Edwin O'Connor's novel The Last Hurrah presents an effective view of the difficult and complex life of the Irish-American community in Boston of the 1950's. The author uses a number of characterizations to produce themes that relate to the political and social considerations of this era. He also provides most of the accounts in his novel from a single perspective, that of Frank Skeffington. He is the main character. This character in particular enables O'Connor to present the topic with some accuracy while continuing to create a fictional account of the time frame. This was his goal, to provide truth inside a fictional story.
O'Connor talks directly about and gives great consideration in the system of criminal activity. He feels it directly corresponds with the political structure in the community. The author develops his novel around Skeffington, but also around the characterization of James Michael Curley, the forceful and corrupt political force in the community in Boston. These two characters seem to be greatly different, but they also have some likeness to each other. This novel portrays the complexity of the corruption within this community and the political structure. He also demonstrates the support for this type of institution and its importance within the community itself.
There is particular consideration given to the political climate in this story. It is incorporated with social and ethnic concerns that are prevalent. The story also addresses prejudice and the theme of ethnic stereotyping through his character development. O'Connor does not present a work that is riddled with Irish slurs or ethnic approximations. Instead, he attempts to provide an account that is both informative and accurate.
One important theme that is developed through the characterization of Skeffington is the great importance he has of the historical perspective on the current life of the Irish immigrant community. While O'Connor uses this character to present a dignified representation of Irish immigrant politics, it is also clear that Skeffington serves as a contrast to Curley. Curley demonstrates a clearly determined form of corruption without concern for the ethnic or political history of the Irish immigrant community. Skeffington cannot ignore the past and the impact history has on his community.
Skeffington is a product of the Irish community, and reflects on his origin in many instances through out this story. There are a number of important elements that are unique to the Irish community in Boston and also significant to the life of Skeffington.
Swift's opposition is. indirectly presented in the report. The author uses satire to accomplish his objective not only because he is able to conceal his true identity but also because it is the most effective way to awake the people of Ireland into seeing their own deprivation. Firstly, the narrative voice begins the essay by describing the horrible conditions in which the Irish peasants live. He demonstrates there is a serious problem with a great need for a solution.
Included within the anthology The Penguin Book of Irish Fiction,1[1] are the works of great Irish authors written from around three hundred years ago, until as recently as the last decade. Since one might expect to find in an anthology such as this only expressions and interpretations of Irish or European places, events or peoples, some included material could be quite surprising in its contrasting content. One such inclusion comes from the novel Black Robe,2[2] by Irish-born author Brian Moore. Leaving Ireland as a young man afforded Moore a chance to see a great deal of the world and in reflection afforded him a great diversity of setting and theme in his writings. And while his Black Robe may express little of Ireland itself, it expresses much of Moore in his exploration into evolving concepts of morality, faith, righteousness and the ever-changing human heart.
Studs Lonigan is the protagonist and the name of the trilogy of three novels, Young Lonigan, the Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan and Judgment Day, by the American author James T. Farrell. The novel is a classic depiction of Irish life in the South side of Chicago and how Studs Lonigan comes of age in the setting. It is particularly in the second part that Farrell brings to light the venom of racism and how its unchecked spread helped to produce and reproduce the ghetto. The main reason Farrell cites for writing the book is the urban world that he knew had never been portrayed honestly enough in fiction. In his words, ‘I am a second-generation Irish-American. The effects and scars of immigration are upon my life. The past was dragging through my boyhood and adolescence’ (Farrell, 1993). It was the acrimony that Farrell had for the Irish Chicago neighborhood in which he grew up that led him to write the novel. In his opinion the Catholic parish church as the neighborhood’s primary institution was a great obscurant whereby the immigrants and their children were always uncertain of their identity and place in the new land (Byrne, 2006).
