Propagandist Ezra Pound actively supported the ideologies of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler during World War II. How was the case of this influential scholar different from other traitors who collaborated with the Nazi Regime? This is the central question for my research paper based on the research I have collected thus far. By studying how the life of Ezra Pound fits into the historiographical sequence of research I have gathered, it has become clearer that he was controversial later on because of his political views rather than for his writing. From the comments and critiques of his peers, one might say that Ezra Pound was a genius in his own right, and that his work played a large role in shaping contemporary poetry. After the war, when …show more content…
These are the roots of the first problem I will address. As a radio broadcaster for Rome Radio in Italy during the war, Pound pushed his political agenda and discussed his disgust with Britain after the Great War. Some historians and critiques argue that Pound had inadequate funds when he first settled in Italy and that he took the job at Rome Radio as a source of income, whereas others argue that he took the position to encourage the spread of Nazi and fascist views and actions. Through studying the historiography and transcripts of Pound’s broadcasts, I will answer the question of his political agenda and the accusations of his collaborative actions.
What did people think of Pound’s support of Nazism and fascism and how did it impact their perception of who he was? Looking into the pre- and post-war opinions of critiques regarding Ezra Pound and his work to determine how his acts of collaboration changed the way that people thought and wrote about him. Additionally, studying the ways in which scholars’ perceptions of Ezra Pound have changed as time has passed. Has his literary influence changed the way scholars and critiques analyze his actions during the
These were pivotal times in the annals of world history in the 20th century. Mussolini and Hitler’s rise to power was clearly a threat to the freedoms of the United States and its Allies. Through God’s grace and omnipotence, the US alliance, industrialization and intellectual might, we had the resources required to overcome the fierce and mighty threat of Fascism in the Free World.
World War II, known as the largest armed conflict in history, began in Europe in the 1930s and led to effect many people. The war resulted in not only the involvement of more countries than any other war but also introduced powerful, new, nuclear weapons that also contributed to the most deaths. As Hitler rose to power in 1933 the Holocaust began, his quest for the ‘perfect’ race resulted in the use of concentration camps, which would help to create the largest genocide of people in history.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
In 1984 and V for Vendetta, the different behaviours of the anti-heroes, Winston and V, illustrate their approach to attaining freedom from the totalitarian government. George Orwell’s 1984 and James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta use the anti-heroes’ behaviour to identify their approach to their cause—liberation from the totalitarian government. For example, Winston is the typical citizen who rebels against the government in a quiet and peaceful way, whereas V is a revolutionist in an excited and violent way. This comparison helps classify the key behaviours, which explains the different approaches the anti-heroes took towards liberation.
Vonnegut uses irony very often to strengthen the readers’ contempt for war. Edgar Derby, the well-liked high sc...
In this essay you will notice the differences and similarities between ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’. ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ was written in nineteenth century by Alfred Lord Tennyson. In contrast, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ was written in the twentieth century by Wilfred Owen. The main similarity we have observed is that they both capture war time experiences. However, the poets’ present these events using their own style, and the effect is two completely different observations of war.
Thesis: Though Britain’s victory in World War II was due to international alliances, radio propaganda was a primary factor in the nation’s success and economic endurance throughout the war.
Hummel, William and Huntress, Keith. The Analysis of Propaganda. New York: William Sloane Associates, 1949
“Hitler won’t be able to do us any harm, even if he wants to.” So begins the book, Night, by Elie Wiesel an autobiographical work about Elie’s struggle to survive the Holocaust while living at multiple concentration camps. Beginning at age 15, Elie Wiesel moves from a young man questioning the accounts of German hatred, to becoming a witness of many inhumane acts brought upon people. Elie Wiesel’s book, Night, describes instances of inhumane acts on the Jews at Berkenau-Auswitz, at Buna, and on the march to Gleiwitz.
Bearing a personal and autobiographical dimension, the Pisan Cantos involves a list of names, places, fragments of images, conversations, quoted lines, and phrases from diverse languages along with the ideograms by Ezra Pound himself. Pound wrote those Cantos at the Disciplinary Training Center (DTC) that he was kept by the US Army, incorporating his views on economics, politics, and government with memories from his past in an unstable state of mind. In his Ezra Pound: A Literary Life, Nadel, Ira B. conveys that;
The tragedies of the holocaust forever altered history. One of the most detailed accounts of the horrific events from the Nazi regime comes from Elie Wiesel’s Night. He describes his traumatic experiences in German concentration camps, mainly Buchenwald, and engages his readers from a victim’s point of view. He bravely shares the grotesque visions that are permanently ingrained in his mind. His autobiography gives readers vivid, unforgettable, and shocking images of the past. It is beneficial that Wiesel published this, if he had not the world might not have known the extent of the Nazis reign. He exposes the cruelty of man, and the misuse of power. Through a lifetime of tragedy, Elie Wiesel struggled internally to resurrect his religious beliefs as well as his hatred for the human race. He shares these emotions to the world through Night.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. "The Bloody Handprint." Introduction. Hitler Youth Growing up in Hitler's Shadow. New York: Scholastic Nonfiction, 2005. 9-15. Print.
The symbolism that was used throughout Epitaph on a Tyrant and September 1, 1939 illustrate the many aspects of Adolf Hitler’s life and actions. The insights made by Auden on Hitler were numerous, and the examples given previously are few of many. Auden’s sympathy with those who were persecuted by the leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party extended to his poetry. In Auden’s poetry, Auden gave reasons for why the Chancellor of Germany during the time of World War II was the way he was. The unspeakable crimes that Hitler committed drove Auden to delve into all aspects of Adolf’s life, searching for the truth of what made Germany’s only human God so terribly inhuman.
Miller’s passive attitude toward the war has been described by Orwell as “a declaration of irresponsibility” because Miller acts in a way to of “extreme pacifism, an individual refusal to fight, with no apparent wish to convert others to the same opinion” (Orwell, 1). Orwell shows he senses irresponsibility in Miller’s point of view because Miller exclaimed it was “sheer stupidity” to “mix oneself up in such things from a sense of obligation” if there were no “purely selfish motives” in a conversation he had with him (Orwell, 1). The endorsement of “selfish” demonstrates Miller’s “individualism,” because he’s not expecting anyone to be anything more than a rational egoist, or someone who has acts to “maximize one’s self-interest” [1]. Furthermore, his refusal to “mix oneself up” shows the passivity in his stance; it shows how he “hardly wishes to control” the “world-process” (Orwell, 1). The war is also a force that is outside one man’s control. Orwell also gets the impressi...
The time period after the war lead to a new world of literature. Preceding World War I, people viewed war as courageous and patriotic. The realities of World War I led the formally traditional