The Zoo Story It was your typical Sunday afternoon in Central Park. A slightly plump man is vegetating on a considerably cracked park bench, filling his head with commercial literature, as he did every Sunday afternoon. Peter is just your average hard-working, middle class citizen. He supported an archetypal family---two kids, his wife, and an anthology of many pets. Peter was content with his life; his complaints were few. However, he had no idea that his whole life would be altered by one encounter with a slightly deranged, yet seemingly harmless man. His pity for poor old crazy Jerry is misplaced. Peter does not have to commiserate Jerry, ironically enough it is quite the opposite. Although Jerry is the antagonist, he also serves as Albee's messenger. Originally, people did not understand this play and just wrote it off as absurd or meaningless, but now we know that Albee was trying to prove a point. He makes a harsh statement about the hypocrisy of American Society through the ostracized character of Jerry. The Zoo Story is often classified as an absurd play; however, this does not mean that it lacks a clear moral message or many thematic elements. Initially critics argued that there are no lucid themes in Albee's portrayal, but this is not the case. Albee does not make his themes pop out at us right away like in most dramas; you have to look beyond the simplistic nature of the plot and dialogue to truly see the allegory present in his work such as Jerry's infamous dog story. Obviously there is more to Jerry's story than just befriending a dog. This hidden portrayal of a higher meaning is one of the factors, which helps make The Zoo Story such a timeless drama. The initial confusion about whether the... ... middle of paper ... ...at there are more important things in life than just conforming to acceptable standards. People have a tendency to want to belong to a group, but humans are also individuals. If you ignore your desire to be unique you will never truly be happy as is seen in Peter and all the "fake" people of Manhattan, however if you isolate yourself from the rest of the world like Jerry refusing to be part of a group, you will also be miserable. Albee was trying to point out that a balance is needed in society. You need to belong to a group, but you also have to do some things for yourself. You cannot always conform, just like you can't always object. This is his ingenious yet simple idea that expresses human nature and happiness. Albee was truly ahead of his time almost predicting the change in society and wake up call that America would receive in the next era to come.
Fourteen-year-old Jerry Renault is like your typical skinny or thin teenager in his freshman year at Trinity, a boys' Catholic high school. He tends to dwell on depressive emotion, sexual frustration due to hormones, and loneliness from his mother as well as asking his own existent in the world. He is has no mother and had recently died in a few months. He often remembers and recalling times of his parents lived together in a house with a large backyard and front lawn which his father never got tired of mowing it. He's trying to make quarterback and to do well in school despite that fact weighing him down. As well as being best to be a good son to his widowed father but Jerry is beginning to freak out of his father’s boring life style. He worries about ending up like his dad and being stuck in the same routine as his father. Realizing this factor, Jerry decides to make a change in his life out of impulse saying "No" to chocolates but, he's really saying "no" to the entire “universe” that The Vigils and Brother Leon created at Trinity. The random guy out from the streets accuses Jerry of being a "Square boy. Middle aged at fourteen… “. Disregarding the guy’s aimless lifestyle, he begins questioning all the routines in his life. It’s not like he doesn't love and appreciate his father but Jerry becomes more worried that he'll grow up and be trapped in the kind of boring life as his dad. He comes to the realization that his father is stuck living a dull, almost unhappy life as he looks in the mirror and "sees his father's face reflected in his own features." We can see also in the story, Jerry tends to waver in the border lines of excitement and boredom by isolating himself and not being isolated. In the beginning of t...
Michelle Carr uses a rhetorical mode for the purpose of persuasion in her article, “The Reality of Zoos.” She effectively presents her points by using the persuasive methods of pathos and logos. Carr establishes an emotional connection with the reader by recalling an occasion she noticed how miserable zoo animals were during a childhood memory. Carr also uses logic and reasoning; she appeals to the reader by using facts and figures about the suffering zoo animals experience, like the animals developing “zoochosis” and risking their lives in an attempt to flee captivity. By establishing an emotional connection with the reader and using logic and reasoning, Carr may have persuaded the reader. Nevertheless, the author fails to appeal to the ethical
Today, zoos can be a controversial subject. Many believe that animals belong in the wild, where they can roam free, and not be subjected to the hordes of people that surround them in captivity. But this was not always the case. In the beginning, zoos were created with the goal to conserve wildlife. Nazis, believe it or not, were strong proponents of animal rights and conservation. They actively passed laws to ensure the safety and well-being of animals native to Germany. Top ranking members of the Nazi Party, such as Heinrich Himmler, made the conscience effort to ban the hunting of animals. Set in the late-1930s and early-1940s, Diane Ackerman’s, The Zookeeper’s Wife, tells the captivating and true story of Jan and Antonia Zabinski, two zookeepers that risked their lives to save over three hundred people from
Animal Farm by George Orwell is an excellent allegorical novel filled with many types of high comedy. The main idea of the story is to show how a communistic society doesn’t ever work the way you want it to. The humor in this story is used to make the book more entertaining and to move along the story.
Animal farm showed me a lot about society. For example, the idea of communism. I don’t agree with communism because no matter what, people will still treat people differently. It’s impossible in this world for all humans to be equal. We can never get along. The United States Military, fights for our freedom every day. Most of society today is cruel. We think of someone being more important than someone else. Animal Farm shows us that this is true. Originally, the idea started out as everyone was equal but then it was changed to “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than
...the importance placed on individualism. For, although he ”blinkingly accepts whatever outrageous turn of fortune [he] may encounter” (Twayne, 43) he is still the only character that displays a feeling on emptiness and disillusionment about the constant search of amusement that is seen in all the other characters. Adam questions the generation’s way of living “do you ever feel that things simply can’t go on much longer” and states that he would “give anything in the world for something different” (Waugh, 273). Furthermore, he even goes as far as criticizing the never-ending parties and games as “succession and repetition of massed humanity… those vile bodies…” (Waugh, 171). Although Adam seems to have glimpses of understanding the destruction that this generation is causing, nonetheless, he feels stuck in the vicious cycle that is created by this lifestyle.
