere through the most depressing circumstances. Steinbeck’s Idea that society and the injustice of life, specifically in America, is against the working man is extremely pessimistic. This is repeated throughout many his works, from his novella, The Pearl to The Grapes of Wrath. The idea is stated more succinctly by Scarseth, “We all deserve better than we get.” While much of Scarseth’s analysis of Of Mice and Men, accurately examined the Steinbeck’s themes of friendship and the fallen character and nature of man, Scarseth’s and Steinbeck’s view of the injustice of life is simply wrong. “We all deserve better than we get” screams of the Marxist, socialist view that somehow we “deserve” more. The statement begs this question, what better do we all deserve?
Throughout the text Keating connects with people on a personal level through his word choice and tone. This connection with his audience allows him to further develop belonging, and evoke a greater emotional response in his audience. This word choice and tone can be seen in the lines, “We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We practiced discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice.”
Jasper, James M. The Art of Moral Protest Culture: Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. Print.
“And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quicklime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is a failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath” (Steinbeck 349). John Steinbeck, the author of The Grapes of Wrath, portrays the migrant’s resentment of the California land owners and their way of life and illustrates that the vagrants from Oklahoma are yearning for labor, provisions, and human decency. Similarly in To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee elucidates the concept that people should be treated with inclusive human dignity and be affected by good aspects rather than deleterious behavior. In addition to both novels, “Suffering with Them”, “Evil’s Fate”, and “To Hope” share the same concurrent theme. To Kill a Mockingbird and The Grapes of Wrath and “Suffering with Them”, “Evil’s Fate”, and “To Hope” illustrate a synonymous, thematic message that evil’s inhumanity, during corrupt times, induces a perception of hopefulness for good to conquer immorality.
"Fight Club's Criticism of the American Dream - Representing America - American Literature AP - Blog." Critics and Builders. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. .