Society and civilization has been around ever since humans were around, and it is a part of most people’s lives. Society can affect others whether it be positive or negative, and this can visibly be seen by how they act and feel. People have different opinions towards society, and some people will express this using words and their meaning. Many stories throughout the years give different and similar insight on how they feel towards society. In the story “The Outcast of Poker Flat”, Bret Harte uses denotation and characterization to display how society’s morality is based on their ignorance. Harte used the definitions of words to give an insight on what he feels about society and its morals. In “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”, Diction is used many times to give an outlook of how society acted on their own wants. One word in the story and how it is used gives a description on society’s moral values. “There was a Sabbath lull” in the …show more content…
Harte uses indirect characteristics of society to show how it uses its greed and ignorance to pass judgement. “A few of the committee had urged hanging him as a possible example ,and a sure method of reimbursing themselves from his pockets of the sums he had won from them.”(Berte) Society used the fact they lost money after a lost in a fair gamble, to give a reason to get rid Oakhurst from Poker Flat. Harte uses indirect characteristics of the characters, and shows how they aren’t what society thinks they are. One quote used indirect characterization to give a moral charactistic of someone who was cast out of society. “Mr. Oakhurst did so it contained Mother Shipton’s rations untouched. Give ‘em to the child”,- pointing at piney.”(Berte) Mother Shipton had a giving and kind character even though society deemed her sinful and immoral. Society shows its ignorance by the characterization of it and the characters who became outcasts by
Dalen Todorov, Period 8 Eng 10 H, Ms. Reid 1 October 2014 ORP 1 Dialectical Journal Kingsolver, Barbara. The Bean Trees New York City: HarperCollins Publishers, 1988 “"Take this baby," she said….. "Where do you want me to take it?"....... ”She looked back at the bar, and then looked at me. "
A California town, outcasts, cheaters, a battle against nature and jumping frogs… that might sound like the premise for an epic novel, but these are a mix of elements from two separate short stories, The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte and The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain. Harte’s story follows John Oakhurst, a professional gambler, who has become an outcast in the small California town of Poker Flats during the gold rush. His success as a gambler leads to a negative reputation and he is forced to leave the town along with a band of outcasts. A few conflicts arise, but none so severe as the blizzard that strikes them while they’re in the mountains. Oakhurst’s life of gambling success is long gone and all the bad luck he encounters leads him to suicide (Harte 674-684).
Life is full of decisions, but they are subconsciously influenced by society. This influence has created an unhealthy relationship between social classes. How people choose to act is in complete correlation to society’s set expectation for a certain class. These actions then become reflections of people’s moral values. In Tony McAdam’s criticism of The Great Gatsby, Ethics in Gatsby, he points out the corruption of characters morals due to society’s influence and the impact that has on decision making.
The short stories, "A Good man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Conner and "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner are rather horrifying; one tale is about a grandmother and her family brutally murdered by a coldhearted killer, and the other tale is about a lady who murders her lover and then sleeps beside his rotting body. Not only have O'Conner and Faulkner created similar plots in their respective stories, both authors criticize the Southern corruption through the distortion of the characters' world view of reality. The use of irony in the character's social statuses and their miserable lives illustrate the authors' criticism of the Southern social structure. The stories include insights into the families of the old south, and the older class system of
In “The Most Dangerous Game” Connell uses indirect characterization to show that Rainsford is selfish,humane,and highly skilled. The reader gets a better physical description of General Zaroff. There is not a physical description of Rainsford. General Zaroff Is more fully characterized,Richard Connell,planned for Rainsford to be the dynamic character. Zaroff is physically portrayed more than Rainford and his belonging are better depicted.
