Messages Depicted in Hawthorne´s The Minister´s Black...

Nathaniel Hawthorn was an American novelist and short story writer. He is also a very interesting writer to analyze due to the psychological complexity of his work. Most of his works feature moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic Movement and, more specifically, dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. More specifically, in â€Å"The Minister ´s Black Veil† and â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† these qualities and characteristics of his works are quite easy to see. In contrast with many other points of view and many other conclusions from different readers they might have after†¦show more content†¦And it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to the Indian village in King’s Phillip war’’ (611). Here is where Hawthorn star ted to point out the hypocrisy of the puritan religion and the sinful nature of all man. Later, Hawthorn continued to point out the hypocrisy of puritans at its outmost. â€Å"If it be as thou sayest,’replied Goodman Brown, I marvel they never spoke of these matters. Or, verily, I marvel not, seeing that the last rumor of the sort would have driven them from New-England’’ (612). Here Hawthorn tries to show how puritans kept their most dark sins hidden from even their most beloved, making them hypocrites towards God, society and their religious beliefs. As the story continues Goodman has an internal battle, he is trying not to continue through the dark forest, the only think that is giving him the strength to get out from there is the memory of his wife Faith. When he lifted his hands to pray, a cloud appeared upon his head, then he heard a voice uttering lamentations, it came from a woman, it was Faith’s voice. Then he heard a new scream from the same vo ice that drowned immediately into a louder murmur of voices, fading into far-off laughter, as the dark cloud swept away. Those other voices were the voices of the unseen multitude, both saints and sinners which encourage Brown’s faith to disappear. â€Å"My Faith is gone!’ cried he,

The Jungle Social Criticism And Realism - 1075 Words

The Jungle, due to its strong social criticism and realism in portrayal of social issues evident in the given period of time, put Sinclair at the center of radical social movement that was held by its members to resist the acceleration of total capitalism in early 20th century in America, the period that was identified as the â€Å"Progressive Era.† The main purpose of those movements was aimed at bringing the awareness of public through literature about the dominance of political elites who gained a full control over the media, diminishing any ability for counteraction from the masses. In his novel, Sinclair opposes the values of socialism to the ones of American capitalism, portraying the intensity of struggles in the lives of a family of immigrants in the context of social, political, and economic intricacies of Chicago in the early 1900s. It was noted that the historical period and the events portrayed in the novel were similarly turbulent in the reality. With the election of Theodore Roosevelt as the President of the United States, America was deeply segregated in its social classification between wealthy and poor. The period that captured the Civil War was associated with the development of capitalism, which created the life of a working class decrease in quality, as the workers had to struggle for jobs, while choosing the place of employment in the inhuman conditions. The mass strike of 1877 enhanced the instability between social classes supporting employers’ repressionShow MoreRelatedUpton Sinclair and His Influence on Society Essay1552 Words   |  7 Pageshis writing ended up having the deepest social impact upon the public since Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin. This was accomplished through his works such as The Jungle, King Coal, Oil!, and Boston. His work reflects socialistic views and he a chieved worldwide recognition extremely easily. He influenced society through the publication of The Jungle, which led to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. He also responded to other peoples criticism of his works through letters and articlesRead MoreA Cry for Socialist Reform in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Essay2412 Words   |  10 PagesA Cry for Socialist Reform in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair The Jungle is usually associated with the federal legislation it provoked. Americans were horrified to learn about the terrible sanitation under which their meat products were packed. They were even more horrified to learn that the labels listing the ingredients in tinned meat products were full of lies. The revelation that rotten and diseased meat was sold without a single consideration for public health infuriated the American publicRead MoreHard Times as a Novel of Social Realism Is Wholly Unsuccessful. Do You Agree?2050 Words   |  9 Pages‘Hard Time’s as a novel of social realism is wholly unsuccessful. 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Nicki doesn’t shy away from criticism and stereotypes, in the very first shot of the video she appears from the jungle, calling on the idea of how society places judgement and ideals of a black women being of an â€Å"exotic and animalistic† beast. Her body alone is a statement within itself, not only is she reclaiming the idealistic images of a curvy women but she is also reclaiming it to fit the realism of how females come in different shapes and sizes. 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How to Analyze Text Free Essays

