Haroun And The Sea Of Stories :: essays research papers

Haroun and the Sea of Stories I thought the book â€Å"Haroun and the Sea of Stories† was well written and a fun book to read. This is a story about friendship, fight for justice and honesty. It makes the reader feel like a child again. Rushdie showed in this book his good knowledge of human imagination. This is a reminder of that magical world with bad creatures and the ones with big hearts that always win a war. The book is about the land where stories are made, Rashid who is "the Shah of Blah, with oceans of notions and the Gift of the Gab," and his son Haroun. When Rashid loses his gift, his son embarks on a quest to recover it. This story is comparable to other stories like â€Å"Alice in Wonderland† in that it is a fairy tale, since the novel is based around this place, Kahani, the earth’s second moon, where stories are made and kept alive. Rushdie's characters and dreamlike settings are deliriously inventive. It is similar to â€Å"Alice in Wonderland† where Alice is in her own fantasy land. In this tale are some powerful moments dealing with freedom of speech and expression. The force of evil in this story is silence, an enforced silence, the quashing of language, fantasy, satire - even the truth itself. There are plenty of allegories and light-hearted commentary woven into the tapestry. The Princess Batcheat is a bit much to put up with, as are the people we must sometimes defend on principles such as freedom of expression. I found the ending interesting when you find out that the city Haroun and Rashid live in, â€Å"the city that forgot its name,† has the same name as the â€Å"fantasy land,† Kahani, that Haroun was just in. Also, during the story Haroun would hint that people in the fantasy land reminded him of people he knew in his own city. Also the fact that what made Haroun’s father lose his talent of telling stories, Soraya, Rashid’s wife, left him for someone else, was back and she referred to the man she left the same as Khattam-shud.

New Historicism: The Wasteland Essay

T.S. Eliot’s highly influential 433-line modernist poem is perhaps the most famous and most written-about long poem of the twentieth-century. Eliot’s composition brings forth a reader to understand the work through its historical context and to understand cultural and intellectual history through this piece of literature, which documents the new discipline of the history of ideas. In other words, The Waste Land is subject to New Historicism to further understand the text of the poem and its relevance to history. T.S. Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land, was published in October of 1922. The 1920’s and 1930’s are often known as the interwar period. The decades were profoundly shaped by the dislocations of World War I and then the mounting crisis that led to World War II. These were decades of considerable dislocation in the West. Revolutionary regimes in several societies provided another source of change. New, authoritarian political systems were another r esponse to crisis, particularly after the Great Depression, in several parts of the world. All of this occurred even as resistance to European imperialism was mounting (Davies 938). In addition, the 1920’s was marked by major patterns. One of the first major patterns, Western Europe recovered from World War I incompletely, particularly in economics and politics. Cultural creativity was important, and several social developments marked real innovation. But political and economic structures and European diplomacy as well, rested on shaky foundations. World War I quickly shattered the confidence many Europeans had maintained around the turn of the twentieth-century. Although the ultimate effects of World War I involved Europe’s world position, the war also brought tremendous dislocation within Europe. Though some of the damage was quickly repaired, much of the damage persisted for the subsequent two decades. The key battlegrounds for four bloody years had been in Europe. The sheer rate of death and maiming, as well as the frustration of long periods of virtual stalemate, had had a devastating material and psychological impact on the European combatants. More than ten million Europeans had died. Vast amounts of property had been destroyed. Most governments had failed to tax their populations enough to pay for the war effort-lest they weaken domestic support-so huge debts accumulated, leading to inflationary pressure even before the war was over. Key prewar regimes were toppled when the German emperor abdicated and the Habsburg Empire collapsed (Rich 138). Interestingly enough, in the first part of Eliot’s The Wasteland, the German words â€Å"Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch ( Eliot, I. 12)† are spoken. The English translation is â€Å"Ià ¢â‚¬â„¢m not Russian at all; I come from Lithuania, a true German.† Both prior to and after these words are spoken, it is revealed that these are autobiographical fragments of a woman who not only recalls sledding in her childhood, but explicitly states that she is German and not Russian by any means. As stated in the previous paragraph, the Habsburg family was in no doubt defeated. These spoken words are important if the woman is a member of the spoken defeated Austrian family, although it is not ever revealed. Following World War I, Lithuania experienced the influence from the Soviet Union. The country of Lithuania was originally part of German territory until the post-war demands led to the partition of Lithuania from Germany and therefore, fell under control of the Soviet Union. The first section of The Waste Land can be seen as a dramatic monologue. The speakers in this section are seemingly frantic with their need to speak and to find an audience, but they ultimately find themselves surrounded by dead people, like in wars. Because this section is so short and the