Cruelty is a real and evident part of society, apparent in everyday workings. In the way that harsh racial slurs are flung from mouths of ignorant anger to the way the last meal is granted to a prisoner on death row. These cruelties are unique in their own way, but each of them stemmed from a kindness. The ignorance granted with the anger, and the picking of their own food are kindnesses that lead to a cruel event. Cruelty comes and flourishes in kindness, while kindness can create and feed cruelty. Two ugly beasts that cannot come without the other, as is evident throughout a numerous amount of short stories as well as the book written by Jeannette Walls titled, The Glass Castle. Cruelty is bred/conditioned into the children at a young age …show more content…
By not handing out punishment for the brutality and savagery that occurs, kindness is granted and in turn conditions that nothing bad will occur with whatever horrid act that is committed. In the short story, “Curly Red”, by Joyce Carol Oates this type of conditioned cruelty is evident. In the story, Lili Rose’s two brothers, Mario and Leo, towards the beginning of their lives raped a girl with a few of their friends. Instead of going to jail or facing any real consequences, the boys are let off and had no real consequences except for a stricter curfew and an inability to drive but otherwise the boys were left off easy. No court trial was ensued and the victim was given no justice;not even an article in the news. The lenient repercussions the boys received for their horrendous acts led them to believe that all of the blasphemous acts committed would go unnoticed and unpunished. The generosity granted led to even more brutal events than they could have imaged. Due to the mindset, the boys ended up murdering a negro boy for nothing more than the sickening thrill of it and had similar ideas that there would be no consequences for their actions. Eventually the guilt of knowing the atrocities that committed by her brothers; she turned them over to the police. In return she was greeted with isolation …show more content…
Like every action of emotion there is a story behind it and with cruelty or kindness it is the same; a purpose behind the initial action. In the short story, “Thank you Ma’am”, by Langston Hughes the story is started with a boy who initially attempts to rob a woman who in turn takes him to her house, and although she is a very rude lady she cleans, feeds, and bathes the boy before sending him off. The cruel actions that the boy initiated created kindness from the women who was cruel due to the rough life she had growing up. The reasoning behind the boy’s cruel actions were to feed his family, as well as himself in the wake of his parents. The cruelty is a feeble act but created a kindness for the boy, and for the women as well for she turned an originally negative encounter into a positive and potentially life changing events for the boy. Although it’s potential for cruelty to have no stimulation, and for kindness as well, there is more probability for the cruelty to have stemmed from kind acts as well as kind acts to stem from cruelty as each and every action have an intention or have come from equally impactful events within a
There have been various analysis based on these three stories and the characters involved: “The Yellow Wallpaper,” “The Birthmark,” and “The Goose Girl”. This paper will focus on analysis based on figurative languages used either consciously or unconsciously, the passivity of the characters, motivations, role performed in the story, and the agendas used by the various authors. The point of this analysis is to show how various authors have used short stories to give the world a diverse message that can be spun in many different directions. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman who specialized in poetry, short stories and social reform. Jane in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a passive character that shows her passivity in a quite distinct manner. According to a quote from a critic of this short story, “Visible: the prisoner will constantly have before his eyes the tall outline of the central tower from which he is spied upon. Unverifiable: the prisoner must never know whether he is being looked at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so.” “The Panopticon is a machine for dissociating the see/being seen dyad: in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing; in the central tower, one sees everything without ever being seen” (Michel Foucault, 1979). This shows that the house where Jane lives in would be considered to be a Prison whereby the prisoners can be observed but they cannot see their observers. He called this method of observation “Panopticon” (Michel Foucault, 1979). This method regulated the prisoners behavior at all times and in this story, it regulated Jane’s behavior so she was used to taking orders.
Money, violence, drugs, and sex are common themes globally prevalent in literature. Books such as Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, A Game of Thrones by George R.R Martin, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess all are comprised of ruthless acts, whether it be by aggravated assault by little boys or glorifying sexual violence. These works are all especially famous among younger audiences, raising flags as to whether or not these visual acts of violence affect their minds. The fact of the matter is, there is more to subjection to pure evil than merely the exposure: it all has to do with free will. In any case, literature makes us question the existence of free will and morality in general. A Clockwork Orange provides an in-depth look to the life of a sociopathic juvenile delinquent, Alex DeLarge.
The book Red Rising written by Pierce Brown is an epic story showing how one event can change someone's prospects so diversely that it can lead to them going to the extreme. The main character Darrow, a sixteen-year-old man of the Lambda mining crews in the colony of Lykos on mars. Darrow is a red in this society enslaved by the golds. Darrow is a man who knows what needs to be done and knows that you can’t accomplish anything without hard work. Darrow is a simple man working to give his family a happy life. But he soon begins to lose everything, his dreams, his prospects, and his wife. Soon he begins to believe that the only dreams he has left to believe in aren't even his own, they are his wife’s. This is what drives Darrow to fix the world and the dystopian society that rules it.
