“It is the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine”
There is an age-old conflict between the human need for community and security found within society and the will to be an individual and think for one’s self. It is human nature to struggle to please others and fit societal norms whilst remaining true to oneself. More often than not, one is forced to choose between the two opposing values, thus sacrificing the other. He who sacrifices societal values for his own truth is often subjected to censure, albeit it is often the outsider who contributes to the progression of society. This phenomenon is demonstrated in the film, The Imitation Game, directed by Morten Tyldum through the character of Alan
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In the case of Alan Turing, ever since he was a young man in boarding school, he has always been different. As a result, he is often the target of abuse from his schoolmates. Nonetheless, he continues to remain who is he is, meticulously separating his peas and carrots in the dining hall. Alan has a much more logical approach to dealing with the violence inflicted upon him than the average person, as he analyzes it, coming to the conclusion that people like violence because the emotional response from their victims “feels good.” He realizes that if the emotional response is separated from the experience, it is no longer enjoyable for the bullies and “the act becomes hollow.” This shapes the way he deals with future experiences, as consequently he has a very cold, logical approach situations that would normally be very emotional for the average person. This is evident when right after Enigma is cracked and the team realizes that a British passenger convoy is about to be attacked by a German U-Boat. Hugh races to inform Commander Dennison in order to save the convoy from the attack as a result of their new information but Alan intervenes. Separating emotion and logic, Alan knows that if this convoy is saved, the Germans will know that they have cracked Enigma and all their work will be for nothing. The rest of the team is outraged with his lack of compassion, …show more content…
When Alan Turing is convicted of indecency, as during those times homosexuality was illegal, he is faced with the choice of two years in prison or hormone therapy, a chemical castration. “Of course” Alan chooses the latter so that he can continue his work. Despite the severity of its consequences, Alan is unapologetically himself: openly gay. He makes no effort to deny the allegations and when Joan exclaims that she could have testified for his case, he replies saying, “and what would you have said. That I wasn’t a homosexual?” Once again, Allan refuses to conform to societal norms and although it is his eventual downfall- the drugs wreak havoc on his brain and he eventually takes his life- it is society’s fortune. It is best said by Joan when, heartbroken by her friend’s fate, she says, “if you wish you could have been ‘normal’, I can promise you, I do not. The world is an infinitely better place precisely because you weren’t.” This statement could not be more true, as thanks to Allan’s work the war was shortened by two years and fourteen million lives were spared, and his machine laid down the foundations for the invention modern
She confirms her authority on the topic by revealing, very early on, that she has contracted the disease herself. She states, “Though I am female and contracted this disease in marriage, and enjoy the warm support of my family, I am one with the lonely gay man sheltering a flickering candle from the cold wind of his family's rejection.” She purposefully conveys to her conservative audience that she is not gay, is married, a mother and contracted her disease in marriage, not with a random partner. Here she is playing up her personal experience to support her argument. Fisher’s inclusions of these social facts are added to acquire the sympathy of her traditional audience. Likening herself to the hypothetical “lonely gay man” draws sympathy from the assembly for a hypothetical character in her rhetoric. These inclusions of speculative illusions strengthen the rhetorical appeal of her argument. Fisher specifically includes certain information to develop an understanding from a conservative audience that may need
As mentioned earlier I would start my discussion with a very prominent emotion called Anger. Anger is defined as a person’s response to a threat or the perception of a threat against an individual or group. Anger is an emotion that is often difficult to control because of the intense physiological reactions involved in the fight or flight response that triggers anger. The fight response is a response triggered naturally by the body to protect itself against the instigating situation (Lazarus, 1991). In the novel The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald narrates two important incidents that stand as a fine example for expressing anger with violence i.e., 1) Tom hits Myrtle 2) Wilson kills Jay Gatsby.
But he does not simply dispel the myths of early 20th century gay life, he also details such myths to...