The writer classified this group of Irish people according to their characteristics. This group was highly ferocious and exhibited an alacrity and lust of land that originated from the Northern part of Ireland. This group was comprised of individuals who were conservative Christians who loved living in their own cliché of clans. They were also very cruel and intolerant towards Indians. Because of their characteristics, they were referred to as settlers. Their characteristics ma...
The Irish Famine is a controversial debate, addressing the response to the English government’s malfeasance. The debate concerns whether the English government should be held liable for the hunger and sorrows of Irishmen. Liam O’Flaherty contributes to this debate through his novel Famine; in it he defines who is to blame for the hunger of the 1840’s. Through his depiction, he suggests that the best response to ease the problem of the famine is by rebelling against the English government. In the novel, there are characters that choose to live in a passive matter and fail at attaining prosperity, while those who rebel get it. O’Flaherty presents three Kilmartin generations, in which we witness differences in character traits and beliefs. For instance Martin Kilmartin, second generation, takes on the role of a rebel and chooses to defy Black Valley’s tycoon, Chadwick. Siding with a solution of aggression to meet justice, O’Flaherty identifies survivors as rebellions, and victims of the famine as pacifists. Furthermore, in his novel, O’Flaherty suggests that the best response to the Irish Famine is through aggression.
O'Connor, Thomas H. The Boston Irish: A Political History. Boston, MA. Northeastern University Press, 1995.
In the story Dubliners by James Joyce, he writes about a few different themes, some of these being autonomy, responsibility, light, and dark. The most important of the themes though must be the individual character in the story against the community and the way they see it. I have chosen to take a closer look at “Araby,” “Eveline,” and “The Dead” because the great display of these themes I feel is fascinating. Many things affect the way the individual characters see the community, for example their family, friends, fellow citizens, or even new places. In Dubliners, the way the characters see the community affects them and other people around them.
Born in Brooklyn in 1930 to recent Irish immigrants Malachy and Angela McCourt, Frank grew up in Limerick after his parents returned to Ireland because of poor prospects in America. Due to the Great Depression, Malachy could not find work in America. However, things did not get any better back in Ireland for Malachy. A chronically unemployed and nearly unemployable alcoholic, he appears to be the model on which many of our more insulting cliches about drunken Irish manhood are based. Week after week, Angela would be home expecting her husband to come home with money to eat, but Malachy always spent his wages on pints at local pubs. Frank’s father would come home late at night and make his sons get out of bed and sing patriotic songs about Ireland by Roddy McCorley and Kevin Barry, who were hung for their country. Frank loved his father and got an empty feeling in his heart when he knew his father was out of work again. Frank described his father as the Holy Trinity because there is three people in him, “The one in the morning with the paper, the one at night with the stories and prayers, and then the one who does the bad thing and comes home with the smell of whiskey and wants us to die for Ireland” (McCourt 210). Even when there was a war going on and English agents were recruiting Irishmen to work in their munitions factories, Malachy could not keep a job when he traveled to England.
A collection of short stories published in 1907, Dubliners, by James Joyce, revolves around the everyday lives of ordinary citizens in Dublin, Ireland (Freidrich 166). According to Joyce himself, his intention was to "write a chapter of the moral history of [his] country and [he] chose Dublin for the scene because the city seemed to [b]e the centre of paralysis" (Friedrich 166). True to his goal, each of the fifteen stories are tales of disappointment, darkness, captivity, frustration, and flaw. The book is divided into four sections: childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life (Levin 159). The structure of the book shows that gradually, citizens become trapped in Dublin society (Stone 140). The stories portray Joyce's feeling that Dublin is the epitome of paralysis and all of the citizens are victims (Levin 159). Although each story from Dubliners is a unique and separate depiction, they all have similarities with each other. In addition, because the first three stories -- The Sisters, An Encounter, and Araby parallel each other in many ways, they can be seen as a set in and of themselves. The purpose of this essay is to explore one particular similarity in order to prove that the childhood stories can be seen as specific section of Dubliners. By examining the characters of Father Flynn in The Sisters, Father Butler in An Encounter, and Mangan's sister in Araby, I will demonstrate that the idea of being held captive by religion is felt by the protagonist of each story. In this paper, I argue that because religion played such a significant role in the lives of the middle class, it was something that many citizens felt was suffocating and from which it was impossible to get away. Each of the three childhood stories uses religion to keep the protagonist captive. In The Sisters, Father Flynn plays an important role in making the narrator feel like a prisoner. Mr. Cotter's comment that "… a young lad [should] run about and play with young lads of his own age…" suggests that the narrator has spent a great deal of time with the priest. Even in death, the boy can not free himself from the presence of Father Flynn (Stone 169) as is illustrated in the following passage: "But the grey face still followed me. It murmured; and I understood that it desired to confess something.