In this world there are many types of abuse or neglect that aren’t always noticed and no one really talks about. We never notice that there are many different types of abuse because we do think that it is so bad that we don’t want to look into it. Social workers specialize in removing the children from the home because they have these things in their lives. Some parents would never dream of abusing their children, and some would never call it abuse. There were several different types of abuse present in the book The Glass Castle, even evidence that the children should be removed from the home.
a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal-" (p801) It
Roald Dahl when wrote the story, it was first rejected. Later it was published in magazine and was a huge success. Dahl successfully combined the theme of passion, love, betrayal, and injustice in a piece of literature. When reader reads the story, he or she comes across with many ironies through out the play. Through those ironies, Dahl smartly criticized the system, and human nature. In fact, story was written much more to provide moral of “humans are born evil” than just to entertain.
Throughout the Glass Castle there is a constant shift in Jeanettes tone through her use of diction. Her memoir is centered around her memories with her family, but mainly her father Rex Walls. Although it is obvious through the eyes of the reader that Rex is an unfit parent and takes no responsibility for his children, in her childhood years Jeanette continually portrays Rex as an intelligent and loving father, describing her younger memories with admiration in her tone. The capitalization of “Dad” reflects Jeannette’s overall admiration for her father and his exemplary valor. “Dad always fought harder, flew faster, and gambled smarter than everyone else in his stories”(Walls 24). Jeanette also uses simple diction to describe her father, by starting sentences with, “Dad said,” over and over. By choosing to use basic language instead of stronger verbs, she captures her experience in a pure and honest tone.
All things truly start with from the innocence of a person. In the short story “The Half Huskey” by Margaret Lawrence. We are exposed to the forces of nature vs. nurture. Margaret Lawrence suggests that cruelty is something that is passed on from person to person as they are introduced to the cycle of abuse.
Cruelty causes a person to be cruel to another and start a cycle of repressed violence. In the movie, the cruelty passes through many decades and generations at Green Lake starting with Kate and Sam. They face cruelty from the town’s people because Kate is white and Sam is black. When Trout caught Kate and Sam kissing, he inflects cruelty that ends in Sam’s death. That cruelty causes Kate to become Kissing Kate Barlow, killing and robbing people, bringing cruelty to others. But, the cycle continues when Trout goes broke and searches for Kate’s ‘treasure’. When he can’t find it, he inflicts it on his granddaughter who ends up becoming the warden for Camp Green Lake. The constant flow of cruelty, in the end, destroys everything and comes back to the person who started the cycle. In the novel, things have been working almost just the same with the flow of destructive cruelty again starting with Sam and Kate. Cruelty is never the answer and only adds to the
questions. O, and we did read on and yes we did find all the answers
Variations of these tales have been told and shared in different parts of the world for centuries; they’ve become a vital part of literature and pop culture. Children live and learn through these fairy tales and popular stories. Parents read these stories to their children – unknowingly instilling indications of violence and punishment. Heroines and villains alike are abused and tortured in the enjoyable classics pop culture currently reanimates. Namely, Cinderella exhibits elements of extreme violence and revenge. In variations of the classic tale, the beautiful, mother-less daughter is abused by, arguably the most famous villains, the jealous, spiteful trio: her step mother and two stepsisters. In addition to the violence and hatred inflicted
There is an important time, though, during someone’s life where this innocence is stolen and leaves as different person. This event is the main function in “My Father’s Noose”, “Dothead”, and The Glass Castle. Each character has their own certain tick that their innocence blinds them from. Jeannette Walls’s ignorance blinds her from the abuse of her family and peers, while Totoy’s blinds him from his mother’s abuse. The speaker in “Dothead” is blind to the abuse of his peers. After going through each ordeal, the characters lose their innocence by gaining knowledge of the way people work. Discovering that not all people are good pressures the characters to take a deep look at the way they act and their code of
“Your name is Elizabeth Walls, you are ninety years old and you have been married for 60 years.” Those are the words I told my wife this morning once she rose out of bed full of agony.
There are numerous works of literature that recount a story- a story from which inspiration flourishes, providing a source of liberating motivation to its audience, or a story that simply aspires to touch the hearts and souls of all of those who read it. One of the most prevalent themes in historical types of these kinds of literature is racism. In America specifically, African Americans endured racism heavily, especially in the South, and did not gain equal rights until the 1960s. In her renowned book The Color Purple, Alice Walker narrates the journey of an African American woman, Celie Johnson (Harris), who experiences racism, sexism, and enduring hardships throughout the course of her life; nonetheless, through the help of friends and family, she is able to overcome her obstacles and grow into a stronger, more self-assured individual. While there are numerous themes transpiring throughout the course of the novel, the symbolism is one of the strongest prospects for instigating the plot. In The Color Purple by Alice Walker, numerous symbols influence and drive the plot of the novel.
The fairytale “Little Red Riding Hood” has so many versions that has been told from books and movies. There are many different versions of the fairytale with different messages for everyone. “Little Red Riding Hood” is told all around the world, but one message that is always in the fairytale is danger is around. When telling a child about “Little Red Riding Hood” they understand one message that they should not talk to strangers, but children do not understand other messages that are analyzed like killing, poverty, abuse, etc. As adults, we grasp the concept in the messages, I have categorized concepts into groups: representation sexuality, evolution, and victim. My Literature review focus on these three categorize and the meaning