The Virtues of Apathy
“I just don't think I can continue to live in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it was virtue.” Morgan Freeman speaks these words in the movie Se7en after declaring that he is going to quit his job as a detective. His character sees crimes of hate, aggression and murder every day, and he also observes the public’s reaction to them. People turn a blind eye; they no longer care. What has happened to society? Why has what used to be considered incredibly shocking dissolved into what is considered an everyday and usual activity? Apathy has become the common response of American society towards what should be considered shocking because these activities have become unshocking and “everyday”.
In searching for the cause and extent of the problem of social de-shockification, one must begin with the group of writers who devoted themselves to intermixing the shocking and strange with the everyday: the surrealists. The original intention of the Surrealists was not to normalize shocking activities, but instead to make strange the “normal” and the “everyday”. These writers took the shocking and taboo items and subjects and introduced them into common circumstances so that readers would take a closer look at the circumstances, not the items introduced. Cultural analyst Ben Highmore describes it as a “juxtaposing of disparate elements” (Highmore 46). Surrealists took the evil, they took the wickedness and the debauchery, and they placed it in with the “clean” and the “good”. Opposites have the optimal effect of bringing out the different qualities of two objects. In order to defamiliarize what was good and normal, Surrealists had to place it in juxtaposition with what was evil and unusual.
One Surre...
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...ly receive notice. The only problems that are solved are the ones the affect individuals. That in itself is a problem that plagues society, and it will not be fixed until apathy ceases to control the everyday lives of the American people.
Works Cited
- Bataille, Georges. Blue of Noon. 1957. New York: Marion Boyars Publishers, 2002.
- Camus, Albert. The Fall. 1956. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.
- Highmore, Ben. Everyday Life and Cultural Theory: An Introduction. London: Routledge,
2002.
- Isidore, Chris. “NCAA Rating Sag.” 25 Mar. 2003. CNNMoney.
All Quiet on the Western Front is a book written by Erich Maria Remarque. It was a book written to reflect the human cost of war. It shows us how war has a hidden face that most people do not see until it is too late. In the novel, he describes a group of young men who at first think war is glorious. But as the war drags on, the group discovers how war is not all it is set out to be. As the war went on, they saw their friends either die or be permanently wounded. Then the end comes when there was only one person left.
All Quiet on the Western Front includes many clear-cut examples of irony throughout the duration of the novel. From word play in the names of the characters that led to dramatic irony, to the paradox that is obvious in the setting, and finally the situational irony that is critical to the impact of the character’s death on the reader, Remarque provides depth to the novel and the emotional connection that the reader has to the characters in the book.
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. Trans. A.W. Wheen. New York: Ballantine, 1982.
Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front gives you detail and insight into the long, destructive “Great War”. Quickly, romantic illusions about combat are disintegrate. Enthusiastic teenage boys convinced to fight for their country by their patriotic teachers came back feeling part of a lost generation . This novel teaches us what a terrifying and painful experience World War I was for those fighting in the trenches on the front.
In a deep, muddy trench, a lone soldier lies, a silver bullet embedded in his abdomen. He clutches his side, screaming in pain, crying for help -- but no one is listening. The sky slowly darkens, and his voice becomes no more than a faint rasping, until it fades into nothingness. Millions of soldiers found themselves in similar situations during World War I, also known as the Great War, which involved multiple European powers; most notably, Germany, France, Britain, and Russia. Written from the perspective of Paul Baumer, a 19-year-old German soldier, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque follows his journey as he is thrown into the chaos of World War I. At the warfront, Paul witnesses countless horrors that
The U.S. casualties in the "Iraqi Freedom" conquest totals so far at about Sixteen Thousand military soldiers. During WWI Germany suffered over seven million. All Quiet on the Western Front is a historical novel written by Erich Maria Remarque. The novel focuses on a young German soldier and the predicaments he encounters in during his life on the front. The novel displays a powerful image to all of its readers and tends to have a long lasting effect on the way that they interpret war. All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel that encourages nations to consider the horrible hostilities that war brings on humans before entering into global conflicts. From his graphic imagery and his detailed description of character relationships, Remarque depicts the brutality of the war at the front.
All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque, is a classic anti-war novel about the personal struggles and experiences encountered by a group of young German soldiers as they fight to survive the horrors of World War One. Remarque demonstrates, through the eyes of Paul Baumer, a young German soldier, how the war destroyed an entire generation of men by making them incapable of reintegrating into society because they could no longer relate to older generations, only to fellow soldiers.
All quiet On the Western Front, a book written by Erich Maria Remarque tells of the harrowing experiences of the First World War as seen through the eyes of a young German soldier. I think that this novel is a classic anti-war novel that provides an extremely realistic portrayal of war. The novel focuses on a group of German soldier and follows their experiences.
Remarque, Erich Maria, and A. W. Wheen. All quiet on the western front;. Boston: Little,
Have you ever thought about what it was like to live during World War 1, or what it was like to fight at war? At first glance of any war piece, you might think the author would try to portray the soldiers as mentally tough and have a smashing conscience. Many would think that fighting in a war shows how devoted you are to your country, however, that is not true. According to All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the reality of a soldier's life is despondency, carnage and eradication at every bombardment. Living every day is not knowing if they will eat, see their families, or even if they will awaken the next day. Demeaning themselves from heroes to barely men without their military garment or identity. Remarque conveyed how
Remarque, Erich Maria, and A. W. Wheen. All quiet on the western front;. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1929. Print.
In the book All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque illustrates the picture of World War I to the reader. This book is the story of Paul Baumer, who with his classmates recruits in the German Army of World War I. This anti-war novel is an excellent book because through the experiences of Paul Baumer, I am able to actually feel like I'm in the war. It is a very useful piece of literature, which increases the readers' knowledge on how the war affected the people at the time setting. By reading this book, one is drawn into the actual events of the war, and can feel the abyss of death. I believe this piece is very well written. It is entirely simple, lacking any bias remarks, or false patriotism. In this book, Remarque just gives the reader the impression of the war. His great details and way of wording things is incredible. In this book, Remarque is able to portray the nightmare on European battlefields.
While soldiers are often perceived as glorious heroes in romantic literature, this is not always true as the trauma of fighting in war has many detrimental side effects. In Erich Maria Remarque 's All Quiet On The Western Front, the story of a young German soldier is told as he adapts to the harsh life of a World War I soldier. Fighting along the Western Front, nineteen year old Paul Baumer and his comrades begin to experience some of the hardest things that war has to offer. Paul’s old self gradually begins to deteriorate as he is awakened to the harsh reality of World War 1, depriving him from his childhood, numbing all normal human emotions and distancing future, reducing the quality of his life.
A moral panic can be defined as a phenomenon, frequently initiated by disquieting media and reinforced by responsive laws and public policies, of embellished public concern, angst or anger over a perceived danger to societal order (Krinsky, 2013). The media plays a crucial role in emphasizing a current moral panic. In Jock Young’s chapter Images of Deviance (1971), he comments on the phenomenon of deviance magnification, he deems dramatic media coverage of deviant behaviours to be ironic, owing to the fact that it unintentionally increases rather than restrains the apparent deviance. In hind sight the media create social problems, owing to the fact that they can present them dramatically and are able to do it swiftly (Young & Cohen, 1971: 37).
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. New York. Little, Brown and Company. 1957. Book.