The beginning of the story seems very quiet and peaceful. It sets up a scene many people would be familiar with. Even the story about the dog is one most people who have ever owned a house pet would instantly recognize. The woman does seem very vulnerable, however. She is outside in a hammock and the dog seems very little help since "she ended up more his protector than the other way around" (2). The second section sets up frightening images of animals, but they are all in the zoo, so they pose no threat. Yet, this still sustains the reader's original expectation of the bear being a threatening animal. Of all the zoo animals described, the bear seems the most harmless, yet she is still afraid of it. The reader has not been shown any danger yet, but there is still a sense of something about to happen. The only bear we have seen is a "bundle of clothes by [a] dead tree" (5) in a cage at the zoo.
In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the young boys on the island had to make a choice to be themselves or to be like someone else. The novel is about boys stuck on an island trying to survive, but not knowing which leader to follow. The main characters are Piggy, Ralph, and Jack. Ralph was the leader who wanted to do the right thing, Jack was the leader who wanted to do the wrong thing, and Piggy was the one everyone made fun of. William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, supports the cliché, “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” by Piggy staying true to himself and the other boys following Jack.
This poem, Sarajevo Bear written by Walter Pavlich, addresses one of the most important themes, the struggle to keep humanity strong and stable. To begin with, this poem is discussing the sniping campaign that took place in Sarajevo in 1993 and how civilians were the targets of these attacks. During this time people faced a dilemma: they could either stay in hiding forever or until the war ended, or they could do something that would get their mind off the war and relieve some of their stress. People knew though the risk of leaving the security and safety of their home as they could be shot and killed at any time without warning. But still this did not stop the people working at the zoo and feeding the bear to stop their job. Furthermore, the first verse of this poem states that this is the last animal at the zoo. This illustrates that just as many people were dying, many animals were dying as well illustrating that our actions not only affect us but they also affect things around us, and in this poem it was the zoo animals. In a zoo the animals are contained within a certain area an...
Particularly in the passage¨The Stripes Will Survive,¨ the author Jacqueline Adams presents the idea that zoos are going to protect animals that are going extinct. In the passage it says, ¨Educational programs help the local people understand the need to protect Siberian tigers.¨ This piece of evidence shows the reader that zoos are trying to protect as many animals as they can. These places are trying to make it more comfortable and inviting for the animal. Also, the passage mention that, ¨Siberian tigers in the wild has doubled.¨ This tells the reader that what the zoos are doing actually makes a difference. These tigers were about to go extinct, but with the help of zoos they are no longer endangered.
The Satire of Animal Farm & nbsp; Orwell's book, "Animal Farm," is full of satire. This is Orwell's way of communicating problems and resolutions. The main message at Animal Farm is that power cannot be divided equally. There will never be equality for all. Once power is obtained, it is always abused, and power causes all to think as the leader does.
Animal Farm is an allegoric moral satire by George Orwell that depicts the struggles and conflicts of the Russian revolution. The novel can be said to be an intriguing child’s book in which animals could talk and express their opinions. It can likewise be said to be an evaluation of the communist regime, which took place in Russia under the rule of Joseph Stalin. The reader comes across a plethora of interesting characters from whichever perspective it is looked at from, especially the pigs who possess the traits of human behavior. In this essay, I intend to look at how Orwell depicts Napoleon, one of the major characters.
Through his one-act play The Sandbox, Edward Albee has extended the allegory; his characters not only exist as symbols, but are more than vaguely aware of themselves as such. As caricatures rather than characters, they maintain a consciousness of their presence on stage as well as the stereotypical rules and emotions they are meant to display. Specifically through Mommy and Daddy's vacuous and immediate shifts to "appropriate" attitudes, Edward Albee issues his value statement. In effect, Shakespeare's assessment that "All the world's a stage,/And all men and women merely players" has been reanalyzed and extended by Albee, culminating in a work which declares the conventional conception of death as affected and contrived.
In the final act of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Honey apologetically and drunkenly explains that she has peeled the label off her brandy bottle. To this, George replies, "We all peel labels, sweetie: and when you get through the skin, all three layers, through the muscle, slosh aside the organs, and get down to bone, you still haven't got all the way, yet. There's something inside the bone… the marrow… and that's what you gotta get at." In a play blending realism and absurdism, Edward Albee peels off the institutions and values that Americans held and hold dear, such as family, beauty, marriage, success, religion, and education. With blackly humorous ridicule and through critical analysis, Albee suggests that these institutions, traditionally comprising the "American dream," have been desperately created to escape reality. Ultimately, however, he shows us that reality continues to pervasively lurk not far beneath the surface that we have slapped over it, almost as if threatening to eat up the very thing with which we suppress it.
Michelle Carr uses the rhetorical mode of argumentation for the purpose of persuasion in her article, “The Reality of Zoos.” Carr focuses on the issue of the imprisonment and maltreatment of zoo animals in her article. She effectively presents her points by using the persuasive methods of pathos and logos. Carr establishes an emotional connection with the reader by recalling an occasion she noticed how unhappy zoo animals were during a childhood memory. Carr also uses logic and reasoning; she appeals to the reader by using facts and figures about the suffering zoo animals experience, for instance, the animals developing “zoochosis” and the animals being forcibly inseminated for money-making purposes. By establishing an emotional connection