The literary movement during the 1980's in Britain was heavily influenced by the state of Britain's economy at the time. The people of Britain had become infatuated with politics due to the election of Margaret Thatcher, the first and only woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to have held office. She was known as the “Iron lady” and the leader of the Conservative Party. Her influence on the British government with her use of Thatcherism did not leave behind a good legacy in the literature department. In a New York Times newspaper article, it is stated that, “The Thatcher years were a time of remarkable cultural ferment, in which the energies of an extraordinarily diverse roster of musicians, novelists, playwrights, critics and filmmakers — to say nothing of television comedians and puppeteers — were unleashed in opposition, glum and passionate, explicit and overt, to the prime minister herself,”(nytimes.com). Many literary figures have written novels in response to the events of the society's cultural downfall in the 1980's. In Doris Lessing's, The Good Terrorist, which is set in the time period of Thatcherism, she portrays her character's thoughts on bourgeois liberalism as contradictions to their personalities. The main character, Alice Mellings, assumes that she is committing these acts of terrorism for a good reason. Alice and her band of revolutionary rejects are the manifestations of Doris Lessing's various frustrations against political advancements with feminism, communism, and Thatcherism. The political views and opinions that Doris Lessing's character accumulate in The Good Terrorist are most likely fueled by Lessing's real life experiences with communist parties and her unsatisfying life in the suburbs in Rho... ... middle of paper ... ...ain. During the time of the 1980's in Britain, feminism, communism, and Thatcherism were big parts of the time period. These political advancements caused many literary responses to the downfall of the government that Margaret Thatcher ruled at the time. Lessing was a feminist but was not a feminist at the same time. In an article on dnaindia.com, it is stated that, “Lessing was able to do a great deal for women without subscribing to feminism; she did it with her life, and with (not just within) her writing,”(dnaindia). Unfortunately, not a lot of research has been done on The Good Terrorist, and it being a good fictional reference into the life of a group of squatters in 1980's Britain, Doris Lessing writes from her perspective on feminist criticism and explores her ideas, hoping to expand further into more of Lessing's works and explore the meanings behind them.
The reason I picked this book is because I have always been curious about terrorism. Truthfully, I really didn’t expect the book to take the stance it did, which focused mainly on the religious implications of what influences people to commits acts of terror. I liked the fact that the book takes new angles in approaching the search for truth, by focusing on case studies and performing interviews with the people who have committed terrorist acts. This is like getting the insiders view of the inner workings and frame of mind people have before, during, and after they have unswervingly performed the acts of violence.
Looking back on communism and its affect on American society, the present day terrorism can draw many parallels. The parallels are similar, yet they are not quite on the level of paranoia that communism instated within the U.S. and against our own society. To be accused of being a communist, one did not have to have a certain appearance; it was an ideology that that individual accepted, however to be accused of a terrorist is mostly along the lines of an appearance and the Muslim community.
To understand feminism in the novel, one must first understand the feminist lens itself. OWL Purdue describes the lens as “the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women” (Purdue). Feminism acts as both a commitment and a political movement that wants to end sexism in all forms. Most feminists generally disagree on many topics of the subject, however all have one common goal. These aspects affect The Things They Carry in a plethora of ways, mostly due to the fact that gender roles is a main theme. There are negative and positive aspects of the feminist lens. Positive contains the empowering of women and equality, whereas negative pertains to oppression and unequal rights. Both are covered in The Things They Carried from sex symbols to battle tor...
It is arguable that Winston Smith is signing up to be a terrorist, as well as the other side of the coin, that interprets him as a freedom fighter. The reader sees Winston accept to perform numerous violent acts that could affect “hundreds” of innocent people, but also understands that these violent acts could lead to saving hundreds of innocent people’s lives eventually.
In V’s alternative world he is viewed as a terrorist, and in the dominant meaning of the word V is definitely a terrorist. He blows up buildings, kidnaps people, and kills politicians without any remorse. However Louise Richardson would argue that V is not a terrorist; in her mind terrorists show remorse for their actions, and think there actions are moral. A good example of what Richardson would po...
George Orwell displays a tendency to disregard women in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, showing none of his female characters to ever be equal to a male character, whether physically or intellectually. Orwell's portrayal of women shows them in a very unflattering light. Firstly, the female characters base the relationships they form solely on sex and are unwilling to form any other type of relationship. Furthermore, the women are all two dimensional characters, lacking the brains and personalities the male characters all posses. Finally, women are presented as having no interest in world issues and no differences of opinion with the Party on anything that truly matters. These presentation of women as inferior to men is obvious at all times; accordingly, the female characters in Nineteen Eighty-Four reveal an anti feminist bias on the part of the author.
