Saturday, a novel by Ian McEwan, was written in 2005 in response to McEwan’s interest in the interplay between the social and professional worlds. McEwan’s novel follows top English neurosurgeon, Henry Perowne, through a typical Saturday disrupted by various intense events. Perowne takes many of these events in stride, allowing his logical nature to carry him through the process of action and reaction, each step proceeding rationally from the next. Perowne’s logical views of the world and the people within it are born from his education and work as a neurosurgeon. Within the novel, these views progress into every part of Perowne’s life from his relationships with his friends and family to his hobbies to his opinions, mainly his opinions regarding …show more content…
As Kathi Weeks, author of “The Problem with Work,” says, “work is the primary means by which individuals are integrated not only into the economic system, but also into social, political, and familial modes of cooperation” (8). Perowne’s interactions with everyone that he meets in any sphere are affected by the logical nature of his work and by extension his outward disdain for the artistic. Yet, in spite of this, both of Perowne’s children have taken up artist professions in order to support themselves. Perowne’s daughter, Daisy, is a poet living in the outskirts of Paris, while Perowne’s son, Theo, is an aspiring blue’s musician. There are certainly times where Perowne does not see the value in the work that his children do. At the beginning of the novel regarding his son, Perowne notes that if London were to be taken over by an extremist Islamic state, “there’ll be room for surgeons. Blues guitarists will be found other employment” (McEwan 34). There may be some value within Theo Perowne’s work, but that value is not economical or physical. The skills that Theo possesses cannot be measured on a logical scale, not by Islamic extremists and not by Perowne. The feelings created by the art might be pleasurable and rewarding, as with Perowne’s classical music, but this pleasure is not needed in order for humanity to survive and continue moving forward …show more content…
The strongest example of this comes when Daisy is able to use her knowledge of poetry in order to help change Baxter’s mind during his attack on the Perowne family. After the attack is over there is a toast to her bravery, “We’re raising our glasses to Daisy…Her poems mark a brilliant beginning to a career” (McEwan 241). Daisy is literally able to save her father’s life through her pursuit of poetry. The artistic nature that she possesses is able to reach out and touch another person in a way that prevents him from hurting her family. Without Daisy’s art, it is hard to say if the family would have been able to proceed unscathed from the attack. There is huge value within Daisy’s art in this way, because there is huge social power within it. Daisy art gives her status as an important individual, which is toasted by her family. Even so, the toast is not just a marker of the social value that Daisy’s poems have, but also the economic value that they will one day provide. Daisy’s thoughts and feelings within her art are so good that she will be able to support herself economically through them. Her art is something that people will pay to consume it, and she will be able to create a career from this fact. The pride of a father is something that is able to overcome the logical nature of Perowne’s opinions on art. His daughter is going to be a successful woman through her art, whether
For instance, Doodle figures out how to walk, run, swim, fight, and climb, before his misfortune. Doodle feels proud that he can start to be a typical kid, and is content that his brother is proud of him. Brother is also upbeat that Doodle can move like an average child and that he finally has a playmate. Furthermore, Doodle and Brother “share” Old Woman Swamp together. Doodle is pleased that he and Brother can spend quality time together and have fun. Brother is enjoying Doodle being somewhat normal, and helping and helping him be even more normal. To conclude, the effects of pride can have pleasant effects.
For instance, in My Name Is Asher Lev , Asher is unsure whether or not the responsibility of pleasing the important people of his life and community is more important than making himself happy. In order for Asher to make others happy, he must sacrifice his one desire of being an artist. After attempting to do so, he concludes that being an artist is a greater priority in his life, because can not meet the needs of all the people that are important in to him in his life. Asher’s mother has no objections of his desire to draw, and is often encouraging him, which late in the novel leads him to become an artist. One example of his mother influencing him, she takes Asher, at a young age, on walks to several places, like the park. At these places Asher is able to draw different images, helping him find a hobby that he loves and that will later become his life. Another place his mother takes him to is the art museum. There they speak and learn about art, which Asher is later influenced by the paintings that are on display in that museum, and he often copies famous paintings. Another example, his mother is constantly asking Asher questions about his art, showing signs of interest. For instance, when she is ill and does not speak to her as often as she once did, she asks, “Asher?... Asher, are you drawing pretty things? Are you drawing sweet, pretty things? ...You should make the world pretty, Asher. Make it sweet and pretty. It’s nice to live in a pretty world” (Potok, p.17-18). By speaking to Asher about art when she is so sick and has other things on her mind shows him that she enjoys his art and that it is important.
