Power and Powerlessness of Individuals in Brighton Rock and The Third Man by Graham Greene
The "Third Man" and "Brighton Rock" are texts that share similar characteristics in the sense that there are three central characters in both storylines. The characters can also be matched between the texts. Pinkie Brown is similar to Harry Lime, Holly Martins is similar to Ida Arnold and Rose is similar to Anna. The relationships between the characters are also similar. The characters of Pinkie/Harry are the villains' in their separate stories. The characters of Ida/Holly play the detective' roles and Rose/Anna complete the triangle as the love interests for the villains. Each individual is represented as both powerful and powerless during his or her story.
Brighton Rock, as a book, has literary techniques to portray power or powerlessness, rather than visual techniques such as those in The Third Man. Graham Greene emphasizes powerlessness by building up weaknesses for the characters throughout the book. We learn that Pinkie dislikes sex and alcohol at an early stage of the novel, and when situations arise surrounding either of these themes, we know that Pinkie is powerless because of his lack of experience with sex or alcohol. In this way, Pinkie's powerlessness is represented.
Despite Pinkie's powerlessness in sex or alcohol related situations, he is relatively intimidating in all other circumstances. His strength is fear; he scares people into doing what he wants. His violent disposition makes him a powerful figure. He becomes the leader of his gang when Kite is murdered, he orders around men that are three times his age and is generally feared and respected. Power is represented when Pinkie threatens people; his history of murderous nature ensures that he gets his way.
Ida is powerful in the sense that she doesn't give up on her mission to find out what happened to Hale. She uses her sex appeal to gain as much information as she can. She has some power over Pinkie because she knows that he is involved with Hale's murder, and therefore poses a threat to him. Power is therefore represented through knowledge and sex appeal rather than force.
Ida's powerlessness is all about her inability to convince Rose that Pinkie does not love her. She also has no influence on Pinkie's choices or decisions. Her powerlessness is represented by her lack of force; the Police do not help her, she is virtually alone in her quest for justice.
One can see by examining the gravel pit and its importance to the citizens of Deptford, that Robertson Davies’ novel Fifth Business, examines the need for one to accept their shadow in order to fully develop their personality and realize their role in the society. Dunstan describes the gravel pit as something “of unusual importance to our village [Deptford] because it completely blocked any normal extension of streets or houses on our western; thus it was a source of indignation to our village [Deptford's] council”. The gravel pit is more than just a setting to the citizens of Deptford, as it is the place where people who were rejected from the society went, and it was the only place where people could freely do whatever they felt like was right, without being judged. The pit was also a source of annoyance to the citizens because it ‘blocked any normal extension of streets or houses’, which represents the hiding of the citizens dark thoughts and actions, and that annoyed others who
Although they are the protagonists from two separate books, Franny Glass, a teenage girl in J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, and Holden Caufield, a young man in Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye, serve as foils to each other. Both suffer unnecessarily due to their interaction with those whom they are close to, due to their relationships with themselves, as well as due to their views on the world. In the end, however Franny and Holden change their values and therefore are able to begin the healing process.
There are two types of interpersonal power coercive power and referent power; both are used in the movie. Coercive power is used when Regina interacts with her peers at school because they are afraid that if they cross her she will cause them problems and even harm them psychologically. Referent power is used and held by all the girls in the plastics because a lot of the school body admires them and the social power they have in the school. This is illustrated when people within the school copy the things they do just because of who they
As Mark Twain once stated, “The more I know about people, the better I like my dog.” This sentiment is often echoed by general society; people seem to have lost faith in humanity. However, John Steinbeck illustrates his more optimistic opinion about “the perfectibility of man” by suggesting how man can improve. In his novel, Of Mice and Men, two tenants called George and Lennie go through many hardships all while chasing their dream of possessing their own farm. While they work at a farm, they meet an old swamper called Candy who offers to help them achieve their dream; he does so to ensure that he will have a future after he is fired for being too old. On page 60, Candy discusses the recent death of his dog and asks to join in on George and Lennie’s dream. Through this passage, Steinbeck proves that humans have an animalistic tendency of eliminating those who are weaker than them. This is depicted through the details connecting Candy to his dog as well as Candy’s diction when describing his potential future life. Steinbeck’s negative attitude towards man’s predatory nature implies that society needs to improve and prevent such oppressive behavior from occurring.
As “The Blue Hotel,” “The Displaced Person,” “Bernice Bobs her Hair,” and In Dubious Battle demonstrate, the outsiders in each story, though instilling an initial fear in the eyes of society, experience a sudden and considerable downfall in the end. Each of these defeats, some more extreme than others, result from a clash of society’s fixed guidelines with an outsider’s challenge of these rules. Whether this rebellion against society constitutes a conscious or unconscious effort, and whether the punishment results in justifiable or unjustifiable consequences, one pattern emerges. The outsider instills fear in the mind of the community, and as a defense mechanism, society takes it upon itself to conquer the stranger, leading to his or her ultimate downfall.
