Modernism is a philosophical movement that was popular from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, due to increasing industrialization and globalization, followed by World War I. Authors of this predominantly English genre of writing felt that traditional forms of literature were becoming outdated in the emerging industrialized world. The modernist literary movement was driven by the desire to overturn traditional modes of representation and express the new sensibilities of the time. Franz Kafka and Robert Musil were two influential writers during the modernist literary movement. Kafka was a German writer of novels and short stories, arguably one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. "In the Penal Colony" a short …show more content…
story by Kafka, describes the origin of an elaborate execution device and its justification. Expressionism was a modernist movement where the world is presented solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it for emotional effect in order to evoke ideas. Robert Musil was an Austrian writer. Author of the expressionistic novel The Confusions of Young Torless. Musil was sent by his parents to military boarding school. These school experiences are reflected in the novel. The story is about a young disoriented boy searching for moral values in society and their meaning for him. This analysis will compare one main character from both texts and how they exhibit their predominant strength over others. "In the Penal Colony", there is a machine used to inflict capital punishment to those that are “deserving” of it, the officer is the machine's operator.
The officer believes in the execution by the machine because it was created by the old Commandant. In this penal colony, the officer has power over everyone because he controls the machine. In The Confusions of Young Torless a common theme of strength and weakness is also shown between adolescents in an all-male military boarding school. Reiting, one of the boys in the boarding school demonstrates his power over Basini, just as the officer demonstrates his power over the accused. Reiting takes advantage of Basini by physically, physiologically, and sexually abusing …show more content…
him. Both the officer and Reiting capitalize on the wrongs of others to establish their power. The officer controls the machine that punishes the accused as a way to serve justice within the society, his control over the machine reflects his power. Just as the officer has power over the accused, Reiting uses Basini’s wrong doing as a way to establish his power. Reiting sees Basini’s theft as an opportunity to have control over him. Reiting demonstrates his power over Basini by punishing him as he sees best fit. In both stories, there is a law that is broken which receives a punishment for the crime that was committed. Although both the officer and Reiting capitalize on the wrongs of others to establish their power, they have two very different motives.
The officer has a personal belief in the colony’s code of governance and most of all the machine that enforces it. He sees his actions as a duty in which society is bettered. The officer has a passion for the device that executes the accused. He admires the machines technological achievement and has great pride in the purpose for which the machine was constructed. He is not the one who decides the fate of a person’s life, but only controls the machine which does. Reiting on the other hand takes matters into his own hands by deciding to punish Basani for his actions. Reiting has no appointed authority over Basani, but creates a physiological and physical dominance over him due to the fear of his wrongful actions being reported. Reiting manipulates the laws of the school to discipline wrongful actions by blackmailing Basini. This fear of being reported to the school creates a nightmarish reality Basani must deal with that is arguably more gruesome than the punishment that may have been given by the school. Unlike the officer who only controls the machine, Reiting acts as the machine and tortures the
accused. The characters in these texts represent the dramatic change of an emerging industrialized world, some of the same topics discussed in the works of modernist literary movement writers such as Franz Kafka and Robert Musil. The officer from "In the Penal Colony" represent those who were unable to adapt to the changes of an emerging world. The officer is willing to destroy himself to preserve his outdated way of life. The officer sacrifices himself because of his inability to accept change. There are those who try to take advantage of others during times of change. Associated with change is confusion and uncertainty which leads to vulnerability. In The Confusions of Young Torless, Basani is vulnerable due to his uncertainty of how Reiting will react to his crime. Reiting portrays those who capitalize on others during times of difficulty for personal benefit. These two characters portray opposite sides of a spectrum during a period of change. The reason for the modernist literary movement was to change traditional representation and express the new sensibilities of the time. Comparing two modernist texts, there is a theme of the exploitation of the wrongs of others, the motive for this exploitation differs. During times of change and uncertainty, there are those who find it hard to adapt, while others try to advance themselves. Our ability as humans to adapt to the constant changing world measures the success of our future.
The motion picture A Few Good Men challenges the question of why Marines obey their superiors’ orders without hesitation. The film illustrates a story about two Marines, Lance Corporal Harold W. Dawson and Private First Class Louden Downey charged for the murder of Private First Class William T. Santiago. Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, who is known to be lackadaisical and originally considers offering a plea bargain in order to curtail Dawson’s and Downey’s sentence, finds himself fighting for the freedom of the Marines; their argument: they simply followed the orders given for a “Code Red”. The question of why people follow any order given has attracted much speculation from the world of psychology. Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, conducted an experiment in which randomly selected students were asked to deliver “shocks” to an unknown subject when he or she answered a question wrong. In his article, “The Perils of Obedience”, Milgram concludes anyone will follow an order with the proviso that it is given by an authoritative figure. Two more psychologists that have been attracted to the question of obedience are Herbert C. Kelman, a professor at Harvard University, and V. Lee Hamilton, a professor at the University of Maryland. In their piece, Kelman and Hamilton discuss the possibilities of why the soldiers of Charlie Company slaughtered innocent old men, women, and children. The Marines from the film obeyed the ordered “Code Red” because of how they were trained, the circumstances that were presented in Guantanamo Bay, and they were simply performing their job.
