In Yan Bi’s novel Emperor’s Domination, while dueling the protagonist, numerous arrogant youths yell, “I, your father, will defeat you!” The “father” proceeds to enter a state of half-death, beaten until “his parents couldn’t recognize him.” In a prevalent Wuxia-genre trope, after an arrogant statement, convoluted battle, and eventual loss, defeated warriors repent and cry, “I had eyes, but I couldn’t recognize Mt. Tai.” After being disgraced, the insulted protagonist gains revenge through violent victory or, in the occasional scene, an affair with a relative of the repenter. Similarly, when facing challenges, individuals in Ralph W. Ellison’s Invisible Man, Arthur Miller’s Death of Salesman, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Francis …show more content…
For example, when not-Tyler goes to a Remaining Men Together meeting, Bob tells him “the group’s disbanded” for Fight Club (100). Bob desires to prove that he is still a man by fighting against his fate. He doesn’t want to despair; instead, he wishes to achieve the thrill of fighting before a crowd and fill the void in his life with masculinity. Similarly, Tyler starts Project Mayhem to escape being “God’s middle children” (141) and implicitly gain the attention of his disappearing father who is his “model for God” (186). When facing obstacles, some individuals resort to violence to prove that they are still men. By expressing masculinity, these individuals ignore the void in their lives because the morning after they are in a state of “zen” (64); however, Not-Tyler becomes “pissed” that he had “become this totally centered Zen Master and nobody had noticed” (63). When men display masculinity, it is for society to notice and respect them. In addition, Dimmesdale often “plied” a bloody scourge “on his own shoulders in “an act of penance”because he fears admitting he is Hester’s lover (132). Dimmesdale discovers that he cannot provide for his family and he is effectively not a man. As his sins plague him, Dimmesdale desires to prove he is still a man and deny that he lacks the courage to admit his adultery. By self-flagellating, he believes he atones for his sins and …show more content…
Big Bob’s desperation to prove his masculinity by joining Project Mayhem results in his “amazing miracle of death” (178). The only way to escape Project Mayhem, which replaces family and success with masculinity, is death. Project Mayhem suggests that individuals exchange their success for an unsustainable illusion that crumbles as individuals make poor decisions to perpetuate their toxic masculinity. Furthermore, Willy teaches his sons that being masculine and using others will lead to success. Paradoxically, Willy’s need to be “picked” by a woman destroys his own dream for Biff to surpass him in life because Willy can never be satisfied with what he has (38). Biff inherits his father’s toxic masculinity because his “father is” his “model for God” (Palahniuk 141). Biff gains bad morales that lead into trouble because he attacks his problems instead of compromising. Willy taught Biff that, so long as you’re charismatic enough, everyone else will listen to you, resulting in a false confidence. For Willy, success comes from how many people know you, and Billy played in front of thousands, but Bertram presents in front of a small, select group as a lawyer at the Supreme Court. The stark contrast between their current states suggests the backwardness of Willy’s values. Similarly, Not-Tyler’s father passes toxic masculinity onto him by suggesting, “Get married before the sex gets boring, or you’ll never get
The novel Deliverance by James Dickey portrays the essence of middle-aged men experiencing the mid-life crisis through which they must prove to themselves and more importantly every one else that they still possess the strength, bravery, intelligence, and charm believed to be society's ideal of "masculinity." Dickey's four main characters undertake a risky adventure to satisfy their egotistical complexes and prove to the world that they are still the strong young men their wives married. Each character represents a different stereotype of the middle-aged man, and therefore experiences a different type of psychological and physical journey than their peers.
