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In the essay, “Of Cannibals,” Montaigne describes the lives of an indigenous group in Brazil. He compares their beliefs and actions to those of his fellow countrymen during this time, and in many cases prefers the indigenous way of thinking. In this comparison, Montaigne groups all of European Renaissance society to one side because of the similar beliefs concerning imperialism, economics, and societal structure throughout most of the continent. During Montaigne’s time, these beliefs were based in aristocracy and territorial expansion, and will be further discussed later. The purpose of Montaigne’s essay is to criticize and challenge this Renaissance ideology in a time when Europeans were imposing themselves upon peoples in all corners of …show more content…
the globe. Montaigne begins his essay with a declaration that he does not think this indigenous group is as barbarous as the adjective suggests. He argues that Europeans deem this group inferior and their customs despicable only because they are so different from them. Thus, Europeans are extremely ignorant of cultures that are not their own, and this includes other European nations as well. This is a bad attitude because, according to Montaigne, it is without a good reason, and also egregiously assumes that one’s own customs and values are always the most perfect. Montaigne believes the best society is actually the one that is closest to the natural order. By this he means a society that is without corruption, and upholds noble values to the highest respect. In this essay, Montaigne identifies the indigenous group’s valor and honor as noble values, and juxtaposes their actions with those of his countrymen and other Renaissance Europeans. This is to demonstrate the Europeans’ moral perversion during a supposedly enlightening time, the Renaissance. The main comparison Montaigne draws between the two societies is in regards to warfare and territorial expansion.
The Brazilians only fight neighboring tribes to prove their valor and uphold their honor. Montaigne also says, “Their disputes are not for the conquest of new lands, for these they already possess are so fruitful by nature, as to supply them without labour or concern, with all things necessary, in such abundance that they have no need to enlarge their borders.” These two details are in direct opposition to European attitudes of the time. Montaigne lived in an era of European exploration and conquest in continents like Africa and the Americas. The driving forces behind this expansionism were economic opportunities and competition between empires. Additionally, Europe’s prior history was filled with warfare between these same nations over land they all claimed as their own. Therefore, Montaigne uses this comparison to the indigenous group to criticize his own society’s reasons for warfare, and even suggests Europeans are without honor and valor.
Montaigne also implies that this lack of honor and valor amongst Europeans stems from their aristocratic governments. These Kings and Queens promote an agenda of economic inequality and nationalism, while they are also unfit to rule. This is exemplified in the essay when one Brazilian describes the Europeans he meets as:
“Full and crammed with all manner of commodities, whilst, in the meantime, their halves were begging
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at their doors, lean and half-starved with hunger and poverty; and they thought it strange that these necessitous halves were able to suffer so great an inequality and injustice, and that they did not take the others by the throats, or set fire to their houses.” By “halves” the Brazilian means other men, and this quote indicates that such inequality would not be tolerated in his society.
This is because it is in disagreement with the group’s belief in togetherness, which is characterized by their reference to one another as each other’s halves. Additionally, the Brazilian comments on the King’s frailty and inappropriate use of his power. Montaigne questions the man about this, and comments that when “asking him what advantage he reaped from the superiority he had amongst his own people (for he was a captain, and our mariners called him king), he told me, to march at the head of them to war.” This means that the indigenous group’s leader is honored to lead his people into their most noble task of warfare, and does not merely hide behind his troops and reap the benefits of their, and not his, bravery. Montaigne uses this encounter between the Brazilian and the King to make further commentary on the faults in his own society. It is obvious that he is dissatisfied with the wealth disparity in his country, and would like to see his people revolt to change this state. He also does not like his King or the idea of aristocracy, and wishes his leaders cared less about conquering lands and obtaining wealth, and more about the people they
lead. Montaigne does not refrain from stating what is wrong with the indigenous group, and especially details their cannibalistic activities. However, he counters that Europeans commit just as brutal actions as well. He also uses this chance to argue that Europeans do not understand the Brazilians well enough and dismiss many of their noble virtues because of this one barbarous act. This is how Montaigne begins his comparison between the indigenous group and Europeans. The comparison highlights noble virtues in the Brazilians that, for Montaigne, Europeans lack. The ultimate purpose of this essay is for Montaigne to critique his own society, and identify the qualities it does not have anymore.
Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society is an interested and well written ethnography on the Wari’ people. Beth A. Conklin goes above and beyond her call and does the Wari’ people justice by explaining their side of the story to the world that turned a cold shoulder on them for their norms. Consuming Grief helps to open the eyes of its readers to differing cultures and not to judge them on first looks. Beth A. Conklin shows tolerance and acceptance towards the Wari’ norms even if she did not agree with them. Tolerance should be extended towards all cultures around the world, everyone has their own norms and styles and each should be accepted and viewed as if it was a norm in one’s own culture.
In Patrick White’s article “‘The Cask of Amontillado’: A Case for the Defense,” his stance on Montresor’s murder is one of justification and comprehension. White’s foundations for this stance is based upon the perspective that Montresor was acting on behalf of the Montresor’s family, similarly to how soldiers kill as a patriotic duty. White makes connections between the family motto’s origin being from the royal house of Scotland and the coat of arms resembling the American-Revolution flag. White claims that the Montresor family acts as a political unit with the same right to take action against an opponent as a governmental group would (White 550-555).
In the written piece “Noble Savages” by John Hemming he give an historic account of different European adventures in the Brazilian mainland. He also tells some of the stories about the Brazilian people that were taken back to Europe about the savages’ way of life.
Montaigne, Essais on the Cannibals, in in K.J. Atchity,The Renaissance Reader (Harper, 1996), pp. 242-246.
In the events preceding the selected passage of Des Cannibales, Montaigne gives several situations of events in which man’s honour has been tested and proven, citing the example of the Hungarian’s merciful attitude towards their captured enemies, whom they released unharmed after having defeated them in battle. The classical reference to Seneca with the quote, “Si succiderit, de genu pugnat” foreshadows the passage in question, in which the captured Brazilians refuse to surrender or feel fear, but rather taunt their captors and remain defiant until their last breath. The passage then develops into an observation of the polygamous culture of the New World, which Montaigne praises and later goes onto defend as natural, arguing that it was customary in Biblical times and therefore should not be condemned by supposedly superior and cultured Europeans.
In Alain Corbin’s book The Village of Cannibals, the author analyzes the 1870 murder of French nobleman Alain de Monéy in the small village of Hautefaye. Hautefaye is a small village located in southwestern France right along the border of the Dordogne département. Although peasants were the only inhabitants of Hautefaye, it was rumored that the remainder of the Dordogne département was filled with large estates owned by the nobility. Such rumors created by the middle-class bourgeoisie attempted to shift peasantry hostility away from issues of wealth and land towards the aristocratic “caste” system. These rumors, along with instances of the local church caused the peasantry to also believe the church, and the nobility were trying to overthrow the Emperor.
First, Montaigne portrays Brazilians as non-barbaric people who are not like Europeans. He asserts, “I think there is nothing barbarous and savage in that nation…except that each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice” (152). Through his discussion of certain salient qualities that define these “other,” non-barbaric, Brazilian people, Montaigne actually elevates the Brazilians above Europeans. For example, he writes, “Those [Brazilian] people are wild, just as we call wild the fruits that Nature has produced by herself and in her normal course; whereas really it is those that we have changed artificially and led astray from the common order, that we should rather call wild” (152). After likening wild Brazilians to wild fruits, he implies that they both “retain alive and vigorous their genuine, their most useful and natural, virtues and properties, which we have debased in the [artificial fruits] in adapting them to gratify our corrupted taste” (152). For Montaigne, wildness and natural virtues are characteristics that are u...
In “The Cask of Amontillado”, the combination of the carnival and the catacomb settings contribute to the themes of revenge, and deception which the protagonist takes responsibility in. Because the story takes place during the carnival, the protagonist, Montressor, has an easier time plotting against Fortunato:
Mr. Darnton’s book The Great Cat Massacre, reexamines French culture during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries with the eyes of the peasant’s. Robert Darnton looks at the writings of the peasant’s, and traces them to their origins and compares them to other texts of similar origins and texts, to create credible accounts or views of particular topics of the people during the era. In this review you’re going to see a summary of the book, describing the various subjects of this book. After that I will comment on Mr. Darnton’s on some topics like his organization, writing style, and fairness to his subject material, then discuss the historical importance of the topics that Robert Darnton mentions in his book and give you my personal opinion of the book itself. Next I will discuss with you a battery of topics like why I chose the book, is the book controversial, what was the authors purpose for writing the book, what were some of the major themes, who or what Darnton’s sources were?
