Power struggle Leads To Tragedy:
William Tweed, an American politician from the 19th century, once stated, “The way to have power is to take it.” Tweed implies people must take power from others to be successful. Tweed’s quote connects to the literary theory involving an imbalance of power. Marxism is a literary theory which involves an inequality of power. An application of Marxism to “Ponies”, “Lamb To The Slaughter”, and “The One Who Walk Away From Omelas” reveals imbalance of authoritative power among others causes tragedy.
In “Ponies” by Kij Johnson, the protagonists Sunny and Barbara face imbalance of power against the antagonists, TheOtherGirls, causing tragedy to occur. Barbara’s low amount of power is evident when Kij Johnson writes, …show more content…
Dahl writes of the following scene, where Mary has less authoritative power. “It wasn’t till then that she began to get frightened. ‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Sit down.’ She lowered herself back slowly into the chair…(Roald Dahl 2-3). Dahl describes Mary as lowering herself in the chair to prove Patrick controls her actions. As a result, she obeys as told by Patrick. Roald Dahl creates Mary as an obedient character to prove her imbalance of authoritative power compared to the power-hungry Patrick. Her inequality of power leads Patrick’s death. In the following quote, Dahl writes of Patrick’s death. “...Mary Maloney simply walked up behind [Patrick] and…swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down...on the back of his head.” (Roald Dahl 4). Mary’s smooth swing to Patrick’s head with the lamb leg represents her reclaiming of power by stepping away from her stereotype of obedience. The lamb leg as the murder weapon represents the end of innocence. Patrick’s murder was as simple as a lamb’s; he wasn’t aware of Mary’s inner strength. Dahl causes Mary to kill Patrick to prove when one faces an imbalance of power with another, tragedy strikes. Patrick’s death was inevitable; Patrick wasn’t able to defend himself from Mary’s strike for he never expected her to fight back and take control …show more content…
The imbalance of power among the protagonist and antagonist is clear when Ursula writes, “[The citizens] all know [the child] is there,...they all understand that their happiness,...depend...child’s abominable misery.” (Ursula Le Guin 4). The citizens utilize their control over the child. They torture the child to ensure their happiness, not caring about what the child goes through. Ursula creates the citizens to have control over the child. She deploys this power difference in order for the child to be a victim of suffering. Ursula writes of a scene in which the the child is described. “[The child] is so thin there are no calves to its legs; its belly protrudes; it lives on a half-bowl of cornmeal and grease a day.” (Ursula Le Guin 2 and 4). The child’s torture represents it is a scapegoat for society. The citizens represent a selfish society that blames others. Ursula causes the child to suffer to prove to the reader this happens when one person has power and the other doesn’t. The citizens abuse the child’s power; causing the child to suffer. “The One Who Walk Away From Omelas” reveals Ursula crafted the amount of power between the child and the citizens of Omelas to be imbalanced, causing the child’s
William Tweed, an American politician from the 19th century, once stated, “The way to have power is to take it.” Tweed implies people must take power from others to be successful. Tweed’s quote connects to the literary theory involving an imbalance of power. Marxism is a literary theory which involves an inequality of power. An application of Marxism to “Ponies”, “Lamb To The Slaughter”, and “The One Who Walk Away From Omelas” reveals imbalance of authoritative power among others causes tragedy.
In “Ponies” by Kij Johnson, the protagonists Sunny and Barbara face imbalance of power against the antagonists, TheOtherGirls, causing tragedy to occur. Barbara’s low amount of power is evident when Kij Johnson writes, …show more content…
Dahl writes of the following scene, where Mary has less authoritative power. “It wasn’t till then that she began to get frightened. ‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Sit down.’ She lowered herself back slowly into the chair…(Roald Dahl 2-3). Dahl describes Mary as lowering herself in the chair to prove Patrick controls her actions. As a result, she obeys as told by Patrick. Roald Dahl creates Mary as an obedient character to prove her imbalance of authoritative power compared to the power-hungry Patrick. Her inequality of power leads Patrick’s death. In the following quote, Dahl writes of Patrick’s death. “...Mary Maloney simply walked up behind [Patrick] and…swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down...on the back of his head.” (Roald Dahl 4). Mary’s smooth swing to Patrick’s head with the lamb leg represents her reclaiming of power by stepping away from her stereotype of obedience. The lamb leg as the murder weapon represents the end of innocence. Patrick’s murder was as simple as a lamb’s; he wasn’t aware of Mary’s inner strength. Dahl causes Mary to kill Patrick to prove when one faces an imbalance of power with another, tragedy strikes. Patrick’s death was inevitable; Patrick wasn’t able to defend himself from Mary’s strike for he never expected her to fight back and take control …show more content…
The imbalance of power among the protagonist and antagonist is clear when Ursula writes, “[The citizens] all know [the child] is there,...they all understand that their happiness,...depend...child’s abominable misery.” (Ursula Le Guin 4). The citizens utilize their control over the child. They torture the child to ensure their happiness, not caring about what the child goes through. Ursula creates the citizens to have control over the child. She deploys this power difference in order for the child to be a victim of suffering. Ursula writes of a scene in which the the child is described. “[The child] is so thin there are no calves to its legs; its belly protrudes; it lives on a half-bowl of cornmeal and grease a day.” (Ursula Le Guin 2 and 4). The child’s torture represents it is a scapegoat for society. The citizens represent a selfish society that blames others. Ursula causes the child to suffer to prove to the reader this happens when one person has power and the other doesn’t. The citizens abuse the child’s power; causing the child to suffer. “The One Who Walk Away From Omelas” reveals Ursula crafted the amount of power between the child and the citizens of Omelas to be imbalanced, causing the child’s