The Structure Of Torture Analysis

82 Words1 Page

Hence, Beli and Oscar both experience physical torture in the cane fields. Elaine Scarry's "The Structure of Torture" describes how the act of torture effects an individual. Both Beli and Oscar experience varying effects of torture, which both reinforces and subtracts from the claims made Scarry's excerpt. To put it briefly, Beli and Oscar's deaths are in one way or another caused by torture; and in a broader sense; caused by love. As Marcel Proust once said: "love is a reciprocal

Show More
Related

  • Junot Diaz's The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

    1952 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Oscar’s voyage in search of passionate love, he continually falls under the deadly, friend zone or as it’s used in the book, “Let’s-Be-Friend Vortexes”, which in fact led him to acting violently toward others, and himself (41). While “dating” his first love, Ana, Oscar encounters love’s violence for the first time.... ... middle of paper ... ... Belicia showed us that the violence in love could kill immediately, but if acted upon quickly, the violence could be avoided.

    Read More

  • Destructive Love in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon

    1770 Words  | 4 Pages

    When an emotion is believed to embody all that brings bliss, serenity, effervescence, and even benevolence, although one may believe its encompassing nature to allow for generalizations and existence virtually everywhere, surprisingly, directly outside the area love covers lies the very antithesis of love: hate, which in all its forms, has the potential to bring pain and destruction. Is it not for this very reason, this confusion, that suicide bombings and other acts of violence and devastation are committed…in the name of love? In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, the reader experiences this tenuity that is the line separating love and hate in many different forms and on many different levels—to the extent that the line between the two begins to blur and become indistinguishable. Seen through Ruth's incestuous love, Milkman and Hagar's relationship, and Guitar's love for African-Americans, if love causes destruction, that emotion is not true love; in essence, such destructive qualities of "love" only transpire when the illusion of love is discovered and reality characterizes the emotion to be a parasite of love, such as obsession or infatuation, something that resembles love but merely inflicts pain on the lover.

    Read More

  • Cruelty And Love In James Hurst's 'Scarlet Ibis'

    797 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between cruelty and love. This statement is clear in James Hurst 's short story, “Scarlet Ibis”. “Scarlet Ibis” is a tale written based on an assortment of memories a brother, the narrator of the story, has of his late, physically disabled brother, Doodle. When the narrator discovers Doodle is physically disabled, the brother feels great animosity toward him. The animosity remains a major internal conflict for the brother throughout the story. As the story progresses, the narrator’s embarrassment of his brother’s disabilities leads him to mold Doodle so that he is not as embarrassed by him. This is the point where the theme of the story becomes exposed to the reader, that love can make a person do cruel things. Hurst uses the conflict that the brother has with himself about accepting his brother, the cruel actions that the brother directs toward his brother, and the irony that is woven throughout the story to further emphasize the theme.

    Read More

  • Themes in Octavia Butler's Kindred

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    This turns out to be an ironic contrast to life at the Weylin plantation, where a slave who visits his wife without his master's permission is brutally whipped. Perhaps a more painful realization for Dana is how this cruel treatment oppresses the mind. "Slavery of any kind fostered strange relationships," she notes, for all the slaves feel the same strange combination of fear, contempt, and affection toward Rufus that she does.

    Read More

  • George Orwell's Use Of Manipulation In 1984

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even when he was visibly in inscrutable amounts of pain and tried to protect himself, he was “simply inviting more” abuse from them. It lead to the point where “before the beating began”, “the mere sight of a fist drawn back for a blow was enough to make him pour forth a confession of real and imaginary crimes”. They control their society by torturing them to the point where they will do and say anything to prevent anymore physical pain from happening. It doesn’t matter if they truly believe what they say, or if it’s even true, as long as they carry enough fear from the torture to never act on their rebellious instinct. Their physical torture is an immensely effective method of control, as it is both reactive and proactive. They teach the Therefore, the Party exerts complete control over the physical conditioning and manipulation they exercise on the citizens of

    Read More

  • Analysis of Michael Levin´s Article The Case of Torture

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    Michael Levin's article on "The Case for Torture." is an article which mainly discusess the use

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Love In Toni Morrison's Beloved

    1585 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, love proves to be a dangerous and destructive force. Upon learning that Sethe killed her daughter, Beloved, Paul D warns Sethe “Your love is too thick” (193). Morrison proved this statement to be true, as Sethe’s intense passion for her children lead to the loss of her grasp on reality. Each word Morrison chose is deliberate, and each sentence is structured with meaning, which is especially evident in Paul D’s warning to Sethe. Morrison’s use of the phrase “too thick”, along with her short yet powerful sentence structure make this sentence the most prevalent and important in her novel. This sentence supports Paul D’s side on the bitter debate between Sethe and he regarding the theme of love. While Sethe asserts that the only way to love is to do so passionately, Paul D cites the danger in slaves loving too much. Morrison uses a metaphor comparing Paul D’s capacity to love to a tobacco tin rusted shut. This metaphor demonstrates how Paul D views love in a descriptive manner, its imagery allowing the reader to visualize and thus understand Paul D’s point of view. In this debate, Paul D proves to be right in that Sethe’s strong love eventually hurts her, yet Paul D ends up unable to survive alone. Thus, Morrison argues that love is necessary to the human condition, yet it is destructive and consuming in nature. She does so through the powerful diction and short syntax in Paul D’s warning, her use of the theme love, and a metaphor for Paul D’s heart.

