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Effect of society on literature
Effect of society on literature
The influence in literature
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Drinks are something socially shared, a favorite past time for many individuals. For the two characters Jordan Belfort and Tom Wingfield, drinks are something they indulge in daily. The characters come from two very different forms of expression. In Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie Tom Wingfield recalls the struggles of his troubled family in St. Louis around 1937. Tom recalls the difficult times that his mother and sister go through, including the final moments when Tom leaves the two on their own so he can pursue his own artistic interests. In a different form of expression, Martin Scorsese’s movie The Wolf of Wall Street tells of Jordan Belfort’s rise to the top of Wall Street. Jordan experiences the hardships of working on Wall Street and overcomes the odds and is now recognized as one of the best sales trainers in today’s world. Both males share similar traits, other than the liver damaging pastimes; Jordan and Tom are both self-indulgent, desperate, and dissatisfied with their lives. The difference comes in how much they achieve in the end; Tom feels guilt for leaving his family, while Jordan is far from remorseful of his actions.
Specifically Tom’s self-indulgence is mostly his way of dealing with his home life. He often goes out to the movies and comes home drunk the next morning. Tom’s need for his books and poetry leads him into constant conflict with his home and at his job. Eventually his self-indulgence leads him to being fired from his job, due to him writing his poetry on the lids of shoe boxes. During a conversation with Jim, a friend at work, Tom mentions, “I paid my dues this month (to the Union of Merchant Seamen), instead of the light bill.” This is a clear example of his disregard for home, he ...
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... poverty. Revealing their self-serving nature, shows the amount of actions that are often dismissed by a blind eye.
Works Cited
Fordyce, William. "Tennessee Williams's Tom Wingfield and Georg Kaiser's Cashier: A Contextual Comparison." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 3 Apr. 2014
Single, Lori Leathers. "Flying the Jolly Roger: Images of Escape and Selfhood in Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 3 Apr. 2014
Tischler, Nancy M. "Tom as a Man of Imagination." Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 3 Apr. 2014
The Wolf of Wall Street. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie. Paramount Pictures, 2013. Film
Williams, Tennessee . The Glass Menagerie. Literature: Craft & Voice, 2nd Ed. Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse. New York McGraw Hill: 2012. 1395 - 1434. Print.
Thesis: Through the flawed characteristics of Tom and Daisy as well as the irresponsible actions of Jordan in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, it is evident that the theme “wealth can breed carelessness” causes certain characters to forget about their responsibilities and minimizes any potential forethought.
Abrams, M. H. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York; W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993.
Tennessee Williams's brilliant use of symbols adds life to the play. The title itself, The Glass Menagerie, reveals one of the most important symbols. Laura's collection of glass animals represents her fragile state. When Jim, the gentleman caller, breaks the horn off her favorite unicorn, this represents Laura's break from her unique innocence.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Writing, Thinking. 5th ed. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford, 1999. 1865-190
Tom clearly does not believe that staying at home with his mother and sister is worth the unhappiness he feels. A common issue that arises in The Glass Menagerie is Tom’s nightly trips to the movies. When asked about his frequent trips to the movies, Tom describes that “adventure is something I [he]” doesn’t “have much of at work.” (4.Tom) Living vicariously through the movies he sees, remains one of Tom’s only true sources of happiness.
In The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, the glass menagerie is a clear and powerful metaphor for each of the four characters, Tom, Laura, Amanda, and the Gentleman Caller. It represents their lives, personality, emotions, and other important characteristics.
Fambrough, Preston. "Williams's THE GLASS MENAGERIE." Explicator 63.2 (2005): 100-02. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 May 2014.
Bloom, Harold, Frank Durham, and Nancy M. Tishcler. Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2007. Google Books. Web.
The Glass Menagerie is a play about the memories of a young man named Tom Wingfield. Tom dreams of escaping his complicated and completely dependent family. Tennessee Williams uses symbolism to emphasize Tom’s yearning to leave. The first symbol of this the fire escape which serves as a bridge to reality from the illusive wo...
The Glass Menagerie is an eposidic play written by Tennesse Williams reflecting the economic status and desperation of the American people in the 30s.He portrays three different characters going through these hardships of the real world,and choosing different ways to escape it.Amanada,the mother,escapes to the memories of the youth;Tom watches the movies to provide him with the adventure he lacks in his life;and laura runs to her glass menagerie.
Tennessee Williams’ play, “The Glass Menagerie”, depicts the life of an odd yet intriguing character: Laura. Because she is affected by a slight disability in her leg, she lacks the confidence as well as the desire to socialize with people outside her family. Refusing to be constrained to reality, she often escapes to her own world, which consists of her records and collection of glass animals. This glass menagerie holds a great deal of significance throughout the play (as the title implies) and is representative of several different aspects of Laura’s personality. Because the glass menagerie symbolizes more than one feature, its imagery can be considered both consistent and fluctuating.
The Wolf of Wall Street produced and directed by Martin Scorsese tells a story of Jordan Belfort, a stockbroker living a luxurious life on Wall Street. Due to greed and corruption, Jordan falls into a life of crime and abusive activities. Belfort made millions of dollars by selling customers “penny stocks” and manipulating the market through his company, Stratton Oakmont, before being convicted of any criminal activity (Solomon, 2013). Jordan reveals behaviours and impulses all humans have, however, on an extreme level. This movie illustrates “why ethics is another tool whose importance cannot be overstated” (Delaney, 2014). Without ethics and morality, individuals can never truly live an honest and happy life.
In Tennessee Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie, each member of the Wingfield family has their own fantasy world in which they indulge themselves. Tom escaped temporarily from the fantasy world of Amanda and Laura by hanging out on the fire escape. Suffocating both emotionally and spiritually, Tom eventually sought a more permanent form of escape.
113- The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. of the book. Vol.
In the big city of New York there always exist those who push the envelope a bit, and stretch the law. One such man played by Michael Douglas makes money buying and selling others' dreams. He is a stock speculator; but one that succeeds based on illegal inside information. As he puts it "I make nothing, I own" Released in 1987, Oliver Stone's Wall Street is a representation of bad morals and poor business ethics in the business world. It also shows the negative effects, bad morals and poor business ethics can have on society. The film revolves around the actions of two main characters, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) and Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). Bud is a young stockbroker who comes from a working-class family and Gekko is a millionaire who Bud admires and wants to be associated with. Wall Street points out how wrong it is to exchange morality for money. Gordon Gekko reflects this message, and yet receives a standing ovation at a stockholders meeting after delivering his "greed is good" speech. The underlying theme of the movie is that greed is not only not ethical but it lacks moral substance in today?s society.