The flaws in civilization are indicated by the angle, lighting key and form in The Great Dictator. It is first shown when Hannah is shown from a low angle and in the shot, the word “Jew” is written on a window (Chaplin). This represents the degradation of the Jews. The door behind her mirrors the way Jewish people felt they could not escape their inferior treatment. The guards are shot from a low angle, given them the appearance of being powerful. The shift in lighting key once more directs us towards the sense that civilization is subservient to nature. In Tomania, the lighting is low and most shots of the Jews have stair railings, which resemble jail cells. The stair railings are meant to visualize how the Jewish people are stuck in a rigid
In the Summer of 1787, fifty-five delegates representing 12 out of the 13 states in Philadelphia to fix the Articles of Confederation. They met in philadelphia because the Articles of Confederation was too weak. Shay’s rebellion was the end of the Articles of Confederation bringing down the whole network calling for a change of government. They did this to prevent a tyrant or tyranny. A tyrant/tyranny is when someone or a group abuses their power. The Constitution guarded against tyranny through Federalism, Separation of powers, Checks and Balances, and The Great Compromise.
The Pax Mongolica, also known as the Mongol Peace and Pax Tatarica, was brought up at the end of the time of Mongols’ conquests. Western Scholars designated the fourteenth century as the Pax Mongolica. The Pax Mongolica contributed to the development of a new global culture because the Mongol Khans pursued peaceful trade and diplomacy (220). The bubonic plague epidemic of the 1300s led to the destruction of the Mongol Empire because of the deaths it caused; also, the plague had demoralized the living and deprived the Mongol Golden Family of its primary source of support by cutting off trade and tribute (247).
Wole Soyinka's essay "Every Dictator's Nightmare" in the April 18, 1999 edition of the New York Times magazine seems almost prescient in light of the events currently occurring geopolitically. The recent events occurred in Egypt are certainly representative of the themes present in Soyinka's essay; “the idea that certain fundamental rights are inherent to all humanity" (476). Soyinka, the 1986 noble peace prizewinner for literature, portrays not only his well-formed persona in his essay, but also his well formed thoughts, devoid of literary naiveté common in so many of today’s writers. The essay portrays societies as corrupted, but with some elements of innate nobility. The existence of societies is guaranteed by the realization that every individual has undeniable basic rights. Soyinka also presents an overview of the enslavement of individual cultures; to the forces of religion, dictatorship, economic pressures, forced labor, and ideology; presenting the reader strong examples of the world's failure to respect individual human rights throughout history. In his essay, Soyinka’s explores the employment of irony and contradiction, in explaining the paradoxes that have riddled the historical search for just societies.
When the word “Mongol” is said I automatically think negative thoughts about uncultured, barbaric people who are horribly cruel and violent. That is only because I have only heard the word used to describe such a person. I have never really registered any initial information I have been taught about the subject pass the point of needing and having to know it. I felt quite incompetent on the subject and once I was given an assignment on the book, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern Age, I was very perplexed for two reasons. One I have to read an outside book for a class that already requires a substantial amount of time reading the text, and secondly I have to write a research paper in History. I got over it and read the book, which surprisingly enough interested me a great deal and allow me to see the Moguls for more than just a barbaric group of Neanderthals, but rather a group of purpose driven warriors with a common goal of unity and progression. Jack Weatherford’s work has given me insight on and swayed my opinion of the Mongols.
Following the beginning of the Second World War, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union would start what would become two of the worst genocides in world history. These totalitarian governments would “welcome” people all across Europe into a new domain. A domain in which they would learn, in the utmost tragic manner, the astonishing capabilities that mankind possesses. Nazis and Soviets gradually acquired the ability to wipe millions of people from the face of the Earth. Throughout the war they would continue to kill millions of people, from both their home country and Europe. This was an effort to rid the Earth of people seen as unfit to live in their ideal society. These atrocities often went unacknowledged and forgotten by the rest of the world, leaving little hope for those who suffered. Yet optimism was not completely dead in the hearts of the few and the strong. Reading Man is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag by Janusz Bardach and Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi help one capture this vivid sense of resistance toward the brutality of the German concentration and Soviet work camps. Both Bardach and Levi provide a commendable account of their long nightmarish experience including the impact it had on their lives and the lives of others. The willingness to survive was what drove these two men to achieve their goals and prevent their oppressors from achieving theirs. Even after surviving the camps, their mission continued on in hopes of spreading their story and preventing any future occurrence of such tragic events. “To have endurance to survive what left millions dead and millions more shattered in spirit is heroic enough. To gather the strength from that experience for a life devoted to caring for oth...
