The political commentary Of Mice and Men, written by the prominent American communist author Steinbeck in 1937, is used to allegorize his views on a capitalist society. Steinbeck’s work follows the protagonists George and Lennie on their challenging journey to make a living and achieve the “American dream” near the town of Soledad. The society Steinbeck has portrayed in his work expresses the futile nature of living in the Great Depression and the reoccurring hardships many characters, including the protagonists, must face. To achieve this, Steinbeck has utilised stylistic features to impart his views within the work. The political undertone that Capitalism is a corrupting force is represented throughout his work through the inclusion of subtle juxtaposition and symbolism, alongside the other prominent socialistic perception of idealizing camaraderie through the context of the setting intertwined with foreshadowing.
The book Animal Farm, is an allegorical novel written by George Orwell in 1944. It was written during WWII as a fable to expose the danger posed by Stalinism and a totalitarian government. The story reflects the events that lead up to the Russian Revolution and into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. George Orwell was influenced to write this novel in part by his own experiences in a Trotskyist group during the Spanish Civil War and also from his own ideas he had about relationships between social classes and how they relate to the relationship between humans and animals. Trotskyism can be generally defined as a form of socialism lead by Leon Trotsky.
The outbreaks of World War Two also lead him to write “Mother Courage” as he wanted to warn people against getting involved in the war. Brecht created Epic Theatre to comment on social, political and economical views and to make people think about themselves and how they could change for the better. Brecht had strong communist views which meant he wanted a stateless, classless, social organisation based on common ownership, these views are reflect in many of his plays . In “Mother Courage” the characters that are higher class like the Chaplain are shown as slimy and pompous. Brecht created the Verfumdungseffekt or distancing effect.
In 1949 George Orwell wrote “1984” to epitomize the haunting life under a Dystopia created and maintained by a totalitarian regime. The novel used themes from life in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin as well as wartime in his own country of the United Kingdom. Orwell believed that democracy as it existed before 1939 would not survive the war and would be replaced by Fascist coup d’état or, and more likely, a socialist revolution with Stalinist overtones – admitting later that events had proved him wrong. In 1993, Lois Lowry wrote “The Giver” to expose the fallacy of a Utopian society where inhabitants, although well fed, healthy and seemingly happy, lack the basic freedoms and pleasures that our own society values. The novel was written in an era when political correctness ruled public consciousness with a tendency to ignore significant differences between individuals and diversity so as to avoid appearing prejudiced or discriminatory.
The Revisionist theory brought about the collapse of the Marxist interruption, creating a lasting change to the historiography. Insinuated by Alfred Cobban in 1964, Francois Furet’s 1978 publication dramatically altered the previous paradigm. Switching to political theory, Furet questions if the Revolution was necessary, due to his belief that the economic structure in France was stable. Revisionists emphasize the political as the cause of the Revolution, rather than the economics of the Marxist; this means often excluding or downplaying the social changes. Furet’s specific theory revolves around the idea of “empty space” left from the Ancien Regime that became filled with ideas of “the People.” Some Revisionist, in an anti-Marxist display, view the French economy as balanced, stagnate and traditionalist.
In An Inspector Calls, J B Priestley highlights social inequality of class and gender prevalent in 1912 pre World war one Britain. At the centre of the play are the Birlings, an upper middle class family ambitious to improve their social status, with a possible involvement in the suicide of a desperate working class girl, Eva Smith. Actions, emotions, tones and the setting are used to convey the prominent social inequality resulting from the capitalistic economic and political system. Priestley encourages a creates disapproval towards of the relationship between his social inequality and society in order to convey his socialist views on how the upper classes should be responsible for those other than themselves. Priestley creates dislikeable characters such as the staunch capitalist Mr Birling in order to convey the contemptible attitude of the upper class towards society, particularly the working class.
As examples of dystopian fiction, metropolis and 1984 share some common concerns and conventions. In a comparative essay, analyse and evaluate each text as an artistic response to the political, social and cultural climates of their respective contexts: Texts are inherently responses which represents composers concerns of their political, social and cultural climates. Both Fritz Lang’s German Expressionist Film Metropolis (1927) and George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1948) portray the subjugation of the individual and the divide between social classes. Lang’s focus is on the consequences to society due to loss of values such as compassion in Weimar Germany following WWI. Meanwhile, Orwell represents the crushing of individual
The novel was published during the Industrial Revolution, a time of great economic change in which laborers fought for fair conditions at the workplace, and employers fought to defend themselves. People formed groups to work for their own benefit, thus causing the separation of classes. As a novel written during the Victorian era, Emily Bronte’s intensely class conscious novel Wuthering Heights is a story of protecting and improving one's social and economic class. Much of this struggle results from a distinct division of classes and is described through such ways as personal relationships, appearance of characters, and even the setting. The division of classes is based on cultural, economic, and social differences, and it greatly affects the general behavior and actions of each character.
As one is in combat in WWII, everything becomes frightening and one relies on their country to make a good decision for the people in service. Fighting for a cause is on one’s mind, but also survival. By the end of WWII, Japan was nearly defeated by the Allies and the Nazi’s still had Jews imprisoned in concentration camps. The United States was determined to stop Japan from expanding and along their fight, the United States the terrifying circumstances that the Jews were experiencing. The actions made in WWII by the United States were positive based on their preparation for war, the atomic bomb, and the defeat of the Nazi’s in Europe.
The Cold War & The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall The Berlin wall was far more than just a physical barrier that separated East and West Berlin, it was symbolic of the boundary between Capitalism and Communism. Stemmed from lasting tensions of The Cold War, the Russian’s divided the German city of Berlin into two sides, not only creating political tensions, but cultural rifts and great tales of escape, too. The origins of the Berlin Wall came directly from what is now known as the Cold War, which originated from tensions following WW2. During the second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union fought together as allies against the Axis powers. However, the relationship between the two nations was a tense one.