Indoctrination

The most significant lesson of a story is found in its ending. Children’s stories often give the impression that good always trumps evil, and as such, the hero always wins. The stories one encounters when they are older have more critical and realistic perspectives on certain situations. 1984 and Elysium are excellent examples of this. Both of the protagonists in these works are anti-heroes who struggle to fit in and thrive in their societies. They do not achieve their goals merely because they…

Throughout the history of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, few individuals come close in notorious villainous malice than that of “renegade doctor,” Josef Mengele (Nomberg-Przytyk 44). Often given the title of the Angel of Death, Mengele worked for 21 months as a doctor and researcher in Auschwitz-Birkenau between 1943 and 1945 (Jewish Virtual Library). Although the atrocities of the Holocaust are widely known as one of the most devastating and dark periods in human history, the story of “blood…

Adult women, having matured into consummate self-loathers, detesting the bodies in which they were born, express their hatred by taking it out on their own children: Mrs. Breedlove adopts the conviction that her daughter is ugly, and Geraldine curses Pecola’s blackness. The idea that ugliness is in fact a state of mind is presented early on in the book when illustrating the Breedlove family: “Mrs. Breedlove, Sammy Breedlove, and Pecola Breedlove—wore their ugliness” (38). This sentence provides…

Examine the contention that formal education can be a source of inequality in society. Formal education can be defined as one of the five major social institutions composed of structured social organizations that concern themselves with the distribution and transmission of knowledge, skills, values and norms from one generation to the other. The institution can be subdivided into private formal education, enjoyed by the society elite and public formal education of the general populace. A…

As the Cold War waging between the Soviet Union and the United States heightened, the perceived threat posed by the Communists became known as the Red Scare. The spread of Communism and the possibility of an international nuclear war invaded the minds of Americans with a sense of constant threat. Literature, films, and other products of the warring period reflected these fears of a Communist invasion and an annihilation from atomic warfare. To protect the American culture and values, the nation…

The memoir of Jasper Rastus Nall, “Freeborn Slave: Diary of a Black Man in the South” is unique in that it offers an exclusive viewpoint even among the variety of critically acclaimed historical novels of his time. It includes an assemblage of both first and second-hand accounts by Nall of his and his family’s history. Although the novel shows shortcomings in Nall’s biases and a few stories that depart from the motif, its true strengths are in the book’s organization, its honest account of what…

The indoctrination into beliefs on how to live their life, having thoughts suppressed, and being unable to experience the feeling of being human show how Brave New World’s dystopian society is not too far off from our…

How do the authors of Catch-22 and Dr Strangelove use irony and black humour to illustrate the futility of war and criticise those in authority during war? Coming out of the Cold War era, Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb make scathing satire of war and politicians. Heller and Kubrick explore their ideas about the futility of war and those who have authority in war using irony and black humour. While Heller uses…

Critical Overview # 1: Chomsky One common theme is Chomsky’s criticism of intellectuals and his interpretation of the basis for United States’ intervention. Chomsky argues that the basis that US intervention is largely based on strategic interests and that often intellectuals will perpetuate the idea the that pursing US interests is virtuous. Chomsky provides several valid critiques about the intellectual’s rule in supporting government propaganda and through their dismissal of those who…

In the summer of 1992, the worlds most powerful leaders descended upon Rio de Janeiro for the first United Nations directed Earth Summit. The goal of this summit was to set up and find ways to halt the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources and tackle pollution of the planet. With the attendance of representatives for governments such as Canada, The United States of America, and China the focus of this conference was the state of the global environment and the relationship between…