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Argumentative essay about change
Argumentative essay about change
Argumentative essay about change
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On the Road by Jack Kerouac and Animal Farm by George Orwell are two very subjective novels written by two very acclaimed authors and published in the mid 1940’s to late, 1950’s. These novels argue the concept of social change, by exploring situations past and present, and that may hold values to certain people, by exploring certain topics and events, these books highlight different forms and effects of social change. People often attempt to escape from the portrayal of society and its norms, changing their way of life, the way they think and the way believe, and even though people try to escape however, they often find themselves returning to the way they were before, if changing anything at all. Social change is a challenge to the status …show more content…
On the Road is a well renowned novel written by Jack Kerouac entirely on one continuous scroll of paper. This novel attempts to and succeeds quite well at conveying the ideal of social change through the themes and events that take place throughout the text. In the book, we see ourselves watching through the eyes of the main character throughout his participation in the road trips he takes with his friends. Throughout these trips we see the characters change and develop, true agendas become present and different beliefs cause conflicts. Adding to this the events that take place throughout the story allow us to watch the way these characters change and the way they are affected by what is going on around them. We see the main characters try to “escape” (Kerouac 1957, 145) from the idea of social conformity to “live” (Kerouac 1957, 26) how “he wants” (Kerouac 1957, 27) to and how …show more content…
In the novel we see the animals create their own way of living, by removing humans from the farm. The return to conformity is represented through the progression of the pigs, as the story progresses and we’re left with the final pig, we see it begin to break the rules put in place by their new government, beginning to act out as normal people would, drinking, wearing clothes and using bedding just being a few. They create their own government under a communist rule. However these themes are never directly “stated” (Orwell 1945, 34), they are present through similarities and are “comparisons” (Orwell 1945, 44) towards the Russian “revolution” (Orwell 1945 54). Eventually however the animals return to the way things once were, returning to conformity. In the novel, animals represent the different classes of civilians during the revolution, with the overarching theme within the book representing the Russian revolution. The story relies heavily on the understanding of the events that took place during the time of revolution, but at the same time takes an effective approach at explaining them in a very simple to understand way that not only represents the revolution itself but also the idea of social change. The poem Change by Unknown is an effective piece of writing that reflects the view of certain individual and the views others have on
Animal Farm by George Orwell is a novel based on the lives of a society of animals living on the Manor Farm. Although the title of the book suggests the book is merely about animals, the story is a much more in depth analysis of the workings of society in Communist Russia. The animals are used as puppets to illustrate how the communist class system operated and how Russian citizens responded to this. And also how propaganda was used by early Russian leaders such as Stalin, and the effort this type of leadership had on the behavior of the people of Russia.
Jack Kerouac's On the Road is considered the bible of the Beat Generation, illustrating the wild, wandering, and reckless lifestyle chosen by many young people of the time. Despite all of Dean and Sal's partying and pleasure-cruising, On the Road ends up being a sad and disturbing story. During all the trips, through the good times and the bad times, there is a sense of darkness and foreboding following in the wake. Kerouac's point was not to put on display the wild and good times the Beats were having, but rather to expose their way of life as a simple flight from reality and responsibility. The sadness of this novel is due to the accumulation of consequences stemming from the characters' irresponsibility and general lack of direction. Dean and Sal, however, never fully admit this to themselves. Part of the story's beauty is Sal's non-judgmental narrative. To preserve this, Kerouac must carefully incorporate these views while leaving Sal somewhat oblivious to them. This is done using other characters to implant the notion of looming responsibility and reality into the story, and to communicate to the reader that life really is more serious than Sal admits in his narration.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than other.” is one of the most famous quotes from George Orwell’s Animal Farm. From afar, Animal Farm is a fictitious novel with no real substance, but when carefully read, it is a chilling allegory of the horrors of the Russian Revolution. Orwell stresses in the novel, the dangers that go along with a bureaucratic or totalitarian regime. The novel supports the idea that Communism is an unethical and unjust system of government and damages society. While Orwell hides the fact that the novel has information, identical to events pertaining to Russia during the 1940’s, he utilizes it in an innocent way by using simple farm animals to directly compare different events and characters of the revolution.
In Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road, the narrator, Sal Paradise offers up to us what seems to be a very optimistic view on life. He is forever singing the praises of how wonderful his adventures will be and his high expectations for the future. To Sal, the novel is defined by youthful exuberance and unabashed optimism for the new experiences that he sets out to find. A deeper look into the novel, as well as a look at some of the critics who have written on it, reveals a much darker side, a more pessimistic and sad aspect that Sal simply fails to realize until the very close of the action. Whether Sal is hopped up on the optimism of jazz music, secure in his belief that he is off to find ‘IT,’ or just excited about the promises of a night out in a new city, he is consistently selling the reader on the positive nature of the situations. To be more honest though, On the Road is a novel in which Sal, and the people with whom he surrounds himself, find themselves steeped into a near constant cycle of enthusiastic optimism for the future, which is then followed by a disparaging pessimism for the situation’s reality. While Sal might note that he desires the freedom and happiness of the open road, Ann Douglas says that "this is the saddest book that I’ve ever read" (Douglas, 9). While Sal attempts to show a exuberant and triumphant story of youthful optimism, critics and the actual events of the novel alike seem to point towards the fact that this same optimism turns the novel into a pessimistic story showing the actualities of life.
In an attempt to overcome writers’ block, Jack Kerouac, alongside Neal Cassady, explored the American West in a series of adventures that spanned from 1947 to 1950. On the Road is the “lovechild” of Kerouac and Cassady’s escapades, fueled by jazz, poetry, and drug use. Its political and aesthetic dimensions are thoroughly complex, yet intertwined. On the Road portrays the story of a personal quest in search of meaning and belonging in a time when conformity was praised and outsiders were scorned. It was during this ...
On the Road by Jack Kerouac, author during the Beats’ generation, is largely considered a novel that defined a generation. Despite this consideration, however, there are very many controversies linked to this book. Though many call the novel offensive, unexciting, and poorly written, Kerouac deserves the entirety of the acclamations he has received over the years as the result of his roman á clef. Along with literary classics such as The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Grapes of Wrath; On the Road has historically been challenged and even banned in classroom settings. If a novel is challenged, that means it has a message that breaks the status quo and pushes the boundaries of literature. On the Road objects stigmas about casual sex, the drug culture, poverty, capitalism and what it meant to be living in 1960’s America.
George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm is a great example of allegory and political satire. The novel was written to criticize totalitarian regimes and particularly Stalin's corrupt rule in Russia. In the first chapter, Orwell gives his reasons for writing the story and what he hopes it will accomplish. It also gives reference to the farm and how it relates to the conflicts of the Russian revolution. The characters, settings, and the plot were written to describe the social upheaval during that period of time and also to prove that the good nature of true communism can be turned into something atrocious by an idea as simple as greed.
Released more than a decade apart, Kerouac's On the Road and Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider are replete with parallels. Both depict characters whose beliefs are not quite uniform with those of society; in both cases these characters set out in search of "kicks" but become part of something larger along the way. More importantly, these two texts each comment insightfully on the culture of their respective times. But all these similarities become superficial in the face of the inherent differences between the two.
On The Road is an autobiographical first-person book written in 1951 and based on Kerouac's experiences of the late 1940's. At the time, America was undergoing drastic changes and the sense of sterility brought on by a mechanized Cold War era society resu lted in a feeling of existential dislocation for many. Numerous Americans began to experience a sense of purposelessness and the air was rife with disillusionment. Kerouac was one of these restless postwar young people and he longed for...something. A n ew kind of hero? A return to a Romantic tradition and simpler days? When Kerouac met Neal Cassady, he knew Cassady was the kind of hero he had been seeking. Eventually, as Robert Hipkiss notes, "Kerouac began to see Neal as an 'archetypal American Man' "....and, in fact, when Kerouac created Dean Moriarty out of Neal, "he created a new symbol of flaming American youth, the American hero of the Beat Generation" (32-3). Indeed, as Hipkiss argues, Dean Moriarty
In Orwell's Animal Farm, the animals revolt against the cruel human leaders and set up a better method of farm management where all animals are equal. As time passes, the new leaders become greedy and corrupt, and the other animals realize conditions are just as miserable as before. There is a major connection between Animal Farm and Russian communism. The pigs are one of the most significant of these connections, representing the communist rulers of Russia, like Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Their traits, personalities, and actions are similar to the actual men in power. In the novel Animal Farm, the pigs represent the communist leaders of Russia in the early 1900s.