It is stated by Standage that, “Sandage believes Willy Loman was a success. But the message of the play, he says, is that “if you level off, you have to give up. You might as well not live”” (Baird 25). This is quite ironic because all Willy does is push to be successful and he when he can’t he puts expects his son’s to follow through so he gives up. He constantly reminds them, “the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead” (Miller 67). This is also ironic because Willy is the man who creates personal interest in the business world, but when everyone passes away he is left with nothing but the past to remember. This false reality that Willy creates for Biff brings on the conflicts between the father and son duo due to the fact that Biff fails as a result of the way he was raised. So by the time Biff goes to interview for his first job he thinks that his success will come with no effort
His committed adultery deteriorated his physical appearance and sickens him. Additionally, Dimmesdale begins to starve and beat himself, hoping that punishment will make him feel better or give him the courage to admit to his sins; however, he “could not purify” himself (141). He becomes more ascetic to redeem his sins but still finds the guilt manifesting in his heart. By including this allusion, Hawthorne shows that Dimmesdale wants to expose his sins, but does not have the bravery to do it. This changes at the Election Day Sermon when Reverend Dimmesdale calls to Hester and Pearl to stand on the platform together as a family. Hathorne sets this scene on the “pedestal of shame” where Hester first took the “agony” of Dimmesdale as well as her own to shelter her lover's reputation from the harsh opinions of the townspeople (67, 66). Seven years later, the pedestal is no longer the symbol of agony, but it has a “tender” and “slightly triumphant” aura to it (147). This parallels the change in Reverend Dimmesdale, as seven years ago he “hath not the courage” to admit to his sin and love for Hester on his own, while now he gladly reveals to all the townspeople that it is he who committed adultery with Hester so long ago (65). By his confession, Dimmesdale frees himself from the bonds of guilt that plagued him in the past and allowed
Smiles, Samuel. "The Scarlet Letter." The Critical Temper. Ed. Martin Tucker. New York City: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1962. 266.
When a secret is hidden inside it can engulf and even destroy a person. Arthur Dimmesdale, a revered young minister in the town, demonstrates what happens to the soul. Dimmesdale, as it is later made known, commits the serious crime of adultery with a young married woman named Hester Prynne living in the Plymouth Colony. Hester is unwilling to reveal her partner in sin. Dimmesdale’s fear of persecution and humiliation forces him to keep his sin a secret. So he watches as Hester is placed before her peers on a platform in front of the whole town and is then called to speak to her and urge that she reveal her fellow adulterer. In essence, he is called upon to commit yet another sin, that of hypocrisy. Dimmesdale’s accumulated sins build inside of him, constantly afflicting his soul until it begins to affect him physically. Thinking himself a hypocrite, he tries to ease his conscience and requite his sin by scourging himself on the chest during the night, fasting for days on end and even climbing the same platform on which Hester began her humiliation.
Through a series of events, Biff gradually comes to a realization of what is necessary for success. First, we are shown a part of his childhood where Biff is told that "the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead." This idea appears in direct contrast to Bernard, one of Biff's childhood friends, who works and studies hard. Biff decides that Bernard will not succeed because he is "only liked, not well-liked," and being well-liked is the cornerstone of success. Nonetheless, later in the play we see that Bernard has become very successful, underscoring one of the messages in the play, that success is not just a result of popularity. Second, we are shown a scene in Boston soon after Biff has just failed math for the year. He discovers his "heroic" father having an affair. Biff comes to the painful realization that his father's values, his views, and everything that Biff had made the foundation of his life, are all completely "fake" and "phony." Unfortunately, he has nothing with which to replace it. Lastly, Biff decides to leave to try and find himself, but an argument develops between Biff and Willy. Biff begins to see himself as like his father, "nothing," just an average man trying to make a living, and quite possibly failing. Biff's earlier image of his father's greatness has crumbled entirely, leaving a lost young man trying to find his way. Biff realized that he now needs to find his own values in life. He has finally tasted reality and now must dive head first into the pot, without any real preparation.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Scarlet Letter”. American Literature: Volume One. Ed. William E. Cain. New York: Pearson, 2004. 809-813. Print
Smiles, Samuel. "The Scarlet Letter." The Critical Temper. Ed. Martin Tucker. New York City: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1962. 266.
In Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman’s warped view of the American Dream caused tragedy in his family because he stressed the importance of popularity over hard work and risk-taking over perserverence. *Willy grew up believing that being "well-liked" was important to becoming a success. He believed that being well-liked could help you charm teachers and open doors in business. *He is proud that the neighborhood boys flock around Biff and respond to Biff’s athletic abilities, and in the same breath scoffs at the nerdy Bernard, who is too focused on school and his studies to be popular. Even though Biff turns out to be a failure as an adult, Willy holds on to the hopes that a business man who Biff met years ago will offer him a terrific job if Biff can be his old likeable self and recapture the confidence and grace he had as a teenager.
...e ownership of his sin, gradually reducing his stance as the virtuous minister to a pathetic man desperate pleading that Hester reveal his sin for him instead. Whilst Hester dealt with her punishment with grace and dignity, Dimmesdale struggled very obviously to no avail with his guilt. Thus, the contrast created between the two characters exhibits the unwavering strength of female valor, in the face of Dimmesdale's "unmanly" actions. Even more so, Hester's admission of her sin "made her strong[er]"and gained communal respect for her, whilst Dimmesdale was "broken down by long and exquisite suffering", a mere shell of the man he had used to be. The respect that Hester garnered from this highly Puritan and patriarchal society attests to the innate strength of women regardless of preconception of their inferiority.
Instead of everyone finding a partner, hugging, and then regurgitating their problems like in the support group, it is replaced with extreme violence in Fight Club. In Fight Club men turn to violence in an attempt to rejuvenate the senses that have been exhausted by their daily lives, corporate jobs and consumer lives. Fight Club is where you can go when a man can experience the true feeling of being a man. The narrator says “You aren’t alive anywhere like you’re alive at Fight Club.” (Page 51) the narrator continues to say, “Who guys are in Fight Club are not who they are in the real world. Even if you told the kid in the copy center that he had a good fight, you wouldn’t be talking to the same man” (Page 49). Fight Club provides a state of euphoria for men because when at Fight Club, men get to escape the reality of life, their jobs, and their bodies. As said in the Signs of Life: American Makeover, “It is almost as if people are tired of being people” (Page 615). The narrator exposes his understanding of Fight Club’s effect on men by saying that after a fight, “There’s hysterical shouting in tongues like at church, and when you wake up Sunday afternoon, you feel saved” (Page 51). These men who all have some type of problem in their lives has finally found a way to be at peace and when at Fight Club, they never have to worry
Bensick, Carol. “His Folly, Her Weakness: Demystified Adultery in The Scarlet Letter.” New Essays on The Scarlet Letter. Ed. Michael J. Colacurcio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. 137-159. Print.
A major part of the reader's animosity towards Willy stems from his responsibility for the ruin of his sons. Willy's affair ends up being the reason that Biff ends up a high-school failure and a football has-been. This blunder both disheartens and destroys his eldest son. It becomes the reason Biff refuses to go to summer school; it becomes the reason that Biff leaves home. Yet, this is all a result of Willy's need to be likeable. He cheats on his doting wife simply because it makes him feel special, because it gives him proof that women other that Linda are interested in him, because it makes him feel well liked. A woman "picked [him]"; a woman laughs when he makes jokes about keeping pores open; a woman pays him some attention (38).
That kind of favoritism has a profound effect on a child, in order to be acknowledged by his father, Happy believes he must become Willy’s version of success by acquiring wealth and popularity. Happy has been living his entire life in a way that he believes will bring him attention from his father, yet his father ignores him and he becomes more miserable that if he had gone his own way. When a father chooses to favor upon one son over another, the father-son relationship occurs as well as in the son’s life. Within this relationship, the responsibility of the father is to provide values, a role model and leadership for his sons. In almost every family, the sons will look to their father as role model and a hero, which in this case Biff does but Happy does not. It is in the father’s best interest to use this opportunity to give these qualities and allow his sons to become responsible