situations are somewhat confusing, the effect is not an overwhelming impression of a single character. Instead, the reader is left with the feeling of being confined in a crowd and unable to find an individual who appears to be familiar. This type of situation can be seen in any war when individuals are thrusted on the war front. During World War I, to protect themselves from the withering firepower of the artillery and machine guns of the opposing armies, British and German soldiers began to dig into the ground during and after the clashes along the Marne. Soon northern and western France was crisscrossed by miles and miles of entrenchments that frustrated- with staggering levels of dead and wounded-all attempts to break the stalemate between the opposing forces until well into 1918. The almost unimaginable killing power of the industrial technology wielded by the opposing European armies favored the defensive. Devastating artillery, the withering fire of machine guns, barbed wire barriers, and the use of poison gas turned the Western Front into a killing ground that offered no possibility to decisive victory to either side. The carnage reached unimaginable levels, with the Germans losing 850,000 men, the French 700,000 men, and the British over 400,000 in the single year of 1916 on just the Western Front (Davies 925). In so many ways, the war in Europe was centered on the ongoing and senselessness slaughter in the trenches. Levels of dead and wounded that would have been unimaginable before the war rose ever higher between 1915 and 1918. They were all the more tragic because neither side could break the stalemate; hundreds of thousands were killed or maimed to gain small patches of ground that were soon lost in counterattacks. Years of carnage made all too evident the lack of imagination to utter incompetence of most of the generals on both sides of the conflict. Few understood that mass assaults on mechanized defenses had become suicidal at this point in the industrial age. The aged officers in the higher commands and overmatched politicians soon demoted or dismissed those who sought to find creative ways out of the trench morass. With much of this history in perspective, T.S. Eliot conveys the destruction, or moreover, the aftermath of the first world war (Davies 952). The description Eliot gives in the second part of his poem, â€Å"The Fire Sermon†, â€Å"White bodies naked on the low damp ground and bones cast in a little low dry garret (Eliot, 193-194).† Although these two lines may be taken in a different context, from a reader’s perspective, one may conclude the title The Waste Land, deriving from this image. As discussed in the previous paragraph, the image of dead bodies and the bodies of the wounded in the trenches describes what appears to be a waste land. In many senses, Eliot also conveys some sort of anger. As the war dragged on without any sign that decisive victories could be won by either side, soldiers at the fronts across Europe grew resentful of the civilians back home. Their anger was focused on political leaders who cheered them on from the safety of the sidelines far to the rear. But the soldiers were also disturbed, more generally, by the patriotic zeal and insensitivity of the civilian populace, which had little sense of the horrors they were forced to endure at the front. In fact, the commitment of the civilians behind the lines and their hatred for the enemy was usually far more pronounced than that of the soldiers actually in combat (Roberts 911). Each of the powers remained able to mobilize ever larger numbers of soldiers and military resources, despite growing food shortages and privations on the homefronts. The governments responded by rationing resources and regulating production to head off potentially crippling labor disputes (Roberts 914). Eliot’s The Waste Land offers the reader a close depiction of the social turmoil that the European continent was in following the horrific World War I. Moreover, this poem, in many senses, is a reflection of personal emotions, and as a spiritual quest pertaining to Christian tenets. Any individual would conclude that after experiencing or witnessing horrific war events, a person of any caliber would be experiencing many emotions such as depression, anger, frustration, and fear, to name a few. It is not to assume T.S. Eliot was inspired to write the poem The Waste Land based on actual war events. Instead, this poem, as stated earlier, is a good depiction of what society was like through Eliot’s point of view. The Waste Land ultimately went on to record a hodgepodge of facts, ideas, superstitions, and interests born during the ordeal. This poem epitomizes the thoughts and feelings of the survivors of the World War I and post-World War I generation. Works Cited Barzun, Jacques. From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life. New York City: HarperCollins Publishers, 2000. Davies, Norman. Europe, A History: A Panorama of Europe, East and West, From the Ice Age to The Cold War, from The Urals to Gibraltar. New York City: First HarperPerennial, 1998. Eliot, T.S.. The Waste Land. In A Norton Critical Edition, Michael North, ed. New York City: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001. Rich, Norman. â€Å"The Habsburg Empire, 1790-1918.† Political Science Quarterly 87(1972): 137-138 Roberts, J.M.. The New History of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Trumps election has changed the United States - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 953 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2019/03/27 Category Politics Essay Level High school Tags: Donald Trump Essay Did you like this example? November 8, 2016. The most significant change to American life in the past 141 years is hard to pinpoint. My opinion is that the 2016 election was a very significant change to American life based on the momentous and consequential changes in our country that have followed the election of Donald Trump. