Introduction All of Alice’s life, through the eyes of Erich Fromm, has been an attempt at escaping freedom. Her life up until this point has been an attempt in futility, trying to run from the freedom that haunts her and her husband’s life for that matter. They are both very successful and to the eyes of everyone around them, the epitome of the American dream. Both of them professors and researches, have risen to the heights of academia, when Alice’s disease begins to destroy everything that Alice has worked for and threatens to destroy everything that her husband holds dear. From the perspective of Fromm’s theory though, their lives have been a carefully crafted illusion, to draw themselves away from the reality of their freedom; the empty vacuum of reality, life, and death. Through understanding Fromm’s theory on authoritarianism, types of orientations, …show more content…
Once she has lost the ability to create, and in the manner which she is accustomed to, the desire to create can become a desire to destroy. C. George Boeree in reviewing Erich Fromm’s theories on destructiveness said, “Authoritarians respond to painful experience by, in a sense, eliminating themselves: If there is no me, how can anything hurt me?” (Boeree, 2006, pg. 5), so that by removing themselves the authoritarian is exerting power over their circumstance and not allowing themselves to become a victim to it. While Alice’s initial intentions might have, to her mind, been founded in altruism or the idea that, “my family will better without me,” the decision to end her life is at its core a selfish and destructive one which because she can no longer exert her authority and enjoy her past position of power, she decides to exert the last bit of power she has, the power over her own
Fromm tells us that as humanity continues to move forward, hopelessness will engulf us. Which I agree seeing as when one turns on the TV the majority of the news is either destruction, poverty, homelessness, famine, death and many other problematic matter’s around the world. To think that humanity has advanced so much in technique and technology; yet, there are still numerous problems worldwide and continue to spread. While this is occurring people are losing a sense of individuality due to being consumed too much in a person, video game, TV, etc. Today many teens are being consumed on a media sense and buy in whatever is shown and rather than learning to have their own sense of individuality, they take in what society deems worthy. In conclusion I agree with Erich Fromm with the direction that humanity is heading and
Throughout “Ethan Frome,” Edith Wharton renders the idea that freedom is just out of reach from the protagonist, Ethan Frome. The presence of a doomed love affair and an unforgiving love triangle forces Ethan to choose between his duty and his personal desire. Wharton’s use of archetypes in the novella emphasizes how Ethan will make choices that will ultimately lead to his downfall. In Edith Wharton’s, “Ethan Frome.” Ethan is wedged between his duty as a husband and his desire for happiness; however, rather than choosing one or the other, Ethan’s indecisiveness makes not only himself, but Mattie and Zeena miserable.
Many people oppose society due to the surroundings that they face and the obstacles that they encounter. Set in the bleak winter landscape of New England, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is the story of a poor, lonely man, his wife Zeena, and her cousin Mattie Silver. Ethan the protagonist in this novel, faces many challenges and fights to be with the one he really loves. Frome was trapped from the beginning ever since Mattie Silver came to live with him and his wife. He soon came to fall in love with her, and out of love with his own wife. He was basically trapped in the instances of his life, society’s affect on the relationship, love, poverty, illness, disability, and life.
Words can have a profound, meaningful impact that may alter, shift, and even end lives. In “Create Dangerously”, Edwidge Danticat reveals how words crafted her reality and identity as a woman who lived through a dictatorship. “Create Dangerously” is a nonfiction essay and memoir that focuses on the impact of literature not only in dire times, but in everyday life. Through the use of detail, allusions, and vivid recounting of the past in her writing, Danticat reveals importance and valor of creating art in times where art is a death sentence, and how this belief shaped her identity.
This essay has compared the differences between the societies in these two novels. There is one great similarity however that both make me thankful for having been born into a freethinking society where a person can be truly free. Our present society may not be truly perfect, but as these two novels show, it could be worse.
The concept how woman are treated in modern times have changed drastically compared to woman who lived in the conservative period. That period was the time where the perception of individuals in general dealt with countless restraints. The women were the ones who were affected the most because these values had strongly influenced them. Woman behaved in a way how their husband’s wanted because they were living their lives by the controlled ways of the man. The story of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the story of “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin are two stories that show accurately the way how women were treated at that time; exactly Edna and the other women. I want to discuss that the main characters of these two stories; Edna and the other women’s liberty were interdicted by their husbands. Finally, the way how both stories end; Edna’s suicide, and the other women’s insanity; demonstrates their inability to escape from the unhappy reality. None of them found the real strength, to outdo the restriction and effects of society, to attain their independence and freedom that they continuously wanted to achieve.