A common intellectual characteristic of the Enlightenment was anti-feudalism. Philosophers were against the separations in the Old Regime and pushed for equality among human beings. Voltaire parodies the pompousness of the nobility several times throughout his novel. As we are introduced to the Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh, Voltaire describes his castle as luxurious, even though it is inferred that Westphalia is only a moderate estate. Although the name may sound important, Thunder-ten-tronckh lacks the luxury of nobility. The Baron lives off of the labor of others, justifying it by his birth into the right of power. Furthermore, the Baron’s sister refuses to marry Candide’s father because he has one less quarterling than she on his coat of arms. The difference in their lineage is minute; however, the Baroness refuses to marry someone that is less important than she is. Candide himself also experiences a similar incident. The Baron’s son refuses to allow Candide to marry his sister, Cunegonde. Although Candide rescues Cunegonde from several misfortunes, the Baron feels that he is unworthy of someone with such status. In his display of noble arrogance, Voltaire suggests that the accident of birth is meaningless. He continues his parody of the nobility by introducing Don Fernando, the governor of Buenos Ayres. Don Fernando carries with him a long list of names to accentuate his power and wealth. In the days of the Old Regime, this was custom in order to recognize nobility. However, Voltaire portrays Don Fernando as a predator, a liar, and a cheat. He shows that even though Don Fernando may be characterized as wealthy and powerful, he is not superior to others. Finally, Candide’s experiences in the army suggest Voltaire’s bitterness toward the aristocracy. In every war Candide participates in, the common people suffer the consequences of the nobility’s actions.
Humans have always struggled against confinement and toward freedom. However, they choose not to recognize that history has proved time and again that too much freedom incites anarchy and too much confinement invites tyranny. It’s the nature of all animals to desire freedom and resist confinement. Many times the animal struggles so blindly it does not recognize it is destroying itself or condemning itself to further confinement. In “The Cask of Amontillado” Fortunato and Montresor are symbols of how human nature manifests differently in different people in varying combinations of psychological and physical freedom and confinement.
Mandeville’s account of foreign cannibals attributes a newfound significance to the act in that it intends on limiting the suffering of an inevitable victim of sickness. Whereas most in Europe perceive cannibalism as an abhorrent act of carnal violence, others such as the island of Dondia view it as a charitable act of preventing one from unnecessa...
Perhaps Montresor is coerced to confess his crime by his own imp, like the narrator of Poe's tale "The Imp of the Perverse," who lives for a time in apparent peace with his conscience, only to spill all the beans when his perverse spectre grabs hold of his will. One of the beauties of "The Cask of Amontillado" is that it will bear many interpretations. I do not lay claim to the definitive analysis of this tale. Instead I shall present diverse theories that support my general thesis: that Montresor and Fortunato represent a doppelganger illustrative of perversity.
Charles Dickens, the author of A Tale of Two Cities portrays the aristocracy as an oblivious body of self-entitled people that wholeheartedly believe in their destiny of wealth. Their understanding of the poor people’s fate as stepping stools to their success allow them to injure and even murder them without any repercussions. This constant abuse of the rich to the poor fuels the fire that is the French Revolution. The Marquis St. Evrémonde shows an extreme sense of ignorance when, after running over an innocent child, he simply, “threw out a gold coin” as a token
Montaigne is maybe best known among logicians for his wariness. Exactly what precisely his doubt adds up to has been the subject of significant academic level headed discussion. Given the way that he without a doubt draws motivation for his distrust from his investigations of the people of yore, the propensity has been for researchers to find him in one of the old suspicious customs. While some translate him as an advanced Pyrrhonist, others have accentuated what they take to be the impact of the Academics. Still different researchers have contended that while there are plainly doubtful minutes in his idea, describing Montaigne as a cynic neglects to catch the way of Montaigne's philosophical introduction.