ANALYZING A PASSAGE In writing about literature or any specific text, you will strengthen your discussion if you offer specific passages from the text as evidence. Rather than simply dropping in quotations and expecting their significance and relevance to your argument to be self-evident, you need to provide sufficient analysis of the passage. Remember that your over-riding goal of analysis writing is to demonstrate some new understanding of the text. We will write a custom essay sample on How to Analyze Text or any similar topic only for you Order Now HOW TO ANALYZE A TEXT? 1. Read or reread the text with specific questions in mind. 2. Marshal basic ideas, events and names. Depending on the complexity of book, this requires additional review of the text. 3. Think through your personal reaction to the book: identification, enjoyment, significance, application. 4. Identify and consider most important ideas (importance will depend on context of class, assignment, study guide). 5. Return to the text to locate specific evidence and passages related to the major ideas. 6. Use your knowledge following the principles of analyzing a passage described below: test, essay, research, presentation, discussion, enjoyment. PRINCIPLES OF ANALYZING A PASSAGE 1. Accompanying material: The Man With The Scar Offer a thesis or topic sentence indicating a basic observation or assertion about the text or passage. 2. Offer a context for the passage without offering too much summary. 3. Cite the passage (using correct format). 4. Then follow the passage with some combination of the following elements: * Discuss what happens in the passage and why it is significant to the work as a whole. * Consider what is said, particularly subtleties of the imagery and the ideas expressed. * Assess how it is said, considering how the word choice, the ordering of ideas, sentence structure, etc. contribute to the meaning of the passage. * Explain what it means, tying your analysis of the passage back to the significance of the text as a whole. 5. Repeat the process of context, quotation and analysis with additional support for your thesis or topic sentence. SAMPLE ANALYSIS PARAGRAPHS FROM JAMES MCBRIDE’S  THE COLOR OF WATER An important difference between James and his mother is their method of deali ng with the pain they experience. While James turns inward, his mother Ruth turns outward, starting a new relationship, moving to a different place, keeping herself busy. Ruth herself describes that, even as a young girl, she had an urge to run, to feel the freedom and the movement of her legs pumping as fast as they can (42). As an adult, Ruth still feels the urge to run. Following her second husband’s death, James points out that, â€Å"while she weebled and wobbled and leaned, she did not fall. She responded with speed and motion. She would not stop moving† (163). As she biked, walked, rode the bus all over the city, â€Å"she kept moving as if her life depended on it, which in some ways it did. She ran, as she had done most of her life, but this time she was running for her own sanity† (164). Ruth’s motion is a pattern of responding to the tragedy in her life. As a girl, she did not sit and think about her abusive father and her trapped life in the Suffolk store. Instead she just left home, moved on, tried something different. She did not analyze the connections between pain and understanding, between action and response, even though she seems to understand them. As an adult, she continues this pattern, although her running is modified by her responsibilities to her children and home. The image of running that McBride uses here and elsewhere supports his understanding of his mother as someone who does not stop and consider what is happening in her life yet is able to move ahead. Movement provides the solution, although a temporary one, and preserves her sanity. Discrete moments of action preserve her sense of her own strength and offer her new alternatives for the future. Even McBride’s sentence structure in the paragraph about his mother’s running supports the effectiveness of her spurts of action without reflection. Although varying in length, each of the last seven sentences of the paragraph begins with the subject â€Å"She† and an active verb such as â€Å"rode,† â€Å"walked,† â€Å"took,† â€Å"grasp† and â€Å"ran. † The section is choppy, repetitive and yet clear, as if to reinforce Ruth’s unconscious insistence on movement as a means of coping with the difficulties of her life. FROM TONI MORRISON’S  THE BLUEST EYE #1 The negative effect the environment can have on the individual is shown in Morrison’s comparison of marigolds in the ground to people in the environment. Early in the novel, Claudia and Frieda are concerned that the marigold seeds they planted that spring never sprouted. At the end of the novel, Claudia reflects on the connection to Pecola’s failure: I talk about how I did not plant the seeds too deeply, how it was the fault of the earth, our land, our town. I even think now that the land of the entire country was hostile to marigolds that year. This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live. 206) Morrison obviously views the environment as a powerful influence on the individual when she suggests that the earth itself is hostile to the growth of the marigold seeds. In a similar way, people cannot thrive in a hostile environment. Pecola Breedlove is a seed planted in the hostile environment, and, when she is not nurtured in any way, she cannot thrive. #2 One effect o f the belief that white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes are the most beautiful is evident in the characters who admire white film stars. Morrison shows an example of the destructive effect of this beauty standard on the character Pecola. When Pecola lives with Claudia and Frieda, the two sisters try to please their guest by giving her milk in a Shirley Temple mug. Claudia recalls, â€Å"She was a long time with the milk, and gazed fondly at the silhouette of Shirley Temple’s face† (19). This picture of two young African-American girls admiring the beauty of a white American film star is impossible for Claudia to comprehend. Another character who admires white beauty is Maureen Peale. As Pecola and the girls walk past a movie theater on their way home with Maureen, Maureen asks if the others â€Å"just love† Betty Grable, who smiles from a movie poster. When she later tells the others she is cute and they are ugly, Maureen reveals her belief that she is superior because she looks more like a Betty Grable image than the blacker girls do. Pecola’s and Maureen’s fascination with popular images is preceded by Pauline’s own belief in the possibility of movie images. She describes doing her hair like Jean Harlow’s and eating candy at a movie. Rather than being transported into the romantic heaven of Hollywood, she loses a tooth and ends in despair. â€Å"Everything went then. Look like I just didn’t care no more after that. I let my hair go back, plaited it up, and settled down to just being ugly† (123). Admiring beauty in another is one thing; transferring a sense of self-hatred when a person doesn’t measure is another. At that point, the power of white beauty standards becomes very destructive. TSITSI DANGAREMBGA’S  NERVOUS CONDITIONS Although Tambu recognizes the injustices she and Nyasha endure as females, she hesitates to act on her suspicion because of fear. First of all, she is afraid that she might not recognize and feel comfortable with herself in a critical role. She hesitates to pursue her critique, noting to herself, â€Å"I was beginning to suspect that I was not the person I was expected to be, and took it as evidence that somewhere I had taken a wrong turning† (116). Using other people’s perceptions rather than her own, she judges her thoughts to be wrong. Although she senses that her behavior as the â€Å"grateful poor female relative† was insincere, she admitted it felt more comfortable. It mapped clearly the ways I could or could not go, and by keeping within those boundaries I was able to avoid the mazes of self-confrontation† (116). While she is somewhat embarrassed that she lacks the intensity she had when fighting against Nhamo and her father over the maize, she is reluctant to lose Babamakuru’s protection and fears experiencing the same kind of trauma Nyasha does in her struggle. Althoug h she says she feels â€Å"wise to be preserving [her] energy, unlike [her] cousin, who was burning herself out,† she reveals that she fears losing a familiar sense of herself in order to battle injustices. How to cite How to Analyze Text, Essay examples