Ursula Le Guin’s short story “She Unnames Them” takes place in the time of Adam and Eve. God had given Adam the task of naming every animal on the earth, but in Le Guin’s story, Eve feels separated from the animals. She feels that the names of the animals do not fit them and that by giving them names, they are attempting to label the essences of the animals. She begins to go around unnaming the animals, and in doing so, she begins to feel the wall of separation between her and the animals coming down. Predator and prey can no longer be distinguished, because Eve and all the animals began to feel the same simultaneous fear of one another and the desire to interact with one another. In this way, Eve and the animals become equals, and she realizes that she can even give up her own name. She gives it back to Adam, who does not even notice, and goes out to be with the animals.…
In the story Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz there is a teenage spy by the name of Alex Rider. He is a young spy who is courageous and never fails from what we now. Throughout the story the author uses symbolism more specifically guns as a symbol. Guns are always around him but he is never able to use one himself. He questions why he can die for his country but not be able to wield a gun.…
During the 30s and the 40s in Germany under a Nazi rule there was a mass extermination of Jews. The Nazi leader Adolf Hitler used his manipulation to take over Germany and with his power he turned it to hate and killed Jews for no reason. This time period was full of darkness and hate. In the book Night there were many events that showed the hatred that the Jewish people went through and the horrible living conditions.…
Do you think the Holocaust was fair? Dehumanization in the memoir of Elie Wiesel is repulsive. Night by Elie Wiesel was published in 1956. In this memoir all the Jews are put into concentration camps because Hitler despises Jews. The Jews struggle to hold on to their humanity. Dehumanization is the process by which the Nazis gradually reduced the Jews to little more than “things” which could easily be gotten rid of in terrible ways with no remorse. Three specific examples of events that occurred which dehumanized Eliezer, his father, and his fellow Jews acquaintances.…
“The yellow star? Oh well what of it, you don’t die of it...” (Wiesel 5). This dialogue from a character in the novel expresses the hardships of the Jewish populations during the early time of the holocaust. Dehumanization is when a human feels like their life is not worth anything to even be alive anymore. They feel deprived of all their human qualities. The Germans threw the Jews into harsh concentration camps. They placed sanctions on their everyday ordinary lives. If the guards felt like a person was not worth anything, they would be sent to the gas chamber or an inferno. The Germans were a harsh army that desensitized the life of the Jewish. In the novel Night, translated by Marion Wiesel he describes how a life can be dehumanized at a split second.…
In Albert Camus’s novel The Stranger, Camus shows his inherent absurdist perspective of life through commentary and actions Meursault displays as a result of symbolic use through the heat, sun, and dreams. These symbols dominate Meursaults consciousness controlling him through torment from the inescapable presence the sun and heat governs, causing him to act in ways deemed iniquitous to society. Each symbol opposes its usual description of warmth, comfort, or beauty and instead reflects upon Meursaults awareness of the sensate world to avoid the emotional and social constructs that present him.…
Sex, lies and deceit. These three things are what this novel is about. But it is so much more than that. In the book Ethan Frome, written by Edith Wharton, the author uses symbolism to represent many things such as death. Symbols such as Zeena’s red pickle dish, the cold season of winter, and the dead cucumber vine all represent important parts that make up this novel.…
In "The Birth-Mark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author floods the story with many forms of symbolism to show there is no true form of perfection on earth. Although trying to accomplish such a thing, Aylmer not only highlights his failures as a scientist, but also kills his beautiful wife. After many nights of gazing upon his wife's porcelain face, slaying her heart with his disgusted looks, Aylmer convinces his wife Georgiana to let him conduct an experiment on the hand-shaped, rosy birthmark she flaunted upon her cheek, to remove such flaw and achieve pure perfection on earth. Within Aylmer's laboratory exists two contrasting rooms that display not only the workplace for the grungy men, but the heavenly boudoir of which his wife so pleasently…
The Invisible Man is about a young man who wanted to escape the racial division between whites and blacks in the early 20th century. The narrator never gave his own names because he is unknown and mysterious to the reader, and this emphasize on his invisibleness on society. The narrator had a simple dream of fitting in and rising above social limits and that he is able to change himself and others to accept each other. However, the narrator’s adventure to find himself and to come to realization that he is basically nothing and invisible to the world because of the color of his skin. The book, Invisible Man, is trying to teach the reader about the social division by race in the 20th century and how lives of blacks were depicted at the time.…
The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is regarded as one of the most superlative novels of English literature written in the twentieth century. However, the ideas and notions presented by Conrad in this story has generated quite a bit of controversy among academic scholars and literature experts who believe the novel creates a sense of racial animosity towards the African continent and its people. With further analyzation it can be inferred that this novel does indeed show signs of racial enmity and presents a rather deplorable situation in which one must evaluate if Conrad himself is a racist. Some would argue that his novel was…
Ralph Ellison wrote "Invisible Man" which was his story of the black experiences in America and "Battle Royal" was derived from the opening chapter of "Invisible Man". "Battle Royal" was published as a short story in 1947 and provides the reader with a look at the struggles of black people in a white America. After giving a speech at his graduation, the narrator is invited to give the speech to many of the leading white people of the town only to discover that he was to be part of that battle royal. The "Battle Royal" provides the reader with many examples of symbolism including the battle itself, the blind folds during the battle, and the electrified coins after the battle.…
The Running Man communicates a diverse range of issues in our contemporary world, in particular the highly pressing issues of rumours/assumptions, fear and hope. This is achieved through a plethora of eloquent and engaging techniques, such as the use of figurative language, motif and emotive themes.…
allows the reader to know that Invisible Man is the protagonist right away. The comment…
Throughout the book of The Human Race, Antelme stresses the importance of only having one race which is the human race. These SS soldiers who committed atrocious acts were, as Antelme described, “only men like ourselves”. The SS soldiers may have resembled animals or devils, but in the end he acknowledges that they are human. Although he does not specifically mention the banality of evil, he raises the question of the SS soldiers doing evil that is normalized in society. However, in this specific passage Antelme discusses the idea of the human race. He states in prior passages that the SS conducted the mass killings not because of the inhumanity of the prisoners but because they saw humanity in them. Arendt does something similar with Eichmann, while others say he is the epitome of a monster, Arendt is stuck between his monstrous acts and his average behavior. Her conclusions…
Looking at “motifs” in general may at first seem vague, yet Kundera places a large amount of weight on the way motifs shape us as human beings and construct the way in which we identify ourselves or rather choose not to identify ourselves. From the beginning of the novel, Kundera readily admits to the fictionality of his characters that he has constructed, stating that they arose from several “basic situations” or “phrases”. However, the singular phrase and by extension, the single motif that Kundera uses to create the character, encapsulates their entire being. Each character’s decisions, nuances and indeed their fates can be traced back to the simple motif that Kundera has defined them by, whether the fictional characters admit to it or not.…