Sydney Carton in Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities, finds himself trapped within this cycle. Believing his life to be a waste, he does nothing to help himself, causing other characters to see him as worthless, which reinforces his beliefs. However, through his love for Lucie Manette, his actions show that he is both right and wrong because his life, though squandered, comes to end with a selfless sacrifice. Hiding behind false paradigms, Carton’s biggest obstacle is himself. Often, he dismisses his intelligence and diligence.
Completing the journey of burying Addie does not actually accomplish anything at all. Ironically, the end of the quest simply results in more misery for the Bundren family. Therefore, Faulkner uses irony and inversion throughout the novel to break the storyline and reveal reality as subjectivity. Therefore, he uses irony and inversion as significant themes to challenge the classical quest and invert everything to the opposite of what readers would consider normal. He collapses the hierarchy of a quest with a modernist way of thinking.
When reading “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, there is no doubt at all that Elliot has indeed, created the most distinguishable anti-hero. Prufrock is shy, timid, haunted by thoughts degraded by failure, indecisive, pessimistic, self-conscious, and overall pathetic. He has a horrible, distorted view on society and feeling sympathy for the man is almost inescapable. Prufrock will never be the hero. His self-doubting and cynical nature, bundled with suppression and a melancholy attitude towards life is leading only to a future full of isolation and loneliness.
Seeing how both families, the Linton and the Earnshaw's stand up for one another, Heathcliff understands that the one thing that kept him alive has now been defeated. Therefore his life has no purpose, and he has lost. Emily Bronte's master piece, Wuthering Heights, is a timeless story of love, deception, betrayal and revenge. It recognizes that life in the world is not a utopia. Revenge is the main theme in the book because it highlights important events, personality flaws, and the path to self-destruction.
In contrast Miniver Cheevy, had nothing to be admired for, he had done nothing with his life and yet he longed to have the adoration that Richard Cory had, the respect and almost kingly qualities, “he was a gentleman from sole to crown”. Miniver Cheevy wanted to be the hero that Cory was to the people on the street. “Miniver mourned the ripe renown that made so many a name so fragrant.” ”Richard Cory” is told from an outsider’s point of view, so that the reader does not gain any more insight into Cory’s mind then the people on the pavement. This also adds to the surprise when Cory, seemingly happy, puts a bullet in his head. Richard Cory had no friends the people of the town never really saw him as a person, in fact they never saw him at all, the “people on the pavement looked at him”, never spoke to him, he was only something to admire.
Throughout the film Bell has spoken of his disillusionment of the contemporary world – the collapse of morality and the uncasing of the devil within – and he does not disappoint here. Describing the death of his father, Bell, using the dream as a metaphor for passing, points to the decaying disorder that society has become but more so the death of tradition and the old way of life. The life that he knew. And the minutes fly by, leaving behind some unsettling notions about the bloody, absurd intransigence of fate and the noble futiligy of human efforts to master it. Mostly, though, No Country for Old Men leaves behind the jangled, stunned
Additionally, the stationary ‘dock’ shows that reality is still and that he will never form a relationship with Daisy or anyone in West Egg. However, ‘minute’ reinforces this because it represents that his past love is ‘far away’ and will never be in Gatsby’s hands. Furthermore, the materialism demonstrated by Gatsby’s relationship between his charact... ... middle of paper ... ..., exaggerates this to show that Gatsby’s death was inevitable: destiny. The ‘dumping ground’ is also a crude reference to Gatsby’s position, as society ‘brood’ over his death, as he used his ambitions to claw his way into wealth, rather than being born into it, like Tom and Daisy Buchanan, an idea that is beyond the social normal in America. In my opinion, I believe that Gatsby was not an ideal character to live in American society in the 1920s, because of his over-ambitious dreams and self-conflicting character.
In “Sweat”, Sykes’s encounter with death reveals that the African American man’s arrogance is the cause of the demise of the African American race. Wright’s short story “Long Black Song” and Hurston’s short story “Sweat” engage in a dialectic, in which “Sweat” repudiates “Long Black Song”, and produce the truth that one’s hubris that is the source of the difficulties of one’s race and the demise of oneself. In Wright’s short story “Long Black Song”, through his anger about white men, Silas reveals that the black woman is the source of African American difficulties. His anger for white men is triggered when he learns about Sarah’s interaction with the young white man selling clocks and gramophones. It escalates as he discovers that Sarah was raped by the white man.
Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, effectively exposed the racism that was common during his lifetime. Through the harsh behavior and word choice of the characters and narrator, Conrad displays the uncivilized treatment of nonwhites that occurred during the period of colonization. Edward Garnett, an English writer and critic, summarized the plot of Heart of Darkness as being “an impression… of the civilizing methods of a certain great European Trading Company face to face with the “nigger” (145 Heart of darkness backgrounds and Criticisms). Conrad use of harsh language and terrifying situations, which were based off of his own experiences, capture the audience’s attention and helps them see the cruelty of the European colonization of Africa. The reality of racism during the 19th century is easily seen throughout Conrad’s novella.
The suggestion that pessimism dominated the outlook of the world is out ruled in the perspective of an existentialist. The leading philosopher of this attitude Jean ?Paul Sartre believed that in passing judgment of individual?s actions one is being deceptive towards their own. To a spiritual individual this is unacceptable way of thought, coming to terms with the reality of living in purposeless world, would be end to a faith of a purposeful future which ultimately does not exist. In The Stranger Meursault comes to terms with his own execution as he realizes death will come for him weather it is today or five years from now this life is meaningless but he lived as he wanted (Fiero 71 -72). During Post World war two era developments of technology and the modern society?s estrangement from reasoning left the individual alienated from aspects of life.