Writing styles that are transitioned from my old high school to San Jose State University is quite difficult even if I have been studying how to create writing ever since I was born in the United States. In high school I took normal English classes, which are not remedial or advanced placements, and focused on methods of planning out my essays, working on specific paragraphs such as the introduction and conclusion of an essay, how to transition one paragraph to another, and also using the correct grammar and spelling. I feel that throughout my high school and future college writings I will slowly improve to the point where I feel satisfied of my work.
...differences as an ending. Thousands have died regardless of the side they represented. As a reader, this eye witness account in the book brings to life the troubles in Northern Ireland. Walking the streets and living amongst the chaos shows the severity of the situation. This segregation still lives on today in Northern Ireland with no clear end in sight. But one can not expect a four hundred year long feud to end abruptly. Progress has been made in modern time but both sides need full dedication to end the divide. To put aside religion, politics and other blockades in order to truly find what is best for their nation. Just like the old Irish proverb, you've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was. Forget what was in the past and by the elders so one can move on to a new united future whether it be united with Great Britain or Ireland.
Law is a system of rules that has been set up by the legislative branch of our government. It is a must that every person in that country follow these laws, or severe consequences will be held against that person. In every court house legal systems are held. There are two common types of legal systems used, common law and civil law. Common law is used by countries that are from the British colonies, as this type of system was originated from England, when King Henry II wanted to combine the laws and customs together. Whereas, the countries that use civil law are from the European colonies (Common Law vs Civil Law,2009). Even though, both laws are commonly used, they differ in terms of the constitution, the jury’s opinion, the role of the
... of stories Dubliners, James Joyce leads the reader to the conclusion that the Catholic Church took the role of a governing body, and that modernist movement was inhibited by the outdated ideas of the Catholic Church. The story “The Boarding House” provides the reader with excellent examples of a priest who overextended his role in society, and it has been shown that such an occurrence has negative effects of the society as a whole. The Catholic church as a burdensome entity is very well shown in Joyce’s’ the “The sisters”. The story also provides us with a good explanation of the social connotations of religion within the modernist movement. In the stories of Dubliners the legal system is replaced by the institute of religion, and it is the presence and social context of the Catholic Church which prevents the Irish community from advancement.
Experiencing those days where people would laugh at other for the broken English; the grammar and pronunciation are the toughest parts of the language. People with English as a second language always stumble upon difficulties; however, the determination of learning a new language do not decrease easily as the motivation is still surrounding one’s mind. Today, English has become an international communication; even the teaching and learning of the language has already spread throughout the world. English is known as one of the most common use language and has been offering classes everywhere for years especially around Asia; additionally, the world common language has now become the number one language uses in every fields of career that is being offer everywhere. Non-American students should be required to take English class as a second language in school
English’s proliferation throughout international education and international media has caused most countries with higher education and access to the media, such as mainland Europe, to already have significant exposure to the language. This has caused a large percent of the population, especially in the younger generations, to have some degree of English proficiency (Modiano, 2009). Additionally, according to Dombi (2011), English is the most highly desired language to learn in most European countries, likely do to its presence in institutions of higher