The lecture hall filled with the audience members’ conversations in the gymnasium-sized room, which the microphone on the podium in center stage amplified. Through the double door entrance to the hall walked a conference attendee named Adam Moore, who found his seat in the last of many perfectly aligned rows of folding chairs. He began reading the brochure handed to him as he arrived and “homosexuality” being on the list of discussion topics intrigued him because he is an openly homosexual member of the Episcopal Church. After all the discussions had concluded and the ministers and clergy answered every question, Moore approached Father McAllister and asked him to explain some of the Catholic Church’s teachings to him. Father McAllister happily agreed and they both returned to the lecture hall to have their conversation. Father McAllister sat next to Moore, who reclaimed his conference seat. Moore explained that although there were many topics he did not fully understand in Catholic Church teaching, there was only one he wanted to discuss with him. He sought to understand what the Catholic Church taught on the topic of homosexuality and what the Church’s opposition was to homosexual relationship...
The world roughly hold about seven billion people. People from different backgrounds, nationality, race, but there is a high percentage of people in this world that struggle to make moral decisions on their own because they are scared of becoming an outcast, an enemy. In addition, this cycle causes people to be controlled by the society and not make decisions that would possibly better them but rather turn them into the society’s robot. In essays such as, “‘Repent Harlequin’ Said the Ticktock Man” and “Shooting an Elephant,” written by Harlan Ellison and George Orwell, respectively, each character faces a conflict with themselves by not using their own moral sense and getting faced with challenges. In the essay “Civil Disobedience,” written
Unfortunately, being labeled as a homosexual came with a specific stigma back in the mid-1980s, and many individuals were not as accepting of homosexuals as they tend to be today. Consequently, having to admit that he was a homosexual would have destroyed both Roy’s career and reputation, specifically as a result of this negative stigma. When readers examine Roy’s definition of the term homosexual once more, one may realize that Roy simply could not be labeled as a homosexual because of how damaging it would be to his career and possession of clout, which is why he is so adamant about not being labeled as such. As Roy had stated, “I have sex with men. But unlike nearly every other man of whom this is true, I bring the guy I’m screwing to the White House and President Reagan smiles at us and shakes his hand” (Kushner 52). This shows that, yes, Roy sleeps with men, but he can’t receive that label due to the fact that he is too successful and it would tear him off of his podium—he has too many powerful connections, such as the President, to admit that he is a homosexual. Unfortunately, this attitude is all too relevant today as well, for many individuals often refuse to admit part of their identity in fear of how it will change their lives. Certain terms and labels have
Human beings are renowned for both their benevolent and malevolent qualities. However, when it comes to a human being and their self, it is a different story. It varies among individuals, some of them are exceptionally confident with themselves whereas others suffer from low-esteem. The way a person perceives themselves determines how they apply their personal beliefs. However, in many cases, when a person is presented with a dilemma, they will often try not to adapt to a situation and attempt to keep their character. Even when going through intense pressure, individuals will attempt keep their personalities in order stay true to themselves. George Orwell, a prominent English literary
While my fate in our Ethical Simulation did not end as planned, I still feel as though a lot of the ways I viewed things and approached certain situations was successful. However, this analysis was not necessarily implemented in such a way that an outsider would see the same successes. Had I stayed true to my assigned character and made a better attempt to make my voice heard throughout the decision-making process, I think I could have been an asset to our survival. However, as it was, I failed to do this, and the outcome of nearly half of our lives reflected this. We certainly could have improved our tactics as a whole, which would have established a better chance of survival on the island. As it was, the consequences that followed our actions were a direct reflection of the amount of thought put into them, be it a success or utter failure. In general, the decisions made resulted in the latter, and for good reason.