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Trumps election has changed the United States" essay for you Create order During the past 141 years there have been radical changes in social, economic, educational and environmental movements. The election of Donald Trump has resulted in regression in regards to these radical changes. However, some will say that Trump has improved some issues that some Americans are concerned about. I will begin by discussing some key changes in the United States during the past 141 years and how the election of Donald Trump has altered these changes that have occurred in the past. In the 1980s, there were many technological advances. This resulted in jobs being easier to get transferred out of the country in order for companies to make products at cheaper labor costs. Many Americans like the union organizer whose letter was featured in the book Major Problems of American History (p. 475) were concerned with this advance and believed it was taking jobs away from Americans. The Trump administration has imposed new taxes on imported products in order to attempt to keep jobs in the United States The Great Recession was also a devastating part of the United States economy with extremely high unemployment rates and some say that Trump has helped the United States out of this with the unemployment rate currently at 3.7% (Long 2018). This is not in my opinion the most significant part of Trumps presidency, but it still is an impact that Donald Trumps presidency has had on the United States. Other than economic changes, the entire social atmosphere of the United States has shifted as the more conservative president took office. The United States history involves countless revolutions in order to fight for rights that should be promised to every citizen regardless of their identities. Many of these laws and rights have been altered during the presidency of Donald Trump which I will now discuss. After the Civil War, slavery was deemed illegal, but that was far from the end of the unfair treatment African Americans dealt with. Segregation was legal and until 1954 African Americans were separated from white Americans. Brown v. Board of Education overturned these laws and desegregation began (United States Courts). However, African Americans still struggled with unfair treatments in the US. I will be focusing on communities of color and mass incarceration. Obama had made attempts to lessen the impact that prison systems had on communities of color and changing the police department. The Trump administration has reversed this and pushed for the maximum punishment for any criminal case. An article in the NY times states The reversal of sensible criminal justice reform doesnt stop there. Under Mr. Trump, the Justice Department has pulled back from his predecessors investigations of police abuse and misconduct; resumed the use of private, for-profit prisons; and stopped granting commutations to low-level drug offenders who have spent years or decades behind bars. (Editorial Board NY Times, 2018). This can be seen as taking steps backwards for improving the prejudiced prison system and its impact on communities and people of color. Immigration has drastically been impacted by the Trump administration. Trump has imposed the Muslim Ban where travel is illegal from many countries that have a large population of Muslim citizens. Refugees have also been unable to enter the United States as easily from majority Muslim countries. Trumps promise of building a wall between Mexico and the United States was at the forefront of his campaign trail and it has begun getting built. A report by the Center for American Progress states that A policy of mass deportation would immediately reduce the nations GDP by 1.4 percent, and ultimately by 2.6 percent, (Edwards Ortega, 2016). Trump administration pushing for mass deportation will impact the economy of the United States, and the social climate of the US as well. Another big topic during the trump administration has been about womens rights. In 1973 Roe v Wade pronounced abortion as decriminalized which was an extremely crucial point in the womens rights movement in the US. The Obama administration has made birth control much more accessible to women and forced insurance companies to cover birth control. Trump has reversed this and began eliminating insurance coverage for birth control, eliminating programs that help women with low incomes access birth control, and moving to prohibit health care providers from even giving women information about birth control or abortion, (Planned Parenthood). Trump has also made significant changes in the education system and environmental stances of the US. Other than the legal changes that the Trump administration has made, the rhetoric used by the president has changed the social environment that we experience. The president has used and encouraged negative rhetoric against immigrants, African Americans, women, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ+ community and many other oppressed groups. He has publically bashed these marginalized groups and shown his concern for what is considered the social norm in the United States. His campaign slogan Make America Great Again is a trademark as if he is saying make America great again for the white upper class republican and privileged citizens of the United States. Trumps election has drastically changed the United States, whose history is filled with revolutions in order to fight for these marginalized groups rights and protections. The United States was not at a point of total equality for these marginalized groups by any means, but under the Trump administration the steps made forward in our history have been reversed and in my opinion has been the most crucial change in the past 141 years.