In The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro places Mr. Stevens’ stay at the Taylors’ house directly after Lord Darlington’s abrupt dismissal of two Jewish staff members, and he uses different tones and the repetition of key phrases in the two incidents to contrast the generosity, respect, and hospitality of the lower class with the racism, cruelty, and emotional detachment of the upper class nobles. Ishiguro especially contrasts the way the two classes treat each other with the courtesy of the lower class and the apathy of the upper class. Ishiguro uses a generally cold and distant tone while Lord Darlington is speaking to Stevens about firing the Jewish housemaids; however, he uses a warm and friendly tone when the Taylors and the rest of the villagers are speaking and being described. These contrasting tones exemplify the cold distance of Lord Darlington and the warm friendliness of the Taylors, and further of the upper and lower classes. In a memory of Darlington Hall, Mr. Stevens recounts a time when Lord Darlington heartlessly fired two Jewish housemaids without any notice, just because of their religion. Ishiguro has Lord Darlington use a very blasé tone during his conversation with Stevens to show his apathy while firing the two employees and furthermore show the racism of the upper class and their indifference to the rest of society. At the beginning of the conversation, Lord Darlington opens by saying: “‘I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking, Stevens. A great deal of thinking. And I’ve reached my conclusion. We cannot have Jews on the staff here at Darlington Hall’” (146). Lord Darlington almost randomly starts talking about firing Jewish staff members, without any preamble, showing the ease with which he can speak of ... ... middle of paper ... ...roughout the novel, Ishiguro seems to be subtly pointing out the flaws in Lord Darlington’s life and generally within the upper class. These two passages show one of these flaws, specifically the indifference and detachment of the upper class. The flaw would not be very obvious if only pointed out through the incident where Lord Darlington dismisses the Jewish housemaids; however, when juxtaposed with the hospitality of the Taylors the flaw is made extremely apparent. Ishiguro turns the firing of the two employees into a way of pushing the people out of the house and the Taylors’ hospitality comes from them accepting Stevens into their home. So, Ishiguro’s larger point seems to be that the upper class tends to nonchalantly push the lower class out of their lives at whim; however, the lower class benevolently accepts the upper class into their lives whenever possible.
Many poets use different types of figurative language to express themselves and convey a message, theme, or idea. In the poem The Day Brushes Its Curtains Aside, by Jimmy Santiago Baca, he describes a man in prison by using figurative language. Reading this poem has helped me grasp a deeper understanding of different ways an author can incorporate figurative language to make the reader feel as if they are in the story right next to the character.
Page 98 shows the menu of the male architect meeting at the University Club. This menu includes “Oysters”, wine, “Filet Mignon A la Rossini”, a cigar break, and various other expensive items. This is compared to “the streets of Chicago filled with unemployed men”(206). While the architects eat like kings; men, women, and children are on the streets starving, but the greed of the Gilded Age elites keeps them from helping the masses. Greed is also shown later in the book, when “25,000 unemployed workers converged on the downtown lakefront and heard Samuel Gompers, standing in the back of speakers wagon No. 5 ask, ‘Why should the wealth of the country be stored in banks and elevators while the idle workman wanders homeless about the streets ‘“(315). This contrasts the opening of the Columbian Exposition, where “Every bit of terrace, lawn, and railing in the Court of Honor was occupied, the men in black and gray, many of the women in gowns of extravagant hues-violet, scarlet, emerald-and wearing hats with ribbons, sprigs, and feathers.”(238). The difference between the two meetings is extraordinary: ragged workers seeking only jobs and places to sleep compared with people dressed in elaborate, expensive outfits seeking to spend their time pursuing pleasure in the Columbian Exposition. This brings light to the fact that these societal elites can spend their time and money pursuing grand visions of entertainment for themselves, but can not help those less fortunate than them. This is hammered home in page 130, where “In the city’s richest clubs, industrialists gathered to toast the fact that Carter Henry Harrison, whom they viewed as overly sympathetic to organized labor, had lost to Hempstead Washburne, a Republican” and later, “Every newspaper in the city, other than his own Times, opposed Harrison, as did
He refers to all the immigration groups in a judgmental way. He complains about the intelligence levels of the Italians, how dirty and deceitful the Jews are, and even the immaculate cleanliness of the Chinamen. Although he does possess quite a bit of bigotry that boarders on the line of prejudice when it comes to African Americans he recognizes that they are suffering from racism and he sympathizes with th...
On this page the narrator describes the lack of confidence the black people of Eatonville have during the day, but that disappears at night when the white "bossman [is] gone." When the white men depart, the black people start to feel more comfortable because the cruel treatment and belittled has ended. It is illustrated in the passage that the black people of Eatonville only feel comfortable to live out their lives when the white people are not surrounding them, but are rather with the people from their own
One of the main themes is slavery, mainly the evil of slavery. At the very beginning of the book, readers are shown the idea that not all slave owners are indeed evil and only care about money. There are some owners who do not abuse or mistreat their slaves, however these ideas are not placed to show that the evil of slavery is conditional, but as a way to show the wickedness of slavery even in the best-case scenario. Due to the fact that even though Shelby and St. Clare show kindness towards their slaves, at the same time their ability to tolerate slavery renders them hypocritical and morally weak. In fact, this is first shown when Shelby shamefacedly breaks apart Tom’s family by selling him. Yet, the most evil of slavery does not render its head until Tom is sold to the Legree plantation, where it appears in its most hideous and naked form; the harsh and barbaric settings where slaves suffer beating, sexual abuse and murder. The play then introduces the shock that if slavery is wrong in the best of case scenario, then in the worst cases it ca...
