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Satire in everyday use
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Recommended: Satire in everyday use
Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s novel Wizard of the Crow presents its audience with a satirical point of view of life in a fictional totalitarian African nation. Ironically, it is called the “Free Republic” of Aburĩria. The country is ruled by a man who has been in the position of power for so long, that no one can even remember when his reign began. Towards the end of the story, the Ruler makes a statement that Aburĩrians are religious people., This is an accurate statement because throughout the course of the novel, Thiong’o’s characters proclaim belief in various prominent figures from a broad spectrum of faiths such as God, Jesus, and Satan as well as supernatural concepts such as magic spells and witch doctors. This plays an important role in the novel’s theme of magical realism. At the very beginning of the …show more content…
Kamĩtĩ had previously used this same trick as a childhood prank. Arigaigai Gathere flees in fear and the next day begs the Wizard of the Crow for forgiveness. Not too long after that incident, a line of policemen to see the Wizard of the Crow. Kamĩtĩ is now believed to possess magical powers all because the sign reading “WIZARD OF THE CROW” is still up. As the Wizard of the Crow lives his newly reformed life, he must constantly plays a role that is more of an actor than of a magician. It is simply acting as an expert on the field of magic because the people around him are convinced that his powers are real. People instantly believe the rumors of this astounding wizard who “could change himself into any form of being” (Thiong’o 96) all because they cannot disprove those abilities if they hadn’t met him before, and Kamĩtĩ does his best to play along with that widely accepted belief throughout the course of the
Of all the themes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the one which stood out the most to me was that of deception. With the Green Knight, the “evil” and Sir Gawain, the “good”, we see both forces partake in deceptive practices to achieve the desired outcome they sought. Throughout the poem, Sir Gawain’s moral compass was constantly being tested with deception being used to gage his level of loyalty, morality, and chivalry. The “game” that the Green Knight was hell bent on playing was not an honest one. He utilized a host of deceptions to gain the results that he sought after—there was little to no room for error with him. First, he presented a challenge in which he alone knew that he would not perish. When he asked for a volunteer to strike him with the ax, the Green Knight
The article briefly goes over The Wizard of Oz, both the film and the book, and discusses how they fit into Campbell’s hero’s journey. Emerson summarizes Campbell’s idea of the hero’s journey for the reader, then splits Dorothy’s journey into three phases. The first phase is her travels on the yellow brick road where in the film she meets the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, and in the book Dorothy and her companions overcome natural obstacles. The second phase begins when they meet the Wizard of Oz in the Emerald City, who sets them on a trial before they can receive their respective gifts. The pinnacle of this trial is the face off with the Wicked Witch of the West, where she is defeated when Dorothy throws a bucket of water on her
Hyde gives several definitions of qualities that contribute to the archetype of trickster. It is stated that the trickster, when in the presence of someone who cannot make an honorable choice, “suggests an amoral action, something right/wrong that will get life going again,” (Hyde 7). Additionally, a trickster very well may be troublemakers, leaving mischief strewn across their path, however despite “all their disruptive behavior, tricksters are regularly honored as the creators of culture,” (Hyde 8). The Green Knight tests Gawain’s honor by swaying him to make immoral decisions, and while these actions may cause the knight to falter some in his honor and chivalry, in the end he is stronger for it and grows in character. In the tale, the Green Knight crosses boundaries, offers a sense of contradiction, and allows a space within society to question itself. All these reasons fulfill the requirements of the trickster archetype as laid out by Hyde, and prove that the Green Knight typifies the characteristics of the trickster within the story of Sir Gawain and the Green
To establish the knight as worthy, the author first shows Gawain’s loyalty to his king. The Green Knight challenges anyone in the hall to the beheading game and no one takes him up on it. Arthur, angered by the Green Knight’s taunting, is about to accept the challenge himself when Gawain steps in saying "would you grant me this grace" (Sir Gawain, l. 343), and takes the ax from Arthur. This is a very convenient way for the author to introduce Gawain and also to show Gawain’s loyalty to Arthur, but it seems almost too convenient. There i...
Sabina Magliocco, in her book Witching Culture, takes her readers into the culture of the Neo-Pagan cults in America and focus upon what it reveals about identity and belief in 21st century America. Through her careful employment of ethnographic techniques, Magliocco allows both the Neo-Pagan cult to be represented accurately, and likewise, scientifically. I argue that Magliocco's ethnographic approach is the correct way to go about this type of research involving religions.
Though often extensive detail may be condemned as mere flowery language, in understanding Sir Gawain and the Green Knight one must make special emphasis on it. In color and imagery itself, the unknown author paints the very fibers of this work, allowing Sir Gawain to discern the nuances of ritualistic chivalry and truth. His quest after the Green Knight is as simple as ones quest toward himself. Through acute awareness of the physical world he encounters Gawain comes to an understanding of the world beyond chivalry, a connection to G-d, the source of truth. He learns, chivalry, like a machine, will always function properly, but in order to derive meaning from its product he must allow nature to affect him.
While the Trobrianders and the Azande that Bronislaw Malinowski and E.E. Evans-Pritchard describe in their respective ethnographies are miles apart in terms of physical distance, both groups place a great emphasis on magic in their society. In describing such a concept that in Western terms is associated with fiction and skepticism, Malinowski and Evans-Pritchard differ in the way they explain the role magic has in each community.