    Read More

  • The Case For Torture, by Michael Levin

    1173 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “The Case For Torture” an article written by Michael Levin, he attempts to justify the use of torture as a means of saving lives. Throughout the article, Levin gives the reader many hypothetical examples in which he believes torture is the only method of resolution. Though I agree with Levin, to some degree, his essay relies heavily on the fears of people and exploits them to convince people into thinking pain is the only way. In certain aspects, I could agree entirely with Levin, but when one reads deeper into the article, many fallacies become apparent. These fallacies detract from the articles academic standing and arguably renders the entire case futile. Levin’s strategy of playing with the fears of people is genius, but, with more creditable details of the issue the article would have sustained the scrutiny of more educated individuals. The addition of more concrete information, would have given people something to cling to, inherently improving the articles creditability.

    Read More

  • Is Torture Justified?: Is Torture Justified?

    1042 Words  | 3 Pages

    The issue of torture is nothing new. It was done in the past and it’s done now in the 21st century. Without saying one side is right and the other side is wrong, let us discuss the part that we agree on and find common ground. We as Americans want to protect Americans from harms. So how do we prevent that from happening without torturing? It is impossible to get answer without some sort of questioning and intimidation techniques, since we know captured prisoners during war are not easily going to give up information. We know the enemy we face doesn’t follow the Geneva Convention or any law that pertains to war, so does that mean we shouldn’t also follow the Geneva Convention also, which prohibits torture? Of course not, because we want to be example for the world. Republicans argue that we have to do whatever is necessary to keep Americans safe, and Democrats argue it goes against our values and makes us look bad. We as Americans, as leader of the free world we

    Read More

  • Ethical Ethics Of Torture

    1250 Words  | 3 Pages

    Torture may be an inhumane way to get the information needed to keep the citizens of the United States safe from the attacks that are threatened against them, but there is rarely a course of action that will ensure the safety of a nation’s citizens that doesn’t compromise the safety of another group of people. Nevertheless, we must conserve as much humanity as possible by looking at the situation we are in and ensure that we are approaching the torture in an ethical manner. Although torture is valid on moral grounds, there are many who oppose it, such as Jamie Mayerfeld as he states in his 2009 article “In Defense of the Absolute Prohibition of Torture”.

    Read More

  • Torture: Why It Should Stop

    788 Words  | 2 Pages

    Torture, the most extreme form of human violence, resulting in both physical and psychological consequences. A technique of interrogation that has been proven time and time again to not only be ineffective but also a waste of time. Studies have shown that not only does torture psychologically damage the mind of the victim, but also can hurt the inflictor. If there is proof that torture is useless, why do we still use it? Torture should not be used to get information out of prisoners because of the risk of false information, enemy resistance and utter uselessness.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Convention Against Torture

    1925 Words  | 4 Pages

    Whether it’s to stop an imminent threat or as a form of response to fear and discrimination, it is common for states to turn towards torture as a mean of attaining information from someone. Torture has been used since the beginning of states and it is still used in some today. The Romans used torture on its citizens who were suspected of crimes, especially violent crimes. The world used torture as a means of acquiring a confession. The Russian Tsars would use torture in order to extract confessions. Ivan the terrible would torture his subjects for amusement, and Peter the great became paranoid that his own son was planning treason and had him tortured and executed. The Nazis tortured Jews in concentration camps and even tortured and killed

    Read More

  • Love in The Lady with the Dog and Hills like White Elephants

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anton Chekhov and Ernest Hemingway both convey their ideas of love in their respective stories The Lady with the Pet Dog and Hills like White Elephants in different ways. However, their ideas are quite varying, and may be interpreted differently by each individual reader. In their own, unique way, both Chekhov and Hemingway evince what is; and what is not love. Upon proper contemplation, one may observe that Hemingway, although not stating explicitly what love is; the genius found in his story is that he gives a very robust example of what may be mistaken as love, although not being true love. On the other hand, Chekhov exposes love as a frame of mind that may only be achieved upon making the acquaintance of the “right person,” and not as an ideal that one may palpate at one instance, and at the another instance one may cease to feel; upon simple and conscious command of the brain. I agree with Hemingway’s view on love because it goes straight to the point of revealing some misconceptions of love.

    Read More

  • Torture: A Controversial Issue

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    Torture is the act of inflicting severe physical or psychological pain, and/or injury to a person (or animal) usually to one who is physically restrained and is unable to defend against what is being done to them. It has ancient origins and still continues today. The torture debate is a controversial subject to modern society. Because it is such a complex subject, many debatable issues come from it. For example, many have debated whether torture is effective in obtaining the truth, affects the torturers, threatens the international standing of the United States, or undermines justice. Others include what qualifies as torture, or whether or not the United States should set an example by not torturing. The two opposing claims to this topic would be: (a) that torture should always be illegal because it is immoral and cruel and goes against the international treaties signed by the U.S. and torture and inhuman treatment, and (b) yes, torture is acceptable when needed. Why not do to terrorists what they are so good at doing to so many others?

    Read More

  • Torture And Enhanced Torture

    1797 Words  | 4 Pages

    The ongoing debate between torture and enhanced interrogation techniques is, has been and always will be a hot controversial topic. Whether between different political views, cultures, world leaders or the citizens and society in general, the issue will always be of great importance. Some believe the two are the same, while others feel they differ. Either way, the methods and effectiveness are the major points for concern.

    Read More

More about The Structure Of Torture Analysis

Open Document