In “Naomi Shihab Nye’s: Letter to Any Would-Be Terrorists”, I do not think numbered her points was an effective technique. Throughout the first page of the article, Nye describes her life growing up with a Palestinian father, while living in the Mexican-American neighborhood. She talks about the serotypes she grew up with, and how the World-Trade Center bombing increase the serotypes for the Middle East. I do not think numbering her points was effective because she did not emphasize them enough. When Nye began with her points, she simply said “1.” Then, wrote her explanation. This did not catch my attention. I did not realize she was labeling each point until her third point. I think if she would have begun her paragraph with “First,” it would
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre entails a social criticism of the oppressive social ideas and practices of nineteenth-century Victorian society. The presentation of male and female relationships emphases men’s domination and perceived superiority over women. Jane Eyre is a reflection of Brontë’s own observation on gender roles of the Victorian era, from the vantage point of her position as governess much like Jane’s. Margaret Atwood’s novel was written during a period of conservative revival in the West partly fueled by a strong, well-organized movement of religious conservatives who criticized ‘the excesses of the sexual revolution.’ Where Brontë’s Jane Eyre is a clear depiction of the subjugation of women by men in nineteenth-century Western culture, Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale explores the consequences of a reversal of women’s rights by men. This twentieth-century tradition of dystopian novels is a possible influence, with classics like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984 standing prominence. The pessimism associated with novels of this genre—where society is presented as frightening and restrictive—exposes the gender inequality between men and women to be deleterious.
The aim of this study is to explore and scrutinize the feminist perspectives in the selected novels of Doris Lessing with reference to her professed ideology and philosophy and in the light of the various schools of feminism. This research is basically expanded comparatively and endeavors to flesh out and determines the feministic essence and points of divergence of Lessing’s selected works by probing into her feminine concerns.
The concept of terrorism is exceedingly difficult to define. Author Gerald Seymour first said in his book Harry’s Game that, “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”. Each individual may view terrorism in a different light. Because of this, there is currently no universal definition of terrorism. However, in recent years, it has become increasingly more important to form a definition of terrorism, especially while working in the media.
Sometimes, choices may have a greater effect than one might have initially thought it would. In Insurgent, by Veronica Roth, the main character, Tris, is forced to make many tough decisions that could potentially decide the fate of her entire city. She has to decide which of her boyfriend, Tobias’s, parents to support. Tris' final decision of who to support and how it impacts the city illustrates two of Roth's themes—how small choices can have a large-scale effect and division of community—and how they relate to the central conflict.
Agatha Christie wrote most of her books with the same recurring themes. One of the themes that Christie has in her books is feminism. The definition of feminism is the belief in the need to protect rights, and opportunities for women to be equal to those of men. It is also saying they can go through life without having a man in their lives and living as independent women. Anti-feminism is the opposite of feminism and says women are all the same and do need a man in their life. Christie uses feminism and anti-feminism to view women during the twentieth century in the three books.
Doris Lessing, the Noble Prize winner, is known for having been a beacon of inspiration to a generation of feminists. Her The Golden Note Book hailed as the most important work that has left its mark upon the ideas of a whole generation of women. Her novels, short stories and essays have focused on a wide range of twentieth century issues and concerns, from the politics of race that she confronted in her early novels, to the politics of gender which lead to her adoption by the feminist movement. Lessing’s works are viewed by many as auto-biographical since they are closely related to her own life. Violence on women not only be physical but also emotional. The present article deals with the portrayal or picturisation of emotional violence. Emotional violence is a violence perpetrated by finding with emotions of the individuals. Deeply rooted in the socio-political milieu of her time, Lessing was nevertheless well ahead of her generation in many respects. The Golden Note Book thus contains two strains. Politically
Harry Kreisler welcome Louise Richardson, Executive Dean of the Radcliffe institute for Advanced study at Harvard University to discuss terrorist’s characteristic and what they want. According to Dr. Louise, as of today, nobody has a discipline of terrorism per se. Terrorism deliberate targeting of non- combatants for political purpose and that terrorist act is a political act. The act must be a politically inspired to be consider as a terrorist act. Secondly it must involve some sort of violence or the threat of violence act. Terrorists are very symbolic and that terrorists are invariably both out manned and outgunned by their opponents. The point is that the impact of their act to be greater than the actual physical act itself; therefore,
Published in the latter half of the 20th century, Doris Lessing’s “To Room Nineteen” belongs to the second-wave feminism. Decades ago, the first feminism wave finally accomplished the goal of winning women’s civil rights and political rights. However, an illusion emerged based on such victory that women were already put on an equal footing with men. Considering the lack of an equal and just social environment, it was more in line with the reality that women still suffered from inequality in the patriarchal society. Moreover, comparing with other well-known feminism literary works, for example, Pride and Prejudice, “The Yellow Wallpaper” and The Awakening, the confrontation between male and female protagonists in “To Room Nineteen” existed beneath hostility as the heroine,, Susan Rawlings, seems to share an equal marital status with her husband, Matthew. Some might claim that there still exist fierce clashes, nevertheless, these clashes are indeed the byproducts of Susan’s rebellion as they intensify in accordance with Susan’s awakening.