If a person of authority ordered you inflict a 15 to 400 volt electrical shock on another innocent human being, would you follow your direct orders? That is the question that Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University tested in the 1960’s. Most people would answer “no,” to imposing pain on innocent human beings but Milgram wanted to go further with his study. Writing and Reading across the Curriculum holds a shortened edition of Stanley Milgram’s “The Perils of Obedience,” where he displays an eye-opening experiment that tests the true obedience of people under authority figures. He observes that most people go against their natural instinct to never harm innocent humans and obey the extreme and dangerous instructions of authority figures. Milgram is well aware of his audience and organization throughout his article, uses quotes directly from his experiment and connects his research with a real world example to make his article as effective as possible.
The short stories “Just Lather that’s all” and “Gregory” have pressure from their own instincts or from someone else’s orders. The pressure which the main characters face in the story is that they have to be obligatigated to make a careful decision because it can affect someone’s life any minute or second. The soldier is in a position where he has to conclude whether he is going to kill his daring friend or face the head quarters with a great amount of risks. “Gregory” is a story about loyalty, friendship and irony which the soldier realizes his circumstances are difficult. The head quarters’ message was very clear and indicated “As soon as Lieutenant Rafel’s execution is announced, the hostage Gregory is to be shot and his body must be hanged from a telegraph pole in the main street as an exemplary punishment”(Ioannides, 4). This quote depicts tha...
For the guards “brutality was a “natural” consequence of being in the uniform of a ‘guard’ and asserting the power inherent in that role”.The Milgram Experiment took place in 1961. It was members of the “general public” mostly men who volunteered to take part in the study. This scientific study was a “study of the memory”. In this experiment there were two roles administered. The two roles being; the “Teacher” and the “Learner”. The role of the Teacher was to administer “shocks of increasing magnitude (from 15 V to 450 V in 15-V increments) to another man (the ‘‘Learner’’) every time he failed to recall the correct word in a previously learned pair”. Without the knowledge of the teacher, the Learner was “Milgram's confederate, and the shocks were not real”. Also rather than being more interested in the memory like the study specified, Milgram was more engrossed upon how far men would actually go to carry out the task. At the end of the experiment it was to him and others shock that, “the answer was very far”. By very far it was proved that the Teachers were “willing to administer shocks of 300 v and 65% went all the way
The two Marines did not understand why they were charged with his murder, claiming, “We didn’t do anything wrong.” They claimed that they were only following orders from a superior. To explain the Marines’ behaviors, Milgram would argue that the Marines fell to the pressures of authority. In the article “The Perils of Obedience,” Milgram tests the psychological affects on the “teacher” rather than on the “learner” (Milgram 78) About two-thirds of the test subjects were completely obedient and used the 450-volt shocks, and all of the participants used the painful 300-volt shock (Milgram 80). With these surprising results, Milgram deducts that many of these test subjects carried out these actions because of the authority figure in the room. Coming to a final conclusion, Milgram states that ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent human being (Milgram 86). Obedience to authority is ingrained in children from the day they are born, and they are raised to be obedient and this is why many people are obedient. With Milgram’s conclusion, it would be logical to assume that he would argue that the influence of authority is why Dawson and
Besides, his actions continued to be abusive when Claudio’s sister, Isabella, comes to beg for her brother’s life. He proposes Isabella to sleep with him and only then he would agree not to sentence Claudio to death. In this case, he also uses his authority to gain what he wants, which is obviously an abuse of power. Another example of the abuse of power is in “A Few Good Men.” In the movie two U.S. Marines, Dawson, and Downey, are judged in a court-martial for killing their colleague, Private Santiago and are defended by LT Kaffee with the assistance of Cmdr. Galloway. The defenders are suspicious about the details of the murder and the storyline about Santiago. According to it, Santiago was not respecting commands, requiring to be transferred and his fellow Marines decided to train him into a better Marine. They suspect that the “Code Red,” which is an extrajudicial punishment, was ordered and carried out by two Marines. De facto, “Code Red” was ordered by Colonel Jessep, and LT Kaffee can make him confess it under pressure in the court-martial. Thus, Colonel’s example also shows abusive behavior as he used his power to achieve what he wanted bearing in mind the fact that U.S. Marines could not disobey orders. Therefore, it could be seen that law enforcement does not always mean applying the letter of the law and following the rule
...of two marines, to perform a code red on Santiago, the learner. Although no harm was intended, the life of an ailing soldier was brutally taken due to the respect of an order. From Fromm’s outlook on the situation, obedience may sometimes be right, but unfortunately might lead to an unwanted outcome, similar to the circumstances portrayed in A Few Good Men. A person with hateful and self conceited characteristics is someone that most people don’t want to be around. This can impact society by causing less appreciation among people.