This may seem to be the case at the beginning, but by the end of this literary work, Gawain begins to evolve as a character. Near the end of the story Gawain has gone from flat and unchanging, to a growing and round solar hero who learns from his poor choices. When it came time for Gawain and the Green Knight to reverse their roles and perform the rest of the game, the magic girdle that Gawain received worked as it was supposed to, in that Gawain would be wounded but not fatally wounded. This is when Gawain experiences the most growth as a character. He experiences growth through realization of his poor choices and that everything was all a plot to make an “All high and mighty, do no evil Knight of the Round Table” a fraud and make him lose favor in the eyes of the common people. It was a trick formed to make the commoners see that even the most righteous people in the kingdom could be
The terms voodoo, hoodoo, black magic and conjure arouse different ideas and interpretations such as fear, fascination, or repugnance. For some, the image of voodoo dolls, which are used to bring pain to the one’s enemy are associated with these words. Others might consider curses and spells used for evil intentions to be at the heart of voodoo. A more innocent notion of voodoo encompasses the idea that it is to be used for the communal good. All of these ideas came together and merged with Christian and Catholic beliefs after Africans were transported to the Americas and subjected to unimaginable horrors as slaves. Many historians define voodoo as “a syncretism between the African religion Vodu and Catholicism.” Voodoo is an entirely new creation, which was born as the African slaves were confronted with New World religions. These new ideas were “camouflaged as European saints, the Orisha divinities continued to be invoked, fed, and celebrated by their transplanted New World devotees, who in turn expected protection and assistance from their ancient spiritual guardian.” In some cases, slaves used the culturally accepted Catholic saints as a cover for their ancestral beliefs which were often seen as foolish and heretical by their masters. This new belief system “met new world needs that the settled and passive African modes could not match.” Voodoo held an important part in many slaves’ lives as remnants of their African beliefs evolved into a meaningful and powerful force. Voodoo was an essential element of survival for many slaves because it helped them cope psychologically with the physical torment they endured, it gave them a sense of power in impossibly difficult situations, and it served as a unifying force.
Oxtoby, Willard G., and Alan F. Segal. A Concise Introduction to World Religions. Oxford, Canada: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Geertz defines religion as ‘(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.’ In this essay, I will focus on the Geertz’s idea, and Asad’s subsequent critique, of symbols. (Geertz, Clifford, and Michael Banton. "Religion as a cultural system." (1966).)
Both in the oral traditions of the Native Americans, and in its literature, the trickster is known as a mythological, anthropomorphic being that uses its knowledge to trick and confuse both humans and animals. The trickster is a liar, a story teller, a hero, a glutton, an oversexualized being. One of the main characteristics of the trickster is how ambiguous it is. These supernatural creatures played jokes, laughed, made fun of people, and scandalized society by their erratic and sometimes even aberrant behavior. Nonetheless, tricksters can also be silly and foolish, their plans failing due to their own naïveté. Sometimes tricksters are portrayed and acclaimed as heroes, especially when accomplishing feats or fighting monsters or other creatures. However, this behavior is not intentional, and it may be the result of the trickster’s failure to accomplish something disreputable
On the 14th of September in the year 1607 the Earl of Tyrone Hugh O’Neill and the Earl of Tyrconnel Rory O’Donnell fled Ireland alongside officials, their families and numerous Gaelic chieftains. They left Ireland from Rathmullen in County Donegal. This flee was to become known as the flight of the Earls. They arrived in the Spanish Netherlands and then eventually made their way to Rome. The Flight of the Earls led to the most drastic form of the British government’s policy of plantation in Ireland. The Flight of the Earls has remained as one of the most memorable events in the history of Ireland. But what exactly were the reasons for the Flight of the Earls? The causes have been debated by historians with different interpretations as to why they fled but it is clear that the influence of the Earls in Ireland have been diminished greatly in the years prior to the Flight of the Earls. This essay seeks to clarify the reasons for the decline in power of the Earls in Ireland through exploration of the solidification of British rule in Ireland, along with key events in the years prior to the Flight of the Earls such as Hugh O’Neill’s campaign and onto the nine years war and the Battle of Kinsale and the Treaty of Mellifont after the Battle of Kinsale.
While this story at first appears to be first-rate tabloid matter, it plays on several different tensions within African culture. Most obvious is the tension between the traditional belief in witchcraft and the modern disparagement of that belief. To a westerner, witchcraft is a remnant of a ‘primitive’ society, and encourages feelings of superiority, but to a traditional African, it is a part of existence, and a form of theodicy. Witchcraft explains suffering in such a way that it can be dealt with; the witch can be sought out and forced to amend his or her evil actions. Gcabashe’s claim, that a witch physically abd...
While is a common conception that pre-modern societies are primitive compared to their modern counterpart, this is not often the case, theses societies have complex systems within their society especially within their spirituality and religion. It is this complexity that has allowed aspects of pre-modern societies to evolve and adapt into modern societies. Myths, rituals and sorcery have been terms to describe the activities of pre-modern societies, but these activities have also been found to exist within modern society as well. This essay will further discuss the connections between pre-modern and modern societies that has allowed for myths, rituals and sorcery to exist in the modern societies.