Vladimir Propp

One of the questions that Blaydes (2010), Svolik (2012), Magaloni (2006) and Gandhi (2008) all address is the following one: why do nominally democratic institutions, such as parliament elections, often exist in the authoritarian countries? In this paper, I consider an example of Putin’s Russia and show that the explanations offered in these books do not fit very well to this particular case. Instead, I argue that the democratic institutions in Russia exist mainly due to the necessity of some…

Animal Farm Turning pages of a book or the quiet buzz of a movie? Both the same, yet different. The book and movie Animal Farm are based on the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. The book is an allegory to the event, simplifying it and shortening it, but with the same meaning. The Bolsheviks led a revolution to overthrow the unfair imperial autocracy in Russia, run by Czar Nicholas II, and once doing that, turned it into a communist country. In the book and movie the animals rebel against and drive…

Ambition is something everyone has. Your ambitions strives and makes you achieve your goals. However, too much ambition can corrupt and destroy a person. Ambition is like a drug, small amounts can make you feel great, but too much can kill you. Shakespeare clearly portrays the negative effects of too much ambition throughout his play The Tragedy of Macbeth. He uses the main character, Macbeth, to show us how excessive amounts of ambition can lead someone to their doom. In the beginning of…

The individuals of society come together to work towards a goal that is unachievable individually. This goal is seen to be a collaborative effort from all the individuals. In the Russian Revolution of 1917, the underrepresented lower class revolted against their imperial government. Their effort was rewarded with a government representing the different classes of society, but it quickly turns into a totalitarianism controlled by Stalin. These events are paralleled with the events in Animal Farm.…

The lack of self-indulgence in Russia society In A Hero of Our Time written in 1839 by Mikhail Lermontov, a russian writer, painter, and poet. The novel takes place during the nineteenth century in Russia where the people of Russia were struggling with their government laws. As Russia society was still developing, Mikhail Lermontov jotted down the characters cowardness making readers able to analyze and comprehend the characters qualities and lack of self-sufficiency in the novel. Lermontov…

Animal Farm The book "Animal Farm" is written by George Orwell which provides a though provoking symbolization of the usage of propaganda. The book starts by introducing a character called Old Major who is a pig and is respected by all the animals. He instigates the farm animals by telling them that the root of their problems is human beings. Every farm animal agrees to the Old Major’s proposition since they all view him as a respectable yet wise man. This creates a drift between the humans and…

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka tells the story of Gregor Samsa, a man who wakes up as a giant cockroach one morning and the self-realization he goes through as a non-human being. This tale is analogous to Karl Marx’s theories about capitalism and alienation since these theories state the issues with the capitalist system and the effect work has on individuals. For instance, Karl Marx’s theories about alienation of the worker states that workers are alienated from other human beings, producers are…

“What if I went back to sleep for a while, and forgot all about this nonsense?”(87). The Metamorphosis, written in 1913 by the German author Franz Kafka, tells the story of Gregor Samsa, a travelling salesman who wakes up one day turned into a giant cockroach. Throughout the story, the reader can appreciate the consequences that occur when the main character of the story goes through a transformation that subsequently disrupts the family routine. His family is now forced to make significant…

Regardless of how good or bad they are, transformations are inevitable in a normal person’s life. In Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Gregor goes through his own metamorphosis that affects his whole family drastically. His transformation has a profound effect on his sister, Grete, and forces his parents to alter their way of living and eventually changes them as individuals. When forced and under pressure individuals often, unconsciously, take a path that will lead them to a better life. While…

The book Animal Farm has aroused strong reaction and became famous since the date it was published. It reveals human reality by telling animals’ story in funny but extremely ironic way. The story begins with a meeting held in one night by the animals in farm. Because of the great dissatisfaction of their owner, animals decide to have a revolution, chasing away the farmers and realize the equality among animals. They make definitions about “friends” and “enemy”， elect the leader- an old pig,…