Practice WiT- Mother Courage and her Children
Topic: Analysis of war as a business in the play mother courage and her children
In Brecht’s play “Mother Courage and her Children” he makes it clear that he thinks that war is a “continuation of business by other means”. To him war is not an unnatural occurrence or even a mistake made by society however it is one of societies many preconditions and is an unavoidable occurrence. Given that this is Brecht’s opinion there are several dialogues all depicting that war is merely another profit venture from some of the many leaders of Europe. The play follows Mother Courage which as suggested above is saleswoman and is living off the war and the profits she makes from it, and as stated by the play “big profits are not made by little people”. Mother Courage’s unending commitment to the business of war not only costs her, her children but it takes back all that it provided her in flesh.
The topic of this essay is war as a business however this is not just the topic of this essay it is evident in the play that this was its purpose. As a result of war as a business being a fond belief of Brecht’s the play shows many elements of this. It was not a drama it was a “business play” and it becomes evident throughout his play that war is not just a profitable entity is it’s also the “sum of everyone’s business transactions” as stated by the play. Mother Courage, the character, is aware of this fact and feeds off of it in parasitic fashion. A prime example of this is when the Recruiting officer in the first scene attempts to recruit her son and she attempts to charge him a 5 guilder commission. This is a very inhumane purchase of her son however she takes the sale of her own son in her stride and begins...
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...he Marxist has very effectively portrayed his opinion of war as a business and has done so in a way that has captivated many and caused many to reconsider their point of view on war. He has made war seem both profitable however it also costs a lot to maintain this profit i.e. lives. In this play it is difficult to form an opinion on Mother Courage as she appears to lack honour however there is an honour that must be attributed to her as she continues to march on despite her losses, and this reflects her journey but also the journey of the war, as the play ends with her dragging her carriage away in tattered clothes but it also mentions how the armies are just as tattered if not more so. The play is masterfully crafted in order to sell his ideas but also warn of the costs that accompany Brecht’s opinions and in this respect Brecht has succeeded on an immense level.
“Every war is everyone’s war”... war will bring out the worst in even the strongest and kindest people. The book tells about how ones greed for something can destroy everything for both people and animals leaving them broken beyond repair, leaving them only with questions… Will they ever see their family again? Will they ever experience what it’s like to
about the war and his lack of place in his old society. The war becomes
Immigrants, a person or a family who moves from one country to another to get a permanent resident. Moving from one country to another is difficult. The two short stories “Why My Mother Can’t speak English” By Garry Engkent and “Ancestors- The Genetic Source” By David Suzuki has a focus point about immigrants and the variety of problems they face in Canada. Why My mother can’t speak English is a family that has migrated from China to Canada. Mr. Engkent’s mother came to Canada with her husband and son when she was forty. she was put at the restaurants kitchen right away. She worked straight seven days a week
O’Brien, Tim. “How To Tell a True War Story.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2003. p. 420-429.
and make fun of black elders. And would talk to them any kind of way.
As we know, the pretext of the play is the aftermath of a war, so I
There are times when people are hurting and feel like giving up, but then they think of their family and they keep trying. In the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel, Elie the narrator and protagonist is at a concentration camp. Although he lost his mother and sisters the first day, he still has his father with him. As the story goes on, readers learn of the hard experiences he goes through and what is going on his mind the whole time. He struggles with his faith and belief in God and he learns what it means to live not just for himself, but also for the one’s who love him. By examining the novel Night, we can see that family is the key to survival, which is important because those who do not have family often end up not surviving because they don’t have someone to push them and someone to live for besides themselves.
Marilyn Frye, a feminist philosopher, discusses the idea of oppression and how it conforms people into gender roles. She claims that it is based upon membership in a group which leads to shaping, pressing, and molding individuals, both women and men.
...s, demonstrated through the author's talent, are denouncing the authority figures who were supposed to guide his generation into adulthood but instead turned the youth against each other in the pursuit of superficial ideals. The soldiers were simply the victims of a meaningless war.
Thinking that the war was just an ideal character. Convincing the reader to believe the boys didn't know the risk they were taking by being in this war. They way the boys viewed it, shows that, true their are some hard times in wars, but their minds are young and they thought it was just another thing to talk about. When they should have been taking things more serious, but thinking about the good parts helped them to keep a hold on their sanity. "They ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress to the future", was the beliefs of the boys after their friend Behn dies. Their generation thought that the authorities were going to look after, and take care of them, the authorities were thought of real highly by them. Until their friend passed away, then everything changed. "We had to realize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs", this is where they came to reality that, everybody was taking care of their selves, and didn't want anything to do with other peoples problems.