The concept of identity is ever-changing throughout the life of a human being. This becomes especially evident when someone is put into a position of leadership and responsibility. This facet of identity is explored in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. The purpose of this novel is, specifically, to portray the uprising and corruption of the Communist regime in Russia, but in a broader sense, it shows how even the best-intentioned people can be overwhelmed and intoxicated by the sense and want of power. This change in attitude and identity is illustrated by Orwell’s use of the motif of the word “comrade”. At the beginning of the novel, this term is used as a sign of equality and friendship. However, through the development of the novel and the eventual dictatorship run by the Berkshire pig, Napoleon, the term seems to have almost a cynical meaning. The changing meaning of the word “comrade” throughout the novel symbolises the changing values of the Animal Farm society. For example, in the first meeting of the animals on their theory of Animalism, Old Major refers to all the animals as “c...
In Jack Kerouac’s ‘On The Road’, the protagonists embark upon a long, arduous quest for human identity. Their aim is to uncover who they truly are, where they fit in the ‘scheme of things’ and what the meaning of life is. They articulate this desire by speaking, during the novel, of the search for ‘IT’, ‘IT’ being human identity. This ‘IT’ is an intangible thing; something that holds a different meaning for every individual. It encompasses all the things humans yearn for – life answers, the meaning of the universe, happiness, enlightenment, self-fulfilment, ‘beatification’ (as articulated by Kerouac). ‘On the Road’ is the story of a desperate search for ‘IT’, in which the protagonists finally come to realise that ‘IT’ is unattainable and time cannot be defied.
This story Animal Farm by George Orwell is a novel about an animal revolution over an oppressive farmer. The irony in the story comes when the pigs turn into the very thing revolted against. They exhibit the same cruelty by treating the other animals the same or even worse than previous owners. This cycle of cruelty is shown in the Russian revolution by Joseph Stalin who is represented by Napoleon in the story. Cruelty in animal farm is shown by the human’s treatment of the animals, and the animal’s eventual treatment of each other and the ironic characteristics of the two.
Dardess, George. "The Delicate Dynamics of Friendship: A Reconsideration of Kerouac's On The Road." American Literature. v46: 200-206. 1974.
All of the characters in Animal farm have counterparts in real life. This book was based on the Russian Revolution, and all the important populace of the revolution are symbolized. Some of the animals represent individuals in the Russian Revolution, and some types of animals represent different types of Russian citizens. The book carries out much like the actual revolution. It starts out with hopes of an empire where all are equal and the unfair unjust leader is thrown out. Then it moves on to where some individuals begin to take more power than is rightfully theirs. At the end the rulers have completely taken over and the kingdom is as it was under the original rulers. I will compare the animals from top of the social class to the bottom. At the top were the pigs. Each pig represented someone different in the revolution. Old Major is compared to Lenin. He was an ideologist who dreamed up a wonderful government where all the animals were equal and the humans, or the czars, were pushed out. Unfortunately his dream would never materialize. Then we are left with his predecessors. The first is Snowball. Snowball believed one hundred percent in Old Majors ideals. He wanted all the things Old Major wanted, such as the welfare of the animals. In the Russian Revolution his counterpart would be Trotsky. Trotsky believed and wanted the same things as Lenin, and wanted to continue what Lenin had started. Then comes Napoleon. Napoleon was selfish and greedy. He did not want to share the power or the decision making with any other individual. This was the same for Stalin. At first Napoleon and Snowball shared the decision making and had debates about what course of action they would take. This worked for awhile. Then Napoleon grew weary of long debates, and he thought he could make the decision by himself. He then forced Snowball out of the farm and started to spread lies about Snowball to get the entire farm against him. Stalin did the same thing against Trotsky and forced Trotsky into hiding into Mexico, where he was eventually assassinated. Both Stalin and Napoleon ruined any hopes of equal and fare government and instead set up dictatorships. Then comes the final important pig, Squealer. Squealer did not make the decisions in the government but acted more like the controlled media as in the Russian government.