She no longer has a will to repress any untold secrets from the past, or perhaps the past. Since she has strayed far from her Christian beliefs, she has given in to the evil that has worked to overcome her. She believes she is finally achieving her freedom when she is only confining herself to one single choice, death. In taking her own life, she for the last time falls into an extremely low mood, disregards anyone but herself, and disobeys the church.
Previously, the narrator has intimated, “She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves. They had never taken the form of struggles. They belonged to her and were her own.” Her thoughts and emotions engulf her, but she does not “struggle” with them. They “belonged to her and were her own.” She does not have to share them with anyone; conversely, she must share her life and her money with her husband and children and with the many social organizations and functions her role demands.
Alice Walker’s writing is encouraging, for it empowers individuals to embrace their culture, human decency, and the untold stories of those who were forgotten. She slays gender roles while fighting for the rights of everyone, and frequently describes how one can impact the life of another and how much control one should have over another’s fate in her themes. Walker’s sublime style exhibited within her works goes lengths to display her themes which are based mainly off of the passionate women she was raised around and the circumstances they overcame. She uses symbolism and metaphors to highlight the themes within her works. Transition needed. carefully cultivates texts that demonstrate her ability to appeal to the minds of the common populace.
The setting of these two stories emphasize, on visually showing us how the main characters are based around trying to find freedom despite the physical, mental and emotional effects of living in confinement. While on the other hand, dealing with Psychology’s ugly present day behavior showing dystopia of societies views of women during the time period they lived.
In conclusion, Jane has been through oppression and depression but she stands up for what she believes in. Jane gains her femininity, socialization, individuality and freedom. Her husband, who has been oppressing her for so many years, is no longer her prison guard. Jane defies her husband, creeps right over him and claims her life” so, that I had to creep over him every time” (Gilman 1609). Jane is now her own personal freedom through perseverance.
In “Hills Like White Elephants” and “The Story of an Hour”, the woman in each story imprisons in the domestic sphere. In “Hills Like White Elephants”, the woman in this story conflicts between keeping the baby or getting abortion although the relationship with her boyfriend would not improve as he said. In “The Story of an Hour”, even though Louise Mallard, an intelligent, independent woman understands that she should grieve for Brently, her husband and worry for her future, she cannot help herself from rejoice at her newfound freedom. The author of this story, Kate Chopin suggests that even with a happy marriage, the loss of freedom and the restraint are the results that cannot be avoid.
She requests that Arden’s body be brought to her and, upon seeing him, she speaks to Arden and confesses to the murder, and expresses her guilt, wishing he were still alive, by saying “...And would my death save thine thou shouldst not die” (“Arden” 8). Though she previously conveyed how free she felt, the combination of the hand-towel and knife used to kill Arden, his innocent blood stains on the floor, and his distorted, unmoving body triggers Alice to feel an overwhelming and unbearable sense of guilt. Once this guilt comes upon her, she cannot stop herself from begging her dead husband for forgiveness, though he cannot offer it to her now. The guilt of her actions causes her to expose the people who helped her enact this heinous crime. Because Alice reveals the truth behind Arden’s murder, every character pays a penance for their
Throughout this novel, author Anthony Burgess has shown us many aspects of freedom of choice and its abuse. Through strong symbols in imagery, Alex's characterization, and his point of view, the absence of choice is proven as the most overlooked depravation of person individual freedom. In everyone's life, the struggle for power exists in all situations. The decision between good and evil is the freedom that everyone must have as an individual. The choice of which path to take is dependant on the person and the situation, but the realization that both exist is a power unto itself.
Alice in Wonderland belongs to the nonsense genre, and even if most of what happens to Alice is quite illogical, the main character is not. “The Alice books are, above all, about growing up” (Kincaid, page 93); indeed, Alice starts her journey as a scared little girl, however, at the end of what we discover to be just a dream, she has entered the adolescence phase with a new way to approach the mentally exhausting and queer Wonderland. It is important to consider the whole story when analyzing the growth of the character, because the meaning of an event or a sentence is more likely to mean what it truly looks like rather than an explanation regarding subconscious and Freudian interpretations. Morton states “that the books should possess any unity of purpose seems on the surface unlikely” (Morton, page 509), but it’s better to consider the disconnected narrative and the main character separately, since the girl doesn’t belong to Wonderland, which is, as Morton says, with no intrinsic unity. Whereas, there are a few key turning points where it is possible to see how Alice is changing, something that is visible throughout her journey. Carroll wants to tell the story of a girl who has to become braver in order to contend with challenges like the pool made by her own tears, or assertive characters, like the Queen.