Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Alienation motif in books
Theories of alienation
Alienation motif in books
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Alienation motif in books
Drafting Essay One Throughout the storeis we have covered, the main theme i would like to discuss the pschological approach on alienation. In both stories, "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Conner and "Lusus Naturae" by Margret Atwood, protray alienation in many ways. The Psychological affects of the story stick out to me the most. In both stories,the character has some sort of disease or disabliltiy which makes them different from other people.
The character Hulga in "Good Country People" has a wooden leg. Hulga does not communicate with her family or other people around her; perhaps it’s because she has a wooden leg and that makes her feel different and not worthy. Hulgas mother pitys her and doesnt seem to accept her becuase of
Hulga is a thirty-two year old, and still lives at home with her mother show’s Hulga is not in control of her life. She heavily relies on her mother and uses her disability as a crutch to try to keep control of over her mother, so she thinks. Hulga was born with a weak heart and at the age of ten, she lost her leg in an accident. Hulga was unable to control the accident that caused her to lose her leg only to replace it with an artificial leg. “For Hulga, the artificial leg is in effect the only real part of her, since it is a made thing...
Feeling alone or isolated is not only a common theme is all kinds of literature, but something that many people face in life. Alienation is the perception of estrangement or dissatisfaction with one’s life. This means you feel like you don’t fit or connect, whether it’s from society, family, or a physical object. These feelings can be due to a lack of deep connections, not believing the same ideals as your society, and many other things. In Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, he discusses a man who goes against governmental rule and reads. EA Robinson portrays a man everyone inspires to be, but in the end he isn’t happy and kills himself. Lastly, WH Auden accounts of an “unknown citizen” who also has a picture perfect life, but in the end
Her artificial leg is made from wood, not flesh and bone. Her “superior intelligence” comes from books, not real world experiences. In actuality, Hulga’s artificial leg and “superior intelligence” are completely useless. Hulga’s poor eyesight symbolizes her blindness to reality. Hulga’s poor vision prevents from seeing through Manley’s disguise as a good country boy. Instead of seeing what’s inside of people, Hulga only sees superficial traits. Hulga’s eyeglasses do not help her to see Manley’s wicked intentions. Hulga spends all of her time reading philosophy books to learn about the world, instead of learning about the world through real interaction. Hulga also associates her doctoral degree with her intellectual superiority to “good country people.” Hubbard states that Hulga defines good country people as people who can be easily seduced because of their simplicity and lack of knowledge. It is ironic that a young, simple-minded boy could manipulate an intellectually superior woman. Hulga’s weak heart symbolizes her emotional weakness to seduction and her lack of compassion for others (Oliver). Manley seduces Hulga to the point where she wants to be a part of him. O’Conner states that Hulga allowing Manley to remove her artificial leg “was like surrendering to him completely. It was like losing her own life and finding it again, miraculously, in his.” Because Hulga
Isolation happens all the time, whether it is someone staying home ignoring the populous or a teenager ignoring his family it isn’t something new. In the two novels we have read this past quarter The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye isolation is one topic that is continually brought up. Different themes and issues are used in each book as a way to bring up and show isolation. Even though both novels use this topic The Catcher in the Rye does a better job of getting the reader to understand isolation than The Great Gatsby.
It’s self-evident, feelings & emotions are more intimate & personal than percentages, statistics, & numbers. “The Secretary Chant”, a poem about a woman so engrossed in her job she is turning into it, has the theme of alienation. As does “Alienation & Orange Juice: The
Earlier in life she had been self-conscious of her wooden leg, but as she grew up she admired it, besides her education. She showed a positive attitude even with her deformity, but simultaneously she did not show any faith in God, which would ultimately lead to failure in life. Hulga had turned towards atheism; as for her there was no god and no afterlife. As the story unfolds, it can be seen that she wanted to believe in a power greater than her and hoped to one day surrender herself to someone, which later she does to Pointer’s advances. Even though Hulga shows she knows it all, in reality, she’s ignorant to the views on reality. Hulga could not understand why her mother was so ignorant about people and considered everyone in their town as “good country people”. She even sees Mrs. Freeman and Pointer as “good country people” wherein; both have been described as manipulating people who had an abnormal interest in Hulga’s wooden leg.
Alienation is perhaps the theme he handles with greatest power. “Insulation,” he sometimes called it – which suggests not only isolation but imperviousness. It is the opposite of that “osmosis of being” that Warren has written of, that ability to respond and relate to others and the world. . . . it puts one outside the ‘magic circle’ or the ‘magnetic chain’ of humanity, where there is neither love nor reality (54).
Marx’s theory of alienation is concerned primarily with social interaction and production; he believes that we are able to overcome our alienation through human emancipation.
individuals, society, or work. Some sociologists believe that alienation is inevitably produced not by the individual but by the shallowness and the lack of individuality in modern society. The concept of alienation has been held to account for behaviour patterns. as diverse as motiveless violence and total immobility. Alienation is a state in which the creations of humanity appear to humans as alien objects.
...(rather than local) being. (13) Thus, although alienation provides an understanding of the problems of capitalism, it does not provide a means of escaping it.
The alienation (alienation from work) is experience by the professors because they are not allowed to actually set up their own curriculum. They have some freedom, but most of it is them trying to work around the already set up curriculum that tries to get the student to function as a citizen. In addition, they are forced to give grades, so they wont be fired. The second one (alienation from worker to worker) alienation is set to to distinguish those from power to those without. The professor inmates the boss and the student the worker. For most student the professor is the one with the power who determines our future. The third alienation (alienation from the product) is set up to give students a degree that benefits neither the professor nor the student but the capital. This might give the students and professor a satisfaction of accomplishment but in reality the winner is the capital because they have just gained a new worker. Lastly, the alienation from species being is the disruption of one’s self free will. Professors and students don’t interact because they want to but because they have to, and professor lose their free will when they are forced to teach something they don’t like or when they are forced to give out
In the modern period a common topic used amongst the arts was alienation. The notion of feeling distant from others or an activity to which one should be part of or be involved in was reflected in many pieces during the modern period. Two pieces that were fascinating to me, because of the way they utilized alienation as a part of their visual and literary arts, were “The Scream,” by Edvard Munch and “The Metamorphosis,” by Franz Kafka. Munch and Kafka both used forms of formal elements to get the emotional crisis they felt through to the viewer.
THE TERM "alienation" in normal usage refers to a feeling of separateness, of being alone and apart from others. For Marx, alienation was not a feeling or a mental condition, but an economic and social condition of class society--in particular, capitalist society.
...nvironment. Ultimately, humans are creative, hardworking and productive beings. As we spend the majority of our day at work, we want it to be rewarding and fulfilling. In this theory of alienation, being a worker comes first and being a person comes second. Alienation makes people spend their lives working on things they hardly care about while they make money for someone else as they sacrifice their own interests and goals. Capitalism turns workers into machines and alienates them from their full potential. Workers are not content as they are unable to determine their own paths as they are at the mercy of their employers. Alienation produces boredom, stress, unhappiness, misery and low productivity.
Theme of Alienation in Literature A common theme among the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne is alienation. Alienation is defined as emotional isolation or dissociation from others. In Hawthorne's novels and short stories, characters are consistently alienated and experience isolation from society. These characters are separated from their loved ones both physically and psychologically. The harsh judgmental conditions of Puritan society are the cause of isolation for these characters and eventually lead to their damnation.