... stealing, and sleeping with random women, there was no way they could help make the United States a better place. The commercial class needed such people in order for their own business’s to prosper, yet they still disapproved how the lower class spent its free time. Instead of helping change the lower class’s lifestyle, the commercial class just complained about it.
He portrays the racist tendency of people to assume black men are potentially violent and dangerous. He describes about a white woman’s reaction when she and him were walking on same street but on the opposite sides during the night. He says that women seemed to be worried, she felt uneasy and she thought that he was ‘menacingly close’. He even shares his experience on how he was taken as a burglar, mistaken as a killer and forced out of a jewelers store while doing assignment for a local paper. The reason behind being kicked out of the jeweler store and women running away was because he was a black man. During that period black men were stereotyped as rapist, murderer, and gang members. These names upon a person’s personality can hinder ones feelings and can also affect ones confidence level. Thus stereotyping can cause a person to miss opportunities and the person might face difficulties in building relationships with specific types of people. (Brent
He walks into the corporation building, and is greeted by a few of his colleagues, also heading to their cubicle. The man groans at his workload then glances around, seeing his supervisor frowning at him. “Oh boy, this isn’t good.” He thinks to himself as the supervisor walks into his boss’ office for the third time this week. His boss walks out a couple minutes later, and heads straight to the man’s cubicle. “Kevin, this is the third time in just this week that you haven’t been following the company’s procedures. Why won’t you just accept your job and do it like everyone else? I once had your job, and look at me! I’m now one of the head honchos of this place. So please stop disobeying, and you might get somewhere, and not fired.” Social class is a problem today, and it was just as big a problem as in the time of Jane Eyre. In Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre, the protagonist deals with the issues of social class during her childhood, her first employment, her time at Moor house and Morton, and when she is reunited with Rochester.
These members don’t benefit from helping advocate for racial equality, but recognizes that disparaging a large population of individuals to keep an elite class of citizens from having their balance upset, is not beneficial to the whole of the community. They exercise political friendship by working with black individuals advocating for their cause. A lack of political friendship is also seen, which is the result of certain individuals holding their own status above those of others. The narrator is aware of his systematic oppression and the lack of political friendship. In the beginning his habits were to be eager and work hard, offering his trust and respect for others and being hopeful he’d receive it in return. By the end, he grows wearing of receiving little back, and becomes inflexible in his friendships and withdraws his efforts towards cooperation. He struggles with working with whites or even coexisting as he is bitter at his discrimination, and doesn’t trust them. By the end, his psychological state is rather broken and unstable, and he ends up withdrawing from the community, existing as a recluse, as he doesn’t want to contribute to a society that he cannot trust and who doesn’t trust or respect
...d feel sympathy for him. Although Mr. Carson is not “poor”, Gaskell uses this word to describe Mr. Carson to place him on the same standing as Barton and show that they are not so different. The word “employer”, used by Barton, is a stark contrast to the previous title of “master” that he had given Mr. Carson; the change reveals Barton’s change of heart as he realizes that the enemy is not the employer but their inability to communicate with each other. Through Barton and Carson’s dialogue Gaskell shows that though there may be differences between the two social classes, the real problem is their inability to communicate with each other which leads to misunderstandings, hate, and antagonism and often tragic consequences.
Throughout history there have been many dystopian societies, societies with major flaws. In these societies actions occurred which caused harm to the citizens such as murder, destruction of property and other unfortunate consequences. These events are often portrayed in novels to point out the consequences of these societies. The novel Legend by Marie Lu contains events and situations based on historical occurrences such as World War II, North Korea and Tiananmen Square in order to point out societal flaws in real dystopian societies.
... of Maycomb and other towns, primarily across the south, races were only to use their exclusive facilities. A place meant level inequalities only added to the immense imbalance of superiority; this place was a courtroom, where inequality was supposed to be diminished. As white supremacy developed, blacks weren’t as socially accepted and were mistreated. The novel brought focus to a multitude of injustices that would essentially spur change to create a more integrated society in the future. Just as the novel explained how change was in the making, history itself during this time shows how assimilation was in the working. Even though today racial integration is very prominent there are still instances where people are discriminated. Segregation, although not as furious of a fire as it was during this time period, is still an ignited spark in some people’s souls today.
The Marxist style of criticism makes me a bit uncomfortable, because of the socialist and oppressive context it could be mistaken for. There is a clear definition of class in this particular story; Sammy, a young man at the beginning of adulthood yet living in a moderately conservative town in New England. His mom still irons his shirts for him, and he has little respect for his elders. This is clearly outlined when a double rung up item brings a scolding from a 50-something, a look at his thought process, reveals him imagining her in Salem burning at the stake. At this time he notices three young females gracing their way through the store. He describ...
Essex County Court records concerning the Leonards, a family of immigrant iron workers, will be examined as a case study of the social integration of outsiders into a typical Puritan community. The Leonards do seem to epitomize the "truculent and profane" iron workers that Innes describes. The court cases involving the various Leonard family members often seem to be of a different, darker character than other, perhaps more typical, cases. While most Puritan lawsuits involved boundary lines and bad language, the Leonards were brought before the court charged with arson and highway robbery. As skilled and thus valued iron workers, the Leonard family was tolerated for pragmatic reasons. But the level of toleration shown by the community seemed to ...
No hope for advancement prevails throughout the story. Sarty, his brother and the twin sisters have no access to education, as they must spend their time working in the fields or at home performing familial duties. Nutrition is lacking "He could smell the coffee from the room where they would presently eat the cold food remaining from the mid-afternoon meal" . As a consequence, poor health combined with inadequate opportunity results in low morale. A morale which the writer is identifying with the middle class of his times "that same quality which in later years would cause his descendants to over-run the engine bef...