The Importance of One’s Shadow One can see by examining the gravel pit and its importance to the citizens of Deptford, that Robertson Davies’ novel Fifth Business, examines the need for one to accept their shadow in order to fully develop their personality and realize their role in the society. Dunstan describes the gravel pit as something “of unusual importance to our village [Deptford] because it completely blocked any normal extension of streets or houses on our western; thus it was a source of indignation to our village [Deptford's] council”. The gravel pit is more than just a setting to the citizens of Deptford, as it is the place where people who were rejected from the society went, and it was the only place where people could freely do whatever they felt like was right, without being judged. The pit was also a source of annoyance to the citizens because it ‘blocked any normal extension of streets or houses’, which represents the hiding of the citizens dark thoughts and actions, and that annoyed others who …show more content…
No matter how unholy or dirty the gravel pit was seen, it represents each of the citizens shadow, or the unknown dark side of their personalities, and is important to recognize in the story because it makes it clear which characters fully progress in the story, depending on how they viewed the gravel pit setting and the characters associated with that setting. The citizens of Deptford are required to accept their shadow in order to fully develop their personalities, and the gravel pit and its importance can help them realize their role in the society. As Dunstan is one of the main characters, it is important to notice his development, and how the non acceptance of his shadow affects the story. After the gravel pit incident, Dunstans shadow becomes more visible than before because of the guilt he
Incidences that occur in one's childhood tend to affect them possibly for the rest of the rest of their life. This applies to the novel Fifth Business and the characters Dunstan Ramsey and Boy Staunton. Throughout the lives of these characters Dunstan lives in the shadow of Boy due to feelings of guilt and responsibility as a result of one winter evening in the town of Deptford.
People within communities have a large responsibility to one another. Sometimes, however, that responsibility and respect seem to fade, as in “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson, and “The Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe. Both of these stories describe settings in which communities fell apart either briefly or all together.
Davies introduces the reader with Dunstable Ramsay and Percy Boyd Staunton. They are depicted as friends yet rivals at the same time. This is shown when Dunstable had a sleigh that was faster than Percy’s. Of course Percy who is the spoiled rich boy becomes jealous, and starts calling Dunstable names. Knowing that Percy hates it when he is being ignored, Dunstable provokes Percy and ends up with him being chased with snowballs. Eventually someone gets hit and it’s not Dunstable, rather it was Mrs. Dempster whom he had ran around of cover. This is where the whole chain of guilt starts right after this incident. Dunstable feels guilty for this because the snowball who was supposed to hit him, ended up hitting Mrs.Dempster who was pregnant at that time.He feels even guiltier when he hears about the premature birth and infancy of Paul Dempster, which gives him a sickening feeling. As well Dunstable was raised in a strict family and has been encouraged to feel guilt even in the smallest of matters. From that day onward Dunstable was a changed individual who became a responsible person to Mrs. Dempster and was a loyal one. Throughout his life he becomes a better person because of the guilt which he accepts and tries to resolve.
The dirt road symbolizes the sinful life of people. At moments people can be on top of the world and have everything they ever wanted, there are people who have nothing and are at rock bottom, there are people who have been saved and washed of their sins, and there are people who take risks and live carefree. "The dirt road was hilly and there was sudden washes in it and sharp curves on dangerous embankments. All at once they would be on a hill, looking down over the blue tops of trees for miles around, then the next minute, they would be in a red depression with dust coated trees looking down on them," (112) The ditch is another symbol O'Connor uses in her short story. The ditch symbolizes a spiritual rut. A person cannot move forward nor can a person move back in their faith. The mother and grandmother sat in the ditch too frightened to move backwards or forwards.
Bellow and Pynchon are great authors who have widely succeeded in creating characters in their novels who are in search or in need of something; from themselves to answers, knowledge, and power to name a few of the many. These characters tell a story in which the question of perceived individuality within a community receives an answer. Both of the characters of Oedipa of Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 and Joseph from Bellow’s The Dangling Man have similarities between each other and their own specific qualities. It is in the way that the audience perceives these characters versus the way that these characters perceive themselves in the midst of their community that there lies an answer to the individual’s place in their society.
Dawe’s piece, “Enter Without So Much As Knocking” tests materialism and conformity within society. The entire piece is written like a television commercial with a commentator pitching every part of life with reference to Bobby Dazzler on Channel 7. The descriptions – ‘well-equipped’, ‘smoothly-run’, and ‘economy-size’ – generally used on sales products, are used for the character’s household and family. The manner in which his siblings are said to have come off the ‘department rack’ pushes the materialistic theme further, and challenges what humans in society see as important b...
The fog and misery of London which is portrayed in the opening of Bleak House seems to centre on Lincoln?s Inn Hall and the Lord Chancellor, Dickens has given the reader the impression that the government is to blame and that they are just for show and don?t do anything to help, just put on a show for the people of London, as they are purely ceremonial, ?Running their goat-hair and horsehair warded heads against walls of words and making a pretence of equality with serious faces.? Dickens is making the statement that the Government seems to only have time for the rich and successful apposed to the poor and that they do not view society equally, but they try to pretend they do. This gives the reader the impression that London is very much based on classes according to the government.
When looking at Welcome to Night Vale's many deviant acts we find that most of the deviance falls into three categories the first being Night Vale's deviance from the reality of society, the second being individual deviants, and the third being the climatic revolution. Each of these three categories has its own corresponding deviant social organization.