The Man in the High Castle: Criticisms of Reality and Dictatorship by Philip K. Dick
When the time comes to vote for either Napoleon or Snowball, Napoleon uses Snowball to gain power by blaming everything that goes wrong on him to make the animal’s thing negatively about him and his future plans for the farm. George Orwell could make his point about the Russian revolution clearer and easier for the readers by using the animal. Napoleon is breaking the commandment number six which is no animal shall kill any other animal. After the rebellion the animals create the seven commandments. Propaganda plays a big part in the maintenance of power. Most of the animals represent characters in the Russian revolution such as : Napoleon represents Josef Stalin, however, Old Major represents Karl Marx or Vladimir Llyich Lenin, Snowball is like Leon Trotsky and Mr. Jones is like Nicholas the second. The pigs reveal that they have taught themselves to read and write, this is important because it makes them have an advantage over the other animals and it could come in handy at important times when they are trying to fool the animals into believing something. This is made so that the s...
The Collapse of the Autocracy The collapse of the autocracy in February 1917 signified the end
within it. " ' I agree with Ralph. We've got to have rules and obey
Dictatorship is a form of government when one person or a group of people has absolute power in their hands of the state. After gaining the power using fraud or force they have to use terror and withdrawal of the civil rights to maintain it. Many dictatorships also use propaganda to attain acceptance of the masses. Even though democracies also tend to use history as political propaganda for dictatorships it is a crucial tool. Dictators search justification of their ideology at the memories, documents, traditions and cultural heritage because they cannot justify their power form elections and laws. According to the Schneider and Woolf (2015), “This results that history becomes an
In Charles Chaplin's movie "The Great Dictator," the primary Rhetorical Appeal that he employs for the final speech is Pathos. Chaplin, as the Jewish Barber mistaken for the actual Dictator, summons his passion for humanity to unite in order to avoid becoming the mindless machines that have stolen the people's identities.
Have you ever thought about how some fictional books might have connections to real life historical totalitarian dictatorships? Now that seems a little odd to read about, but there are many works of fictional literature that depict these oppressing governments. An example of this would be The Giver by Lois Lowry. She sets up a futuristic community that is ruled by an oppressive government. The people in this community do not even realize how deprived they are. They have known nothing else but this community and this lifestyle. Her community is very similar to another real society in human history. The dictatorship of Stalin over the USSR was also an overpowering government that controlled the people’s lives. There are many similarities between
And when the dictators -- if the dictators -- are ready to make war upon us, they will not wait for an act of War on our part.
In his first speaking role, Charlie Chaplin makes one of the most moving and thought-provoking speeches in history. The Great Dictator, a movie written, produced, directed, and starring Charlie Chaplin, premiered on October 15, 1940, while the United States was still promoting appeasement with Nazi Germany. The plot circles around two characters, both played by Chaplin. One is a dictator and the other is a Jewish barber who is a doppelganger of the dictator. Ultimately, the barber is confused with the dictator himself. The core of the film is when the barber is given the opportunity to speak to the people of two combatant countries as the dictator; however, the speech is more directed toward the viewers outside of the film than to the dictator’s
Dictatorship, as the word dictate suggests it is ruling on an area by using power and the orders of an individual. In this form of government in which the power is in the hands of an individual or a group of people who gets control on the area by receiving it as a inheritance or by getting control by using force. Pakistan our beloved country got independence from British rule in 1947 and from that day to till now it is ruled by three dictators and estimately in 66 years of independence it is dictated around 35 years. In these three times the government was took over by the army generals who somehow dismissed the government and took over the power. According to many analysts Pakistan is better off in the era of dictatorship instead in the time of democratically elected government. And there are many facts exist to prove this argument. Pakistan was governmentally more stable in the rule of dictatorship, and in those years Pakistan bore less loss due to corruption. Furthermore Pakistan has seen its economic peak in those very years.