The 1985 film, The Breakfast Club, takes place during a Saturday detention in a Chicago high school. Five students, all from very different backgrounds, must serve this detention together for a nine-hour period. Everyone is at the detention for diverse reasons but throughout the course of the day, they soon discover they are not as different as they thought they were. The Breakfast Club analyzes how social interactions between students and their social contexts lead to the prevalence of discrimination and prejudice within the high school environment. Demonstrating how it is contrary to other films of the era, The Breakfast Club particularly examines these social issues through the establishment of cliques which were founded based on the hierarchy
In Great Britain, during the Victorian era, a new law named Labouchere Amendment was put into effect. This criminalizes homosexuality with a sentence of life imprisonment or death. This new law forces many people who are gay into hiding. Those in hiding would live double lives. Some are married to the opposite sex, others remain single throughout their livelihood; causing them to be heterosexual by day and a homosexual by night. Some like Oscar Wilde remain open about their sexuality. Which led Oscar to be imprisoned for 2 years of hard labor. Robert Louis Stevenson focused on this cultural issue in his novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, through figurative language. Through this Stevenson posits that if one hides one’s authentic
The report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, also known as the Wolfenden Report, was published in Britain on 4 September 1957. It was established as a response to the number of previously reputable men who had been convicted of homosexual offences, as well as the growing number of men being sent to prison for acts of homosexuality. By the end of 1954 alone, more than one thousand men in England and Wales had been sent to prison for specifically that reason. It was the intention of the committee, therefore, to decriminalize private homosexual acts, as it was beginning to come into light that “homosexuality cannot legitimately be regarded as a disease, because in many cases it is the only symptom and is compatible with full mental health in other respects” (The Wolfenden Report, 1957). Homosexuality aside, there was also much focus on “cleaning up the streets” of Britain by enforcing the privatization of prostitution by increasing fines and incarceration periods for those caught in the public display of such acts. Based on these and other recommendations made by the committee however, it is evident that, although a need to decrease the number of men being criminalized for homosexual acts was necessary, the committee, as well as the public, was not yet ready to fully decriminalize homosexuality or prostitution themselves. However, in bringing such subjects to light, they themselves also manage to break the barriers dividing their own specified definitions.
Life for most homosexuals during the first half of the Twentieth century was one of hiding, being ever so careful to not give away their true feelings and predilections. Although the 1920s saw a brief moment of openness in American society, that was quickly destroyed with the progress of the Cold War, and by default, that of McCarthyism. The homosexuals of the 50s “felt the heavy weight of medical prejudice, police harassment and church condemnation … [and] were not able to challenge these authorities.” They were constantly battered, both physically and emotionally, by the society that surrounded them. The very mention or rumor of one’s homosexuality could lead to the loss of their family, their livelihood and, in some cases, their lives. Geanne Harwood, interviewed on an National Public Radio Broadcast commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, said that “being gay before Stonewall was a very difficult proposition … we felt that in order to survive we had to try to look and act as rugged and as manly as possibly to get by in a society that was really very much against us.” The age of communist threats, and of Joseph McCarthy’s insistence that homosexuals were treacherous, gave credence to the feeling of most society members that homosexuality was a perversion, and that one inflicted was one to not be trusted.
The Web. 12 May 2014. Fone, Byrne. A. Homophobia: A History of the.
Modernist writings have always been hailed for its nuanced relationship with sexuality. This paper looks at the ways E.M. Forster, one of the modernist writers on the fringes, deals with the discourses of sexuality different in ways different from other high modernists against the backdrop of the socio-cultural milieu which was extremely intolerant to homosexuality through his novel Maurice, written in 1913-14 and published posthumously in 1971. To what extent Forster’s homosexuality and his novel on same sex love negotiate with other homosexual writers and activists of the period? The mere fact that Maurice was published posthumously shows the grim situation of homosexual men and women of the time. Now our job is to closely look at the novel and situate its transgressions and liberation in the larger context of same-sex writings of the early twentieth century.
Somerville, Siobhan. "Scientific Racism and the Invention of the Homosexual Body." Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University, 2009. 284-99. Print.