Social status is defined as a person's standing or importance in relation to other people within a society. Social status has affected the world for hundreds of years, from where you were allowed to go to the bathroom, to if you were allowed to vote. The way a person is viewed and treated is all caused by what is believed to be their rank in society and in the short story, “A&P”, John Updike uses irony, symbolism, and characterization to show this. Sometimes people dissatisfied with their opportunities get caught up with what others represent, causing rash decisions that lead to disappointment.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses characterization, symbolism, and irony to express the cloud in judgment prejudice causes when examining the morals of others. Scout is able to understand more about the town folk in Maycomb County through studying her teacher’s ironic and corrupted views of life around her. Lee uses Miss Gates, Scout’s teacher, to allow Scout a chance to understand the complexity of the adult world. While teaching the class about the Holocaust, Gates expresses the injustice being done to the Jews. She teaches the children that the town does not “believe in persecuting anybody” (Lee 329) because of the U.S. democratic government.
It also showed how hard it is to escape it, to keep fighting it or to conform like almost everyone else. The biggest examples I can think of that proves this are how much society had changed for Chief when he saw it again and how everything was almost completely identical, and the on going battle between Nurse Ratchet and McMurphy. Nurse Ratchet and her ward being society, trying to turn the patients into how they see fit so they can be fixed and going to live in society based on society's standards. McMurphy would the individual who would fight against the society he was forced to live in, just wanting to be free and be who he was, and he would do it until the very end. This book could also represent what was happening when it was written.
Rhetorical appeals serve as a major role in the characters speaking style. The speaking style reflects his or her main points that the character is trying to convey. It also reveals the characters feelings and emotions. John Proctor uses strong rhetorical appeals throughout the play. John Proctor is loyal, honest, and kind-hearted.
The Giver Compare/Contrast Essay When some people hear the words ‘perfect society’ what do they think of? Take a look at our society, then take a look at Jonas’s society, between our two societies there are some comparisons and a vast amount of differences. For instance, the rules are different, as well as their family units and their individuality. While our society is more on the modern side, Jonas’s society is plainer. When it comes to the rules in our society, we don’t normally think of rules that are very extreme.
For my short literary analysis essay I wanted to dive into the theme of social conformity and non-conformity and how it ties into the characters presented in Kurt Vonnegut Jr. short story Harrison Bergeson. In Harrison Bergeson society had been set up in a way that prohibited anyone from forming an opinion or having differences in appearance and ideologies. People who were better looking or slightly smarter than their counterparts were forced to wear inhibitors in order to make them equal to the rest of society. For example the character George was forced to wear a mental handicap radio that prevents him from speaking his mind because of the fear that George might use his “superior” mind to subjugate his wife Hazel.
Realism is literature that represents actual life, the author Bret Harte tries to stay as close to the truth as possible when writing. Authors like him write truthfully and objectively about ordinary characters and their ordinary situations. In Harte’s “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” he represents realism through archetypes and local colour. The short story is set in 1850 in a California mining town during the Gold Rush.
Social norms can cause individuals hysteria and make them feel left out which causes them to break apart from society. Both Edgar Allen Poe and Jon Krakauer use different instances of conflict and foreshadowing to achieve a similar idea of the negative aspects of society. Society can cause individuals to think differently and cause them to make decisions whether they are good or bad. Edgar Allen Poe and Jon Krakauer illustrate internal conflict in differing ways. In his short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Edgar Allen Poe uses conflict to show how Rodrick isolation from society shows his effort to be himself despite living with illnesses.
Throughout the story of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Oscar pointed out many oblivious actions done by the characters. He constantly used the characters to exaggerate actions of our society today. Wilde uses exaggerations to show how the characters were unable to be a complete individual without the face of the strict social expectations influencing their actions. Everywhere in the society, they are all unable to make their own decisions, and it is very hard for them to be truthful towards who they are without societal norms interfering causing them to lose all individuality. Wilde uses reversal to show how the characters actions were completely insane since they were trying to accommodate societal expectations.
For all difference ages and times social norms have been around and for all those ages and times they have been people that were rejected from society or opt to isolate themselves from society. Both Edgar Allan Poe and Ralph Waldo Emerson both portray the negative aspects of society and how it limits the individual through different uses conflict and foreshadowing in their works. The main difference between both authors is the way they interpret corruption of society. Poe and Emerson use conflict to portray society as being horrible and merciless in all their aspects. Both authors use a different type of conflict to interpret the effects of society.