In the short story After 20 Years written by O. Henry, Officer Jimmy Wells, while walking his beat, went to meet his old friend Bob at the spot they agreed to 20 years earlier when he realizes that Bob is a wanted man in Chicago. Officer Wells is faced with a dilemma - being loyal to his friend Bob, or being loyal to his duty as a police officer. Officer Wells doesn’t have the heart to arrest Bob himself, so he doesn’t reveal his identity and instead sends an undercover officer to arrest him. The undercover officer pretends to be Jimmy but, on their walk, they stop to look at each other and Bob realizes that the man isn’t Jimmy. The man reveals himself as an undercover cop sent by Jimmy and gives Bob a note from Jimmy in which Jimmy confesses who he is and explains that he could not arrest Bob himself. It seems as though O. Henry believes that Jimmy did the right thing. The evidence of that is that O. Henry writes Bob as an arrogant man who wears flashy accessories, brags about his wealth, and travels 1,000 mile to boast, knowing he’s a wanted man, while Jimmy is a quiet and clever man.
Though people can look into color and composition, others can still even look into the source of the art itself. Cole goes deeper, delving into the source of the art, looking in particular into the idea of cultural appropriation and the view a person can give others. Though it is good for people to be exposed to different opinions of a group or an object, sometimes people can find it difficult to tell the difference between the reality and the art itself. Sometimes art can be so powerful that its message stays and impacts its audience to the point where the viewer’s image of the subject of the art changes entirely. Cole brings up an important question about art, however. Art has become some kind of media for spreading awareness and even wisdom at times, but in reality, “there is also the question of what the photograph is for, what role it plays within the economic circulation of images” (973). Cole might even be implying that Nussbaum’s advertisement can sometimes be the point of some media, and that sometimes the different genres of art can just be to make someone with a particular interest happy. One more point that Cole makes is that “[a]rt is always difficult, but it is especially difficult when it comes to telling other people’s stories.” (974) Truthfully, awareness and other like-concepts are difficult to keep going when a person or a group is not directly involved.
The world in which Lily grows up in is one where money is the standard by which everyone is judged. In a setting like this, “money stands for all kinds of things- its purchasing quality isn’t limited to diamonds and motor cars” (Wharton 66). Therefore, even small things such as the way a person dresses or the places someone frequents become of high importance as they are representative of how much money a person possesses. This materialistic tendency ...
Up through the Middle Ages, Western music was dominated by the church; it was all sacred music. The most artistic and refined secular music came from twelfth- and thirteenth-century composers called troubadours and trouveres. Bernart de Ventadorn was one of the most popular troubadour poets of his time. Ben m’an Perdut tells a story of a man’s unreciprocated love and his decision to leave Ventadorn as a result. The first piece after the intermission is another composition of Bernart titled Tan tai mo cor ple de joya.
+The existential position toward Susan Orlean’s essay “Saturday Night” is one that rejects the dehumanizing state of “Saturdayness” and man being defined solely as the hedonistic Being-for-St. Elsewhere (Man as Future-State Man). Her guidelines for Saturday night directly contrast the existentialist ideals of freedom, the individual, and living in the present, and the philosopher Jean-Paul Satre surely would agree. *Even Orlean herself admits “chronological time is a sort of an anachronism these days”: the “Fun Imperative” has been replaced by the “Fear Imperative” (AIDS); and the living-for-the-future syndrome is a Satrian act of “bad faith” and must be acknowledged as such.
... turning some who can be seen as a blank canvas into someone new. In both ways, Evelyn and Henry Higgins are the artists to their work. Though they might not treat the people they are working with as a human, in the grander idea they have made them better. Adam finally comes to terms with his true personality, while Evelyn exposes what society believes are the norms for a person’s appearance. While, with Eliza, she leaves the life of being a beggar and becoming a duchess, showing how through hard work a person can change, and it becomes hard to return to one’s prior self. Both instances show art playing a large role in shaping their lives. From learning about life through art, people then strive to be on the same level as the art the see, trying to live a grander lifestyle. Showing that to a certain extent art can influence life more than life can influence art.