England in the nineteen-thirties was a very bleak and dark time for the working class and unemployed citizens. In The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell, describes the overlooked injustices that happened in in Northern British industrial towns. Orwell depicts his experiences and views on social class and English society. The book is an eye-opener to the challenging hardships that many of the working class gentry faced during the years of the depression; Things such as, horrible housing, social injustices, and a lack of consideration from the government. The primary focus of part one, was to inform the middle class people that the unemployed were victims or a corrupt society, government, and economy.
The stones played of one the largest parts in foreshadowing and symbolism. The reader can overlook the significance of the stones because in the beginning they did not seem out of the ordinary. Children were playing and collecting stones prior to the lottery, but the reader has no idea that the stones are going to be used to kill Tessie Hutchinson. Jackson started foreshadowing with a subtle hint, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets with stones, and the other boys soon followed in his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones” (Jackson). Jackson explained that the children were picking up smooth stones, not jagged, spiky rocks, which could kill a person faster. Although picking up smooth rocks may seemed like a trivial detail, Jackson was actually foreshadowing the ending. Jackson showed the regularity of the stoning, “... eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys” (Jackson). The boys treated as if it was a game; the boys felt the need to gua...
In part one ‘London’ when William is ferrying the supercilious gentry, whom he had a strong sense of ‘hatred’ for, back and forth the river Thames, a women exposes the bottom of her leg sensually teasing William. The surge of anger he feels as the ineffectual man flaunts his wife, shows the rigid class system that condemns William to a life of poverty and backbreaking labour. Furthermore the dichotomy between upper class and lower class is evident through Thornhill’s boss Lucas when ‘Thornhill squints up into the brightness where Lucas looked down upon him’. Although, Thornhill might’ve felt a sense of power and superiority when he was assigned convicts Ned and Dan because he has people working for him and consequentially is now on the ascent up the social order, Captain Suckling’s treatment of him, as ‘he shooed Thornhill away with both hands as if he were a dog’ enforced that Thornhill would always be the felon from England many years ago regardless of his present
Atwood tries to open our eyes by satirising our society with a brilliant contrasting novel. Dystopian in every way, the reader encounters a world in which modern values of our society seem/ are replaceable. Showing the worst of all possible outcomes, she demonstrates that our primarily heartless, just economical thinking could bring the downfall of our society. Altough satires are often used to be funny ;Atwood uses this instrument of literature for an attack on a society which she strongly disapproves of. With the intent to bring about improvement, she raises the question if our current lifestyle excuses the possible future problems.
The slot is a metaphor of the “class cleavage of society”. There was a contrast between the North and South of the Slot in terms of building types: in the North were the higher-class centers of diversion, lodging, and business; and in the South were the lower-class centers of lodging, unskilled work/business. The buildings are figures of two contrasting classes that were segregated (?). In order to study the southern people (the working class) a sociology professor of the University of CA, Freddie Drummond (FD), decides to work temporarily as an unskilled laborer. Initially he experiences social problems of adaptation and acceptance by his fellow workers. For example, he doesn’t understand their insistent admonitions to reduce his work pace. As a result of his fierce competition against them, by the 6th day FD doubles his earnings. He misunderstands their lack of loyalty to the business, and looks down on them. Being unable to convince Drummond, and as a last resort, his co-workers jumped on him and attacked him so badly that he becomes ill. Once recovered, Drummond changes job. He finds himself working as a fruit-distributor among the women and decides not to change their work conditions. In six months, Drummond works at many jobs, and succeeds in imitating a genuine worker. As FD makes tentative generalizations about the working class, he is applauded by the business people, who divulge and spread his studies to the working cl...
Throughout the book Smith gives us a chance to get to know him. He willingly shares his thoughts with the reader, and often times his thoughts develop as he is telling his story giving us an up-close look at the inner workings of Smith’s mind and personality. Smith belongs to a group of people he calls the Out-Laws. It is the underprivileged lower class poor street criminals. Crime runs in Smith’s family, and being born into poverty he nether sees, nor is even willing to contemplate a life without crime. At a point he hints on having some communist views, and perhaps suggests that his father had communist friends, if he wasn’t one himself. Fatally inflicted by cancer, Smith’s father died a painful death. We later find out that it was Smith who found his father breathless in a pool of his own blood, and to this day has a great deal of respect for him. The first time Smith’s family gets a taste of a financially comfortable life is when the factory his father worked in gave them a lump of cash upon his father’s death. “…a wad of crisp blue-back fivers ain’t a sight of good” (Sillitoe, 20) says Smith as the one break his family got was only due to his father’s death. Smith is not money hungry, he steels simply to get by. He knows exactly where he stands in the world- in direct opposition of the In-laws, the “pig-faced snotty-nosed dukes and ladies"”(Sillitoe, 8). He realizes that he is a poor nobody, a petty criminal, an outcast of society.
The men and women of all classes with in Coketown are instruments by which Charles Dickens’ documents the social and industrial understandings of mid-nineteenth-century England. The text shows evident the direct correlation between the limitations and liberties relevant to each class and the social understanding supplementary to the upper and lower classes. The trend marked in both classes is an inadequate knowledge of how the other half lives, and in both cases the divide of understandings perpetuates the divide in society.