In this, individual’s regain self-confidence, and in turn inspires others to pursue the same. With Mcmurphy’s unwavering confidence and belief, the impossible seemed achievable, and gave hope to the other patients. Consequently, this phenomena inspired the rest of the patients to band together, and act out against injustice- regardless of the discomfort this imposed upon them. In doing all, an individual is able to evoke self confidence and overcome personal obstacles, just as Chief did. As the novel highlights, life will not always be lawful. Despite the convenience of conformity, individuals must muster up the courage to face the unjust, in order to restore any sense of self-esteem and save the vulnerable. Many humans are frail and cowardly, but with the guidance of a committed leader, even the most grim obstacles can be
We see that the author’s purpose is to allow the readers to understand that the prisoners were not treated humanly, and allows us to see the negative attitudes the authority had towards the prisoners.
...Once more the odious courtesies began, the first handed the knife across K. to the second, who handed it across K. back again to the first. K. now perceived clearly that he was supposed to seize the knife himself, as it traveled from hand to hand above him, and plunge it into his own breast. But he did not do so, he merely turned his head, which was still free to move, and gazed around him. He could not completely rise to the occasion, he could not relieve the officials of all their tasks; the responsibility for this last failure of his lay with him who had not left him the remnant of strength necessary for the deed....
The officer demands that any of the primitive people of the land who are accused of an act, without the right to trial, or even any opportunity to not be guilty, are placed in the machine. Once the machine begins the punishment, which the prisoner may or may not have deserved, is inscribed onto his or her body in a code. Only the officer can translate this code though, leaving all trust in his translation. The machine then kills the prisoner over 12 hours, the first 6 involving excruciating pain, and the last 6 with the prisoner unconscious. This system was put in place by the Old Commandant and is looking to be replaced by the New Commandant, but the officer feels that there is so much good that comes from it. He believes that in the suffering that these prisoners encounter, bring about enlightenment, ultimately changing them. The explorer finds it very difficult to look at these actions as fair though and cannot agree with the
This event makes the Magistrate slightly uneasy about the practices and causes him to start a conversation with Joll about the subject of torture, which manifests as an important interaction. The Magistrate asks, “What if your prisoner is telling the truth…yet he finds he is not believed? Is that not a terrible position…How do you ever know when a man has told you the truth?” (Coetzee, 5). In response, Colonel Joll goes on to state, “There is a certain tone…First I get lies, you see-this is what happens-first lies, then pressure, then more lies, then more pressure, then the break, then more pressure, then the truth. That is how you get the truth.” (Coetzee, 6). The Magistrate then thinks to himself, “Pain is truth; all else is subject to doubt. That is what I bear away from my conversation with Colonel Joll.” This dialogue reveals the divergence in thought between the Magistrate and Colonel Joll, which grows to be amongst the central focuses of the story. The Magistrate is beginning to question the practice of torture, both by its effectiveness and the ethical implications. His line of questioning indicates that he views the prisoners’ lives as holding value, however remote, and thus worth averting unnecessary harm. Colonel Joll however, sees no such potential
“Purification unto Death”:The Officer as a Jesus Figure in In the Penal Colony Most short stories deal with change and the plot is the force driving that change. In the Penal Colony, by Franz Kafka, is about the changing of governorship and most importantly, one officer's inability to adapt. Once the Explorer declines to help the Officer continue his executions, the Explorer reports to the Commandment. The Officer chooses to kill himself in order to spare the Condemned in an ironic but messianic way; however, the Officer's intentions go astray when the machine slaughters him as opposed to giving him a chance to appreciate the religious experience that the drawn out torment may enable. This turn of action by the Officer is Kafka’s way of explaining
Introduction Working as a prison guard supervisor, we are often face with ethical dilemmas. The inmates always try to out play the guards in any possible ways they can. One day, I was working my shifts, when an inmate approached me and asked a favor. This is the troublemaker of the prison.
Franz Kafka always had a strong background in literature and writing. Pursuing a career in law, Kafka put his writing skills to good use, but he always had a knack and passion for writing literature such as short stories, poetry and full novels more than working his actual job. By the age of 27, Kafka attended a play put on by a Yiddish theatre troupe performing in Prague. With the lack of money the troupe had, they became stranded in the town, where Kafka gained his interest in Yiddish theatre (Gray, 301). With the stranding of this troupe, critics believed this to be what led to the influence of most of Kafka’s later writings. This is believed due to the evidence of a journal found after Kafka’s death. These journals kept records of performances he attended, plot synopses, character analysis, descriptions of staging and critiques of the performances (Gray, 301). Kafka also had a journal filled with vignettes about specific productions, along with brief reflections on the theater and the production (Puchner, 177). We first see Kafka showin...