The Man in the High Castle: Criticisms of Reality and Dictatorship by Philip K. Dick
As Madeleine L’Engle aptly said, “because to take away a man's freedom of choice, even his freedom to make the wrong choice, is to manipulate him as though he were a puppet and not a person,” taking away freedom of choice is equivalent to stripping off humanity. Mankind has evolved to have the ability to use the mind for reason and understanding, which separates humans from beasts and machines. It is this ability that allows man to analyze and formulate different choices, and have the freedom over them. Despite the knowledge that freedom of choice is fundamental in making humans human, social control has always been one of the leading reasons to justify the removal of that freedom. Through showing the need for the loss of freedom for social stability and the resulting problems, both The Unincorporated Man and A Clockwork Orange highlight the conflict between control and freedom.
Known as one of the most influential senators in American history, William J. Fulbright served as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1959 through 1974, and at his death in 1995, he was the group’s longest serving reader. During this time, he authored “On the Arrogance of Power, 1966”, in which discussed the tendency of countries to equate power as proof of superiority. In fact, he Fulbright refers to “the arrogance of power – as a psychological need that nations seem to have in order to prove that they are bigger, better, or stronger than other nations” (1). Using a combination of pathos, ethos, and logos appeals, he presents support for his argument. Because power corrupts how people and
Power has been defined as the psychological relations over another to get them to do what you want them to do. We are exposed to forms of power from the time of birth. Our parents exercise power over us to behave in a way they deem appropriate. In school, teachers use their power to help us learn. When we enter the work world the power of our boss motivates us to perform and desire to move up the corporate ladder so that we too can intimidate someone with power one day. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Kurtz had a power over the jungle and its people that was inexplicable.
Notions of power and class can be presented in different ways in literary texts. Some texts seem to pride themselves on the use of such ideas and ideologies, while others somehow subtly absorb the impressions and build them into the work. Nevertheless, conceptions of power and class can still play a huge part in the detailed understanding of a piece of work. Not only this, but they can also portray an author's own feelings and thoughts on things such as the class system and stratification of society. Two highly acclaimed literary texts which address the class and power ideologies are Geoffrey Chaucer's The Miller's Tale from The Canterbury Tales collection, and Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent.
In order for the Party to survive in 1984, the people of Oceania must be dehumanized. This cruelty is achieved by removing the people's freedom of thought and emotion, to the point of elimination of all love and connections to everything but the Party. George Orwell drew inspiration from regimes such as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. These units of government, including Oceania, live in a fragile balance of power, in which total control is necessary for survival.
Who holds the power? Which religion is stronger? In Bless Me Ultima, a coming of age story of a young boy, the protagonist struggles with the issue of which God should be followed, worshiped, and reverenced. The theme of power in religion is portrayed throughout Anaya’s book in various ways and means such as Ultima, Mrs. Marez, the sign of the cross, and Antonio himself.
¡¦You can talk to people, but I can¡¦t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How¡¦d you like to not talk to anybody?¡¦ " It was hard for Curley¡¦s wife to get Lenny to talk but eventually he told her about his rabbit and other things about his life. " ¡¥We gonna have a little place-an¡¦ rabbits.¡¦ " In the end Lenny became overly excited and ended up killing Curley¡¦s wife. From this, I gathered that Lenny had never been so close to anyone, especially anyone of this opposite sex. This gave him such a great feeling that he did not know how to deal with it.
Courage is demonstrated by undergoes a series of development and continue their personal beliefs. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the real courage is demonstrated through the character of Atticus, Mrs. Dubose and Jem by learning from their community, Tom Robinson’s case, and personal experiences. Courage is something that any character can develop can develop. But a “real courage” is something that characters need to have strong personality strength with definite believe in their heart to achieve this states of courage.
Identity, in today’s society, is often taken for granted. We have the ability to be anything we wish to be and act in any way we wish to act, but in the novel 1984 by George Orwell, identity is not taken for granted because it does not exist at all. Winston Smith, the narrator, lives in a dystopian society based on the idea of totalitarian government rule. This government is known as Big Brother. In order for Big Brother to stay in power, a few things are necessary: identity cannot exist; everything and everyone must be uniform; the past must be controlled in order to regulate the present; and the people must constantly be practicing the ideas of Newspeak and Doublethink, a form of control the government holds over the people. By enforcing these simple laws and regulations, the government is able to keep a tight grip on its people, with few ever releasing themselves from its grasp. Winston Smith on the other hand, seeks to know the truth behind the government, he is constantly questioning everything and repressing all the ideas forced upon him. Winston “seeks truth and sanity, his only resources being the long denied and repressed processes of selfhood” (Feder 398). All identity is gone in this place called Oceania, and for the sake of Big Brother and its continuous control of the people, it will never exist again. In 1984, the absence of identity strips the people of all creativity and diversity, as well as takes away any chance the society has to advance as a people or in the area of technology.