Father and Son by Bernard McLaverty 'Father and Son' by Bernard McLaverty is a short story which is set in
William Dean Howells was an advocate of realism in writing; he believed that literary art should reflect the reality of the common man and demonstrate the truth of everyday current issues. He believed in truthful writing and he accepted very little at face value. He practiced this belief in his own writing, and his story called “Editha” is a good example of this. In this ironic tragedy, W.D. Howells shows the truth and nature of war. He uses a combination of metaphoric characters, irony, and the pathos appeal to create an almost grotesque parody of the reality of war. In final analysis, Howells is successful in highlighting the consequences of war and inspiring the audience to question the wisdom of those who advocate armed conflict.
The simple definition of war is a state of armed competition, conflict, or hostility between different nations or groups; however war differs drastically in the eyes of naive children or experienced soldiers. Whether one is a young boy or a soldier, war is never as easy to understand as the definition. comprehend. There will inevitably be an event or circumstance where one is befuddled by the horror of war. For a young boy, it may occur when war first breaks out in his country, such as in “Song of Becoming.” Yet, in “Dulce et Decorum Est” it took a man dying in front of a soldier's face for the soldier to realize how awful war truly is. Both “Song of Becoming” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” are poems about people experiencing the monstrosity of war for the first time. One is told from the perspective of young boys who were stripped of their joyful innocence and forced to experience war first hand. The other is from the perspective of a soldier, reflecting on the death of one of his fellow soldiers and realizing that there is nothing he can do to save him. While “Song of Becoming” and “Dulce et Decorum Est” both focus on the theme of the loss of innocence, “Song of Becoming” illustrates how war affects the lives of young boys, whereas “Dulce et Decorum Est” depicts the affect on an experienced soldier.
Through attention to detail, repeated comparison, shifting tone, and dialogue that gives the characters an opportunity to voice their feelings, Elizabeth Gaskell creates a divide between the poor working class and the rich higher class in Mary Barton. Gaskell places emphasis on the differences that separate both classes by describing the lavish, comfortable, and extravagant life that the wealthy enjoy and compares it to the impoverished and miserable life that the poor have to survive through. Though Gaskell displays the inequality that is present between both social classes, she also shows that there are similarities between them. The tone and diction change halfway through the novel to highlight the factors that unify the poor and rich. In the beginning of the story John Barton exclaims that, “The rich know nothing of the trials of the poor…” (11), showing that besides the amount of material possessions that one owns, what divides the two social classes is ability to feel and experience hardship. John Barton views those of the upper class as cold individuals incapable of experiencing pain and sorrow. Gaskell, however proves Barton wrong and demonstrates that though there are various differences that divide the two social classes, they are unified through their ability to feel emotions and to go through times of hardship. Gaskell’s novel reveals the problematic tension between the two social classes, but also offers a solution to this problem in the form of communication, which would allow both sides to speak of their concerns and worries as well as eliminate misunderstandings.
Mrs. Marian Forrester strikes readers as an appealing character with the way she shifts as a person from the start of the novel, A Lost Lady, to the end of it. She signifies just more than a women that is married to an old man who has worked in the train business. She innovated a new type of women that has transitioned from the old world to new world. She is sought out to be a caring, vibrant, graceful, and kind young lady but then shifts into a gold-digging, adulterous, deceitful lady from the way she is interpreted throughout the book through the eyes of Niel Herbert. The way that the reader is able to construe the Willa Cather on how Mr. and Mrs. Forrester fell in love is a concept that leads the reader to believe that it is merely psychological based. As Mrs. Forrester goes through her experiences such as the death of her husband, the affairs that she took part in with Frank Ellinger, and so on, the reader witnesses a shift in her mentally and internally. Mrs. Forrester becomes a much more complicated women to the extent in which she struggles to find who really is and that is a women that wants to find love and be fructuous in wealth. A women of a multitude of blemishes, as a leading character it can be argued that Mrs. Forrester signifies a lady that is ultimately lost in her path of personal transitioning. She becomes lost because she cannot withstand herself unless she is treated well by a wealthy male in which causes her to act unalike the person she truly is.