In Pat Kirkham reading “Humanizing Modernism: the crafts, ‘Functioning Decoration’ and the Eameses has a lot of great points made. However, one of my favorite points that he makes is when he mentions the values/believes of Charles and Ray. For example, he says “Both he and Ray believed that one of life’s main objectives was’ to get as many of the rewards of life from the work you do…’” (Kirkham, 32.) I like that this was mentioned because it shows how you should value and put, your all into something you do since if you keep on building on your previous work it can become something even more powerful. Also I feel that this is trying to make us understand that things we do in life should be taken in consideration one way or another in order
She believes that the refusal of work promotes anti-productivism, which “allows us to see work as a form of violence, rather than a path to self-discovery or a necessary service to the community” (164). In opposition to Weeks, Berg deems that the refusal of work is a radical way of attempting to accomplish Wages for Housework. Furthermore, she supports this argument by saying that capital binds its workers to the job because it “binds workers to absorb the costs of the risks” (169). These risks are often associated with financials, social expectations, etc which can then interfere with future generations. For example, teachers who are protesting for better pay are often bothered by the thought of the social repercussions of their actions, especially if it can be harmful to their future. These “social repercussions” are defined as “blackmail” or “social necessity debt”because the necessity of their work will contribute to the reproduction of society (163). In Berg 's analysis, continuing this wave of feminism reveal the complexities that is rather hard to make final decisions for because of the many emotional ties and moral obligations associated with capitalism, laborers, and their
Arthur Morrison’s A Child of the Jago (1896) is intrinsically linked to the social class system and poverty. The novel is set and published during the late Victorian age, a period in which the working class experienced a relentless struggle against the harsh realities of social and working conditions. Moreover, in his paper The Working Class in Britain 1850-1939, John Benson highlights the disparities between the poor and the economy during the era, s a result of the Industrial revolution and urbanisation(Benson, 2003,p.30). Although, Benson's argument is valid when focusing on a social novel such as A Child of the Jago; because through his childhood the protagonist Dickie Perrot commits heinous crimes and becomes incredibly defiant in the old Jago; On the other hand, Benson's argument does not explain how and why an individual would succumb to these acts. Morrison makes it clear in his preface to his readers and critics that he wrote the novel to expose the trails and tribulations of the poor and the grim realities of slum living through the characterization of Dicky Perrot ' It was my fate to encounter a place in Shoreditch, where children were born and reared in circumstances which gave them no reasonable chance of living decent lives: where children were born foredamned to a criminal or semi criminal career' (Morrison, 1897). Despite, the novel being set in the fictional genre, elements of Morrison's personal life is prevalent throughout the text. Morrison originates from a working class background and collaborated with Reverend Osborne to campaigned for a variety of social reforms and slum clearance in the Old Nichol (Matlz, 2003). Thus, the novel is based on the conception of reality rather than fiction ...
An example of this is when Jing-Mei is so exhausted from the nightly testing that when she looks in the mirror she sees herself as a “sad, ugly girl”. At this juncture in the story the daughter first expresses her feelings of defeat and gives up. The mother however, continues to search for the talent that will make her daughter famous and successful. The talent show is the turning point when the mother’s character changes. She is withdrawn and quiet for a couple of days while she inwardly sorts out the disappointment she feels in her daughter. The daughter’s resentment continues to fester and is manifested in a heated argument of which results in the daughter saying some hurtful things to her mother. This event changes the mother’s character drastically in that she basically gives up on her daughter. Years later, on the daughter’s thirtieth birthday, the mother’s character develops to the point that she is able to forgive her daughter and gives her the piano. The gift represents forgiveness and acceptance by her mother for just being who she is. The mother’s belief that her daughter had great potential was unwavering even after years of watching her daughter settle for
The “privileged minority” mystifies works of art in order to control people’s view. Berger explains how Hals becomes after he painted the two paintings. According to Berger, “he obtained three loads of peat on public charity, otherwise he would have frozen to death. Those who now sat for him were administrators of such public charity” (158).
For example, in The Odyssey, Odysseus checks himself while he lives in disguise among the suitors and chastises himself by saying, “‘Bear up old heart! You’ve born worse, far worse’” and “forced his spirit back into submission, the rage in his breast reigned back–unswerving, all endurance” (Homer, p. 411). Odysseus dissolved his pride to make way for a brighter future for himself. Odysseus’s learned from his past mistakes to control his anger, and pride. I have learned through Odysseus that people can learn to control their pride, and that when I am having difficulties controlling my emotions I need to remember that I have endured worse. In the first scene of Much Ado about Nothing, Beatrice declares that Benedick “wears his faith but as the fashions of his hat; it ever changes with the next block” (Shakespeare, p. 51). Beatrice and Benedick’s relationship grows rapidly throughout the play, but Beatrice’s half-joking, half-serious comment helps me to remember to forget my pride, and let people know how I truly feel instead of playing games with them. Lastly, in David Copperfield, David learns from Annie Strong that “there can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose” (Dickens, p. 552). From this, I have realized that happiness in marriage comes from an equal in mind and purpose above interests, likes, dislikes, or
Sociological criticism analyzes the political, economic, and cultural aspects of literature. To examine literature from the perspective of Marxist social theory is a quintessential form of sociological criticism, as Marxism primarily deals with political and economic ideas of communism and social inequality. William Blake, a Romantic poet, frequently wrote on the topic of class oppression and his opposition to the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. Blake’s ideology and preference towards an equalitarian society quite closely mirror the theories of Karl Marx. Analyzing Blake’s poetry from a Marxist perspective paints a clearer picture of the motives behind Blake’s anger towards social inequality. Poems such as “The Chimney Sweeper” and “London” from his poetry collections Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience illustrate Blake’s despair regarding the unjust and unequal society of 18th century England. In “The Chimney Sweeper,” Blake expresses his anger at the late 18th and 19th century's use of child labor in urban England. In “London,” Blake illustrates the depressing class oppression prevalent in the streets of the city.